The heavily backed Isis mobile payment system is set to take on Google Wallet this summer and will be available to 100 Million U.S. cardholders. Chase, Capital One and Barclaycard have all signed on with Isis to enable their credit, debit and prepaid cards to be placed into the Isis Mobile Wallet. Isis is a joint venture created by AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless and is the reason why Google Wallet was blocked on the Verizon Galaxy Nexus (which is anti-competitive IMO but we have a fix for that).

Panasonic’s a name the European smartphone market hasn’t heard in quite some time. Hoping to make a comeback, Panasonic has announced their plans for a lightweight, super thin smartphone they’re calling the Eluga. Unveiled at the Panasonic Convention 2012, the Eluga will feature:

NFC is a technology slowly gaining widespread adoption and today LG has announced their plans for developing NFC tags (similar to Sony’s Smart Tags) for activating specific functions on their Optimus LTE Tag smartphone. The Optimus LTE Tag was launched in Korea today and features NFC connectivity along with:

Battery life on your Samsung Galaxy Nexus got you down? Well we have a deal for you. Verizon is currently offering standard Galaxy Nexus 1850mAH batteries with NFC for half off regular price. For a limited time only, you can grab that spare battery you know you’re going to need, for a mere $19.99. No one likes to get caught with their battery down, and it always seems like that “low battery” signal comes at the time you need your battery most. You can’t always get to a charger and having a spare can be a life saver. I already bought myself an extended battery, and use my standard battery as a spare.