Apple Pay now accounts for more than two-thirds of Visa, MasterCard and American Express contactless payments by value across the US, Apple CEO Tim Cook has revealed during a first quarter earnings call... More
Wearable technology company Ringly has raised US$5.1m in Series A funding to produce a range of connected jewellery that links to a smartphone, and alerts the wearer with a variety of customizable notifications by lighting up and vibrating... More
Business productivity management specialist RedCritter has unveiled a platform for schools that recognises, rewards and socialises students’ learning achievements via NFC and QR codes. More
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
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
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
Groupe BPCE, the second largest banking group in France, has launched a service that will let users of its S-Money mobile app send money transfers via Twitter. 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
Square has added a feature to its Square Cash app that lets users leverage Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) to make payments to anyone nearby, as well as an order ahead service for users of its Android and iOS apps... 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
Publisher IPC Media is using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons installed in 740 One Stop convenience stores across the UK to offer discounted copies of its Chat, Pick Me Up, Woman and TV & Satellite Week magazines... More
One in three UK smartphone or tablet owners have never enabled push notifications on their connected devices and 78% of those who have enabled it would immediately delete the app or disable the notification if they were unhappy with the push notifications they receive, a DMA UK survey has found... More
Les Terrasses du Port, a new 480-hectare shopping centre in the French city of Marseille, has installed Europe’s largest network of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons, enabling retailers such as Zara and H&M to deliver promotional offers and information straight to shoppers’ smartphones... More