Hasta La Gadget!

Apple has just released the iBeacon specifications for everyone who is a member of the MFi program, Apple’s program for hardware partners (“Made for iPhone program”, etc.). You’ll have to sign an NDA to read the specifications. BEEKn first spotted the news. The company also reiterates that you can’t use the iBeacon brand without prior consent. You have to register to… Read More

Hardware startup Sensorberg just raised $1 million (€750,000) from Berlin Technologie Holding and undisclosed angel investors. Part of the Microsoft Ventures Accelerator in Berlin, Sensorberg is one of the most promising iBeacon startups in Europe. As a reminder, iBeacon is an indoor positioning system developed by Apple to trigger and send relevant information to your smartphone when you are walking inside a shop.

As a retailer, you first have to buy a few Sensorberg Beacon sensors and place them in your store — for $120 (€89), you get 3 sensors. Then, you’ll be able to take advantage of the SDK and dashboard to implement campaigns or location features for your app.

Estimote is a serious competitor in this space. It has been chosen for Best Hardware Startup at TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2013 and recently raised a $3.1 million seed round.

Beacons work on Bluetooth Low Energy to detect when a customer’s phone is close to a sensor. Sensorberg promises a 10-month battery and a 30 meter range for its devices.

While the devices are pretty similar, the two startups will probably differentiate themselves through their respective SDKs and sales teams. In fact, Estimote beacon sensors work with Sensorberg’s SDK. It is probably too early to tell which company provides the best implementation of iBeacon.

But there are many potential real world use cases, and this is what makes iBeacon interesting. For example, when you enter a clothing shop, you can receive a push notification with all the latest promos. When you enter a coffee shop, you could get the brew of the week on your phone. Or a shopping mall could display a map to help you find the right store. It could power a new payment system as well, essentially a Square Wallet on steroids.

The hard part is to convince big retail chains to use iBeacon. These customers have the potential to develop a good mobile app, get a large user base and integrate iBeacon features. In the U.S., Macy’s is experimenting with iBeacon. Apple will take advantage of its technology as well.

But for now, it remains a novelty. It can go either way and become a massive retail technology or end up like QR codes. Remember QR codes?

iBeacon is an interesting piece of technology that so far has been used in retail settings. It was first rolled out to Apple’s own retail stores where the technology would help guide shoppers around, and it was also recently used by the origanizers of CES 2014 to create a scavenger hunt, and we are also seeing its implementation in some supermarkets in the US where it will alert customers to potential coupons or specials available that day. So how about gaming? Can iBeacon be used in the gaming context as well? As it turns out, it can. The folks at The Tap Lab have unveiled a demo for a game called Tiny Tycoons, and basically what it does is that it allows gamers to purchase properties and buy them as well, allowing them to transform themselves into virtual real estate moguls.

How iBeacon comes into play here is that instead of buying virtual properties, players will have to actually visit the properties themselves physically in order to make an offer on it. In the video above, they demonstrate how walking into a Starbucks will allow gamers to see who owns it, and how much they will have to pay in order to make an offer on it. It’s a very cool idea although we’re not sure how this will work out since the gamers probably have no claim on the actual properties, and we’re sure there are organizations out there who probably aren’t too thrilled about being used that way either.

Perhaps the developers and certain outlets can work together to offer promotions, such as the “owner” of the property getting discounts on drinks and whatnot, and at the same time allowing the actual venue to advertise through them. Either way there are some kinks to work out but what do you guys think? Pretty interesting idea, don’t you think?

Developer Turns To iBeacon For Gaming original content from Ubergizmo.

Apple has not attended CES for years, more than a decade even, but it seems that despite not being there physically, their presence will definitely be felt come CES 2014 as the event organizers have announced that they plan to hold a special scavenger hunt that will utilize Apple’s iBeacon technology which will introduce to both exhibitors and attendees to Apple’s new location-aware technology which the Cupertino company has recently introduced to its own retail stores to help guide customers through their stores, which on any given day tends to be bustling not just with staff, but with potential customers as well.

So why use iBeacon and promote Apple’s technology despite the fact that they aren’t actually there? Well the event organizers are hoping that come CES 2014, attendees will explore more and check out the different exhibitions available, as opposed to congregating mainly at big-name companies, which we guess will help smaller companies gain some exposure as well. After all some of the best gadgets of our lifetime came from small and humble beginnings. Powering the game will be technology from Radius Networks which will utilize low-energy Bluetooth technology from Texas Instruments.

Considering that iBeacon is Apple’s technology, this scavenger hunt will be the first time commercial implementation of iBeacon will include Android devices. According to CEA’s SVP of communications and strategic relationships, Jeff Joseph, “This promotion is a fun and novel way to introduce attendees to iBeacon technology and encourage participants to visit important exhibits across the show floor.” How well will it be implemented and received remains to be seen, but it does sound like a fun idea.

Apple’s iBeacon Technology To Be Used In Scavenger Hunt At CES 2014 original content from Ubergizmo.

Those who have ventured into an Apple Store know how challenging it can be to navigate through as there are usually a ton of products on several tables available at the entrance, making the process of buying a new Lightning charging cable difficult to carry out on your own. You could actually talk to an Apple Store employee, but Apple knows how much we all hate any form of human interaction, so they are implementing a new service that will help guide shoppers through their store.  (more…)

Apple iBeacon Deployed To 254 Stores To Help Guide Shoppers original content from Ubergizmo.