Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The amazing iOS 5 API and iPhone 4S hardware nobody talks about

de-de.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 52 posts

Re: The amazing iOS 5 API and iPhone 4S hardware nobody talks about

#12

Post by sudont »

jws wrote: post #2

Bluetooth 4.0 LE - Non-paired communication in the 10s of meters range. Very low power. 250kbps or so max speed. 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.

Indeed. CSR has a nice-sounding SoC for this, but their dev program sucks for hackers. $10k for a seat? Blegh.

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.

http://www.ti.com/tool/cc2540dk-mini#Related%20Products

Re: The amazing iOS 5 API and iPhone 4S hardware nobody talks about

#13

Post by masklinn »

untog wrote: post #3

Some things that are not possible yet (though it would be super cool if they were on Apple’s todo list): - 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.

As Timothee notes, peer-to-peer already exists, it was one of the big bullet points in iOS3, as part of the push towards improved gaming experience (which also yield GameCenter in iOS4).

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).

Re: The amazing iOS 5 API and iPhone 4S hardware nobody talks about

#15

Post by sebbi »

Does this mean the iPhone finally allows unencrypted bluetooth communication? That would be something new ... currently everybody who wants to talk to an iOS device via bluetooth or the docking port has to implement a chip in the hardware that is used to authenticate the device ... meaning: devices will be forever incompatible with iOS if the manufacturer didn't include such a chip from Apple.

btw: Bluetooth < 4.0 allows for connections without a pincode too.

Re: The amazing iOS 5 API and iPhone 4S hardware nobody talks about

#16

Post by jws »

sudont wrote: post #12
jws wrote: post #2

Bluetooth 4.0 LE - Non-paired communication in the 10s of meters range. Very low power. 250kbps or so max speed. 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.

Indeed. CSR has a nice-sounding SoC for this, but their dev program sucks for hackers. $10k for a seat? Blegh. 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 downloa…

I've pondered a similar concept whenever I design an embedded system that needs a user interface. Provide a common formatted set of data (JSON say), a fallback interface (HTML,CSS,javascript), and an identifier for a better interface if the user's device can get to a network and snag an app or updated UI (URL).

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.

Post reply on HN