Samsung's TecTiles a programmable NFC stickers on Galaxy S III

Near Field Communication or NFC is slowly entering the mainstream. With Samsung's TecTiles, these programmable NFC stickers allows your Galaxy S III to do a number of functions, including updating Facebook status and posting Tweets, with just a simple tap.

NFC plays a pretty big part in Samsung's latest smartphone, the Galaxy S III. It's used to initiate an S Beam connection, which lets you transfer photos and videos (among other things) from one Galaxy S III to another. (There's some Wifi Direction action involved there, but we digress.) Back to the tags, though.

The TecTiles tags will run you $14.99 for a five-pack, which you can purchase from Samsung online, or at AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile stores. (Yes. That's a whopping $3 a tag.) They're good for many thousands of rewrites, Samsung tells us. So what can they do? It's a pretty extensive list. One you download and install the TecTiles app -- which works just fine on non-Samsung phones, by the way -- you'll be able to write tags to do the following:

Settings & Applications

* Change phone settings (Bluetooth®, Wi-Fi, ringer/media volume, screen brightness, etc.)
* Launch an application
* Join a Wi-Fi Network
* Show a message

Communication

* Make a call
* Send a text message
* Start a Google Talk conversation
* Share a contact or business card

Location & Web

* Show an address on a map
* Open a web page
* Foursquare or Facebook check-in

Social

* Automatic Facebook “Like”
* Update Facebook status
* Post a tweet or follow a contact on Twitter
* Connect on LinkedIn

source: Androidcentral