The 3rd generation iPad is the first tablet with Bluetooth 4.0, what’s in it for you

News

  • March 10, 2012 at 8:09 am

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3rd generation iPad multiplayer

Apple has been progressively bringing Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity to its mobile devices and personal computers. The mid-2011 MacBook Air (full review here) and Mac mini were the first to get Bluetooth 4.0 and were followed suit by the iPhone 4S, which was the first smartphone ever to get Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity.

All the above are Bluetooth Smart Ready devices, i.e. they can connect to every legacy Bluetooth device out there, like Bluetooth mice and keyboards, and new Bluetooth 4.0 Smart Ready and low power Bluetooth 4.0 Smart devices, like body monitors and watches. Here’s a table below of what can connect with what:
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Bluetooth 4.0 devices get new Smart and Smart Ready branding

News

  • October 26, 2011 at 5:10 am

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Bluetooth Smart compatibility mapping

Hoping that this move will actually help prospective buyers and users, rather than confuse them more, the Bluetooth SIG has introduced two new categories and respective logos for devices that include Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity.

The first is Bluetooth Smart Ready, these are devices like your laptop or phone, which are capable of communicating with any other Bluetooth device, i.e. they offer Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity but are also backwards compatible with every other existing Bluetooth device. They feature a dual-mode radio that can communicate over both classic Bluetooth and the new Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) protocol. You can include the 2011 Mac Mini, the 2011 MacBook Air, the iPhone 4S and the Motorola RAZR in the list of Bluetooth Smart Ready devices.

The second is Bluetooth Smart, these are devices that run on small button-cell batteries, and their single-mode radios use only Bluetooth Low Energy. The devices gather information and then send data to Bluetooth Smart Ready devices only, they do not connect to legacy classic Bluetooth devices. These would be for example, blood glucose or heart beat monitors, sharing information with your app enabled Bluetooth 4.0 smartphone.

So to sum it up, when you see the Bluetooth Smart Ready logo on a device it means that it has Bluetooth 4.0 but it’s also compatible with all previous versions of Bluetooth. When you see the Bluetooth Smart logo, these will be small devices that can only communicate with Bluetooth Smart Ready devices.
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iPhone 4S to be the first smartphone with Bluetooth 4.0, opening the doors to a host of new applications

EditorialsNews

  • October 9, 2011 at 8:13 am

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iPhone 4S supports Bluetooth 4.0

You can count the number of devices supporting the Bluetooth 4.0 standard right now on the fingers of one hand. These include the 2011 Mac Mini and the MacBook Air, while the iPhone 4S is the first phone to support the standard. So what does Bluetooth 4.0 offer over the earlier versions.

Bluetooth 4.0 has two major advantages over earlier standards, first is BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy), a low-energy and low-latency mode, second is that it can wake up other Bluetooth 4.0 devices and do no-code pairing. Nevertheless, it remains backwards compatible with all earlier standards, so you can still connect all your legacy devices.
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Bluetooth enabled on Nook Color courtesy of experimental CM7 and drivers

GuidesNews

  • March 11, 2011 at 6:35 pm

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Nook Color CyanogenMod 7 Bluetooth enabled

We’ve already known that the Nook Color’s chipset contained Bluetooth capabilities though these are disabled on the stock software. If you’ve gone ahead and rooted your device you are already discovering the large number of hidden possibilities of the Nook Color but also the frustrations of some of the hardware limitations.

Having Bluetooth connectivity means that you can by-pass some of these limitations and also extend the usefulness of the device, i.e. connect a Bluetooth headset for Skype calls or voice recording, a speaker for audio output, connect a keyboard for quick typing or even GPS devices and Bluetooth game controllers.

The guys over at xda-developers have just made available an experimental bootable SD card image of CyanogenMod 7 (based on Gingerbread Android 2.3.3) for the Nook Color with Bluetooth drivers installed. It’s very simple to try it out and as it runs from an SD card it does not affect or change your existing software; you also get to give CM7 a try without modifying your Nook:
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