Hotel chain Residence Inn by Marriott is to pilot image recognition and augmented reality technology that will allow guests to scan beverage coasters to access interactive experiences, including games and food and drink suggestions, on their smartphones... More
Los Angeles
LA Metro to get Bluetooth beacons
The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority is planning to pilot Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons in Los Angeles’ Union Station to track a commuter’s journey and send out relevant information directly to their smartphone... More
Chick-fil-A rolls out mobile payments
Fast food chain Chick-fil-A has rolled out mobile payments to all of its US restaurants, with the exception of licensed locations, following a pilot that began in June 2014... More
Starwood’s mobile keys go live
The Bluetooth-based mobile keyless entry solution unveiled by Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide earlier this month is now live in 10 hotels in Beijing, Hong Kong, New York, Los Angeles and Doha and will be rolling out to Aloft, Element and W Hotels across the globe... More
Starwood Hotels picks Bluetooth for mobile room keys that work on smartphones and Apple Watch
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
InMarket reports positive consumer response to Bluetooth beacons
Shoppers who receive marketing messages via inMarket’s Mobile to Mortar (M2M) iBeacon platform interact more with advertised products, increase their in-store app usage and are more likely to keep an app on their phone, a survey of 25,000 US consumers has found... More
Nintendo to launch NFC toys and payments
A new Nintendo Figurine Platform and a range of NFC toys that makes use of the NFC functionality in the Wii U GamePad is to be unveiled at the E3 games show next month, company president Satoru Iwata has announced. A standalone device that will enable NFC toys to be used with the Nintendo 3DS handheld console will also be introduced and NFC payments for games are to added, initially in Japan, from this summer. More
Nintendo looks to NFC to boost Wii U sales
Making full use of the NFC functionality built into the Wii U GamePad is one of four strategies designed to boost the console’s flagging sales in the year ahead, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has revealed — and plans call for NFC to be used to enhance game playing and for payments... More
iCashTV adds NFC to in-store advertising platform
iCashTV, an in-store digital advertising network for check cashing and currency exchange offices, is introducing Blue Bite’s mTag NFC platform across the US... More
Blue Bite reports results of US NFC marketing campaign
A campaign for travel app HotelTonight, which combined promotional videos shown on digital screens with the ability to download the app via NFC, QR code, Bluetooth or WiFi, saw a small but promising number of interactions via NFC, says the mobile marketing platform provider. More
Google Wallet goes on tour
Google, Sprint and Samsung are taking Google Wallet across the US on a five city roadshow that will allow consumers to test out the NFC service in selected retail stores... More
Google Wallet with offers goes live in Times Square
Shoppers at the flagship Times Square branch of American Eagle Outfitters can now use an NFC phone to make payments, earn reward points and collect or redeem special offers. More
OfficeMax goes live with Google Wallet
Customers can now use their NFC mobile phones to make payments, redeem coupons and receive rewards via Google SingleTap terminals installed at more than one hundred of the office supplies chain’s stores in five US regions. More
US TV network VH1 tests NFC smart posters
“NFC offers advertisers greater opportunities to build ‘hyper-local’ promotional campaigns using media-rich, high quality content through a simple tap of the phone,” says the digital agency behind the project. More