Hex NFC released: Out Now

The day has finally come! Four months in the making, one month in the Apple review process, and now we're here. Hex Pro's first app release, with many to come.

Hex NFC is the gold standard of NFC tools, and offers a huge range of features that push the limits of what an iOS device can do.

Everything you'd expect from an NFC tool.

• Read Chip Information
• Scan Current State
• Write Records: Text, URL, Social Media Link, Search Engines, Files, Email, Contacts, Phone Number, Text Message, FaceTime, Map Location, Crypto Link, Wi-Fi Access
• Password Lock
• Permanent Lock

Along with that, we wanted to make it truly comprehensive, and the ultimate tool for beginners and professionals.

• Advanced Console (APDU)
• Format Factory Chips
• Memory Dumps
• Password Attempt Limits (Permanent Lock)
• ePassport Chip Reading & Passport Decryption
• Japanese Transit Card Reading (Suica, Pasmo, etc.)
• Preset Builder & Chip Cloning

The passport and transit card scanning technology is quite unique among these kinds of apps, so it's a point of pride that marks out the quality and effort that went into this build.

The app has been tested on a wide range of real silicon chips. I've got a drawer full of burned chips after the bench testing. Here's a list of the ones that are fully tested and confirmed working.

• NTAG210μ, NTAG213, NTAG216, NTAG424 DNA
• MIFARE Ultralight EV1, MIFARE Ultralight C
• MIFARE DESFire EV3
• ICODE SLIX, ICODE SLIX2
• FeliCa (Japanese transit cards, Pasmo/Suica)
• eMRTD / ICAO 9303 (Modern passports)

The list of confirmed unsupported chips is short:

• MIFARE Classic EV1

All other chips of similar kinds to the ones above should work. Emulators were developed for everything the iOS devices can scan, and then they were verified indirectly by cross-checking from chips of similar architecture that were in our inventory, as well as against any public data sheets.

The app is free and the source code is available on GitHub for anyone to take a look at and utilise. The repo is under a BSL 1.1 licence, so you can't use it for your own commercial gain, but there's a lot there that could be very useful to developers, including a comprehensive NFC emulator suite that allows you to simulate how different types of NFC chips will respond to different commands, tested extensively on real silicon.

There's also a sort of 'real world' unit test functionality for developers on the debug build. You can scan your NFC tag and have all of the functionality tested in one slick stream of commands. It'll help identify faulty chips in bulk easily.

Of course, since the source code is available publicly, there is zero intention to monetise the Hex NFC app, though we may link to our own apps from time to time for cross-promo in the future. The one downside is that the NFC chips I purchased for testing cost real money, and it would be very helpful if grateful users were willing to pitch in to help recoup some of that cost. There is a full cost breakdown and donation page available here where you can help support us. Don't think of it as charity, any money collected will most likely go to purchasing more NFC chips for more real world testing. The NTAG215 is still one I haven't got my hands on, and there are a few others of that type.

Hex NFC's page on the Hex Pro Apps website includes comprehensive documentation which is also available translated into all of the languages Hex Pro is committed to supporting.

Now that it's out, I don't expect it to pick up steam too quickly. We're a fresh face with few existing users. But I'm taking an, "if you build it, they will come" approach. As users come in, I expect to receive bug reports, which you can always submit by emailing us directly at support@hex.pro, or better yet, submitting an issue on the GitHub repo.

The next apps you can expect to see released will be Sol Alarm and Nepali Companion, two premium quality apps that have been in the works for just as long and are in their polishing phases as we speak.