FAQ_General
It is released under the GPLv3. In a nutshell this means that whatever project you're developing using SweetBlue, including all 3rd party code you may be using, now and in the future, also has to be publicly released under the GPLv3 (or a compatible license). However we understand that many projects cannot comply with this, so we do offer proprietary licenses suitable for most commercial projects. Please visit https://idevicesinc.com/sweetblue for more information.
In theory SweetBlue should work on any device with OS version 4.3 and up. In practice, many devices implement BLE rather poorly and inconsistently, and at the far end of the spectrum you have devices where BLE just does not work well at all depending on the peripheral you're interacting with. For a list of devices we have personally tested and approved see https://github.com/iDevicesInc/SweetBlue/wiki/Tested-Devices. Other than that, there are so many variables involved that you really just have to test it yourself if you want to be sure.
No, the codebase for now is identical. The proprietary licenses simply allow you to use SweetBlue in closed-source projects. We currently have private extensions that may get expanded upon and released under a proprietary license based on demand.
We use the popular Semantic Versioning scheme and release any new version that you would care about here. If you have purchased a proprietary license then we will e-mail you (if opted in) whenever a new release is available. We strive to keep the master branch stable but keeping up with the latest commits isn't necessary. The API docs will always reflect the latest commit in master.
It's a play on Android's convention of naming OS releases after sweet foods. Oh, and every other possible play on Bluetooth and Android related words was already taken by other companies or open source projects.
It's impossible to test against every combination of Android phone, OS version, BLE hardware/firmware, etc., so flushing out those fringe cases that we haven't found yet is very helpful. If you've found a bug in the underlying stack that SweetBlue isn't accounting for (or of course a bug in SweetBlue itself) please post an issue. We are open to working with you to ship actual hardware back and forth or purchase it if necessary.
We are also happy to accept pull requests after a Contributor License Agreement is signed. Please e-mail SweetBlue@idevicesinc.com for more details.
You may use our Issue Tracker and/or e-mail us at SweetBlue@idevicesinc.com.
We are always scanning StackOverflow and the Internets at large. Post a question somewhere and we will find you. We will also be setting up our own Q&A forum soon but in the meantime you may e-mail SweetBlue@idevicesinc.com as well.
