The folks at Google and Android have just revealed a short list of new NFC capabilities coming with the new system update Android 2.3.3. These updates take hold of what’s quickly becoming the talk of the town as far as futuristic communication with businesses, games, and even other people goes. What NFC stands for is Near Field Communication, and it has the potential to replace credit cards and cash as currency in the USA as well as the rest of the world.

NFC is a bright future for smartphones, so says we, as it can also be used for ticketing, advertising, ratings on all objects, and all manner of data exchange. The new capabilities added to NFC functionality are thus:

• An extensive and comprehensive NFC writer/reader API that allows users to read and write basically every standard NFC tag used in this modern NFC world of ours. A set of API included in this update are thus:
• NFC-A (ISO 14443-3A)
• NFC-B (ISO 14443-3B)
• NFC-F (JIS 6319-4)
• NFC-V (ISO 15693)
• ISO-DEP (ISO 14443-4)
• Mifare Classic
• Mifare Ultralight
NFC Forum NDEF tags
• Advanced Intent dispatching that allows apps control over how and when they’re launched when an NFC tag comes inside their bubble.
• Support for peer-to-peer connection with other NFC devices (this item is still limited)

You’ll be able to take hold of each of these features with Android 2.3 Gingerbread update 2.3.3 as it contains the new API level, level 10. If you’d like to take a look at an expanded list of updates with 2.3.3, take a walk over to Google. If you’d like to download the SDK for this update, also head over to Google.

[via Android Developers]