HBC Department Store Group has begun using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons placed around its Hudson’s Bay and Lord & Taylor department stores in Canada and the US “to deliver digital experiences to consumers’ smartphones while they shop”... More
A national in-store mobile marketing campaign that used Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons and geofencing technology to drive sales and awareness of American Craft Link Sausages has seen a 20-fold increase in purchase intent by those exposed to messaging, a 36% increase in brand awareness and a lift in overall sales, owner Hillshire Brands has revealed... More
Chinese mobile device maker Xiaomi has launched the Mi Band, a CNY79 (US$13) wristband that features sensors for health and fitness tracking and can be used to unlock the wearer’s Xiaomi smartphone via BLE... More
“Visitors to Turkish Airlines’ Lounge Istanbul at Atatürk Airport will now be able to access the digital Sky Library on their own devices following the installation of iBeacons in the lounge,” Future Travel Experience reports... More
Visa has unveiled a suite of services designed to “facilitate secure payments across a broad range of internet-connected devices and wearables”... More
This year’s Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival has used Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons to track how visitors moved around the site so that it can “shape and streamline the festival in the future”... More
UK payments technology specialist Consult Hyperion has unveiled a proof-of-concept solution that uses Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and host card emulation (HCE) to enable both iPhone and Android NFC phone owners to make MasterCard, Visa and other open loop EMV payments at the point of sale... More
Out-of-home advertising giant Clear Channel’s Connect interactive advertising platform is now available in 29 US and Canadian markets... More
Japan Airlines staff at Tokyo’s Haneda airport are being provided with smartwatches that work in conjunction with Bluetooth Low Energy beacons, to give management a way to assign staff more efficiently and respond more swiftly to customer requests. More
Hotel chain Marriott is adding support for Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons and special offers to its rewards program, enabling guests to access deals provided by Marriott hotels and other businesses during their stay... 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
Sixty million Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons worth US$500m will be shipped in 2019, ABI Research forecasts... More
Boston startup Robin has closed a US$1.4m seed funding round to expand and develop a solution that uses iBeacons and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) to let workers interact with the office space around them... More
Low-cost airline easyJet is trialling iBeacon technology at London Luton, London Gatwick and Paris Charles de Gaulle airports... More
Crowdfunding is being sought for an NFC-enabled smartwatch that features iris recognition technology, letting wearers identify themselves and unlock services using their unique biometric data... More
Retailer-owned mobile payments provider Yapital is testing the use of fingerprint biometrics to replace PIN entry when paying by smartphone... More
Samsung has unveiled the Galaxy S5 Mini, a compact version of their latest flagship smartphone... More
New support for Android Beam, the name used for NFC peer-to-peer sharing in Android, is to be introduced with Android L, version 5.0 of Google’s operating system... More
The next generation of Android, unveiled at the Google I/O developer conference, will offer mobile payments, banking and commerce providers a wide range of new functions... More
Supermarket giant Carrefour and convenience store group Nisa are piloting a new technology that uses Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons attached to trolleys and baskets to track a shopper’s journey around the store... More