Bluetooth

Bluetooth is a short-range, wireless technology, popular for its Personal Area Networking capability. Bluetooth hardware is provided on all iPhone platforms and the second generation iPod Touch platform. Apple has severely restricted the functions of Bluetooth to the end-user, for seemingly no reason, as the hardware supplied is capable of most if not all current bluetooth 2.0/2.1 functions.

With iPhoneOS 3.0, support for 3G internet bridging (PAN) or 'tethering' and A2DP over Bluetooth has been added, however the file sharing OBEX protocol is notably still missing.

Access

Developers have been able to successfully access and interface the Bluetooth hardware to achieve an OBEX solution, however this is still quite underground. The device nodes of relevance here, are

• /dev/uart.bluetooth
• /dev/cu.bluetooth
• /dev/tty.bluetooth

iPhone/iPods Bluetooth Hardware Summary

• iPhone (iPhone1,1) (m68ap) - Bluetooth (r) 2.0 + EDR
• iPhone 3G (iPhone1,2) (n82ap) - Bluetooth (r) 2.0 + EDR - chip specific link Bluetooth iPhone2,1
• iPhone 3GS (iPhone2,1) (n88ap) - Bluetooth (r) 2.1 + EDR - chip specific link BCM4325

• iPod Touch (iPod1,1) (n45ap) - No Bluetooth Hardware
• iPod Touch 2G (iPod2,1) (n72ap) - Bluetooth (r) 2.1 + EDR
• Unreleased iPod Touch 3G (iPod3,1) - Bluetooth (r) 2.1 + EDR forcasted - chip specific link BCM4329

Unreleased iPod3,1

As of iPhoneOS 3.0 an iPod3,1 is mentioned, with a BCM4329 WiFi/Bluetooth/FM wireless solution chip... this is strong evidence for a new iPod model in the near future.

This chip can transmit FM as well as receive. It also has low-power 802.11A and 802.11N in addition to 802.11B/G.