As Apple continues work on implementing the iOS 7 iBeacon technology inside its own retail outlets, third-parties are taking notice.
Case in point: the shopping app Shopkick, which has recently teamed up with Macy’s to deliver the first major retail system based on Apple's new iBeacon trigger technology.
If you're not familiar with it, iBeacon is an indoor positioning system based on Low Energy Bluetooth (BLE), also known as Bluetooth 4.0 or Bluetooth Smart. It taps tiny, pervasive transmitters which can send push notifications to iOS or Android devices within close proximity.
These notifications can deliver marketing messages like discounts and some have speculated that iBeacon could even power a new kind of point of sale wireless payment solutions that won't require NFC.
And now, one company has taken iBeacon presence notification one step further by imaginatively using Apple's technology to give bar patrons free access to Newsstand magazines and help sell subscriptions...