I was doing a little research to see if I could use my retired iPhone 4 as an iBeacon test device for either advertising or detecting, and unfortunately the answer is no.
Here is the list of Apple devices that officially support iBeacon, taken from the Apple KB article iOS: Understanding iBeacon (KB: HT6048):
To use iBeacon, you need iOS 7 or later, Bluetooth turned on, and a compatible iOS device:
- iPhone 4s or later
- iPad (3rd generation) or later
- iPad mini or later
- iPod touch (5th generation) or later
I was a little disappointed, but not really surprised. The iPhone 4 can barely run iOS 7, so it’s usefulness is rapidly declining, especially on the eve of WWDC 2014 (literally!)…