US grocery chain Marsh Supermarkets is to use Bluetooth beacons to deliver targeted information such as shopping lists and recipes directly to a shopper’s Apple Watch or smartphone, marking the “world’s first iBeacon-wearable integration at retail”... More
Carrot, a suite of mobile apps designed to push users into better behaviours, has added a calorie-counting app that works in conjunction with a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacon placed inside a fridge to help users lose weight, by keeping track of their daily calorie intake and punishing them for overeating... More
Music recognition app Shazam has partnered with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) specialist Gimbal to add support for Bluetooth beacons to its platform... More
Fifty merchants in the German city of Hannover have signed up to accept Bitcoin payments using a terminal supplied by startup Pey, that uses a combination of iBeacon, QR code and NFC technology. More
FitLinxx has begun taking pre-orders for AmpStrip, a 24/7 wearable device that sends a range of health and fitness data direct to a user’s smartphone using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)... More
Coffee giant Starbucks has launched its mobile payment app in Germany and France to allow its customers to make payments using a mobile version of their Starbucks card... More
Wintrust Financial is updating its fleet of 190 ATMs in Chicago to enable its mobile banking customers to withdraw cash by requesting money on their smartphone then scanning an on-screen QR code when they get to the ATM. More
South Africa’s Nedbank is internally testing a proof-of-concept mobile payments app called Accolades that uses BLE beacons to connect customers to retailers as they enter the store... More
A US startup is taking pre-orders for a biometrically secured mobile wallet, consisting of a payment app and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)-based “bio-sticker” attached to the back of the user’s phone... More
Toshiba has added NFC to a SDHC memory card, allowing consumers to check the card’s contents by tapping it against their NFC phone instead of plugging it into a PC or digital camera... More
BMW has partnered with MasterCard to offer an NFC-enabled contactless credit card that makes it possible to hire, unlock and operate a BMW or Mini from a car rental fleet that has more than 2,800 vehicles and more than 350,000 users in the US, UK, Germany and Austria... More
Beacon solution provider Kontakt.io is hosting a Bluetooth-based treasure hunt with a million dollar prize at the CES in Las Vegas... More
Bitcoin wallet provider Circle has added NFC to its Android app to enable users to make payments using the digital currency with a tap of their smartphone... More
Lock maker Yale has introduced an NFC-based door lock for homes which can be operated with a tap of a smartphone and allows homeowners to send keys to others, control when others have access, get a notification when someone uses the lock, and revoke already issued digital keys at any time... More
US mall operator Taubman is piloting BLE beacons for an indoor navigation service at its Mall at University Town Center in Sarasota, Florida, with plans to roll out the platform to other properties throughout the year... More
Visitors at this year’s International CES in Las Vegas will be guided around the mammoth tradeshow with their smartphones and Bluetooth beacons provided by Radius Networks... More
Toshiba has unveiled an add-on adapter for iOS devices that will enable users to transfer large data files such as movies and images from one device to the other using TransferJet, a high-speed short range contactless communications technology... More
Car maker BMW has embedded NFC tags in a four-page advertisement for its i3 and i8 models in German magazine Spiegel Wissen... More
Consumers scanned more than 4.5m barcodes with Scandit-powered mobile shopping apps this Black Friday, the company has revealed, “with some US-based apps experiencing as much as 40 times increase over last year”... More
The Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) in the US is developing a smartphone-based driver’s license using an app that would co-exist with traditional plastic cards, WSJ reports... More