Tag: gps technology

Heineken is rewarding New Zealand consumers for exploring their city.

The Dutch brewing company, famous for its Heineken pale lager beer, is launching its Heineken LIVE app in New Zealand. The innovative app is equipped with cutting-edge iBeacon technology, which combines Bluetooth and GPS tech. It encourages users to go out and explore their city. When they head to participating Heineken venues they can get rewards.

Heineken is giving away $500,000 in prizes over the next six months.

The app primarily functions as a rewards system. Smartphone users who download the app and head to participating Heineken venues will receive two different types of points: Venue Points and Heineken Status Points. The venue points are limited to each venue. The Status Points elevate a user’s status and offers them an array of rewards. These may include big ticket surprise experiences, VIP event tickets, exclusive access to events, food and beverage offers as well as other opportunities.

Over the next six months, the beer giant is giving away $500,000 in prizes. Users of the app can head to any of the more than 120 venues fitted with iBeacon technology for their chance to receive notifications and rewards from Heineken.

The iBeacon technology is a world first for the beer brand.

The company created the Heineken LIVE app in an effort to improve their connection with consumers between the ages of 18 and 30. This demographic is rarely without their mobile phones. According to Heineken New Zealand marketing manager Taylor Green, the technology is the next generation of loyalty programs.

Green also believes that the LIVE app celebrates what makes cities around New Zealand great. “Our cities are melting pots of culture, showcasing world-class food and drink, technology and exciting events” he said. Green added that “Heineken LIVE uses innovative technology to encourage people to discover the best parts of their cities as well as see old favourites in a whole new light, rather than drinking more.”

Green said that he’s proud that Heineken LIVE was developed locally and will launch in New Zealand first. He also believes there is huge potential for the company’s iBeacon technology app to be successful around the globe.

The meters will start using GPS tech in order to boost their competition against Lyft and Uber.

A new pilot program is about to begin with the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission in which it will be using geolocation technology within the fare meters in about 1,000 of its yellow cabs throughout the city.

The intention is also to take away the annoying “Taxi TVs” to replace them with a new type of payment system.

There are currently about 13,500 cabs in New York City that are reliant on a range of different devices that will track idle times and the number of times a wheel turns in order to help to calculate a fare. This system will be replaced in 1,000 of them as a part of a pilot program testing out geolocation technology based meters that will use GPS. In those cabs, the familiar red digits in the meters on the dashboards will be gone and a whole new system will have replaced them.

The length of the geolocation technology based meters is going to run for about a year and will be smaller than predicted.

Initially, the plan had been to involve 4,000 cabs in the pilot, but that was reduced by a quarter. The cabs participating in this trial of the technology may also have a replacement of a number of other pieces of equipment including the TaxiTV, the credit card reader, the taximeter, and the vehicle location system, among other things. All of this will be replaced by a smartphone or tablet that will be used in order to calculate the fare as well as to collect the payment at the end of the trip.

According to the commission’s chairperson, Meera Joshi, “Ultimately it is to create a more nimble system.” This pilot program has also been designed to help to upgrade the entire experience of taking a cab and is a direct response to the threat posed by app based ride share services such as Uber and Lyft.

There will be up to four companies that will be selected for participation in the geolocation technology using pilot program. Each of those companies will have the new mobile payment technology installed into 250 of its cabs.