The Bean+ is basically an Arduino board that can be programmed via Bluetooth LE. Not unlike the Particle boards, this tiny little kit lets you add features to a hardware project and, as long as current is flowing, send commands to the board remotely. This makes it a lot easier to upload applications to a new platform, for example, or to create systems that can be updated just by walking past them with a programming system.
The system can also act as an iOS or Android Beacon and you can even access various sensors to create IoT devices. As a prototyping board it seems surprisingly robust and full of tricks – just what a hardware hacker needs to make something fun.
If you’re anything like me you understand the power of Arduino but are stymied by limitations of education, imagination, or wireless connectivity to implement it into your own life. Thanks to the LightBlue Bean+, however, one of those roadblocks has been torn down.
