Updated to Swift. Please visit here for the tutorial using Swift.

At WWDC earlier this year (2013) Apple announced iOS 7. Along with that announcement we heard of new API called iBeacons. iBeacons is a technology that uses transmitters and receivers which can let your iOS device know how far you are away from a beacon. One device acts as the transmitter and the other is a receiver.

iBeacon transmitters can either be a dedicated hardware device running Bluetooth 4.0 LE or you can configure a compatible iPhone or iPad to act as a transmitter. The receiving device is a compatible iPhone or iPad that can receive Bluetooth 4.0 LE. Compatible devices include the iPhone 4S and newer and the iPad 3 and newer (including iPad mini).

To give an example of what you could use iBeacons for, think of a group of museums managed by a single company. Each room in each of the museums would have an iBeacon transmitter placed in them. Each beacon is configured with settings or what Apple refers to as an identity. If you are running an app provided by the museum, each time you enter the museum you will be presented with information which changes depending on what room you are in. [Read more…]