By eliminating the need for an extra, separate shielding board, RedBear says the Blend is both smaller and up to half the cost of previous two-board Arduino Bluetooth Smart solutions, while also being simpler and easier to use because it requires no additional wiring or soldering, or indeed potential troubleshooting if the shielding board doesn't function as desired.

Blend boards are ArduinoAtHeart-certified and come in two form factors: the miniaturized 'Blend Micro' (43.4 x 18.5 x 4.5mm) and larger more functional 'Blend' (77.2 x 58.4 x 20mm). Both are designed to allow electronics makers (such as amateur hobbyists hobbyists and students) and professional developers (such as R&D engineers and product designers) to develop Bluetooth Smart products using the simplicity and flexibility of the Arduino open source platform.

The Blend and Blend Micro also natively support (with no extra wiring) all Nordic Semiconductor nRF8001 compatible reference designs (downloadable from the Nordic website and including the Smart Remote, and Smartphone Demo App) development tools and software development kits (including the nRFgo Starter Kit, nRF8001 Development Kit, nRF8001 Software Development Kit (SDK), and nRFgo Studio).

The nRF8001 SDK contains many different application examples including Human Interface Device (HID); UART over Bluetooth low energy; Heart Rate Monitor (HRM); Temperature; and Proximity.

Since Arduino’s inception in 2005, it has become an extremely popular, cost-effective platform for prototype development allowing users to get ideas up and running quickly. The technology, sometimes known as “Linux for embedded microcontrollers”, is a range of hardware and software tools enabling engineers and non-engineers alike to develop engineering solutions to a wide range of everyday needs without having to get involved with low level embedded (e.g. C) programming.