Finishing up
With the completed BlueSniper rifle, you should be able to find Bluetooth devices, display their physical addresses and manufacturer names. There is no doubt that hackers will port more Bluetooth tools to the Gumstix platform, and it's probable that entirely new software will be released in the future. But for now, available applications are sparse.
Recently, Craig Hughes from Gumstix and Dave Smith helped me port over a few more Bluetooth scanning applications. The first application, called BTScanner, was tough to build for the Gumstix, but it appears that Dave Smith has succeeded. BTScanner will show the link status and available services to a Bluetooth device that has been placed in discoverable mode. You can download the files here (under the sources link).
Dave Smith has also ported over Car Whisperer, a recently released tool from the guys at Trifinite.org. This handy little app can record and transmit audio to / from passing Bluetooth headset devices. While I haven't played around with Car Whisper yet, I plan to brush off my 23 dBi parabolic antenna and give it a spin in the future. You can download the Gumstix port here (also under the sources link).
Update August 13, 2005 Both BTScanner and Car Whisperer have been incorporated into the buildroot.
It is possible to scan for devices that have been placed in non-discoverable mode with Redfang and Bluesniff, but so far I haven't seen these apps ported to the Gumstix. Redfang can brute force through MAC address space and find almost any Bluetooth device (given enough time). Bluesniff is actually a front-end for Redfang that formats the information in a more readable format. If you have seen these tools ported to the Gumstix, or if you have ported them yourself, I would love to hear from you. You can contact me at humphrey@tomshardware.com.
Please play responsibly with your new BlueSniper rifle and target only your own Bluetooth devices. And for God sakes, don't point the rifle at anyone or act in a suspicious manner with it. You don't want to be on the receiving end of real gunfire!