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iPhone 4S Supports "Low Energy" Bluetooth 4.0

Tuesday October 4, 2011 2:05 pm PDT by Jordan Golson
Earlier this year, Apple introduced new Bluetooth 4.0 chips in the MacBook Air and Mac Mini lines. The chips include support for Bluetooth Low Energy, a specification which opens the door to a number of new kinds of Bluetooth-powered devices. In the specifications for the iPhone 4S, Apple notes Bluetooth 4.0 support is built-in.

There haven't been many products built for Bluetooth 4.0 yet, but there are a variety of possibilities:

- Find Me - electronic leash applications
- Proximity - wireless locking and unlocking, out of range alerts
- Sports / Running - stats and vitals
- Health - heart rate monitor, blood pressure, glucose monitors

Apple joined the Bluetooth board of directors in June and Bluetooth claims virtually all new smartphones will include Bluetooth 4.0 support by the end of 2012.
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chrmjenkins
Posted: 8 months ago
Nice to see Apple at the forefront here. They had been lagging a bit on bluetooth standard compliance before.
Rating: 3 Positives / 0 Negatives
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marcusj0015
Posted: 8 months ago
bluetooth 4 really isn't for music, it's for Low energy, AKA a NFC competitor...
Rating: 2 Positives / 0 Negatives
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jlgolson
Posted: 8 months ago

Nice to see Apple at the forefront here. They had been lagging a bit on bluetooth standard compliance before.

But will they support Artist and Song title support when bluetooth streaming to my car?
Rating: 0 Positives / 0 Negatives
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chrmjenkins
Posted: 8 months ago

But will they support Artist and Song title support when bluetooth streaming to my car?


Ask them. A minor quibble for most I'd venture though.

bluetooth 4 really isn't for music, it's for Low energy, AKA a NFC competitor...


Not entirely. Bluetooth 4.0 doesn't have the ability to have passive devices like NFC does.
Rating: 0 Positives / 0 Negatives
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thelatinist
Posted: 8 months ago

But will they support Artist and Song title support when bluetooth streaming to my car?


Or skip/repeat. What's with the partial protocol implementations?
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TonyLukes3
Posted: 8 months ago

But will they support Artist and Song title support when bluetooth streaming to my car?


Check next week ;-)
Rating: 0 Positives / 0 Negatives
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Vitruviux
Posted: 8 months ago
Can you clear it up, does it have the BT4.0 chip in it? Or is it BT4.0 compatible? i.e. talks with devices that are BT4.0.
Rating: 0 Positives / 0 Negatives
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DavidLeblond
Posted: 8 months ago
Will it do text messages in Ford Sync systems? The video of the guy driving with an earbud in his ear makes me doubt it...
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wovel
Posted: 8 months ago

Can you clear it up, does it have the BT4.0 chip in it? Or is it BT4.0 compatible? i.e. talks with devices that are BT4.0.


Spec sheet says "Bluetooth 4.0 wireless technology". This sounds like the chip.
Rating: 0 Positives / 0 Negatives
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FatMax
Posted: 8 months ago
This is huge I think! It may enable the so-called iWatch, because of the possibility of low power devices.

Can't wait to read messages on my arm, see incoming notifications and so on. Much like android devices does today.
Rating: 0 Positives / 0 Negatives

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