Upcoming Arduino Primo will have Bluetooth, NFC, Wi-Fi, and infrared

There’s a new Arduino on the way. It’s apparently going to be shown at the Maker Faire Bay Area show this week, but Arduino’s new partnership with Nordic Semiconductor was just formalized in a press release that offers most of the interesting details about the upcoming board (it’s powered by a Nordic nRF52 SoC). Primo will include Bluetooth LE (low energy), NFC, Wi-Fi, and infrared built-in — you typically need a “shield” add-on to get these features.

Arduino is famous for empowering DIY projects, but it’s one of a multitude of choices available these days for prototyping your IoT startup, or, like, text messaging you every time your cat sneezes. The addition of Bluetooth and NFC might give Primo a slight edge until these kinds of chipsets show up everywhere.