Disqus - Friends of Shashib

Re: Mobile app Local Catch hopes to reel in customers for downtown businesses ⋅ Charlottesville Tomorrow

Molly Lapekas — Tue, 14 Jul 2015 11:26:45 -0000

Hi Terri,

Thank you so much for your interest in Local Catch!

We will release an Android version when we determine that there are enough Android users to justify the cost of doing so.

Based on statistics we have gathered in downtown Charlottesville iPhone users outnumber Android users by more than 10 to 1. Every iPhone for about 3 years starting with the 4s is compatible with our iBeacons on the Mall. Bugs in Android versions prior to 4.4.3/4.4.4 mean that iBeacon-driven apps like Local Catch are compatible with the only the most recent versions of the Android phone. Currently, there are a surprisingly small number of users with iBeacon-enabled Android phones here in Charlottesville.

We remain interested in developing an Android version of Local Catch, so we will continue to review the numbers and will release a version as soon as we see more Downtown Mall patrons with beacon-compatible Android phones.

Best,
Molly

Re: How Google Beacons Could Transform Local Business

Molly Lapekas — Tue, 04 Aug 2015 11:28:26 -0000

Why does this article (and 50 others I've read on the topic of Eddystone beacons) state that iBeacons only work with Apple Devices? It's simply not true. Apple opened up the iBeacon spec to all comers quite some time ago. SDKs are readily available for Android, and many iBeacon-enabled apps have been released for Android devices.

Re: How Google Beacons Could Transform Local Business

Molly Lapekas — Tue, 04 Aug 2015 11:45:04 -0000

Most "beacon" technologies depend on bluetooth. If you have bluetooth disabled you will not receive signals from beacons. I'm curious Heather, do you routinely switch off bluetooth? If so, why?

Are you aware that the recent generations of bluetooth use a negligible amount of power?

"BLE" stands for Bluetooth Low Energy. It's not just hype. Leaving bluetooth on all the time really does have a minimal effect on the battery life of your mobile device. That said, individual apps that constantly scan for beacons or for your current GPS location can sometimes drain your battery rather quickly. Unfortunately there are widespread misconceptions based on early generations of bluetooth, on poorly designed apps and on sneaky apps that are more concerned about tracking your every move than delivering location and proximity information YOU care about.

Re: How Google Beacons Could Transform Local Business

Molly Lapekas — Tue, 04 Aug 2015 13:50:39 -0000

Hi Gonzalo,
The % of smartphone users who have bluetooth on appears to be wildly different across different user bases and phone models. We've gathered some evidence that indicates a high percentage of iPhone 6 users have it switched on whereas it is off on most iPhone 4s and 5 devices and on more than 90% of mid and low priced Android devices.

Was your iBeacon app for the iPhone or Android or both?

I see no GOOD reason to turn it off on any recent iPhones. Why bother? It doesn't use hardly any power when it's on all the time. And there are many good reasons to leave it on:

- Airdrop
- iBeacons
- Headphones
- Hands-free
- Apple Watch
- Share your phone's internet connection
- at least a dozen other things

I suspect many people switch it off because early BT implementations used more power and had "pairing" routines with such awful UX that there were few benefits to using BT. It also has a bad rep because a lot of "experts" who write articles are not very knowledgeable and habitually repeat things they see published by other equally unknowledgeable sources.

Re: Ad Blockers And The Internet Of Tomorrow

Molly Lapekas — Mon, 05 Oct 2015 20:32:16 -0000

Neil, are you aware that pretty much everything that's free on the web exists because it's paid for by advertising? A reasonable figure is 90%. If advertising goes away 90% of the free content on the web will go dark. Do you think that's a desirable outcome?

I, too, hate obnoxious ads and websites rendered unusable by poorly written ad tech code. I want advertisers to clean up their act and show consumers some respect. But I don't want web advertising to die, because I don't want to lose all that free commercial web content we've come to depend on.

Re: Ad Blockers And The Internet Of Tomorrow

Molly Lapekas — Wed, 07 Oct 2015 11:07:18 -0000

re: "The Internet got along fine before we got advertising."

Internet content is paid for by:
1.) Governments, education and non-profits.
2.) Crowdsourcing in one form or another.
3.) Investor funding of pre-profit businesses.
4.) Advertising in one form or another, i.e. "commercial interests".

"Before we got advertising" the internet "got along" with 1, 2 and 3. #4, advertising, now accounts for more than 90% of the content on the web. It also pays for making most of the "crowdsourced" content available, e.g. YouTube, FaceBook, etc. Without advertising the internet won't "get along fine". The vast majority of content and services will go away.

If you believe "advertising is fatally flawed" please say something constructive and tell us how you think the internet SHOULD be paid for.