Bluetooth dock dongle Pear falls short of Apple certification, gets shelved

Last summer, Pear promised to make pairing iDevices via Bluetooth to an Apple-compatible speaker dock easy, but caught a trademark snag that put it on hold shortly after. The adapter seemed destined for a release under a different moniker, but it's met an impasse. According to the folks behind the hardware, the device wasn't approved under Apple's MFi (Made for iPad / iPhone / iPod) program since Cook and Co. don't bestow the seal of approval upon products that leverage the 30-pin female connector in conjunction with Bluetooth. Pear's creators note they could move ahead without Apple's blessing, but say that the development "officially kills this product" since Cupertino could put the kibosh on the operation. Despite dashed hopes for the dongle's reincarnation, its creators are pushing forward with another product -- though it's unclear if it's an iteration of the ill-fated connector -- and expect to have more details within three to four weeks.