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
Beacons
Kontakt.io puts on $1m beacon hunt at CES
Beacon solution provider Kontakt.io is hosting a Bluetooth-based treasure hunt with a million dollar prize at the CES in Las Vegas... More
US mall operator tests BLE beacons
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
McDonald’s introduces Bluetooth beacon offers
Twenty-six McDonald’s franchises in Columbus, Georgia have installed Bluetooth beacons that can be used to deliver coupons, alerts, employment opportunities and customer satisfaction surveys directly to a consumer’s smartphone as they enter a participating location... More
Brixton Pound to add NFC
Brixton Pound (B£), a local currency designed to encourage consumers to spend in independent businesses, is to launch an NFC ‘tap and pay’ service in 2015... More
Brazilian online fashion retailer installs Bluetooth Fashion Spots
Dafiti, Latin America’s largest online fashion retailer, is to place Bluetooth beacons in restaurants, bars and newsstands in the Brazilian city of São Paulo to send out promotional messages to shoppers’ smartphones... More
Ubudu turns beacons into two-way communications devices
Mobile proximity solutions provider Ubudu has unveiled uBeacon Mesh, a platform that enables Bluetooth beacon installations to be used to create two-way mobile communications with consumers... More
Starbucks eyes iBeacon
Starbucks is to use Bluetooth beacon technology in the first of its new Starbucks Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room locations in the Capitol Hill neighbourhood of Seattle in the coming year... More
Bluetooth 4.2 to increase speed and security of Smart devices
The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) has adopted version 4.2 of the Bluetooth core specification, introducing security improvements that mean Bluetooth beacons are now unable to engage with smartphones without permission from the user and making it harder for eavesdroppers to track a device via its Bluetooth connection. More
BKM and Mekanist let Turkish diners pay by beacon
Diners at Turkish restaurant Olivia’s Pizzeria have become the first in the country to be able to use their BKM Express digital wallet to pay for their meals with their mobile phone... More
Barclays to test beacons in branches
Barclays is to run a three month Bluetooth beacon technology trial at its Pinstone Street branch in Sheffield, UK, to alert bank staff to the presence of customers with disabilities... More
Indian shopping malls to pilot iBeacon
Mobile marketing and advertising platform BeaconStream is to pilot iBeacon technology in malls in Bengaluru and Chennai, India, within the next three weeks, The Hindu reports... More
Swirl reports positive consumer feedback on in-store beacon offers
Six in ten (60%) shoppers who receive a beacon-triggered message while shopping in a store open and engage with the content and 30% redeem beacon-triggered offers at the point of sale, analysis by Bluetooth beacon offers platform Swirl has found... More
Norwich buses get Bluetooth beacons that deliver offers to passengers on the move
UK transportation operator FirstGroup has installed Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons on buses in the city of Norwich to help deliver content and offers to passengers’ smartphones... More
Drop offers beacon-based payments
Payments startup Drop has launched a mobile payments and loyalty solution that uses Bluetooth beacons to let shoppers order and pay from up to 200 feet away before picking up their purchase and leaving without having to wait in line at the point of sale... More
Saatchi & Saatchi designs beacon loyalty rewards for Japan’s TenTen Technologies
Japanese startup TenTen Technologies is to offer retailers USB-based Bluetooth beacons that plug into POS terminals and vending machines so that rewards can be issued automatically to users of the company’s mobile app when they make a purchase... More
inMarket hits 18% of US mobile shoppers
Mobile in-store marketing solution provider inMarket’s iBeacon platform now reaches 31.5m monthly active consumers, the equivalent of 18% of all US mobile users, according to research conducted by Comscore... More
Melbourne beacon trial disappoints
Arts Centre Melbourne is rethinking its approach to using Bluetooth beacons after a disappointing pilot that used the technology to send out food and beverage offers to visitors during October’s Melbourne Festival... More
Samsung launches Proximity mobile marketing platform
Samsung has unveiled Proximity, a location-based marketing platform that uses Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons and works in a similar way to Apple’s iBeacon system — but without the need for consumers to be persuaded to download a marketer’s own app to access the service... More
The Shard gets BLE beacons
London’s highest viewing gallery is to deploy Bluetooth beacons 800 feet (243m) above the city at the top of its tallest building. Aruba will supply the The View at The Shard with BLE beacons and a software platform to deliver information about notable landmarks visible from the tourist attraction to visitors’ mobile devices... More