iOS7 - The hidden revolution
Every once in a while I get totally excited when I see something and know that this will change everything.
I had these moments twice in technology, with the iPhone. However, I missed the opportunity to make something out of it.
The second time I felt like this was the evening when the iPad was revealed. That is what we built Swipe on.
For a few days now, I’ve been feeling there is another revolution that no one sees around the corner.
Today iOS7 will be launched, and all the reviews concentrate on the new flat design, the new fingerprint sensor or the better camera, the amazing chip inside the 5S or the colors of the 5C, or complain about the missing NFC.
However, everyone is missing a major point. Apple hid it so well in front of our eyes that it is hard to see at all.
It was just a tiny word on a slide at WWDC in June:
No one really noted, except those who attended WWDC personally or watched the videos. We are under NDA as developers, so we can´t really show anything out of Apples developer portal.
However, it is easy for one to explain. With iOS7, Apple connects the digital world with the real world.
iBeacons will enable every iOS7 device to become a “beacon”, which creates a “Bluetooth low energy” field. BLE basically needs almost no energy, so it won´t drain your battery at all.
(I made a few rather bad drawings myself, sorry for the bad handwriting. Hope this helps to understand the idea better)
If you enter this field with your iPhone running iOS7, with bluetooth activated, it will notice that it is within the range of a beacon, and it could activate something on your phone.
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