bluewar

 

     This may not be common knowledge but there is currently a war going on between two rival developers regarding bluetooth for the iPhone.

     Now we all remember near the beginning of January, the Devs over at the iBluetoothProject released SweetTooth, the very first Bluetooth stumbler app for the iPhone, which enabled the user to “discover” other bluetooth enabled devices besides headsets. This was a great achievement as it had never been done before.

     In the last couple of weeks they announced to donors only at first and then to the public that their next step was going to be, enabling OBEX (OBject EXchange), and that they were very close to releasing V2 of SweetTooth with this feature enabled.

     Well, in the last week, a video has surfaced showing bluetooth file transfer, firstly between an iPhone and a Mac, and secondly between an iPhone and a SonyEricsson k550i, but, it is not from the iBluetoothProject it is the work of a rival developer who goes by the handle MeDevil.

      Shortly after the release of this video, the team over at iBluetoothProject released this statement to its forum members;

      Quote – Well I’m sure some of you have heard that medevil (former member) has released a video “proving” that he can file transfer. If you do not know about medevil’s history, well here is a crash course. He joins our team claiming to want to help us, and has us post source code in our dev section. At the time the code was not functional but it was the basis of our current code. Any way he took our code and left. A few weeks later released screenshots “proving” he can pair devices. This was months ago. We have reasonable evidence that says those screenshots did not prove he could pair. It proved he can make a simple program that says words that don’t mean anything.

     The point is simple. He stole our code and claims it to be his own. Also there is no substantial proof he can even pair, unlike us we actually provide hard evidence he has not yet. I am not saying his program doesn’t work, I am saying that we don’t know.

     Why are we telling you this? We are asking for your support. Do not download his app or support him in any way. Make sure it is known that he is not being truthful and that he is only a thief. He is not a hacker, he is not a dev. He is just a thief. We promise to have our next version out soon. We don’t have a date yet cause we want to take our times and do it right. We don’t want to come out with some half ass program that does not satisfy you. So please be patient and if he has actually done what he claims just wait. We won’t be too long and you are better off waiting. If you remember when zibri came out with his app before the dev team every one praised him. Little did they know it messed up their iphones.

Thank you
the bluetooth dev team – End Quote

      This is obviously only one side of the story so i did some digging and found a rather heated conversation between cscho415, Schmave (iBluetoothProject) and MeDevil on the forum that hosted the video;

     Quote -  cscho415 – Please do not download this, MeDevil is a thief of my code… we will be releasing soon as well… but based on this video not as soon… if you remember Zbri and the Dev team, Zbri stole their work… well MeDevil is our Zbri.

     MeDevil – @cscho415: that’s YOU calling ME thief? LOL! Did you forget the post on your developer forum with MY code on it BEFORE I DID ACTUALLY ENTER THE TEAM?

     cscho415 – @MeDevil – um i have the post on my window now posted by SCHMAVE and another posted by RPCONNECT aka kramer… none from u at least with source MeDevil… we have only used our own codes… all u have ever produced is a hello world…

     MeDevil – eheheh… that’s really hilarious. – i was working on bluetooth BEFORE i actually entered the team (the truth is in the iSpazio forums). – i passed you the code used for the inquiry via IRC, before entering the team, AND YOU KNOW THAT! I have a mail from a guy named “David Thornton” that states: “You have and will remain with the sentimental credit of discovering the exploit, this is mearly a monetary proposal.” If what i’m using is YOUR code, why don’t you tell the world that you are able to transfer a file via bluetooth? So i’m the liar? Prove it…

     cscho415 – MeDevil i have a transcript of all irc chats… i have record, you do not… also MeDevil i would like to have a private conversation with you to maybe sort out some hard feelings.

     Schmave – This is getting out of hand. All i want to do is provide the open source community with a quality app that not just does OBEX, but everything else and more. Bluetooth on the iPhone can be great, but only if we work “together” and pool our efforts. Many of you are slamming our team for taking donations etc. now while i do not apologize for that, and don’t take this as “pointing the finger” but MeDevil has released (available on his website) that he will be charging money for his application too. Think about it from the developers perspective, if you spent the hours (i’m assuming both of us did) [MeDevil and I] you too would naturally want a little bit of compensation. I’m sure the whole iPhone community would like very much more than two competing Bluetooth apps, where one could do an amazing job at things like A2DP, SPP and all the other great profiles. I’m not fuelling the bickering, but rather asking it to stop. If the iPhone community wants us to pool our efforts and achieve far more than anyone would dare believe, i think it would be a step in the right direction. Schmave

     MeDevil – @cscho415 – why should i talk to you? I was labelled as a liar, and while this isn’t true, i have NEVER criticized (positively or negatively) the work of your team. I was labelled as a thief, but you know that this isn’t true, since most of the code in the forum was already on the source i did pass you in irc. I have not started this war, and i would not have ever started it, but if you plan to continue this way then be sure that i’ll not stay here and do nothing. – End Quote

     Most of you will be thinking “Who cares who stole what code, just bring us a great Bluetooth app that works”, well it matters to them and looks like there will be no reconciliation between these devs, so it is likely we will see two rival bluetooth apps released soon. With Bluetooth file transfer is near the top of every iPhone users wish-list, I don’t think it will matter whether these apps are free or not.

     The iBluetoothProject will be releasing their next version of SweetTooth to donors only initially, so keep your eyes open for a review shortly after release.