Only have to do this because the accessory kit in iOS is so locked down and Apple wraps that mess up in their "Works for iPhone" program.
The dock connector has full serial bus for accessories with power. It's easy to program and build accessories. No weird hacks converting to analog and then doing software signal processing and generating power with continuous tone.
Apple just locks it down from developers getting access unless you follow their strict guidelines. One of which is that your accessory works for iPhone and only iPhone and not multiple devices. They also have licensing fees involved. It's arbitrary.
The also do this same program for Bluetooth. They claimed custom protocols at WWDC a few years ago that gave me hope I could connect to common bluetooth devices (like a laptops and my Lego NXT device). Entirely not the case.
03/15/2011: Google donates Android phones to the project.
02/18/2011: Microsoft donates Windows Phone 7 phones to the project.
Cheap, multi-platform sensors. With a little tweaking, I assume they could transmit data over a phone line. This means you don’t have to build for any specific target platform: any no-name, off-brand phone in some Harare phone shop can record data.
What happens when we bake these into a toxin module, and distribute them to people in LDCs? It’ll be a lot easier to start seeing evidence and location of toxic spills, chemical safety violations, whatever.
A cheap platform shouldn’t be hampered by any specific pathway: we’re building a parasite here, people.
The dock connector has full serial bus for accessories with power. It's easy to program and build accessories. No weird hacks converting to analog and then doing software signal processing and generating power with continuous tone.
Apple just locks it down from developers getting access unless you follow their strict guidelines. One of which is that your accessory works for iPhone and only iPhone and not multiple devices. They also have licensing fees involved. It's arbitrary.
The also do this same program for Bluetooth. They claimed custom protocols at WWDC a few years ago that gave me hope I could connect to common bluetooth devices (like a laptops and my Lego NXT device). Entirely not the case.