Samsung launches TecTiles, NFC-enabled stickers

They may be small, but they could be genius.

I’m talking about stickers released Wednesday by Samsung called TecTiles that are enabled to work with NFC phones and make your phone even more useful by having the TecTiles “automate everyday functions,� as the company puts it.

What that means is these little stickers can be programmed to launch whole series of actions by simply tapping your phone to them.

Examples that Samsung has tossed around include tapping a sticker by your bed to get your phone into a getting-ready-for-sleep mode and dimming the screen, or tapping a TecTiles at a business to have your phone check you in through FourSquare or Facebook.

The possibilities are pretty endless, as Samsung says TecTiles can launch actions that have to do with social, location and the Web, your phone’s settings, and also communication (so making a call or sending a message).

Samsung is selling the TecTiles stickers at $14.99 for a pack of five. You can get them online or at retail stores for any of the four major networks.

NFC, or near field communication, technology isn’t new, but its reach so far has been very limited. With Samsung launching TecTiles that could change, and it could happen quickly.

Samsung is timing the release of TecTiles pretty intelligently, launching them just one week before the U.S. debut of its flaghip phone, the Galaxy S III. And of course, one of the Galaxy S III’s features is NFC compatability.

But the TecTiles will work with any phone that has NFC and access to the Google Play marketplace, which is where you can download the coinciding app. That means iPhone users are going to be left out on this one.

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