

A Note from the CEO - ismavis
http://developer.radiusnetworks.com/2014/07/14/a-note-from-the-ceo.html

======
lnanek2
That's too bad. Their Android SDK was quite good and they were very responsive
with issues submitted for it. I used it at a Google Glass hackathon and
working with Apple's iBeacon technology was super easy - probably why they are
being forced to remove it.

~~~
lgleason
This is what I used it for as well. If Android is unable to get Ibeacon
support I can't see Ibeacons taking off.....As a retailer I would want a
technology that the majority of my smart phone users can use, not 50% of them.

~~~
untog
They'll probably be successful anyway. The iPhone has enough of a critical
mass of (important: rich) people to be worth people's time.

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lgleason
This sucks.....luckily we can fork the library legally.

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SEJeff
Does anyone have the old documentation cached anywhere? I'd love to take a
stab at writing a client.

~~~
th0br0
It's up on
[https://web.archive.org/web/20140626101055/http://developer....](https://web.archive.org/web/20140626101055/http://developer.radiusnetworks.com/)

Also, the download links to S3 still work and
[https://github.com/RadiusNetworks/android-ibeacon-
service](https://github.com/RadiusNetworks/android-ibeacon-service) still
contains the old commits (HEAD~2) ... guess not everybody there supports the
decision.

~~~
nailer

        git clone https://github.com/RadiusNetworks/android-ibeacon-service
        cd android-ibeacon-service/
        git checkout HEAD~2
    

[https://web.archive.org/web/20131202161126/http://developer....](https://web.archive.org/web/20131202161126/http://developer.radiusnetworks.com/ibeacon/android/)

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siralonso
It's not totally clear to me if they were asked by Apple to do this, or if
they're doing it proactively.

Either way, it's a bummer. Fork while you can :-)

~~~
NickWarner775
I'm sure they were asked by Apple to do this.

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eyesee
Speculation, but this might be as simple as avoiding trademark infringement.
In such case, releasing the product under new branding and avoiding use of
"iBeacon" might be sufficient.

If there are IP claims as well it may not be so simple.

------
iwaffles
The good news is that there's no good way that Apple can stop Android devices
(or other devices with BTLE) from broadcasting or detecting iBeacons.

Glad to see that the source code is still available to fork.

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hyperliner
Is this Apple's latest attempt at blocking innovation?

(Apologies if I offend the fanboys / fangirls who think only Microsoft ever
did that)

~~~
jamesaguilar
Kinda silly to accuse Apple of blocking innovation considering we're talking
about a technology _that they innovated_ that everyone now supposedly wants to
use. Blocking use of their innovation on other platforms, perhaps.

~~~
maxsilver
> we're talking about a technology that (Apple) innovated

Let's be clear here -- iBeacon is just Apple's marketing label for work that
the Bluetooth SIG did.

Apple innovated nothing here, they simply starting using Bluetooth SIG's
proximity profile at
[https://developer.bluetooth.org/gatt/profiles/Pages/ProfileV...](https://developer.bluetooth.org/gatt/profiles/Pages/ProfileViewer.aspx?u=org.bluetooth.profile.proximity.xml)
and slapped an 'iBeacon' sticker on it. Just like dozens of companies had done
before them.

Thousands of people were already using this technology, producing and shipping
hardware and software, before Apple even thought about jumping into this area.

To claim that Apple _innovated_ beacons is a huge stretch. They've popularized
them certainly, but they haven't invented or innovated any of the technology
involved here (hardware of software)

~~~
jamesaguilar
If that is true, it is totally unclear to me why these docs coming down
matters. :-/

