Is it possible to build an Iphone/Ipad app (and Android app) that can do two things: stream an interface and the respective content (particularly video) to a TV and then let me use the phone itself as a remote control for this interface?
Basically the idea is, you don’t need a smart TV anymore or some kind of set-top box or other connected device, just the smart phone which you carry around all the time anyway and which is connected to your local wireless connection. Maybe a docking station with a HDMR connection to the TV, so you are not emptying your battery.
Do you know any comparable implementation or use?
If it is theoretically possible, can you anticipate any performance problems, bottlenecks and how those could be resolved?
If this it’s not possible, which links are missing, what technology would have to be developed first?
Thank you for your thoughts on this!
Jacob
The iPhone/iPad would work for this. It allows you to output to a second screen. You can stream video, audio, whatever. A cool example I saw was using the TV as the primary display and the phone as a controller for a game.
There are two ways to do it. You can use an hdmi output or a vga output. There is also a AirPlay, which will let you do it wirelessly. You would need an AirPlay capable device (like an AppleTV) for it to work though.
I would like to develop an app using iOS gamekit library and I am curious to know what the maximum range is between the two devices. How far can they stay connected and communicating?
Thanks!
I think you should go check the bluetooth and wi-fi specs, rather than thinking that the GK decides how far you can play:)
I want to know if an iPhone is connected to USB programmatically.
So far by googling i found http://developer.apple.com/programs/mfi/.
Do I really need this api to find out whether an iPhone is connected to USB device?
I just want to make an iPhone app that prints out in console whether the iPhone is connected with USB or not.
Thanks much.
You might be able to use the solution from this question.
The solution detects if the device's battery is currently being charged which, if connected to USB, most likely will be unless it is a 3rd party accessory in which case there's a different SDK for those I believe.
In any case, if the solution isn't helpful it might point you in the right direction.
UPDATE:
Did some more digging and it appears that this may not be possible other than the battery charging solution mentioned previously.
So to answer your question "Do I really need this api to find out whether an iPhone is connected to USB device?":
Yes, it appears that way.
is it any possibilities programmatically to detect bluetooth device from iphone, I done for wifi detection using WifiManager.bundle
I’m trying to do the same thing and having trouble finding information. Anyone know if its possible to get access to the Bluetooth information. I need to know its signal strength and ID. That all. I just want to show a list so I don’t think it even needs to pair.
Any info to get started would be much appriciated!
Does anyone know what kind of range can you get from the iPhone
bluetooth? Also, would the connection be strictly one to one? I know you
can choose from a number of peers to connect to but once the connection
is established, it seems you can only transfer data between one peer? So
basically, is it possible to create some kind of "multiplayer" experience?
Just answering the range part of your question...
The 10 meter figure for class 2 devices (of which the iPhone is an example) is very much a guideline.
The range of a Bluetooth device is limited by many real world factors. The 2.4 GHz radio frequency used by Bluetooth is strongly absorbed by water. For example, consider an iPhone connected to a Bluetooth mono headset. If the headset is in one ear and the iPhone is in your trouser pocket on the opposite side of your body, then there's a lot of water between the two devices. This will often cause a significant amount of packet loss in practice (you can hear this in the audio being carried). So, in this case, the range is about one meter.
At the opposite extreme, two class 2 devices separated by nothing more than clear air can get ranges of hundreds of meters.
Other factors that influence things are:
Interference - Lots of things use 2.4 GHz. WiFi, for example can cause problems.
Antenna design - Space and cost constraints often mean that the antenna design is sub-optimal. I don't know how good the iPhone is in this respect.
Walls - Generally walls attenuate Bluetooth signals. However, sometimes they are useful reflectors.
Quality of hardware - Some chips work better than others. Even different firmware revisions of the same chip may perform differently. Different versions of the iPhone probably have (or will have) different chips in them.
Protocol - It is possible to work around poor signal quality with error correction and retransmission. Even if the iPhone SDK forces you to use a particular protocol, careful design of your application can make a difference.
So, in summary, you should probably do some real world tests.
The connection is one-to-one, but you can create an adhoc network with one of the phones acting as the master/coordinator. The other phones would route all their communication through the master/coordinator.
One device can theoretically connect to 7 devices. according to the master-slave role, the device can multiplex between each of them giving the user an impression that you are connected to all of them simultaneously. Bluetooth specification does not stop you from doing that.This is theory.
Now for the iphone, whether it can connect to to more than one device can only be answered by apple or someone who knows the iphone bluetooth API. But I am pretty sure the bluetooth chip inside iphone should be able to connect to more than one device.
Range is essentially going to be good enough for a normal sized room to be covered. It can be longer or shorter depending on environmental circumstances, but remember that bluetooth was created to implement short range connections.
A bluetooth device can be part of a piconet of eight devices, one master and up to seven slaves. The slaves cannot communicate with each other, they must talk through the master, think of a star topology with the master in the center. The iPhone SDK has a GameKit framework that can be used to create the network for multiplayer games. Go to developer.apple.com at look at the GKTank and GKRocket sample code to see how it's used. These games only support two players, but the GameKit framework supports more. Look at the app store and you will see games that have four or more players.
Hope this helps to get started.
Apple iPhone 3G has a Class 2 bluetooth module. Class 2 Bluetooth devices have a communication range of 10 meters.
At a given instance a device can connect to just one device because it follows a master/slave communication model. But still we can perform a multiplexing. So we can virtually connect to more than 1 device and by rapidly changing the connected device.
I found a good article here. It explains bluetooth very well.
According to the my knowledge, multicasting is not impossible with bluetooth. So gaining a multiplayer experience is NOT impossible.
The bluetooth in the iPhone is Class-2, with a 10-meter range, approximately.
Unfortunately I can't answer the other parts of your question.
One device can be connected up to 8 others. It all depends on the iPhone bluetooth API (which I don't know anything about), but with Bluetooth itself you could then send data to multiple devices.
I tether my iPhone to my laptop over bluetooth every day, and I seem to remember having done that at the same time as using a bluetooth headset. YMMV.
It’s the latest incarnation of Bluetooth, the wireless device-to-device technology that allows your phone to talk to headsets, car stereos, keyboards and other devices directly, without the need for a router or shared wireless network.