

Why Apple's iBeacon is about to disrupt interaction design - hansy
http://www.wired.com/design/2013/12/4-use-cases-for-ibeacon-the-most-exciting-tech-you-havent-heard-of

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choult
Nice bit of advertorial there - calling NFC a "predecessor" is quite the
giveaway. Still, nice white paper Apple; congrats on getting Wired to
regurgitate it verbatim.

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slg
You are being just as unfair. The two technologies aren't competing as
directly as some people seem to think. The biggest separating technological
factor being the long range of Bluetooth LE vs NFC. The limited range of NFC
means that only one and a half of the four examples used in the article would
be possible. Bluetooth LE is closer to peer-to-peer WiFi than it is NFC.

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codeka
> The two technologies aren't competing as directly as some people seem to
> think.

I think that was his point.

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na85
"Gee I'll just install this app to make it easier for companies known for
their intrusive advertising to continue their in-my-face advertising."

-said no-one, past present or future.

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belorn
The article mentions the removal of the authentication step from the old
bluetooth protocol, but mention then nothing about security of the new one.

What about the security considerations of letting unknown devices send data to
your phone?

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doe88
\- For iBeacon you must have installed an app that monitors some iBeacon in
order to get notified.

\- More generally, for Bluetooth LE there are security measures implemented
see [1] page 1301 and [2] for all the details.

[1]
[https://www.bluetooth.org/docman/handlers/downloaddoc.ashx?d...](https://www.bluetooth.org/docman/handlers/downloaddoc.ashx?doc_id=229737)

[2]
[http://www.nist.gov/customcf/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=911133](http://www.nist.gov/customcf/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=911133)

~~~
belorn
_" You pause in front of a concert poster on the street, pull out your phone,
and you’re greeted with an option to buy tickets with a single tap."_

I guess before I am greeted by that concert poster, I will have to download
the concert poster app.

thanks for the links through. The system seems to work as I initial thought,
which is why i was confused by the way it was presented in the article.

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munificent
If there was a Pulitzer Prize for linkbait tech journalism titles, surely "4
Reasons Why Apple’s iBeacon Is About to Disrupt Interaction Design" would win
it. It could only be better if it was tinged with a little fear-mongering.

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spdegabrielle
I thought it was iBacon. Honestly, the new Bluetooth in nice, but we really
need iBacon.

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nextw33k
Bluetooth gorilla marketing has already been tried, the problem is that you
are letting unknown people/software access your attention.

Having software to map out your route through a supermarket seems stupid. The
device would need to know exact items (certain items are in two places in a
store) at which point why not have it message ahead to the store and them have
everything bagged up ready for you? No need for giving my position away.

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jpatokal
_Yes, iBeacon could spell the end of paging through germy old issues of People
magazine before your doctor’s appointment._

No, smartphones already spelled that particular end several years ago. And if
you're trying to do geofenced DRM, a rather evil concept in itself, why not
use GPS?

Also, "dynamic hot dog coupons". That's gotta be a $3B IPO right there!

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mercuryrising
Actually it could be. Let's say there's this beacon software that lets you
look a bit into how someone interacts. Say you get to know what 'spending
tier' they're in - high, medium, or low. You also get to see how much 'social
influence' they have - again, high, medium, low. Why would you give a free hot
dog to someone in the low-low tier? You probably wouldn't, but right now you
have to carpet bomb free stuff. Select who gets your free stuff so you can
maximize your influence. Have it pop up when someone is walking down your
street, at a particular time of day.

When the big spender with a lot of friends walks by, drunk, at 2:30 in the
morning home from the bar, send him a free sandwich coupon when he hits your
street. Throw in a bag of chips and a pop, make it 'special'. Perfect
advertisement to target the perfect people.

Your software lets companies deliver freebies to 'important' people when
they're nearby. Have some automated identity finders - find them on fb, g+,
twitter, see how much reach they have. Give them some free stuff, see if they
tweet about it, put them a bit higher in the ranks because they gave a good
word (or any word at all).

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sliverstorm
Interest = 0

Maybe I really am turning into a Luddite after all.

