I am developing an application in swift in which i want to transfer some data from my hardware device(A kind of chip) to iPhone.Some data will be displayed on the screen.But i want to use the standard lightning cable.Is it possible?
This kind of communication isn´t possible using a lightning cable but with a lightning connector. You need to include a chip in your hardware for the authentication.
You must apply to become a Mfi (Made for iPhone) certified developer. Also you have to submit your hardware to Apple so they can review your app together with the hardware device.
Some useful links are:
Apples SDK for this kind of communication
Made for iPhone Program
Hope it helps.
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I'm currently digging my through the nest of using Bluetooth in my iOS application and I find it quite hard to find the information I'm looking for.
Can I turn on Bluetooth from within my app or does the user have to do it manually?
Can I use the basic Bluetooth fetaures (such as Discovery, connecting and Sending Data) with other devices running Bluetooth < 4.0 (classic)
AFAIK CoreBluetooth Framework can only be used to communicate with devices running Bluetooth 4.0+. Which framework is used to communicate with Bluetooth < 4.0 devices?
Is it possible to use Bluetooth in such a way that Apple will reject my App on App Store? And which ways would that be?
Is there a difference between paired and unparied communication? Can one communicate with another device without being paried? Can pairing be initated from an app?
To give some Context to my question: I'm currently developing a part of a Home Automation Application where the App needs to communicate with an embedded device which does not yet have Wifi. It has not been decided which Bluetooth version will run on the embedded device. The same functionality will be implemented in an Android application.
Thankful for some input from some with Bluetooth experience for iOS.
you cannot turn on Bluetooth from your app. The user must do it using settings or the control center.
unless you device is MFi certified you can only communicate with Bluetooth Low Energy devices
the external accessory framework is used to communicate with MFi devices that use "classic" Bluetooth
I am not aware of any use of Core Bluetooth that will lead to app rejection. If your app supports an MFi accessory that isn't associated with your company then your app will be rejected.
you can initiate bonding (commonly known as pairing but it is actually different) by requiring encryption for an attribute. Once the bonding is complete there is no difference in how you transfer data, but the data will be encrypted over the air.
The vibe I'm getting from Stackoverflow and the internet at large is that unless I'm using an LE device, any Bluetooth device I make for an iOS app must be MFi certified.
However, on the MFi FAQ page, I found this line:
...developers of accessories that rely solely on standard technology
(e.g., Bluetooth Low Energy or standard Bluetooth profiles) do not
need to join the MFi Program.
My device will be able to use the standard Bluetooth profile File Transfer Protocol (FTP).
Now this sounds like some conflicting advice to me, or perhaps I'm just not understanding correctly. So, having provided the above evidence, I'm just going to ask outright: Can I write and publish an iOS app that connects to a proprietary Bluetooth device using the standard Bluetooth profile FTP without certifying my device as MFi? And if so, what details, caveats, etc do I need to know?
The new Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy (hereafter BLE 4.0) specification which is implemented in Apple's latest iOS devices does allow one to create app-specific profiles and connect to BLE 4.0 devices without jailbreaking, using an approved Bluetooth 2.1 profile, or becoming part of Apple'd MFI program and using the previously required MFI cryptographic chips.
In other words with the proper BLE 4.0 compatible bluetooth radios you can create wireless devices that connect to iOS apps without having the device pre-approved by Apple. However, you must write a custom app for the device, and Apple still holds the ability to reject that app if they want to. So they still control this to a great degree. This is essentially Apple's answer to the Android ADK, while not fully relinquishing the ability to shut down apps and devices they don't like.
Your app must include specific XML schema for your app's bluetooth profile, and use CoreBluetoothFramework APIs, so it's very obvious to Apple during the app approval process that your app connects to a device. If your app does not work without the device present, then it's likely to be rejected if you are not part of the MFI program, as Apple cannot test the app without your device. The apps that appear to be successful in passing this test use the device as an accessory to app functionality, rather than a requirement. For instance an exercise app might connect to a BLE 4.0 heart rate monitor, but the app doesn't depend on it.
Some apps seem to be getting around this by displaying simulated, or online information in place of the device information when no device is present. Thus the app can be tested without the device, and functionally works when the device is present.
You can find out some successful efforts online:
http://blog.makezine.com/2012/03/19/bluetooth-4-0-from-arduino-to-iphone-no-jailbreaking-no-mfi/
BlueGiga in particular has been pushing their devices specifically for this use, so there are probably forums and support for this elsewhere.
Keep in mind that the devices that currently support BLE 4.0 are limited, and currently only include
iPhone 4S and later iPhones
recent MacBook Air, Mac Mini
iPad (3rd generation and later, and iPad mini)
Macbook Pro Retina
There may be other Apple devices that support this standard, it's something Apple is advertising openly on each product's technical specifications page so it's easy to find for current products.
That line is referring to standard profiles supported natively by ios devices, such as HFP or A2DP. If you build a headset device that does HFP, the iphone will be able to connect to it and route your call to the headset without the headset being part of MFi.
If you want to write an app that does other things with bluetooth, inlcuding FTP, you would have to use MFi.
I am working on building or using an existing bluetooth HID device (something like this http://www.icontrolpad.com) and to get my iOS device to read the data coming from it. So i have some questions regarding this:-
Is it possible at all to do this, considering that the Bluetooth stack is not available on non jail broken devices.
Do i need to register with apples Mfi program? If i don't need to, what are the alternatives?
If i do register with Apple's Mfi program will i get access frameworks that will allow me to read data off the Bluetooth stack.
Considering that there will be a custom application sitting on the iOS device that needs to communicate with the HW im building, what are the implications w.r.t the approval of the app from Apple's side?
Thanks in advance, any help is greatly appreciated!
Core Bluetooth framework is available for Bluetooth Low Energy devices on iOS 5, no MFi membership is required.
With Made for iPhone, you basically get a serial pipe to your device using the ExternalAccesory Framework (in fact, it IS using the serial port profile plus some authentication). So you while you cannot use an actual HID device, you could send your data over.
I was wondering, if there is a way to use IPhone as an HID device, with some other device like PS3. I checked out the Bluetooth specification and IOS Devices do support HID Profile. So I thought it would be easy to pair my iPhone using passkey mechanism and should be able to start using my iPhone as keyboard or mouse without much hassle. But I found very soon that this assumption is naive and I need to develop custom solution.
I was initially thinking about using GameKit framework, but I think it only works between two compatible IOS Devices. If I want to extend this capability, then I have to use iPhone External Accessory API .In my analysis, I also found that iPhone will only communicate and pair with devices that are licensed by Apple. (Made for iPhone\iPod program). Does it mean that, if I want to use iPhone with another device, I need to get that device approved by Apple. ( Which will not surprise me one bit). Also if someone could point me to more detailed documentation on this, that will also be helpful.( What is an MFI developer board ??)
I do not want a solution that needs me to jailbreak an iPhone. (or any solution that will disqualify my app by Apple).
So to summarize:
1- Please validate my findings, correct them if they are wrong?
2a- How does External Accessory API Work?
b- Can I use this to connect to third party accessories ? (or is this only for accessory developers).
3- Or is there a better solution without using External Accessory API?
Please provide supportive documentation or link if you can. Thank You.
You are unlikely to get on the External accessory program from apple unless you are a big company ( you can try, but I have read this a number of places) . iPhones use a proprietary Bluetooth interface that and hardware must also implement this interface, so not much chance of getting it to connect to any other hardware directly.
Most apps like this (Remote Mouse) for example, connect to your wifi network, and have another application installed on your computer. The iphone can then talk to this application over the wi-fi network, but not bluetooth. I would suggest that the only way I can see this would be possible to to create the server app that you install on a computer on the wi-fi network that then in turn controls the 3rd party device if there is an API that you can use from the desktop app to control the 3rd party device.
This is just what I have found when I researched about this for making an app for iPhone to control a bluetooth watch. I had to jailbreak in the end to replace the bluetooth stack on the iPhone with one that could connect to any hardware device. Not limited by apple.
I am planning to develop an iPhone application to transfer files/data to/from my Windows Desktop using Bluetooth.
Please let me know whether the programming interface(SDK)is available in iPhone SDK for this purpose.
In Windows Mobile, I can transfer the file either using a FTP profile or writing application on top of Serial Port Profile(RFComm).
Can anybody tell me, whether this can be possible with an iPhone by writing appropriate application. If not, please let me know alternative way to transfer files/data over bluetooth from iPhone to a Windows Desktop PC.
No, FTP or SPP bluetooth profile are not open in iPhone...
If you get into the made for ipod program, you might develop a bluetooth dongle for a computer (it can't use the normal one built into the computer as it needs a custom apple chip for encoding). This is the only method that could do something like what you want over bluetooth and get your app into the app store. You can implement a similar functionality more readily over wifi.
Yes you can. Use the Human Interface Device profile, and have your USB device pretend to be a keyboard. You can then have your app receive text input from the "keyboard". simply encode your data as ASCII encoded hex or base 64 and transmit. Whether or not your app would be allowed in the app store is a different matter.
There are 2 requirements to use iOS BT Classic for data transmission over RFCOMM.
1) You need to be enrolled in Apple MFi program.
2) The BT accessory which will be connected to iPhone needs to have a special HW chip called "MFi Coprocessor".
Both requirements need to be satisfied if you are developing FW for the BT accessory.
The latter one is required when you are coding iOS app.
BTW, you will not be able to communicate with Windows machine unless you have a BT dongle with MFi chip inside - see the second requirement.