Apple's newly granted patent covers their invention relating to techniques for monitoring device locations within buildings. More specifically, a mobile device can collect location, time and speed information associated with a building.

The Romanian branch of Carrefour, Europe's largest retailer, has deployed a beacon solution at 28 of its stores throughout Romania, in order to deliver location-specific content to customers' smartphones. The Carrefour app uses beacon-based location data to provide shoppers with in-store navigation, as well as information about products, prices and promotions for goods displayed in the store aisle where they happen to be. The deployment, which utilizes beacon hardware and software supplied by a Romanian company called Onyx Beacon, follows testing conducted at the same stores between June 15 and July 15 of this year.

As much as e-commerce has impacted consumer shopping, the last frontier is arguably the largest: the $638 billion market for groceries and "convenience" goods. This is the stuff that's hardest to deliver cheaply, quickly, and to people's satisfaction.

If there was ever a perfect time for a startup to gain a foothold in the car business, that moment is now. Innovation from startups is trickling into the auto industry in areas ranging from driver-assist technologies and infotainment to mobility -- where outsiders with fresh ideas are stepping up in hopes of finding a niche in the movement of people, goods and services.

Apple is building a self-driving car in Silicon Valley, and is scouting for secure locations in the San Francisco Bay area to test it, the Guardian has learned. Documents show the oft-rumoured Apple car project appears to be further along than many suspected.

It represents a major step toward Coke figuring out a role for beacons in its marketing mix, which is still shackled somewhat by its reliance on global and national campaigns. Beacons can bring context and precision to promotions if they are not used in isolation, as some brands have done, and instead are baked into much larger location-based campaigns like Coke’s recent trial.

After briefly capturing the attention of the tech world two years ago, Apple iBeacon technology quickly faded from the discussion of potential growth drivers for the world's largest publicly traded company. However, this largely dormant technology resurfaced again recently when retail behemothTarget announced a pilot beacon program, and Target hopes Apple iBeacon software will help finally allow this still-promising standard to eventually go live across its entire retail empire.

Our homes, cars, devices, and lives are all being integrated into the internet. Are we ready for what that means? Here's everything you need to know: What is the "Internet of Things"? It's the new buzzword for the rapidly developing phenomenon of household, personal, and business devices that are wirelessly connected to the internet. 

This winter, Vail Resorts is trying something different on its ski slopes:Crowdsourced, real-time wait times for ski lifts offered via smartphone app. Vail Resorts says that an update to its EpicMix smartphone app will collect data from the RFID-enabled season passes skiers carry at the resort. It’s one of the most ambitious efforts yet to bring Waze-style crowdsourced location data into the sports and vacation spheres.

The future of free-wheeling automated yard work took a step closer to American consumers on Wednesday after U.S. regulators gave robot maker iRobot Corp Inc technical clearance to make and sell a robotic lawn mower.