Have iBeacon – Will Travel

Have you ever been at the airport baggage claim area for what seemed like an interminable amount of time? It can be quite frustrating having to wait for the conveyor belt to start and the bags to flow down from the baggage chute. Once the belt has started, everyone from the flight rushes towards the conveyor belt. This, of course, makes finding your own bag more challenging as the scrum of people restricts your view thus complicating your efforts.

With that in mind, the folks at Aww Apps have a solution. Rather than adorning your baggage with your lucky keychain or a favorite ribbon, why not just use an iBeacon that has been paired with the Travel Radar app?

As shown in the video, the idea is simple: pair a Bluetooth-based iBeacon with the Travel Radar app on your phone, place the beacon in your baggage, and you will get a notification on your phone as your baggage gets closer to your location. If you are the less patient type, you can also open the app and see an approximate distance to your baggage.

Folks, this is a nifty use of iBeacons.

P.S. The UI for the tracker is pleasant, but wouldn't it have been cool to have it look like the motion tracker from Aliens?

Employees at buuteeq Have an Awesome Travel Perk

Mitch Pittman, over at KING 5 News:

Lots of jobs have benefits: health care, paid vacation, maybe a 401k. But how about yearly all-expense-paid vacations to anywhere in the world? Perks like that are generally reserved for the world of tech start-ups, such as buuteeq, which offers that annual vacation benefit they call “Trotamundo.” The only catch, if you can even call it that, is you have to visit with three hoteliers you stay with along the way and then tell your coworkers about your experience.

​Folks, that is one great perk. Presumably, the requirement to visit hoteliers means that buuteeq can qualify some portion of the employee's vacation as a business expense (and a tax write-off). That's a good example of a win-win scenario.

By the way (in the interests of full disclosure), I happen to be friends with Lisa Tran, one of the buuteeq employees featured in the video.