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I do understand actually, but thanks for the misplaced aggression when your reading comprehension was at fault.

A user still might require the Virgin app for other purposes (such as checking into the flight with passbook) and wish to block iBeacon adverts being pushed at them.

If they run a Virgin app, that app doesn't need any iBeacons to push advertisements, if that is what they wanted to do. Using an iBeacon to push ads doesn't actually make any sense for them. You're at the airport. You are going to fly somewhere. You have your ticket. You are not going to buy another ticket at the airport because of an advert. This only makes sense to provide actual useful services to you as a customer at the airport.

And why on earth would you want to turn this off? Are you afraid that Virgin might find out your location? 5 minutes before you check in, where you actually talk face to face to an employee who knows your _exact_ location because that employee is looking straight at you?
 
If they run a Virgin app, that app doesn't need any iBeacons to push advertisements, if that is what they wanted to do. Using an iBeacon to push ads doesn't actually make any sense for them. You're at the airport. You are going to fly somewhere. You have your ticket. You are not going to buy another ticket at the airport because of an advert. This only makes sense to provide actual useful services to you as a customer at the airport.

Have you read the article? This specifically cites spamming coffee adverts at me while I'm at the airport, which the app otherwise wouldn't know without the iBeacon.
 
The Home Depot app has the map of my local store in it. When I need something, I can ask for it (using voice) and it tells me where it is. Imagine instead of showing me the location by aisle number it guides me there. This technology has so many uses.

What about a grocery store. You put your shopping list in an app and it guides you to the store to each item without you having to backtrack or go down aisles with stuff you don't need.
 
I've read it can keep pinging you if you still are in the area


Hardly worth getting excited for. If anything it's an intrusion of my space

Thanks :apple:
 
You just demonstrate that like many people, you have not the slightest clue what iBeacons actually do.

An iBeacon transmits an ID and two numbers. For example, if Virgin Atlantic does this, then their iBeacons would transmit an ID that says "this is a Virgin Atlantic iBeacon", one number that says "this is London Heathrow", and another number that says "this is the beacon at the left corner of the Virgin Atlantic customer support booth".

In order for your iPhone to react to this, you need to install an application that _specifically_ watches out for Virgin Atlantic iBeacons. If you don't have such an app on your phone and actually run it, your iPhone will never detect that these beacons are there. If you don't want this, don't download the app, or don't run it.

This is amazing. Why?

Say you're an international tourist (Heathrow gets millions every year) and you have no idea where to go in the airport. You will not have to ask anyone, you can just get your iPhone out, and use the app with the iBeacons to tell you where to go. And the App can be in a language other than English if need be as well. Also the App could show where you are exactly in the Airport as well.

Apart from that, the App could have info about the services that the part of the airport you want to go to has. For example, you want to go to the airport food court, the App would list all the food outlets there and what seating/table facilities the food court has. Or another example could be the flight times could be listed for the terminal you want to go to, so you don't have to always walk back to the flight time boards.

Even if you had staff to assist customers in getting around. the sheer number of customers makes this unfeasible to have staff doing this. Having an automated iBeacon system to have this automated (assuming the system can cope with the demand/load) would be amazing.

This would all run via wi-fi hotspots that would cover the entire airport I would assume.

There is literally no downsides to this.

The people who think iBeacons will be used for advertising, I disagree. The airport itself has enough advertising (so I've heard) in boards and signs. The iPhone App won't be filled with advertising as well (one would hope). There is no need for it.
 
Have you read the article? This specifically cites spamming coffee adverts at me while I'm at the airport, which the app otherwise wouldn't know without the iBeacon.

Perhaps I missed it, but I don't see coffee mentioned anywhere in the article.

The people who think iBeacons will be used for advertising, I disagree. The airport itself has enough advertising (so I've heard) in boards and signs. The iPhone App won't be filled with advertising as well (one would hope). There is no need for it.

It a very narrow minded way of thinking that advertising will completely take over a persons phone. If a business utilizes too much advertising, people will simply delete the app, something that business does not want to happen.
 
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does that iBeacon transmitter have to look like crap?

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Ads... anyone here use those shopping market hand-held scanners? So as you are walking down an isle, you hear a "cha-ching" and then the screen shows you something that you san save $$$ on. I don't even look down one time. It's annoying and it's always something I would never eat anyway. I don't want any ads. I want to pay for my content, I want to pay for no ads. It will be the day when my phone is flashing all kinds of ads as I'm walking through a mall. I'd jailbreak my phone just to turn that stuff off.
 
does that iBeacon transmitter have to look like crap?

You don't have to look at the transmitter for iBeacon to work.

I'd jailbreak my phone just to turn that stuff off.

Why is jailbreaking your iPhone necessary when you need to install the businesses application in order to send any kind of notifications to begin with?

Now I can see why Gnasher mentions people don't really understand how iBeacons work.
 
You don't have to look at the transmitter for iBeacon to work.



Why is jailbreaking your iPhone necessary when you need to install the businesses application in order to send any kind of notifications to begin with?

Now I can see why Gnasher mentions people don't really understand how iBeacons work.

Maybe they can hide the beacons like they do cell phone towers now.
 

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Of course, it would have to be Apple to think up of the biggest airport in London.

No one else could have thought of that.
 
Why would Samsung and Google need to copy it from Apple when it was a common feature in Nokia phones a decade ago and is built into the Bluetooth spec?

Or do you mean the "platform locking it down into uselessness" part?

Nokia had ted like this a decade ago - how well did that work out for them? They had a cell phone long before Apple - how did that work out for them? I never said Apple had it first - they rarely have anything first - they do it better and everyone copies their method.
 
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