Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide has unveiled a mobile keyless entry system that will allow guests to use smartphones to unlock rooms using Bluetooth at 150 hotels around the globe by early 2015. The service will also be available via an Apple Watch app when the new wearable device ships next year, the hotel chain has told NFC World+. More
SK Planet has launched a new Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) service in Korea that offers customers reward points and benefits directly on their mobile device whenever they enter a participating retail location. The BLE beacon-based solution is expected to be installed in more than 10,000 stores by next month. More
Seventeen Fresh & Easy stores in Phoenix are piloting new machines from in-store ATM operator Cardtronics that offer customers discounts they can apply to store purchases by scanning a QR code on their cash withdrawal receipt using a smartphone running the company’s AllTM app... More
A majority of Americans (60%) would be comfortable divulging information about themselves anonymously to their favourite stores, a new survey from Wearables.com and The Center for Generational Kinetics reveals... More
UK Football League sponsor Sky Bet has installed Bluetooth beacons at Elland Road, Leeds and the New York Stadium, Rotherham to send offers to football fans as part of a pilot project that could be rolled out to other locations across the country... More
Proximity marketing specialist Swirl has unveiled an in-store programmatic ad exchange that enables retailers and brands to reach consumers with relevant content and offers on their smartphones while they shop at participating locations... More
A recently published Apple patent hints that the company is working on future CarPlay functionality that would allow users to lock and unlock car doors, start engines and perform other tasks using their iOS device and geofence technology... More
Commercial Bank of Dubai (CBD) has launched a virtual bank branch for Facebook, letting its online banking customers check balances, pay credit card bills, transfer money between accounts and track expenses from within the social network... More
Europe’s largest online restaurant booking website is testing Apple’s iBeacon location technology to send offers and menus to potential diners toting iPhones as they pass by a participating location... More
Carnegie Mellon University’s Future Interfaces Group has developed a system that will allow smartwatches to laser project icons representing device functions or notifications for missed calls and messages onto the wearer’s skin... More
Jason Hogg, founder and former CEO of Revolution Money and a co-inventor of the technology behind American Express’ Serve and Bluebird services, has raised US$6.2m for Hangit, a location-based messaging platform that, he told NFC World+, aims to give small merchants “the same skills and capabilities a large retailer would have with their marketing platforms.”... More
Mobeam’s mobile coupon and offer app Beep’nGo has now surpassed five million downloads to compatible Android devices... More
Dutch newspaper publisher NDC Media is testing Bluetooth beacons with thirty shops in the town of Leeuwarden, Netherlands, to send offers to consumer smartphones running the Lightcurb mobile app... More
Location-based shopping app Shopkick reports that it has driven more than US$1bn in revenue for its partner retailers since its launch in 2010, more than half of which occurred in the past year... More
Canadian startup Bionym has begun shipping its Nymi wristband to partners and key developers after starting to take pre-orders in September last year... More
The National Roman Legion Museum in Caerleon, Wales, is using Bluetooth beacons to let visitors discover more about the collections on show on their mobile devices... More
Hong Kong mobile network operator SmarTone has introduced ST Beacon, a marketing service that lets retailers send promotional messages to customers with an Android or iOS device using Bluetooth... More
The US Tennis Association (USTA) has used a network of Bluetooth beacons placed around the US Open’s Flushing Meadows venue to tailor its mobile app to event attendees, learn how ticket holders moved around the location, and push messages to fans... More
Sending customers more than one push notification from a beacon platform in the same store leads to a 313% decline in app usage, a study conducted by Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) marketing platform InMarket has found... More
Upmarket UK department store chain John Lewis has invested £100,000 in Localz, a startup that uses Bluetooth beacons to improve the in-store shopping experience and has won the retailer’s first JLAB incubator program... More