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Bubble app lets you discover real world items linked to the web w/ iBeacons

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtQSJx2nI9I]

Bubble, a new app launching this week, is about to make it super easy for anyone to link real world items to websites using Apple’s new iBeacon Bluetooth LE technology. Up until now retailers, event planners, and more have been using iBeacons in order to send relevant notifications to users in proximity, but that required users to actually have that specific retailer’s app installed. Bubble, on the other hand, acts as an iBeacon browser of sorts allowing users to discover web content as they come in contact with real world items. 

Bubble redefines the way that people build and discover web content using iBeacon technology. We want to get away from the app store paradigm for iBeacon interactions. No one wants to download an app for every place that has iBeacon content. Bubble is a single app through which visitors can discover content anywhere… Bubble tags digital stuff to physical stuff. More specifically, Bubble lets anyone tag a website to a place or thing using an iBeacon. Nearby visitors with the Bubble browser app can seamlessly discover and browse this web content based on their proximity to tagged objects.

So not only is the app making it easy for anyone to link a real world item to web content using iBeacons, its providing users with an app to discover the content.

It’s still up for debate what approach for iBeacons is best, and if the approach most retailers have adopted of using their own apps to beam shoppers notifications will work for all applications. Other approaches have emerged similar to Bubble, like inMarket’s Mobile to Mortar platform that partners with lots of companies and app developers interested in using iBeacon hardware it’s installed in retail stores. Bubble differs, however, by providing one single app browsing experience for users to discover iBeacon content.

The app will let users register up to three beacons for free, which would be great for small businesses and home users, and will charge $1 per beacon per month after that. More info on the platform is available on the company’s website.

The Bubble browser is available on the App Store here and the separate tag manager app is here.

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Comments

  1. rafalb177 - 10 years ago

    Having seen this, I guess NFC sooner or later will go into oblivion.

  2. MAJD NAZO (@majdnazo) - 10 years ago

    I wonder if this feature will be annoying for the users in the long run. Constant notifications pushed through to the device can drain battery and be a distraction for the consumer.

    http://majdnazo.com

  3. Mr. Grey (@mister_grey) - 10 years ago

    Someday … someone will find a use for iBeacons that isn’t just advertising. I will wait for that day.

    I can see why advertisers love them, but I don’t see how any consumer (who isn’t crazy, cheap, or tasteless), would give a crap about iBeacons.

  4. Carlos R. Batista - 10 years ago

    Meh, not impressed, what is really difficult to accomplish is triangulation and not so much detecting the closest beacon with your phone. Ideally you would only want 3 – 4 beacons covering the whole store then be able to map an unlimited amount of objects in it by their location within the radius of these beacons. That would be pretty awesome but for whatever reason iBeacon’s signals fluctuate way too much and it aint that reliable for something it was supposed to be reliable for. Also if you really are going to be putting a beacon on a every device you want to map, you might as well remove the cover, those Estimote beacons are just a small circuit board with a battery, you cut open the plastic with a knife and make your “ibeacons” smaller and easier to place within other objects.

  5. Greg Novotravel - 10 years ago

    Just a technical point : how can the app scan for any iBeacons as an app can only scan for one UUID at a time?
    Is this limited to the default Estimote UUID?

    • Jordan Kahn - 10 years ago

      Ya. This is from their website:

      iBeacon Manufacturers
      Right now we support the following iBeacon types:

      Estimote Beacon Default: B9407F30-F5F8-466E-AFF9-25556B57FE6D
      Estimote Virtual Beacon (iOS): 8492E75F-4FD6-469D-B132-043FE94921D8
      Estimote Virtual Beacon (Mac): 08D4A950-80F0-4D42-A14B-D53E063516E6
      Kontakt.io Beacon Default: F7826DA6-4FA2-4E98-8024-BC5B71E0893E
      If you would like to use another UUID, please let us know. We can help.

      • Greg Novotravel - 10 years ago

        Ok, thanks for your answer, I should have looked closer ^^
        Anyway, that still seems to be a huge issue for their app… using overpriced Estimotes with their default uuid might be ok for some tests or demos but it won’t work in production.

Author

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Jordan Kahn

Jordan writes about all things Apple as Senior Editor of 9to5Mac, & contributes to 9to5Google, 9to5Toys, & Electrek.co. He also co-authors 9to5Mac’s Logic Pros series.