Microsoft says the Windows Embedded Source Tools for Bluetooth Technology provides a Win32 API wrapper that can be exposed in Visual Studio .NET or the .NET Compact Framework to reduce the amount of code needed for Bluetooth applications. The package includes the following components:

• Classes to create Bluetooth services
  
• Classes to enumerate Bluetooth devices
  
• Classes to connect to an existing Bluetooth device or service

"Bluetooth coding to the native application program interface is extremely difficult, and having this source tool available will be very beneficial for the development community," noted Doug Boling, principal of Boling Consulting.

Windows Embedded Source Tools for Bluetooth Technology are available in Windows CE 5.0 and Windows Mobile 5.0 versions. The tools are offered under a Shared Source license, which allows developers to customize and ship the code without any obligation to share the modifications with Microsoft, competitors, or the development community, according to Microsoft. The code is available for download here.

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