I have a rambling sort of question - I apologize up front for rambling, but I'm working to avoid giving away too much of my client's proprietary information.
I'm building a pre-production prototype of an app that may or may not ultimately end up on iPad2 (the production target might actually be XOOM, due to one particular technical capability that XOOM will have that iPad2 does not have).
One app requirement is to communicate with another device ("the target," not an iOS device) via Bluetooth. I know the Bluetooth MAC address of the target, but at the beginning of the process the two devices are not paired. The target has an open listen port on that device just itching for something to connect to it. The communication over that path is proprietary, but at the end of the day it's just bits. If I have to force-fit those bits into one of the Bluetooth profiles to make it work, then I'll figure that out separately - the communication protocol at this point is there simply to show this capability.
The documentation in this area of iOS is pretty sketchy, and largely boils down to "use GameKit." I don't think GameKit is viable when the other device isn't iOS, but I may have gotten that wrong. Are there any other things that I should be paying attention to for this to work? Using private APIs shouldn't be outside the realm of thinking, as this prototype won't be going into the AppStore.
Should I just give up and go to Android for my app? I may end up there ultimately because of other reasons, but for this early prototype there are marketing pressures to show it on an iPad (simply put, iPad is flashier to the suits who make the buying decisions - they're not the ones who will have to use the app, but they're the ones who will approve the purchase). However, without the Bluetooth communication, the app isn't worth squat.
For now, I'm focusing on the presentation side of the prototype, but pretty soon this critical feature will have to be shown...
I'm building a pre-production prototype of an app that may or may not ultimately end up on iPad2 (the production target might actually be XOOM, due to one particular technical capability that XOOM will have that iPad2 does not have).
One app requirement is to communicate with another device ("the target," not an iOS device) via Bluetooth. I know the Bluetooth MAC address of the target, but at the beginning of the process the two devices are not paired. The target has an open listen port on that device just itching for something to connect to it. The communication over that path is proprietary, but at the end of the day it's just bits. If I have to force-fit those bits into one of the Bluetooth profiles to make it work, then I'll figure that out separately - the communication protocol at this point is there simply to show this capability.
The documentation in this area of iOS is pretty sketchy, and largely boils down to "use GameKit." I don't think GameKit is viable when the other device isn't iOS, but I may have gotten that wrong. Are there any other things that I should be paying attention to for this to work? Using private APIs shouldn't be outside the realm of thinking, as this prototype won't be going into the AppStore.
Should I just give up and go to Android for my app? I may end up there ultimately because of other reasons, but for this early prototype there are marketing pressures to show it on an iPad (simply put, iPad is flashier to the suits who make the buying decisions - they're not the ones who will have to use the app, but they're the ones who will approve the purchase). However, without the Bluetooth communication, the app isn't worth squat.
For now, I'm focusing on the presentation side of the prototype, but pretty soon this critical feature will have to be shown...
