“In Brixton, South West London, hundreds of businesses will soon integrate iBeacons as part of one of the first real-world networks for mobile payments using Apple’s Bluetooth LE iBeacon tech,” Jordan Kahn reports for 9to5Mac.
“In Brixton, businesses introduced a local currency in 2009 that eventually switched from paper into mobile payments by text,” Kahn reports. “Around 250 businesses in the area accept the currency, which is meant to keep the money in the community and support smaller independent local businesses.”
“By the starting of next month, the currency will have its own mobile app called Brixton Pound, and iBeacons will make it easy to automatically prompt users for payments,” Kahn reports. “The Brixton Pound organization teamed up with Dingo for the payment solution and kontakt.io for the iBeacon hardware and integration.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
http://9to5mac.com/2014/06/19/hundreds-of-businesses-in-london-are-about-to-flip-the-switch-on-payments-via-ibeacons/
Hi hannahjs, I dropped into that link and nearly dropped dead at the thought that you had dropped down after scoffing a macaroon! 🙁
Glad that it wasn’t a drop down literal in the sense of the take!! 🙂
Mind you the drip, drip of the drop, drop could take its toll on some of those who partake of the e-pay pound.
Would someone explain? There seem to be constant rumors of iPhone 6 containing NFC. If iBeacon can be used for payments what is NFC good for?
The rumors that you speak of come from “pundits” and “analysts” who spout constant drivel. Many comments here in the past have given reasons why NFC is NOT going to be coming to the iPhone. Not in any near future, anyway.
If I remember, a couple of the reasons are security and that NFC is just not deployed. Why have something in the iPhone that requires a system that doesn’t exist?
By having their own system, Apple doesn’t need to wait for that technology to spread, even if they wanted to.
Also, iBeacons have ENORMOUSLY greater functionality than simple payment.
What are the security problems?
Many people are concerned about their privacy and might not like their shopping behaviour tracking…😱
If no close contact is required then how does it know what I bought and the correct price is used?😏
Yes I was wondering that, I presume there is likely going to have to be some physical acceptance to automatic payment prompts, the fingerprint sensor perhaps. Obviously NFC’s big disadvantage touch required is also its way of delivering this action, though I find with cards it can be slow and inconsistent so don’t fancy trying it with a phone.
But this effort and the ease and low cost of implementation (not to mention potential) shows that there seems even less reason to introduce NFC into iPhone. I do think the rumours came out of China where there may be more logic for NFC (central control as well as technology limitations) than the dead end it represents here in the West.
NFC is good for nothing. In some respects it is actually MORE dangerous than magnetic striped on cards. The infamous robbery of 110 million Target accounts would STILL have happened in exactly the same way using NFC cards.
NFC is crap technology that never should have left the barn. It will be replaced by something actually secure, we hope in the near future. There are a few options in the works. iBeacon can certainly at least as good an alternative to magnetic stripe cards as NFC while being far more functional for other purposes as well.
IOW: There’s ain’t gonna be no NFC in Apple tech.
But I have been told that certain markets, such as China, in their stupidity, insist upon NFC in Apple gear.
So paste an NFC chip sticker on your phone and leave Apple out of it, dummies. Don’t blame Apple if some granny bumps into you and steals your NFC chip identity. It’s YOUR fault for using NFC, not Apple’s…. Or so I believe the story should go.
Thank you JH
Childhood home of a Mr. Bowie
Does anybody have any facts or proofs about NFC security ?
Do you have any ibeacon company who has built an ibeacon payment and which is really working even at a trial stage ?