“Over the past year, Apple’s iBeacon has gained a lot of media attention and developer traction,” Evan Niu writes for The Motley Fool. “Quietly introduced at Worldwide Developers Conference 2013, iBeacon’s micro-location capabilities have incredible potential in retail and can also help facilitate the Internet of Things. Google wants in on the action.”
“Android Police reports that Google is preparing to introduce a new ‘Nearby’ feature that replicates some of iBeacon’s functionality,” Niu writes. “When activated, an Android device could automatically turn on its microphone, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or other functions in order to tap into various Google services based on location.”
“For all of the same reasons why iBeacon is a big deal, Nearby will be a critical piece of the mobile puzzle. Retailers are looking forward to location-based offers and other opportunities to appeal to iPhone owners, and soon Android may do likewise,” Niu writes. “Location will also have obvious use cases as the connected home trend continues. As rumored, Apple launched its HomeKit platform for smart appliances throughout the home. Google has no such centralized smart home platform yet, even though it did acquire Nest earlier this year.”
MacDailyNews Take: How many magic mushrooms do you have to consume to come anywhere near to equating overpaying for a company that immediately had to recall 440,000 faulty smoke alarms with providing the tools that soon will allow hundreds of millions of iOS users users to control everything there is to control?
Niu continues, “Google I/O is now just weeks away, which could potentially be when investors hear more about Nearby.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Wait, Google wants to try to poorly copy something that Apple’s already patented in myriad ways? For some reason, that sounds vaguely familiar.
Related articles:
GE integrates iBeacon into new LED light fixtures, Walmart installing in stores worldwide – May 29, 2014
Walgreens and Walmart testing iBeacon, Motorola Solutions launches iBeacon marketing platform – May 7, 2014
Virgin Atlantic trials Apple iBeacon tech for iPhone users at London Heathrow Airport – May 2, 2014
New York City bars to use Apple’s iBeacon for pub crawl promo – April 28, 2014
New sunglasses with iBeacon notify you when lost, act as beacons in retail – April 28, 2014
Apple’s iOS 7.1 delivers major, game-changing iBeacon improvement – March 11, 2014
SXSW deploys iBeacons to improve attendees’ experience – March 6, 2014
Apple releases iBeacon specification, begins MFI program certification for Bluetooth LE devices – February 25, 2014
Major League Baseball completes iBeacon installation at first two ballparks – February 14, 2014
Will iBeacon alerts be a welcome way to add value to retail visits or just a new way to spam? – February 14, 2014
Apple’s iBeacon turns location sensing inside out: ‘Where am I?’ becomes ‘Here I am!’ – February 10, 2014
Why Apple’s iBeacon technology is ahead of the pack – February 3, 2014
Apple’s iBeacon heralds dawn of ‘nudge’ advertising – February 3, 2014
NFL rolls out iBeacons for Super Bowl fans in Times Square and MetLife Stadium – February 1, 2014
Major League Baseball deploying thousands of iBeacons for Opening Day – January 31, 2014
Apple’s iBeacon and the future of retail store shopping – January 21, 2014
Apple patent application reveals secure iWallet system with iBeacon – January 16, 2014
Apple’s revolutionary iBeacon: Sometimes the biggest changes in technology have the smallest beginnings – January 13, 2014
Company rolls out Apple’s iBeacon to grocery stores – January 6, 2014
Apple’s iBeacons are creating a new market – December 30, 2013
Anybody else want an Apple ‘iServe home’ server with iBeacon accessories? – December 18, 2013
The Internet of iThings: Apple’s iBeacon already in 200 million iPhones and iPads – December 16, 2013
4 reasons why Apple’s iBeacon is about to disrupt interaction design – December 11, 2013
Apple could have 250 million iBeacon-capable units in the wild by 2014 – December 7, 2013
Apple turns on iBeacon to guide shoppers at 254 U.S. retail stores – December 6, 2013
Bar deploys Apple’s iBeacon to give patrons free access to Newsstand magazines – December 4, 2013
Macy’s becomes first retailer to deploy Apple’s iBeacon for in-store presence – November 20, 2013
Beyond retail: What’s next for indoor location tracking with Apple’s iBeacon – November 15, 2013
Apple’s location-tracking iBeacon is poised to explode across retail faster than anyone can imagine – October 25, 2013
Attention, retailers: With iBeacon, Apple has figured out mobile marketing – October 11, 2013
Apple’s iBeacon to deliver completely interactive experiences for fans at MLB stadiums – September 27, 2013
Apple’s amazing iOS 7: Three game-changers hidden in plain sight – September 26, 2013
Apple’s brilliant iBeacons system will enable purchases, contextual marketing, automated check-ins and much more – September 14, 2013
Apple’s NFC killer: iOS 7′s iBeacons – September 11, 2013
iBeacons may prove to be Apple’s biggest new feature for iOS 7 – August 29, 2013
Google = Evil
Don’t they have more vaporware for Glassholes and those too lazy to drive a fscking car? The dumbasses are an advertising company and they’re late to the party with this?
Another classic take! Made my evening.. I don’t know how these shady googlers take themselves seriously.
Wait, why would I want to walk by a device that can turn on my microphone and wifi? That sounds like the NSA or Anonymous?
I can just imagine how many nefarious people and apps will take advantage of google’s attempt at replicating the iBeacon experience.
…yeah, and half- baked attempt!
Mo better spyware, coming soon. Creepy frat boy party crashers going through your dresser drawers, following you up the street, helpfully keeping track of your visits, noting your purchases and recommending like products every time you turn around. My gawd, were’t eyeballs enough? Shades of Minority Report.
Minority Report didn’t have any creepy frat boys (or any frat boys). I think you are watching too many spoof movies.
It had eyeballs. Conspicuously so.
Google’s Android owns you!
Yet another way for google to suck out people’s personal info to sell to advertisers and to get advertisers to flog stuff you do t want.
Jesus when will this company stop killing privacy and human rights???
Remember, if you haven’t done anything wrong, you don’t need privacy or human rights.
Hope you forgot the /S. Normally you are one the saner voices here
Yes, I agree with you 100%!!!
Please post your financial records, medical records (specifically, your hemmorhoid exam + anal wart photos and the number of miscarriages your wife had), your kids’ photos, where they go to school, what time you leave your home empty, when you’ll be on vacation, your porn viewing habits, your bank account balances, account numbers, passwords, etc., etc…
Remember, you haven’t done anything wrong so you have absolutely no need need any privacy or human rights.
/S
Laugh of the day, thank you 🙂
And if you still haven’t done anything wrong, we’ll change the rules so that you have. Oh wait, did I say that out loud? Damn. Delete! Delete!!
It going to come to a point when google will know stuff about you before you do.
And when that happens the human race is fucked big time.
Roll on the next extinction because that’s the only thing that’s gonna stop google.
Google/Android is going to bury Apple. The only place Apple rates is in the US.
… which sucks for Apple, because the USA is only the world’s biggest economy.
Btw that’s Khrushchev you’re sorta quoting. Give that a think.
Too bad most Android users are a bunch of cheapskates. Good luck monetizing that, Google.
First thing I thought of, too. If I had a business, would I want iPhone users or “I want everything free” droids?
Microphone? Did they say it’ll turn on its MICROPHONE?
GOOGLE can access the MIC at will? Just to ‘check for location data I’m sure!
This really isn’t anything surprising. iBeacons transmit a code. Any modern mobile platform can tune into the signal, get the code and pass it on to an application that does what it’s enabled to do with the code.
In other words, iBeacons are inherently cross-platform from the start. It’s all client side development to deal with the iBeacon and most of that is on the 3rd party app side.
An old bull and a young bull are standing around in a field doing what bulls do when the young bull notices a big herd of cows over in the adjacent field. He sidles up to the old bull and says, “Let’s run down to the other field and do a couple of cows.”
The old bull eyes the field of cows, turns to his companion and says, “Nah! Let’s stroll down and do the lot!”
In other words, you can be first to market which really only gives you bragging rights and generally leads to a half-arsed implementation, or you can take your time and do it properly.
=:~)
Exactly right.
And yet Google ripped off the iPhone and iOS.
You obviously never saw android before the iPhone came out.
Get your history right.
Good luck with your anonymous trolling.
Fuckwit !
What a loser. Like those basement walls, do ya? You can take down the poster of Justin now.
A Google/Android person: a user of inferior hardware and software that is convinced that their technology is somehow better than it is, when in reality, that technology exists for the sole purpose of selling targeted advertising. The deluded user prefers the worlds most fragmented and malware susceptible operating system running on cheap hardware, thinking that they got a great deal at purchase time. To justify their bad choice, they are known to lash out in frustration. They likely own a PC running Windows, and believe it too is superior to Apple’s HW-SW. The deluded user thinks the only good deal is the one that costs the least. In the end, they’re let down by their inferior products. But after reading endless targeted propaganda drivel about how their also-ran systems are the equivalent or superior to Apple’s, they come to actually believe it. Their delusion is complete when they begin posting that the tangled web of the world we know as Google/Android is better. Thus a new Troll is born. And we get to look at the babble, feeling a kind of sadness for the poor deluded soul.
Is it an IQ thing?
Eh – I am not feeling a kind of sadness for them.
Hah. Me either
– but… but… that meaaaans Google is more innovative than Apple, no??? /s