Any NFC readers, writers or useful applications on Linux?
 

Since my Blackberry 9900 has the ability to read and write NFC tags I picked up a pack of cheap stickers to play with. However, after writing a URL to one and using one to lock my phone I ran out of uses.
Does anybody know of any cheap NFC readers and writers that can be used under Linux and does anybody have any fun ideas for using the technology?
I like the idea of tapping one on my Pi to turn the LEDBorg Cheerlights on and off, for example. This is just for fun as I can't think of any serious uses but if anybody has any of them I'd be happy to hear them too.
I may also soon be wearing an NFC ring with my email address on it but that's something I'm still thinking about.

A lot of "widget" manufacturers use them to control proprietary use of the additions to their products. For instance, a mop manufacturer where it's like the swifter; flat pad and solution to mop your floor and throw away the pad. What they do is use NFC tags on the discard-able pad so that people can't just use any pad and get their special features. That is providing they can disable something that they offer, like spray controls or something. Same thing for the spray bottle, they can put a NFC tag on the bottle and if not detected, then it won't spray.

Stuff like a powered toothbrush which won't operate if you don't use the manufacturer's brush heads.

I've seen them a few places where there's re-salable things like refills where the original manufacturer will try to control special features by use of NFC tags. Not sure many of these products made it out there because of the two pronged situations of (1) the reader/verifier increased the cost of a cheap item too much or (2) the intellectual property was not so special that it merited so much protection or eventually it was not so novel of an idea that it needed to continue to be protected.

You have some good ideas, but as you say, they're "fun". We've been asked to make prototypes with them, for similar purposes stated above, and as I say, I've not seen too much follow-up on it as an actual product. They rethink it due to cost or general sensibility.

I do think it's probably a technology that is too costly to use in the situations it seems perfect for -- I looked at NFC door locks but, if you think about it, they're extremely impractical as they need to be powered constantly. If I can find a reader that's compatible with my Pi I may use it to turn my PC on through wake on LAN too.