iPhone 4S will be the first phone to feature Bluetooth 4.0
One of the iPhone 4S features which was briefly mentioned during yesterdays Let’s Talk iPhone event was Bluetooth 4.0. Bluetooth 4.0 is a hybrid of current Bluetooth standards and Bluetooth Low Energy. It has many features that improve upon the current Bluetooth 3.0 standard which is widely used in current mobile phones. Apple has already introduced Bluetooth 4.0 into its latest MacBook Air and Mac mini lines.
Bluetooth 4.0 can offer a huge improvement in battery life as it consumes far less power than other Bluetooth versions when in Low Power mode. In fact, it is claimed that a Bluetooth 4.0 device can run for years on a standard coin-cell battery, it is that power efficient. Other features are low cost, multi-vendor interoperability, and enhanced range.
Low Power Mode is geared towards accessories with low power requirements such as in the health care markets; for thermometers, heart rate monitors blood pressure monitors etc. It could be that you will see a ton of accessories coming to the iPhone 4S to take advantage of this new technology. Of course for most, you will not notice any difference, your current Bluetooth accessories will continue to work in exactly the same way!
Source: Bluetooth SIG
UK editor at iMore, mobile technology lover and air conditioning design engineer.
There are 18 comments. Add yours.
Revolutionary!
is it revolutionary?
Revolutionary!
This will work well with the Bluetooth 4 heartrate monitors announced earlier this year
What the iPhone Announcement WAS.
http://twitpic.com/6vj716
What a stupid table...
Still doesnt justify upgrading from an iPhone4.
Any word if AVCRD profile support is improved?
Typo correction: AVRCP
AVRCP support was added in iOS 4.1, over a year ago.
I hope they added support for AAC over A2DP.
So if your accessory uses the old version of Bluetooth, are there still battery saving benefits to the iPhone's use of Bluetooth 4.0? Does the accessory have to be Bluetooth 4.0 to access these benefits?
Does the spec feature faster transfer rates and better stereo audio?
I'm not too sure about that... My Alpine deck with Bluetooth was fully able to display track names of songs from my iPhone 4, over Bluetooth. I distinctly recall it being there... At least I think I do...
So will it work better with Microsoft Sync in Ford cars?
will we be able to send and receive files like all other phones do via bluetooth and accross any phone with bluetooth(not resticted to apple only)?
What's the range of BT4.0?
I love music, on the other hand don't wanna be fame.