The amazing iOS 5 API and iPhone 4S hardware nobody talks about
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CoreBluetooth 4.0 LE
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(Wait. They're thinking "money money money", and apparently not much else. Duh. There's the problem.)
It could be useful for easily interacting with devices, e.g. thermostats, exercise monitors, televisions, cars…
There don't appear to be (m)any devices using it now. But it is in the phone, waiting.
TI is a bit more friendly in this regard, see video in below link.
I'm interested to see if anyone could potentially implement a lightweight data format for send/receive to create an open system for communicating from app-to-mote. Right now, any iPhone receiver app on the store wouldn't be allowed to download any drivers, however a common application-layer protocol transmitting JSON would probably work. After all, it wouldn't be code, just rules on how to interpret it.
Look at all the things around you in daily life with awful user interface devices, and yet you almost certainly carry a really nice UI device in your pocket and probably have a really great device in your bag.
Also, interesting to see the chipcon parts carrying on with the 8051 CPU cores.
They're < $35 in volume. Given that the Wahoo ANT+ Dongle is $16 in volume from the same OEM (Wahoo has their own firmware), one has to wonder how high the price for the HRM might be.
I fully expect Nike or Adidas to bring these to market, leveraging their very large channel and ability to take down more than the MOQ (5k pcs) to drop the price to around $45 at retail.
By default you have to go to Settings -> General -> Bluetooth -> on/off -- 4 taps, which is ridiculous. It's slightly better for WiFi, "only" 3 taps.
Ideally I'd be able to get buttons on my home screen that will quickly switch these on or off with 1 tap.
Installed and donated $10, well worth it.
So.. it takes a slide and a tap.
Right now if your Bluetooth device corresponds to one of the handful of profiles with blanket approval from Apple (headsets, keyboards, certain accessibility hardware) you're fine, but if you're trying to do anything as exotic as serial communication with a third-party device you're shit out of luck unless you join Apple's MFI program.
And the MFI program won't even talk to you until you've lawyered up, so it's pretty alienating to anyone who wants to build something as a side project.
The same goes for serial communication. You can buy a nicely-built RedPark cable and make a stunningly beautiful app to talk to whatever device is on the other end, but your app won't make it into the store unless Apple has put the MFI stamp of approval on your device.
Since Apple controls what goes into their App Store, it would require a major shift in their approval policy before we see any significant expansion of apps that talk to arbitrary Bluetooth-enabled widgets.
(If anyone has heard of examples of approved apps using serial or bluetooth communication to talk to unapproved devices, I'd love to know!)
the reason that there are no apps yet is that only iPhone 4S has the heardware for CB and no CB chipsets out there yet in devices. chicken and egg problem which hopefully will be solved with the iPhone 4S adoption.
The MFI program isn't the easiest process in the world, but it isn't impossible. Definitely doable as a side project if you're motivated.
I may have to revisit my project in light of your comment :)
- iPhone to iPhone CoreBluetooth communication
This is a killer. All of the ideas suggested in the article would require custom built hardware- if we could do user-user connections then I think a lot more would be possible.
While Apple has made recent changes to MFi (can't discuss, NDA), these are expressly NOT about access to Bluetooth LE or 4.0 "chipsets".
What IS true is that you don't have to go through MFi to have a device that talks LE to an iOS device.
Is this what you were trying to say?
I'm just relaying news I've hear somewhere else, feel free to correct me.
One way is to use GameKit (http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/Networ...) but I believe you can just go with a BlueTooth connection.
Are you thinking about something else? Is it some specificity of GameKit that's limiting you?
I've yet to see an application make use of peer-to-peer communications at all (as well as in-game chat, though I'm pretty happy about that one).
article is also mirrored on tumblr @
Seems like a really good technology for, say, an Apple TV remote.
(Me: Chrome 17.0.963.2 dev-m on Windows).
Maybe fine for tv remote if you still want to be vulnerable to tv-be-gone. But since even tvs now have powerful cpus, not even it is worth
Pairing makes sense for sensitive data usage, such as tethering. But it's a broken pattern for consumer purposes like multimedia and gaming.
Make it so it doesn't interrupt your headphones and then all of a sudden it's trivial for anyone to listen to at least half of your telephone calls.
Most BT headsets already pose a serious everyday security risk to people who might be targets of surveillance by as minor players as private detectives or journalists due to both protocol and chipset weaknesses. BT security has been improving since then, but the last thing it needs to do is go backwards because you can't be bothered to pair a device with your car once(!)
with open radio, anyone on the train could be saving a hi-fi copy of the entire conversation.
in your analogy, he would have to be pushing a recorder between your ear and phone. very different from sitting in your door steps.
but i agree, the current system is crappy. I never bother to use bluetooth. but removing pairing instead of fixing is dumb.