Blog

How GAP and GATT Work — Bluetooth Low Energy Basics

Originally Published in 2013 and Updated April 1, 2024: Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) continues to evolve, and understanding the roles of the Generic Access Profile (GAP) and the Generic Attribute Profile (GATT) is crucial in leveraging this technology effectively. This updated article provides expanded information on GAP vs GATT and additional resources to support you on your BLE development journey. Introduction Bluetooth Low Energy…

Culture

The Key to Creating a Growth Culture: Our Approach to Personal Development

By: Punch Through

“Building a culture focused on performance may not be the best, healthiest, or most sustainable way to fuel results. Instead, it may be more effective to focus on creating a culture of growth.”~Tony Schwartz, Author Personal development…

Punch Through team discussing mobile development

Mobile Apps

3 Reasons Native iOS and Android Apps are Better for Connected Products

By: Punch Through

One decision must be made before developing a mobile app: native or hybrid. For many developers, preconceived notions lead them down the hybrid route, believing it to be cheaper and more efficient with a "one-code-fits-all" approach. However,…

BLE

Maximizing BLE Throughput Part 2: Use Larger ATT MTU

By: Punch Through

It's commonly accepted with BLE that as throughput goes up, so does power consumption. However, by intelligently choosing your MTU size, you can actually increase throughput while also decreasing power consumption. Update: Please check out…

Mobile Apps

CoreNFC – The Missing Link

By: Punch Through

Near-field communication (NFC) is standardized by ISO/IEC 18092. While not a new technology it has become more important with the proliferation of mobile devices. Phone manufacturers have increasingly begun to incorporate NFC hardware in their…

BLE

Developing Cross Platform BLE Apps: Our Experience

By: Punch Through

Those who have successfully developed a connected product know it is a unique struggle. The idea of a product being one physical thing, where you build it, ship it, and move on, is over. Now the hardware is only one part of the puzzle, and often…

BLE

Attribute Caching in BLE: Advantages and Pitfalls

By: Punch Through

Every OS that supports BLE caches parts of your device's profile. It's a method to save power and time by caching values that don't change very often. But what happens when the values change? If you're not careful, you can end up rendering your…

BLE

Maximizing BLE Throughput on iOS and Android

By: Punch Through

Still confused about how fast you can really send data over Bluetooth Low Energy? It's not just you. A google search will turn up many incomplete answers. Each OS and device has it’s own restrictions, such as connection interval and number of…

Mobile Apps

WTF is an iBeacon

By: Punch Through

At this year’s WWDC, Apple quietly announced one of their upcoming products for iOS 7, the iBeacon. Even if you’ve been following WWDC and the iOS 7 announcements, you might not have heard of the iBeacon. And even if you’ve heard the name,…

BLE

Testing Bluetooth Low Energy Devices

By: Punch Through

Bluetooth Low Energy is a new Bluetooth standard that is exciting for a couple reasons- it enables very low power battery applications, and it further opens the smartphone accessory market. LightBlue allows you to test and simulate Bluetooth Low…