So we received our Nordic nRF51822 Eval Kits (for customer related Bluetooth LE work) back in October. You get a dongle, which can be plugged into a PC and used with their Master Emulator software ( … haven't tried with the iOS simulator … ), and a no-frills demo board. 
 
 
 
 
 
The Nordic kit is about the same price as the TI CC2540 kit, with the TI kit giving you a very nice keyfob remote. 
 
 
 
 
 
In my humble opinion, the nRF51822 has one very distinct "developer" advantage over the TI part. The TI kit uses (requires you to use! - see below -) the IAR tool chain. With it, you get a free 30 day unlimited license, after that you roll back to 32K. If you need to continue to do development, you'll need to shell about $3000 for a full version of the tool chain ( … your code linked with the TI library >> 32K … ). 
 
On the other hand, Nordic uses Keil tools, but the development process is architected in such a way that you can continue to use the 32K evaluation edition for development (after 30 days). The Nordic Bluetooth LE MAC / PHY firmware ("softradio") is a completely separate pre-built "library" with no external dependencies. This softradio gets separately loaded into the part, and you merely call it from your separate firmware. So, as long as YOUR code does not exceed 32K, you are golden.  
 
One other interesting development angle for the Nordic part - since the softradio and your firmware are separate, you can use other tool chains for development - i.e. GCC! Lastly, the Nordic part uses an ARM cortex M0, while the TI uses an 8051 … I'll let you decide which one comes out on top. 

Posted by: Lab Coat

This cheap one that I got off of ebay (around $10) has a CSR device at it's core (assumed from the packaging that said "CSR") … it works as an external dongle for the Xcode iOS simulator.  
 
 
 
Another one that I talked about in the past is this one from iBuffalo … it works well, but you have to "manually" get it from Japan (around $50 with shipping). 
 
 

Posted by: Lab Coat

So we've finished the first version of our Bluetooth 4.0 single mode module, based on a Nordic radio and a Freescale microcontroller. Size is approximately 1.0" x 0.5" and incorporates an Inverted F style antenna. Range (working with an iPhone4s) is approximately 90 feet. 
 
 

Posted by: Lab Coat

So Apple recently published a technote on how to use an external Bluetooth 4.0 usb module with OS X / Xcode / Simulator for doing BLE hardware and iOS software development. Unfortunately Bill and I have (had?) been unable to find any suitable BLE 4.0 usb modules that would work. IIRC, Bill tried TI, Nordic, and Broadcom (which you would think would work as that's what Apple appears to be using inside the latest Mac computer updates), with no joy.  
 
Long story short, a friend of mine at Apple put me onto the 1 (maybe 2) usb modules that have been shown to work. The first is from Buffalo (model # BSHSBD08BK) and the second is from CSR (part of their µEnergy BLE dev kit). The information about the CSR module is not concrete, as there has only been 3rd hand evidence of it working. I ordered several Buffalo modules from Amazon Japan, and should have them here in a few days. Plan is to have Bill write up a short post on how to get everything running smoothly. 
 
iBUFFALO Bluetooth4.0+EDR/LE USB (BSHSBD08BK) 

Posted by: Lab Coat

 
Welcome to the "new" EA blog ... Bill and I will post interesting tidbits from projects we're working on. These will mainly be EMC / EMI, RF, or microcontroller / systems related ... occasionally we'll throw in a product teardown or 2, and who knows what else. 
 
If you want to contact us about something we've written, try product_dev (at) engineeredaudio (dot) com. 
 
Enjoy! 
 
Marshall and Bill. 

Posted by: Lab Coat