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Nest WiFi's range extenders double as smart speakers
The Pixel 4 wasn't the only secret Google couldn't keep from spilling all over the internet. Another device, the Nest WiFi, has been leaked a couple of times before the company's Made by Google event in New York City today. But now it's official. As rumored, Google's new Nest WiFi can be paired to "points," aka beacons, that will help extend the range of your wireless network at home. Not only that, but these Nest WiFi points can double as smart speakers, making them compatible with Google Assistant. This means you'll be able to use your voice to control your WiFi setup, like if you ever want to say "Hey Google, pause WiFi for kids devices."
Waze Beacons will help you navigate inside New York City tunnels
New York City's tunnels are as much a part of its landscape as its subway lines and streets, but they can also be a pain when your GPS signal cuts out and your navigation app is effectively blind. They might not cause headaches for much longer. Waze is launching its wireless Beacons, which help improve navigation in areas with unreliable GPS, across the New York metro area. You'll encounter them in familiar NYC underground sections like the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, Holland Tunnel, Lincoln Tunnel and Queens-Midtown Tunnel.
Target's app will soon guide you to the item you're looking for
While Target has to keep up with Amazon to compete in a tough retail market, it may have just found something its competitor cannot do. The company is rolling out its previously tested Bluetooth-powered Beacons to give its customers a real-time map of their current store via the Target app. Now you can find your way to anything you need at Target using your smartphone just like you do when you're driving and using Google or Apple Maps. The system will go live in about half of Target's stores for the holidays.
SilverPush claims its TV monitoring app didn't snoop on you
SilverPush, an Indian firm that made software capable of silently tracking your TV viewing, claims it has no active partnerships with US-based apps. The company found itself under the spotlight last week after the FTC issued warnings to a number of developers apparently using its code. The concern was that if the apps are using this software to monitor TV viewing, and not telling users, the developers would be in violation of FTC regulations. Today, SilverPush issued a statement claiming it no longer uses the "Unique Audio Beacons" (UAB) technology in question, and has no active partnership with any US-based developers anyway. Adding that it considers it "a welcome move the the FTC is taking a stand on user privacy."
Chrome on Android communicates with smart devices around you
Folks running Chrome on iOS have had a chance to tap into the Physical Web devices around them since last July, but Google's finally opened that functionality up to its own ecosystem. To that end, Chrome 49 on Android will support the objects (like parking meters, for instance). The first time you encounter one there will be a push notification alerting you one is nearby, and future run-ins will populate a list of the gadgets nearby. It's starting in the beta channel, a post on the Chromium Blog notes, with wider support rolling out soon. In case you're curious of how it all looks in action, the GIF below should give you a good idea.
Microsoft updates navigation headset for the blind
In 2011, Microsoft UK teamed up with charity Guide Dogs to create 'Cities Unlocked,' an organization that worked to create a headset designed to help the visually impaired. That device came last year, but now it's received some major hardware and software upgrades. Although the original simply used bone conduction to send audio clicks and cues to guide the user around, the latest iteration is less of a practical tool and more of an information-rich service. It uses something called "3D soundscape technology," which is kind of like a GPS that describes everything that's around them, from local cafés to alerts telling them when a bus or train is approaching the stop.
Bluetooth is getting big range and speed boosts in 2016
If you're like me, you employ multiple Bluetooth devices on a daily basis. From headphones to speakers and household gadgets, the wireless connectivity drives many of our tech habits. Thanks to the Bluetooth SIG, the company that oversees the wireless technology, the connectivity that we use on the regular will be a lot better in 2016. The group announced today that in order to improve the experience with connected devices that fall under the Internet of Things (IoT), its making some big updates. While the changes are aimed at smart home gadgets, industrial automation and location-based services, Bluetooth connections in general will have four times the range and a 100% speed boost without requiring more power. This means faster data transfers for medical uses, for example. The Bluetooth SIG is also working on mesh networking so that a collection of individual devices could work together to blanket an entire area or building. This would have a major impact on homes, with the potential for all of those connected wares to work more efficiently. Of course, it means that setups like iBeacon and Google Eddystone could see improvements, too.
Google's Eddystone serves up location-based info via Bluetooth beacons
Using low-energy Bluetooth beacons to serve up location-based info to customers isn't a new development. We've seen more than a few implementations of Apple's iBeacon tech. Google has a new project that employs a similar setup, and it's called Eddystone. How does it differ from Apple's Bluetooth initiative? The effort is a "new and open format" that "anyone" can implement. In addition to working alongside a mobile app to beam info to your phone or tablet when you're in a specified location, Eddystone can also broadcast a URL when an app isn't an option. Rather than missing out, a company can choose to send a web link instead. And it works with both Android and iOS devices, too. There are also two location options, meaning developers can choose one of two APIs that will either find and ping a nearby beacon (like in a museum) or send info when you visit a specific location (e.g., latitude/longitude).
Facebook's Place Tips goes national, retailers get free beacons
Six months after its initial trial run, Facebook's Place Tips program is finally expanding nationwide. Place Tips employs Bluetooth beacons to push FB posts and photos about a business to shoppers' phones while they're in the store. So if you're standing in line at, say Wetzel's Pretzels in the mall. If that pretzel stand has a Place Tips beacon, it will push information (and potentially coupons) to your phone automatically -- you as the customer simply have to open you Facebook app to access them.
Philips turns LEDs into an indoor GPS for supermarkets
Philips believes that the days of endlessly roaming around a store looking for the right kind of balsamic vinegar may soon be at an end. The company's lighting division has developed an indoor navigation system that enables your smartphone to direct you straight towards the Oils & Vinegars (Specialist) section. In addition, the technology helps to light everything up nice and bright, and save a bucketload of cash in the process.
Beacon marketing campaigns working well for retailers
The past year or so we've heard a lot about beacon marketing and in particular, Apple's iBeacon. Now comes word from a company with its own beacon marketing platform -- Swirl Networks -- about the first tangible proof that indoor, location-based short-range beacon marketing is actually effective at engaging shoppers. The idea, if you're not familiar with it, is that you opt in to receiving offers from a retailer by using their app, and as you walk near certain products you're offered information and deals. Swirl's platform is deployed throughout the US and Canada at retailers such as Lord & Taylor, Hudson's Bay, Urban Outfitters, Alex & Ani, Kenneth Cole, and Timberland stores. The company has collected data over the past three months on tens of thousands of interactions by consumers who opted in to receive beacon notifications, and the results are amazing. A full 60 percent of shoppers open and engage with beacon-triggered content, with 30 percent actually redeeming beacon offers when making purchases. A surprising 73 percent of the shoppers said that the content and offers delivered by the beacons as they roam a store increased their likelihood of making a purchase, while 61 percent said they'd do more holiday shopping at stores that offer mobile content and offers while they're shopping. That same number of shoppers said they'd visit a store that features beacon marketing campaigns more often, and 60 percent said they'd buy more as a result of receiving the beacon-triggered ads. This is the first real indication that beacon marketing does work, and may influence even more retailers to jump on the beacon bandwagon in 2015.
'Proximity' is Samsung's equivalent of Apple's iBeacon, coming to a mall near you
Tired of only seeing adverts 99 percent of the time? While Apple's already announced intentions to take over the final one percent with iBeacon, Samsung's just today getting in on the action. The Korean electronics giant has a website introducing Samsung "Proximity," a "mobile marketing platform that connects consumers with places via cutting-edge Samsung location and context-aware technology." As nakedly awful as that sounds, the "marketing platform" described sounds a lot like Apple's iBeacon -- technology that enables communication between your mobile device and the places you go. For example! Say you're in Macy's getting a fancy new cashmere shawl. If Macy's has iBeacon/Proximity set up (via in-store transmitters), the store could tell you what's on sale, what might match, and a variety of other information. That information could be helpful (clothing match suggestions), it could be nonsense ("spend over $1,000, get 15 percent off!"), and it could be somewhere in-between.
Microsoft's bone-conducting headset guides the blind with audio cues
While nothing can replace the companionship of a guide dog, technology can help make treks through busy cities a lot less stressful and more enjoyable for the visually impaired. Microsoft, for one, is currently testing a new headset (developed with help from UK charity Guide Dogs) that uses 3D soundscape technology to guide its users with audio cues along the way. That bone-conducting headset can't work alone, though: it needs to be connected to a smartphone, as well as to receive information from Bluetooth and WiFi beacons placed in intervals throughout the roads users take. For its pilot program, Microsoft attached makeshift beacons on neighborhood objects in a London suburb, where its first testers are giving it a spin. When company news writer Jennifer Warnick tried it out while blindfolded, she found herself so efficient in getting around with only sounds to guide her, that she felt like a "dry-land dolphin."
Snapchat adds text chat, video calling and other news for May 1, 2014
It's Thirsty Thursday, so let's look at the news. Snapchat has updated it's self-destructive service to include text chat and video chat. You can swipe to initiate a text chat with another user, and its history is wiped when your done. Similarly, video chats are just as temporary, and can be one-way or two. Virgin Atlantic Airline has begun testing out iBeacons at London's Heathrow airport. The tech could allow a passenger's iPhone to pull up a boarding pass as she approaches security, or offer promotions like currency exchange. Microsoft has updated the OneNote apps for the iPhone and OS X. The new versions will let users create new notes and sections with their iPhones. Meanwhile, the Mac versions lets you save a document as a PDF and supports drag-and-drop for images.
Xbox.com upgrade is live with new Beacons and easy opt-out Auto Renewal
The newly refreshed Xbox.com is now live for one and all, offering its new Social area and beacons that were detailed previously. Of course, if you're averse to commitment (or just like buying your Xbox Live subscription in the form of cards only when they're on sale) the biggest new addition may be what your friends at Joystiq noticed: a newly streamlined process to disable your subscription's yearly auto-renewal. It's a small tweak, but if it means not feeling the sucker punch of a surprise $59 charge on your credit card then that may be enough for some. Now, about that fall dashboard update...
Xbox.com upgrade will add new Social features, support for Xbox Live Beacons
The Xbox 360 hasn't received its new coat of paint for the fall yet, but Microsoft just announced Xbox.com will be seeing similar changes in "the coming days." The old "My Xbox" section is getting the boot in favor of a "Social" area that lets you keep track of your XBL friends, thanks to some of the new features enabled by the upcoming dashboard update. Before the dash update is released, Xbox.com users can check out Beacons that let them mark which games they're willing to play, or check out a friends activity page that resembles recent additions to Facebook and Twitter by informing you what friends are up to in real-time. Also revamped is the video section that lets users buy or rent movies and TV shows for viewing on their console, Windows Phone or Zune. Hit the source link for a few more screens of its Metro UI-fashioned new face and additional details, we'll let you know when it all goes live.
Xbox Live Beacons and other new social features incoming to Xbox.com
Microsoft has posted that the Xbox.com website is getting an update "in the coming days" that will remove the "My Xbox" frontpage currently there now, and replace it with a "Social" section to make use of the "Beacons" feature eventually making its way to the console. Beacons are a way to mark which games you're currently playing or want to play, and are supposed to encourage you and your friends to set up times to play together on Xbox Live. Players will be able to set up three Beacons at a time, and add an additional comment as well, like "between 7-9pm PST" or "Horde mode only." The website update will also make use of the "Metro" setup coming to the console's dashboard, and of course allow for access to the usual Xbox.com actions like redeeming codes, messaging friends and checking out their profiles, or browsing for and purchasing Xbox Live titles. Officially, the console's Dashboard Update is still scheduled for a "Holiday 2011" release, though previous reports have placed it sometime right around Thanksgiving. With this update coming to the website as soon as next week, however, it's a good bet the console update is also close at hand. [Thanks, Liam!] %Gallery-138931%
Xbox Live Fall Dashboard preview: From 'nonsense' to Metro
Terry Farrell, senior product manager of Xbox Live entertainment, is pretty excited about the new Fall Dashboard update. As the individual who partners with first and third-party video content providers, he's the go-to guy to talk to about Microsoft's future plans for offering video content. Too bad he couldn't get too specific with us.
Xbox Live adds cloud saves, 'beacons' that tell friends what you want to play
These may not have made the cut to appear in Microsoft's E3 keynote earlier today but gamers will probably appreciate two new features mentioned in a letter from Xbox Live General Manager Marc Whitten. "Cloud Storage for Game Saves and Live Profiles" is first up and provides access to ones profile and saves from any console, at any time with the option to save to XBL servers instead of a memory unit or hard drive. It all sounds very similar to the service offered for PlayStation Plus but as Joystiq notes, so far exact details are scant. The other feature mentioned is support for "Beacons" which go one step further than broadcasting what you're playing or watching right now by allowing users to flag what they want to play, and lets friends on XBL or Facebook see that so they can meet you for a game. Check out the full letter after the break or over on the 'stiq, we'll sit back and dream of a future world where bringing our XBL profile by a friend's house to keep track of our beatdowns is as easy as just logging in.
Microsoft announces game invite tool for XBL, dubbed 'Beacons'
Rather than taking a queue from Hothead Games and going with a bacon-themed title, Microsoft instead chose to name its new Xbox Live notification tool "Beacons." So close! General manager of Xbox Live Marc Whitten detailed the new service in a post-E3 conference letter to the gaming press, explaining that the service will act as an alert system, pinging users with information about friends playing/watching a specific piece of content. Confused? We are too. From what we can decipher in the brief blurb provided, it's essentially a more direct way of knowing who's playing what and being able to tell when they're playing it. A more serious way of stalking your XBL friends list, if you will. We'll be sure to grill Microsoft about Beacons at our first chance.
