Apple Rolling Out iBeacons Across Apple Stores In The United States
The company demonstrated the technology to The Associated Press this week at its busy, 24-hour Fifth Avenue store in New York City. At this particular store, Apple has installed about 20 iBeacon transmitters, some of which are simply iPhones and iPads, which come with the capability as part of the iOS 7 mobile software released in September. The transmitters use Bluetooth wireless technology to sense your exact location. That’s not possible with GPS, which don’t work well indoors and aren’t good at distinguishing between locations that are just a few feet apart.
Apple likes giving small exclusives to different news publications at the moment. The Associated Press seems to be the only institution that got a demo of the iBeacon technology. TechCrunch and Mashable were the only sites to get access ahead of time to the iPad Apple Store app.
In the past, Apple gives out one embargo to many sites, like with iPad and iPhone product reviews. More minor features wouldn’t be given to anyone — they’d just announce via a press release. “Doing things differently now” rings true here.