SXSW, the annual music, film and interactive conference and festival held in Austin, Texas, will use Apple's indoor positioning and microlocation technology dubbed iBeacons to improve the experience by enabling attendees to pick up badges faster using the official SXSW Go app, a free download in the App Store. Additionally, audience members will be able to use the app and nearby iBeacons to interact in real-time during sessions...
Apple's iBeacons, an indoor positioning system that can detect nearby devices to optionally push promotional marketing messages, has been picking up considerable steam lately. For instance, such brands as Major League Baseball and Apple itself have implemented the system, as did various retailers, theme parks, grocery stores and even car accessory makers.
According to BEEKn.net, Apple has now released detailed specification for the iBeacon platform. Released through Apple's 'Made for iPhone' (MFi) initiative, the documents are apparently separate from Apple's main Bluetooth MFi specification..
An update to Waze's free mapping, traffic and navigation app for the iPhone and iPad is about to land on the App Store later today, bringing integration with your iOS Calendar, the company wrote Thursday in a blog post.
More importantly, this Waze refresh allows you to navigate to Calendar events with just one tap, making it easy to access location-based events stored in the iOS Calendar, right within the app.
Waze for iPhone is available free of charge in the App Store. This particular update is expected to launch in the App Store later today...
It appears that an issue in iOS 7 that disabled the geolocation functions on apps that were force-closed by the user is being corrected in iOS 7.1. Developers say that in the latest iOS 7.1 betas, force-closing an app does not disable its location-aware functions.
This has been a major problem for developers since the launch of iOS 7 last fall—particularly for those who had location-based apps. Some devs have even reported that their App Store ratings have plummeted in the last 6 months due to the technical change...
A fresh update to Foursquare’s free iPhone and iPad application has enabled an interesting new feature: from now on, whenever you fancy a bite - be it breakfast, lunch or dinner - you can use either the mobile app or the web interface at foursquare.com to find nearby restaurants that accept orders from Grubhub Seamless, the popular U.S. based online food ordering company.
You'll notice a new GrubHub or Seamless icon when browsing a place in Foursquare. Just tap it to place your order through GrubHub Seamless. To retrieve a list of nearby restaurants that will bring food to you and your hungry friends, simply search for 'delivery' (example: 'taco delivery')...
Social media is now a social norm. College students procrastinating homework by connecting with others on Facebook started a massive revolution. First, social media was limited through Facebook to only students with college email addresses. Quickly, Facebook became an open platform for everyone to enjoy.
Twitter took fire and is still gaining in popularity with all age groups. However, unlike Facebook, Twitter users are less scared about their grandmother stalking them down. Of course, there is Foursquare, letting users check in to places around the globe. The first platform to truly push geolocation as a primary factor, Foursquare rustled a few feathers, but like all social media, has become quite mainstream, with users less frequently scared to post their whereabouts.
There are many other less mainstream social media platforms and new ones arise everyday. However, not many new services are instantly successful. SocialRadar, launching today, could be the new major social media platform, destine to hang in the ranks of Facebook and Twitter, or at least complement them nicely...
Apple's indoor positioning technology, iBeacons, is cropping up in some unlikely places. No, I don't mean grocery stores, trade shows, Apple Stores, stadiums and bars. According to a Dutch blog, one of the country's theme park will be deploying iBeacons in March to provide visitors with useful information right on their iOS devices.
It's also interesting that Apple's finance boss felt the urge to mention during yesterday's earnings call that the company is now using iBeacons in a number of its retail outlets to beam relevant product information and promotions as customers get near an iBeacon...
Foursquare, the location-based social networking website, has seen the September 18 release of iOS 7 come and go without a matching update to its iOS app on its part.
The company last month issued a fairly significant update that brought out a new recommendations feature which sends you useful location-based information, in real-time, like current specials at a restaurant.
Today's update finally brings Foursquare for iPhone and iPod touch on par with iOS 7 aesthetics. Foursquare is one of those apps that already had light design of sorts, but now it's much prettier and easier on the eyes...
Reuters is reporting that US District Judge Lucy Koh has dismissed a privacy lawsuit against Apple this week. The suit alleged that the company was collecting location data through iOS devices, even when the geo-location feature was turned off.
Four plaintiffs joint-filed the suit—which is just one of several that followed Apple's 'Locationgate' scandal—in 2011, complaining that not only was Apple tracking users' location without consent, but they charged them too much for their iPhones...
A few days ago, I posted a screenshot of my Notification Center showing travel time to my next destination, something iOS had learned about me without any sort of data input of my part. A few people asked me how I managed to get this information in my Notification Center. I believed it was a commonly used feature of iOS, but apparently I was wrong.
In this simple tutorial, I will show you how to use the Frequent Locations in iOS in order to find out information about your next destination. Privacy activists may want to skip this one.
In another sign of the imminent iOS 7 release, Apple has just released iTunes 11.1 for Mac and Windows with support for iOS 7 devices and installations, also bringing out new features like iTunes Radio, Podcast Stations and Genius Shuffle.
As part of the release - and consistent with Apple's history - the company has updated the iTunes Terms & Conditions. The document has been amended with additional information regarding authenticating your account for purchases and automatic delivery of app updates, in addition to the previously unknown tidbits about the App Store's Popular Near Me feature...
Apple's iOS 7 upgrade, when it lands this Fall, will allow users to opt-in to mapping where they've been since installing the software, how many times and for how long. The Frequent Locations feature, which first appeared in iOS 7 Beta, is found in Settings. When enabled, it permits iOS devices to use GPS coordinates of the places you frequently visit, Apple explains.
The opt-in, consumer-facing feature is provided for the purposes of improving Maps (and other location-based products and services), providing useful location-related information and letting you check out a handy map history of the places you've visited. Here's what you need to know about Frequent Locations in iOS 7...