Unless you’ve been stuck under a rock (in which case what are you doing reading this?) you’ll know that Microsoft announced a preview release of Windows 8.1 at Build yesterday. While I haven’t got a development machine up and running yet (No easy upgrade if your device is UK English) I’ve been looking at the updated documentation at MSDN. Of the many new APIs described there are a couple of new namespaces which will be interesting to those working with Bluetooth devices:-
Windows.Devices.Bluetooth.GenericAttributeProfile – Contains functionality to work with Bluetooth LE devices. This will make it possible to interact with devices such as FitBit and other low energy sensors and devices from within apps – which means support on ARM devices.
Windows.Devices.Bluetooth.Rfcomm – Support for normal serial sockets Bluetooth. While completely different from the Windows Phone 8 API it provides the same functionality and more. Ability to enumerate and get notified of device arrival and departure and access to SDP attributes. There are identifiers for a number of standard profiles – Generic File Transfer, ObexFileTransfer, ObexObjectPush, PhoneBookAccess (client and server), SerialPort (SPP).
A new Chat sample is available for 8.1 here – http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/windowsapps/Bluetooth-Rfcomm-Chat-afcee559
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