Sorry if this has been asked, but is there a Low Energy Bluetooth board that is compatible with iOS 8? I did see a web sitehttp://www.raywenderlich.com/73306/arduino-tutorial-integrating-bluetooth-le-and-ios which has some good info, but looks like this is no longer working with iOS 8 and the Bluetooth board is no longer made. Though posters mention a newer version. Appreciate any help.
I believe to make anything that can interface with iOS devices, you need to pay $99 a year to Apple to become an iOS developer, and sign an NDA (maybe pay more money) to become an MFi partner. Then you will have the full documentation how to make that work.
I am an iOS developer but not MFi partner so I am not very sure on what is required to get that. To get the iOS developer access you need to visit http://developer.apple.com/ , and sign up for an Apple Developer account (can be added onto your existing iTunes and iCloud account) and pay for access to iOS developer resources. You will have access to App Store after paying the $99 so if you have some app ideas this is not a total loss.
Agreed and thanks for the info. I do think you are right that you pay a fee to Apple to gain access for the BT use in apps. Though are many of the arduino boards compatible when it comes to iOS 8?
I never used one but from what I have read on the software side so far what worked on iOS 7 should work on iOS 8. There is no guarantee that Apple would add some checking into their Bluetooth stack to prevent devices with reverse-engineered Apple Bluetooth peripheral protocol from being used.
Also if you found an Bluetooth Shield that is absurdly expensive you can look into details. Someone may be selling legitimately licensed MFi Arduino shields and to support the Apple licensing fee those are usually sold at some extremely high price.
Just a side info, if you own any jailbroken iOS devices with 30-pin dock connector, you can try get one 3.3V UART out of it by some clever wiring and precision resistors. This can go directly to your Arduino Due (or BeagleBone Black, or Raspberry Pi). This can be your first prototype and if it proved profitable you can use the venture capitalist's money to buy that MFi membership.
bluetooth low energy arduino: http://www.elecfreaks.com/store/products_new.html