In case anyone gets the impression that bluetooth is completely unavailable, you can use Espruino (JS) http://www.espruino.com/MicroBit, Microsoft's http://codethemicrobit.com (scratch-like drag and drop), or C / C++ amongst others, including bluetooth access to the compass and accelerometer.

Here's a rundown: https://blog.bluetooth.com/developing-applications-bbc-micro...