Aside from dropping the bomb that the BlackBerry PlayBook would have a module cavity to upgrade the tablet, RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie also mentioned at the Web 2.0 summit that they’d “be fools” not to include near-field communications in a BlackBerry smartphone in the near future. To corroborate Balsillie’s mention, rumour has it that RIM is also involved with this ISIS NFC project that AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon are partnering on.

Near-field communications use an older wireless standard that you don’t see included in many phones – typically it’s what is built into ID badges that suits use to get through high-security doors, or some credits cards use it with PayPass recievers like the one above at retail locations. Nokia is talking about including NFC on more of their smartphones through a firmware update, but personally, I have high hopes for SideTap, which could potentially bring NFC to many handsets by packing it into a microSD card. PayPass receivers are common enough, so it seems a little excessive that we all have to wait on cell phone manufacturers to adopt the technology.