Apple Store App knows when you walk into an Apple Store | Hacker News Reader

Apple Store App knows when you walk into an Apple Store

thenextweb.com

Edit: thanks for the comments. I fixed the story title. I still think it's pretty 'sweet' (but not quite as 'magic' as the source title seemed to hint), but this is indeed app-specific, rather than iOS.

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Well, I will get down voted for this, but it's hardly magic, nor is it something entirely new. Provided wifi is turned on, the Nook Color will automatically log into the network located within a Barnes and Nobles store, and the store app there will gain additional functionality, like the ability to access all of B&N ebooks for free. Still, this seems like a good idea for device manufacturers.

It's not entirely something new but its just one more thing that Apple is actively doing to increase customer awareness. A better user experience = success. Can you imagine walking into a Best Buy, or an IKEA and getting the same type of service. Think of the possibilities...

Ah! I'd read the other day that Nook owners could "read for free" for one hour in physical B&N locations and I couldn't figure out what kind of weird incentive that was. I pictured them being allowed to browse the physical books.

Very interesting, but I don't think it's cause for editorializing in the title. If we find it sweet, then we'll think "sweet" all by ourselves.

Also, the title is misleading for another reason. iOS doesn't "know when you walk into an Apple Store", you have to manually open the app, which removes most of the "wow" factor IMHO.

Exactly. I can't believe the author expreses surprise that it knows which Apple Store you're in!

If the poster is gratuitously sensationalizing to get clicks, I’d also frown on it. But if the person is genuinely delighted... I’m ok with that. I’m also ok with you not being genuinely delighted.

This is one of those things that is going to provoke a “wow” from some folks, a “meh” from others, and a “dystopia” from yet others again.

The day my iPhone starts whispering in my ear about the daily specials when I walk by a store... That day I will not be saying “sweet!"

Don't be like that.

It's not iOS that knows, it's the App. That only happens when you have the app open.

If true, then that's a little disappointing. Eventually all mobile devices will do this regardless if the app is open or not.

I might sound paranoid but some people might treat it illegal if something likes this happens if app is not open.

It would have to be with the expressed permission of the user and not on by default. If it were on by default, the features would have to be extremely limited so as to protect user privacy. That said, there will be further issues down the road that will have to be figured out such as the gathering of location data.

location data is already freely gathered from pretty much every smartphone

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Skyhook_Wirel...

[Even though this app apparently doesn't open itself automatically] it's occurred to me before that there's a lot of potential for apps/web apps that do run automatically (after asking for permission, of course) when you get onto to a business's wifi. Menu's in restaurants, searchable maps in big department stores, bar code scanning apps for products (of course, with reviews), etc. etc. etc.

-edited to add the stuff that's in brackets

Finding a business's wifi automatically - which allows you and the business to know when you're actually in the store (or really close enough) is a really good concept. Eventually, more and more businesses will have wifi and this type of recognition (with user approval of course) could make for an accurate passive experience (i.e. don't have to take your phone out and perform actions to get benefits). Interesting possibilities...

A bonus, think about the sort of analytics you could get out of such a thing. Even though GPS isn't very effective indoors, consider that nearly every product on their floor has Wi-Fi. It's conceivable that you'd be able to get a fairly accurate trail of your customers as they go through the store, actually tracking specific people's movements instead of just "X people crossed the tripwire in front of the Mac Pros"

This one doesn't run automatically though, from what I can read. It only works if you're using the "Apple Store" app already.

The title is nonsense.

I can see how this works in this particular case, with only Apple stores and while running a special app, but in the general case, how will they know that you're in their store and not the one next to them?

A clever solution used by e.g. Shopkick is to play a very high-pitched sound of a certain frequency on the store sound system and pick that up with the device microphone.

I don't know if Apple is using this here. I bet they're instead identifying it by store Wi-Fi, since Apple stores all have that already. But for stores without Wi-Fi, the sound system trick works well since all stores have sound systems already.

I doubt that either the store sound systems or the phone's microphones perform well at frequencies above the audible, though, so it may not be quite the drop-in solution that it appears to be at first.

There are a bunch of different solutions to this problem being explored. Being able to give provide location context-specific services in your applications is something that I personally think is going to be a huge thing in the next few years.

My current company is actually providing developers with a service (currently Android only) to provide better location contexts in their apps.

If you're interested you can take a look at our homepage from my profile. We just launched our public beta this week so if this sort of thing interests you as an app developer, please check it out :)

I would assume over time that geo-location coordinates will get more accurate and that there will be an assumption of which place you frequent the most will be given priority over other apps.

I bet apple knows when you walk into an app store from your mac on your wifi. I would reason they are tracking that like any other analytical data.

I've been dying for something like this - but in stores like Walmart. Sometimes, it's not enough to know where "housewares" is, but where a specific product might be.

I know this goes a bit beyond what Apple is doing here, but I think these types of apps are coming and hopefully sooner.

The only problem is that retail stores are designed to prevent you from getting the one thing you originally went in to get;

For most retailers, the customers' convenience necessarily lowers their bottom line.

I wonder if phones will ever have RFID readers in them? Then I could really see this sort of thing (and more) happening.

I believe some phones with NFC hardware are already able to read 13.45Mhz ISO 14443 and MiFare cards.

EDIT: beat by 2 minutes...

http://www.nfc.cc/technology/nfc-tag-types

That's kinda what NFC is.. Some phones are starting to have this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near_field_communication

It would be really interesting to have similar features in find-me-a-restaurant kind of apps: help me find a restaurant, guide me to the place, then show me a customized panel to greet me, display the menu, and even allow me to order from my iPhone directly.

This is apparently a huge surprise to the people who've never seen the apps' page in the App Store.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/apple-store/id375380948?mt=8

You know what this is going to mean right? All stores are going to launch apps like this.

At first glance, the difference "get help" vs "get support" is very confusing.

Didn't they start doing this about 6 months ago?

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