We believe this agreement will continue to foster the world-leading range of devices and offerings that Americans enjoy today,” CTIA President and CEO Steve Largent said in a statement. “The robust and differentiated technological ecosystem has brought unparalleled and world-leading benefits to American wireless users, in the form of high-end and affordable devices, post- and pre-paid options, and with the world’s most advanced devices being launched first in the United States.
I never had problems because I live in a place where phone-locking is forbidden. Good to see that the big four in the US are finally coming to their senses.
Specifically, most of the coverage of iBeacons so far has failed to recognize a very important reality of this system: every iOS device since the iPhone 4s and iPad 3rd gen is already capable of being either an iBeacon receiver or transmitter, as long as it’s properly configured.
But some of the iBeacons deployed in Apple stores are not specialized hardware at all, they’re just regular iPads or iPhones that have been configured as iBeacons. And that capability extends to any Apple device with Bluetooth Low Energy and the latest major version of iOS. Let that sink in for a minute and you’ll start to realize the forward-thinking strategy Apple has been implementing over the course of the last few years.
Imagine using an iPad as an interactive display and an iBeacon.
“This would present a major advantage to Apple, as many businesses have already implemented these devices into some part of their business, so iBeacons could essentially be turned on all over the business landscape with just a little education and awareness,” Paul told us. “This would further the value of using tablets in retail, as they can both display and transmit messages to those who have displays in their pocket. Apple would widen the gap between themselves and other tablet manufactures, because now their existing hardware plays nicely with your iPhone or iPad and would require such close proximity to make a handshake. NFC has failed to provide this value as evident in the ISYS hardware rollouts that see little adoption.”
Apple will be able to scale micro-location services faster than any of its competitors, not that there are any competitors at the moment. With so many user and provider transmitters already in the hands of consumers, Apple would not have to worry about lack of adoption, unlike NFC.
Deutsche Post latest company to test out drone delivery
Partnering with a pharmacy in Bonn for a week-long pilot project, Deutsche Post spokeswoman Dunja Kuhlmann told the Wall Street Journal its plans were in the early stages, although it had already thought up a rather nice name for its flying machine: the Paketkopter.
“There are a number of scenarios we’re evaluating, including delivering medicine that’s needed quickly, or to hard-to-reach places,” Kuhlmann said.
Various flying restrictions, however, mean the drug-carrying quadcopter can’t launch from, for example, residential areas. In one of its first test flights, the Paketkopter took off from an open space close to the pharmacy, before flying over the Rhine River and landing 0.6 miles (1 km) away on a lawn beside Deutsche Post’s head office.
Unlike Amazon Prime Air, Deutsche Post’s tests were conducted using a manually operated drone.
The flight was manually controlled, as opposed to it being an automated mission using GPS coordinates. Further test flights have been conducted, with the company planning to evaluate the results to determine whether it can incorporate drones into its delivery service.
Scanning the vast, emerging innovations for low-cost, mobile-controlled home automation (much of it on crowd-funding sites like Kickstarter at present), it’s pretty clear that the home of the near future (3-5 years) will operate something like this:
As you pull into the driveway after a long day at work, the driveway and footpath lights come on. The door is unlocked for you as you approach it.
Upon entering, the lights turn on, music starts and a soothing voice greets you, giving you updates about when your spouse will be home and letting you know who came to the door earlier.
You tell your invisible personal assistant — let’s call it “Siri” — “Hey, put on the game.” (An Apple patent surfaced recently for a special dock for using Siri in the home separate from a mobile device.) Siri knows enough about you and your interests and habits to turn off the music, turn on the TV and tune into the Knick game currently in progress.
You go into the bedroom to change and the TV in there comes on with the game, then off again when you leave the bedroom.
You don’t have a TV in the kitchen, but when you go into the kitchen to start on dinner, the audio from the game automatically plays for as long as you’re in there.
Whoops! You spill some mustard on the floor, so you say: “Siri, I spilled something.” As you leave, you cross paths with the floor-mopping robot, which Siri has dispatched at your request.
You get the idea. All of this will happen without you taking the phone out of your pocket. Apple’s iBeacon system is perfect for this entire scenario, which of course requires some kind of indoor location system.
Sounds far-fetched? I don’t think so. We are within a few years of that becoming reality.
IFTTT now supports location-based triggers
·jenxi
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IFTTT is one of my favorite services. It works so unobtrusively that I always forget that I’m using it, though I enjoy the results of it almost on a daily basis. Adding support for location-based triggers is something that could be really useful.
A simple example would be if you’re required to fill out a time sheet every time you arrive at work, you could just set up IFTTT to do it whenever you arrive at the office, which would increase the accuracy of the timing, not to mention eliminate the possibility of you forgetting to do something.
There are so many ways that IFTTT can be used, and with this update, it’s only getting better. The location-based triggers currently only support iOS, but the Android version is in the works too.
Paired with IFTTT’s expanding repertoire of hardware channels—it works with the Smart Things home automation kit and various WeMo plugs—the new locational chops open up the doors to some obvious applications in the home. You could have it turn on your Philips Hue when you walk in the door, no fiddling required. The update also adds location triggers to some existing channels for popular social media sites. You could create a recipe that saved all the Instagram uploads from a certain region, for example, auto-snagging every shot of a wedding or a party.
Instagram Direct lets you share your photos and videos privately
Over the past three years, the Instagram community has grown to over 150 million people capturing and sharing moments all around the globe. As we’ve grown, Instagram has evolved not only into a community of photographers, but also into a means of visual communication. From a photo of your daily coffee to a sunrise shared from the top of a mountain hike, every Instagram moment contains something you find special—something you broadcast to your followers when you tap “share.”
There are, however, moments in our lives that we want to share, but that will be the most relevant only to a smaller group of people—an inside joke between friends captured on the go, a special family moment or even just one more photo of your new puppy. Instagram Direct helps you share these moments.
Instead of calling them messages, Instagram calls them direct posts. Posts that you share directly with certain people. Each Instagram direct post behaves like a normal Instagram post, so viewers can like and comment on it. The direct posts are not visible to public but everyone that you shared the photo with will be able to see its likes or comments.
You can choose to send to just one person or to a group of fifteen people. If you send the post to someone who doesn‘t follow you, they get to decide if they want to view the post. Instagram will remember who you allow to share directly with you. All direct posts will be stored in an Instagram Inbox.
It is interesting to note that Instagram’s foray into messaging still tries to stick to its roots as a photo and video sharing app. It boosts user engagement by allow them to privately interact with other users, while it avoids being just another messaging service.
Given the explosive growths of messaging apps such as LINE, and Tencent’s WeChat and QQ, it is no wonder that Instagram and Twitter want a slice of the pie as well.