Preface

The iBeacon technology is the most disruptive technology in the field of interaction design. Formally, iBeacon is simply a protocol defined by Apple and built on top of Bluetooth 4.0. Creatively, iBeacon is your passport to apps that truly interact with the world around them.

Imagine your shopping list becoming an interactive map of the supermarket, your phone turning the porch lights on as you drive down the street, or ordering your meal at your favorite table in your favorite restaurant without ever speaking with a waiter. All this and more is made possible with iBeacon.

Taking a practical and pragmatic approach, this book will introduce you to the concepts and applications of iBeacon technology for providing proximity-based solutions to iOS devices. We cover everything from prototyping simple scenarios to building a fully-functional interactive museum app, all using Xcode and Apple's Core Location and Core Bluetooth frameworks.

This book is designed to cover easy-to-follow examples to introduce the core features of iBeacon technology solutions, from discovering beacons and using your iOS device as a beacon, to some more powerful tutorials that closely match real-world examples.

Everything in this book can be applied to your own developments, but is done in a way which breaks down each element of the technology and the supporting iOS SDKs. Soon, you will be armed with all the tools and to produce interactive proximity-powered solutions with ease.

Finally, this book comes with an OS X app that lets you use your Mac as an iBeacon so that you can get to grips with the technology without having to buy any beacons.