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NFC, or near field communication, is a term that's often associated with mobile payments and mobile wallet applications this year, especially with new launches like Google Wallet and Visa's digital wallet service underway. But NFC as a technology has more use cases than that.

One new example, which just debuted this week, is a chip that makes your car keys the jumping off point to access driver-friendly mobile apps. Just wave your phone over your keys to track down your car's location, plan your route, diagnose that pesky "check engine" light and more.

The open-source, Linux-based MeeGo mobile operating system (OS) created from the merger of Intel's Moblin and Nokia's Maemo platforms may be headed for a comeback thanks to LG Electronics. Once the future of Nokia's high-end smartphones, MeeGo was abandoned by Nokia in favor of Microsoft's Windows Phone in February of this year. Without Nokia's involvement, MeeGo's chances in the marketplace appeared dim.

But now, according to a member of MeeGo's steering committee, the OS is seeing renewed interest from other handset makers, including new committee member LG.

The automotive industry has always been at the forefront of technology, especially at the luxury level. With navigation systems, infrared cameras and other in-car sensors, our cars are becoming more like high-tech computers on wheels. Google partnered with BMW in 2007 to offer in-car local search and "send to car" functionality for users of the automaker's ConnectedDrive service. Today, Google has announced some new features that will improve how it's search engine is used on the road.

You know those advertisements for fancy high-end cars that can tell you when you're getting to close to another car, or perhaps, a runaway shopping cart? Cool stuff, right? If you're like me, you probably wish you could have features like these on your run down nine-year-old Ford Escort. Well, thanks to a new iPhone app, you can come pretty close. Using augmented reality (AR) technology, imaGinyze's Augmented Driving app can enhance your heads-up driving experience with safety information and warnings.

When we talk about mobile apps today, chances are that we are mostly talking about apps for cell phones and - maybe - tablets. The latest trend in mobile apps, however, is apps for cars. One of the companies leading this trend in the U.S. is Ford, which just unveiled a number of apps that students at the University of Michigan created on top of Ford's platform.

Thanks to voice-controlled systems like Ford's Sync, drivers don't have to take their eyes off the road if they want to place a call or switch to the next track on their playlists. Today, Ford announced the next step in the company's roadmap to connect mobile phones and cars. With Sync AppLink, Ford is introducing a new platform that allows developers to offer voice controls for their mobile apps on Sync-enabled cars. At first, AppLink will only work with Android and BlackBerry devices, but the company plans to offer support for Apple's iPhone OS and other smartphone platforms next year.

Bing now knows a lot more about cars and will also give a select group of users the option to compare the performance of different sports teams. Microsoft just announced these updates at the Search Engine Strategies event in New York. The new comparison answers for sports will be rolled out to only about 5% of Bing's users at first. In addition, Microsoft will also begin to roll out some minor design changes to a small group of users today that will better highlight Bing's assets like weather and travel search.

Everyone has been talking about how this year's SXSW will be the "year of location" as Foursquare and Austin-based Gowalla go head-to-head in a location-based battle royale. Location, however, is not the only emerging technology that will be on display in Austin; American auto maker Chevrolet announced it will be debuting new augmented reality promotions at SXSW this year.

Today marks the official start to the 2010 Consumer Electronics Showcase in Las Vegas where all of the biggest electronics manufacturers show off their coolest and newest products. While CES is mainly a gadget show, entrepreneurs looking for the next big thing should pay close attention to the innovative ideas being pushed into the consumer market.

The big show is just getting underway, but we are already seeing some trends emerge that could point to new opportunities for startups in 2010.

Mike Kuniavsky from ThingM Corporation spoke this morning at ETech about merging machine-readable identification with pervasive networking. Kuniavsky said that when a digital representation of an object is accessed through a unique ID, it is the object's "information shadow". Nowadays, he said, these information shadows are attached to just about everything. One of the consequences of this is that the physical object changes to a service. This is another manifestation of the bigger trend of internet connected objects. Kuniavsky outlined a couple of examples of objects as a service in his presentation.