“Apple has quietly rolled out its iBeacon specification as it starts to certify devices that carry the Bluetooth LE standard,” Doug Thompson reports for BEEKn. “Under their MFI program, manufacturers can now request that Apple permit them to attach the iBeacon name to their devices so long as they meet certain criteria.”
“The specifications are available after signing an NDA. Applying to the program in order to register to carry the iBeacon name, we’re told, is free,” Thompson reports. “While we haven’t seen the specification (and wouldn’t be able to say anything if we had!) we’re told that there are no surprises: it conforms to what you’d generally expect of any device that broadcasts a Bluetooth LE signal.”
“The move means that the iBeacon trademark, which has ended up being applied by the media to a whole slew of devices that act as beacons, will now be used with a bit more control from Cupertino,” Thompson reports. “But there’s no particular restriction in place which makes an iBeacon incompatible with Android or other phones. So while a beacon might carry the iBeacon name, this simple means that it has access to the trademark and that it has been configured to work well with Apple devices.”
Read more in the full article here.
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Rather clever in as much as even when working with Android or others it still promotes the Apple brand while not creating a wall to surmount, taken a line from Google there.