During its ‘Hey Siri’ event in early September, Apple silently updated the listing of the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, and the iPad Air 2 to reflect that they also support Bluetooth 4.2. All the three devices had launched with Bluetooth 4.0 onboard in 2014. The iPad Mini 4, iPhone 6s, and iPhone 6s Plus already support Bluetooth 4.2 out of the box. It is unclear how Apple managed to achieve this change, though since the product number of the devices remain the same, it is likely that this is a software related change and not a hardware one. It is possible that Apple updated the Bluetooth stack in iOS 9 and updated the chip firmware on the iPad Air 2, iPhone 6, and iPhone 6 Plus to achieve this. Bluetooth 4.2 offers higher data transfer speeds, better efficiency and security, and also integrated IPv6/6LoWPAN protocol to work with Internet of Things devices. This article from Ars Technica suggests that it is entirely possible for OEMs to update existing Bluetooth adapters to add support for Bluetooth 4.2. However, without a hardware update, only the privacy features introduced in Bluetooth 4.2 specs will make its way to existing adapters.
Post a Comment