AppleInsider Staff
According to a report on Thursday, Major League Baseball will start rolling out thousands of iBeacons in 20 ballparks across the U.S. next week, the goal being system readiness by opening day in March.
Citing sources with knowledge of the situation, MacRumors reports 20 parks will be rigged with about 100 iBeacons each when opening day rolls around on Mar. 31. Among the first teams to get the microlocation technology are Boston, LA Dodgers, Milwaukee, San Diego and San Francisco.
Using iBeacons built by Qualcomm, the rollout will be one of the largest to date, not including Apple's own deployment in its over 250 U.S. retail stores.
For now, it is unclear what functionality the MLB iBeacons will carry as each ballpark is largely responsible for what features it would like to implement. The MLB provides a team-configurable iOS app that will likely be used in tandem with the iBeacon rollout.
With the MLB.com At the Ballpark iOS app, users are able to check-in for rewards, carry tickets and pull up maps. With iBeacon, the app's functionality could be augmented to include granular location data, automatic ticket-taking and other advanced features.
Apple's iBeacon technology uses the Bluetooth Low Energy protocol to offer two-way wireless communication at varying distances. For example, in a store setting the system can dole out coupons or special deals to end users, while simultaneously gathering customer traffic information.
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
Andrew Orr
Charles Martin
Marko Zivkovic
Wesley Hilliard
38 Comments
You can gather a lot more information fron this than freking thermostats.. but i guess no one cares..
Very cool.
[quote name="jpmia" url="/t/161842/mlb-to-reportedly-have-thousands-of-ibeacons-ready-for-game-day#post_2465752"]You can gather a lot more information fron this than freking thermostats.. but i guess no one cares..[/quote] Remember Apple is not Google. When Tony repeatedly stated, "current" everyone realized the he was telling the truth. The current privacy policies would not be changed. The NEW privacy policies would be written by Google. Less than a week after starting his promotion of his sale to Google, Tony changes his words to state, "opt-in" for privacy changes. Since Google is not known for opt-in, Tony's attempts to quell people's distrust of Google failed. Tony has not spoken this week. I wonder if he realized the public considered him a liar. By the way, I unsubscribed from Nest's email list today. I had downloaded the Nest iOS app before the Google purchase. Even though I deleted the app after the purchase I remained on the Nest email list. Disturbingly, Nest would not permanently remove me from its email list. I have blocked future emails from Nest.
Well,, hopefully Comerica Park in Detroit will be one of them, and I can see what the story is. I'm curious.
When Tony repeatedly stated, "current" everyone realized the he was telling the truth. The current privacy policies would not be changed. The NEW privacy policies would be written by Google.
Less than a week after starting his promotion of his sale to Google, Tony changes his words to state, "opt-in" for privacy changes.
Since Google is not known for opt-in, Tony's attempts to quell people's distrust of Google failed.
Tony has not spoken this week. I wonder if he realized the public considered him a liar.
By the way, I unsubscribed from Nest's email list today. I had downloaded the Nest iOS app before the Google purchase. Even though I deleted the app after the purchase I remained on the Nest email list. Disturbingly, Nest would not permanently remove me from its email list. I have blocked future emails from Nest.
Yep, Apple is different. They just don't tell you what they do the data they collect from you.