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32 essential Android tips and tricks

Several weeks ago, we highlighted 40 useful iPhone tricks everyone should know. We got such good feedback from that feature that we wanted to share the love with Android users – who, after all, make up the largest proportion of the smart phone community.

25. Paying -- and sharing info -- with a bump

If you've got an NFC-enabled devices, you can pay for things or share information with other devices just by touching them together. Here's what the setting to enable NFC looks like in Ice Cream Sandwich.

  • By Jeff Ward-Bailey

NFC (Near Field Communication) is a relatively new standard that lets you bump your phone against a sensor (or another phone) to share information or make a payment. Although it's widely used in Asia and some European countries, the technology isn't very widespread in the US – only a few phones stateside sport the technology, and payment sensors are still few and far between.

NFC-enabled phones, such as the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and Galaxy S II and the LG Optimus LTE, can share videos, websites, and apps with each other wirelessly (by bumping two phones together) or pay for things using Google Wallet or the forthcoming ISIS system.

If you don't have an NFC-enabled phone, don't fear – an app called Bump lets you share photos and info between phones in pretty much the same way. Bump can be a little flaky sometimes, and it doesn't support wireless payments, but the upshot is that it's cross-platform, so you can share things with your iPhone buddies, too.

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

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We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

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