Are there "TecTiles" for iPhones?

Question

I just read this review in the New York Times about the Samsung Galaxy S3. Apparently, the phone comes with the ability to communicate with TecTiles:

small, embedded-circuit stickers ($15 for five). When your phone gets near a sticker, it activates some task that you’ve selected from a list of dozens in the free TecTiles app: make a call, send a text, adjust a phone setting and so on.

This seems like a tremendous idea with a near-unlimited capacity for customization. Does such a product or capability exist for the iPhone or iPad? If not, is there any evidence that suggests Apple is developing such a product?

Answer 1

No and no. The TecTiles rely on NFC (Near Field Communications) to work. No iOS device yet shipped has NFC, and it's not particularly likely that any iOS device will come with NFC¹. It would be possible to make an iPhone/iPad case that had NFC built-in, but, as iOS has no NFC drivers, you'd have to use a specialized app to use the hardware, and apps have limited ability to perform non-in-app actions for the user (i.e., if it were to compose a text or tweet for you, you'd still have to tap a send button for it to go, which kind of obviates the utility of tapping your device to the tile).

¹ If you believe the rumors and rumor-analysis, Apple's planning on using Bluetooth 4.0's low-power mode to do what Google's trying to do with NFC.