Why can't I detect the Bluetooth Estimote beacon using C# but the Windows OS can find them?
I found this when searching for similar answers myself. It appears that currently Windows Store 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1 apps have no support for the pairingless nature of Bluetooth Smart/BLE devices i.e. picking them up in passing as opposed to having to manually pair with them (not what you want to do when surrounded by beacons). They only appear when you try to manually pair with them.
http://vincenth.net/blog/archive/2014/04/24/building-cross-platform-ibeacon-apps-for-ios-android-and-windows-with-c-and-xamarin.aspx This link here confirms it:"Bluetooth Classic and Bluetooth Smart devices must be first discovered and paired via the Windows 8.1 PC settings UI (PC & devices>Bluetooth) before being accessible via the Windows Runtime APIs for Bluetooth"
Really frustrating.
Regarding the question in the title: WinBeacon is a managed C# library that is able to detect iBeacons and can also act as a beacon. Great for testing purposes.
Unfortunately, this only works on a Windows OS, not the Windows Phone variant.