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SHIFT: The trouble with Bluetooth
One of the most annoying things about the upcoming iPhone 3G is that its Bluetooth abilities are remarkably primitive. Like the previous model, Apple gave it only enough Bluetooth to allow it to pair with a wireless earpiece — leaving out the A2DP technology that would let the phone stream music to wireless headphones, or the ability to act as a wireless modem for a computer otherwise stranded from the Net.
Apple is a lot of things, but the company isn't dumb — clearly if there was a big enough demand for advanced wireless abilities, it would have put them in. Bluetooth earpieces have reached the mainstream, barely, but Bluetooth headphones haven't made any noise just yet, even though they've been available for a while. People everywhere say they can't stand wires, yet Bluetooth tech hasn't come anywhere near obsoleting the headphone cable. What's the holdup? My explanation after the Continue jump.
What's With This Code Stuff?
The apparent popularity of Bluetooth earpieces is pretty amazing to me. I don't know anyone who actually uses one regularly, and I suspect a big portion of the 13 million Bluetooth-enabled devices the Bluetooth Special Interest Group claims are shipped each week are either machines that just happen to include Bluetooth (like PCs) or gifts (earpieces are cheap enough now to qualify as a stocking stuffer), many of which get little or no use. One major reason is the setup — that is, there is one. Instead of simply working, as cellphones themselves do, you need to look up codes and punch them in somewhere to pair a phone with a Bluetooth earpiece. To a population that was flummoxed by programming their VCRs, the potential for this being a deal-breaker is very real.No Wires, No Style
The iPod took headphones from functional tool to technological style statement. When you're picking out a pair, the last thing you want is something that makes you look like a dork. But early adopters of Bluetooth headphones sadly had no choice but to sacrifice cool points in favor of cutting that cable — witness these stunningly inelegant designs. In fairness, the nature of wireless technology necessitates something bulkier than your average earbuds, but if you can't make something people won't be ashamed to wear outside, you may as well forget it.People Want Magic, Not Wireless
The main thing that's holding back Bluetooth, though, is that it's not magic. Technology writer John Quain recently summed it up when he related a story to me about a woman describing what kind of wireless speaker she wanted: something she could easily hang on a wall and not have to ever plug in — completely oblivious to the basic fact that without wires, a speaker (or pair of headphones) needs power to function. Meaning it needs either a power cable (making it not really wireless at all) or a battery (that requires continual recharging). Bluetooth gear opts for the latter, meaning as soon as you get an earpiece or some headphones, you've got one more thing to charge up, one more thing that takes up a power outlet, and one more thing that could die on you at any time. It's enough to make many people just not bother.Our Wireless Future
So, short of a Tesla-level breakthrough in the field of wireless energy, is the future doomed to remain a tethered world, with cables everywhere? I don't think so — wireless technologies like Bluetooth hold too much promise, and the general trend is toward more wireless, not less. Engineering will eventually solve the design factor and to some extent the power issue (through improved batteries and better Bluetooth specs that use less energy). The setup will remain the toughest sell, but offering equipment with wireless devices prepared… er, pre-paired might be an acceptable workaround for some gadgets. Or some other, simpler wireless technology might snatch the baton from Bluetooth in the future. Than again, maybe we could all just smarten up and realize that Bluetooth pairing really isn't that hard. Now who's wishing for magic?
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Editor: Peter Pachal
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By Me at 7:33 PM ON 06/26/08
About your comment - "The setup will remain the toughest sell, but offering equipment with wireless devices prepared… er, pre-paired might be an acceptable workaround for some gadgets."
LG's got a phone with an integrated Bluetooth headset - thought that was cool, at least:
http://www.lgmobilephones.com/phone.aspx?id=8564
By himono.otoko at 10:32 PM ON 06/26/08
Sony has an mp3 that bundles with bluetooth headphones...they don't look bad at all actually.
By mr green at 1:51 AM ON 06/27/08
um yahh blue tooth sucks bad. yet the idea of wireless headphones is great. so why does bluetooth suck. good question. i would never be caught with one on. Why pay extra for a feature your phone already has. A SPEAKER. and as for driving with your phone. people cant drive anyways so who really cares about one more distraction. i would spend more time f,ing with my bluetooth headset then actually talking. sorry blue tooth sounds like a looser deal to me
By PatrikL at 3:21 AM ON 06/27/08
Imagine this: All manufacturers of bluetooth equipment agree on a small but clearly visible "pairing area" on their devices. Say just a small metal square with a bluetooth symbol on it. Put the squares on the two devices you want to pair in contact with eachother and then like magic they are connected!
By c-serpent at 8:49 AM ON 06/27/08
Gee, my Juke paired with my cheap Motorola earpiece with a press of a button, not a big deal. And speaking of nice designs, have you seen the Motorola S9 stereo head set? Apple's real reason is that they they don't hold the patents on Bluetooth and haven't found a way to set up proprietary wireless stereo head sets that they can use for price gouging their addicts.
By EnOne at 8:58 AM ON 06/27/08
Like the LG pairing idea. assuming that my phone isn't broken if the earpiece is unattached. It get's rid of my main problem with bluetooth that it's something else I have to keep charged.
Also you have to look at movies and television on the characters that are using bluetooth earpieces, it's mainly the symbol for a corporate or government goon.
By jnemesh at 12:24 PM ON 06/27/08
The truth is that Apple gets money for EVERY iPod dock connector sold, regardless of brand. EVERY manufacturer has to license the dock. Apple does NOT get a single red cent from Bluetooth devices. Hence, no ability to use Bluetooth audio from an iPod. Its simple greed.
By wilder_card at 7:21 PM ON 06/29/08
My experience with Bluetooth devices has been that, once you get the damn things paired, they work acceptably well about 50% of the time. I don't mean 50% of the devices work all the time, I mean all the gadgets work sometime. A spec that was in the works for so many years should at least work.
By SmartEgo at 11:01 AM ON 06/30/08
Dear Peter Pachal,
You asked the right questions and replyed the wrong answers. And as a communication engineer who take pride of NOT using or making Blutooth stuff, I may give you one of my wrong replys.
Bluetooth is invented to make connection between electronic stuff not just wireless, as we already have audio connection -for instance- using talky walky open over the air, but also secure among digital appliances of many or more hopfully any kind. So the code thing is a minimum requirement that a human brain -not necessarily- smart is involved in pairing the device.
As for style, that should be left for "smart" tailors who respond to smart devices, or may be "chique" engineers who find job is more than just make it work and go.
Although people want magic actually enterprises want money regardless of people's health, which brings me to the reason I personally will never use Bluetooth for listening to music or may be even wear an ear piece: The microwave oven used to cook food uses 2.45 GHz high power source but our dear Bluetooth devices use 2.4 to 2.48 low power radiators. So If I intend to slowly cook my brain I'll spend hours enjoying soft cooking music on my A2DP headphone.
Unfortionately Apple may take advantage of my comment refering to how they care alot about their addicts so they denied them the the right to hurt themselves, but I would like to tell them that any open earpiece may be of a hurt of comparable magnitude. So Apple stick to marketing plans and baught patented inventions as Peter is right you're not dumb.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwave_oven
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth
By JeBuS at 9:36 AM ON 07/03/08
Smartego, did you even read the Bluetooth wiki link you posted? It has a "Heath Concerns" section that basically says Bluetooth is no more dangerous than your cellphone is.
By S31Ender at 1:57 PM ON 07/03/08
Wikipedia IS NOT a source.
ANYONE can write ANYTHING in wikipedia, and until someone else sees it and changes it, it'll stay there. Also, there's nothing preventing someone from going back and re-entering the false data again later.
Just FYI.
By Totono at 2:52 PM ON 07/03/08
Well, over here in El Salvador (Central America) a lot of people use bluetooth earpieces and to tranfer files between phones (people from all education o social levels). I see it more and more every month. I've had a Bluetooth headset for years now and it's the best cel-phone accesory I've gotten ever. It has worked with my last 5 phones and I still charge it like once every two weeks and use it every day. I've seen people here learn about the tech and use it more and more, so I believe people can learn and will learn how to pair devices. I know there are some people out there that have no clue about electronics and computers, but if they like it they will learn, if they see the advantage they will learn.
By Scott at 3:15 PM ON 07/03/08
The simple solution to the pairing problem (and the battery problem to a certain extent) is to have a physical connection that programs the device (and could charge the battery if the "parent" device has much more capacity than the "child") So basically, you plug your headset into your phone like a USB flash drive and it automagically pairs the devices, and while plugged in it charges the battery on the headset too.
Not that complicated, and really just an extension of existing BT technology (just need to standardize the plug and the programming protocol)
By Scott at 3:21 PM ON 07/03/08
Oh, and Wikipedia is just as good a source as anything else, or do you think people can't print fabrications on paper ??
Actually, it's better, because Somebody can still quote the Jason Blair articles in the NY Times and even show you a copy w/o you knowing that they were complete BS, but on wikipedia once someone finds the BS it actually gets removed.
By bmh at 4:07 PM ON 07/03/08
On a non-technical aspect, an annoying thing is when morons keep bluetooth earpieces on in movie theaters! Not only is talking during the movie very irritating -- so are bright lights!
By Sander at 5:41 PM ON 07/03/08
When I got my 2005 Acura RL in, well, 2005, I also bought a new phone. At the time there was 1 Nokia from Verizon that had analog and BT in one phone. The RL has built in BT called Handsfree Link. It's pretty awesome. Once your car and phone are paired there's no work. You get in and and call that comes in mutes your radio and comes in loud and clear over the speakers. Of course you can make calls as well. Not that I recommend cell phone use in the car at all but being a family man the simple fact of life is that sometimes my wife has to call to remind me of something and sometimes I have to call to let her know I'm almost home. So there BT rocks. 100%. By now many more cars have this feature. Get it.
Fast forward to mid 2007. I'm frequenting the gym more and I like to listen to some tunes. Luckily our gym has no background 'music' so you can listen to your own if you like. Don't know about you but headphone cords always get stuck at the least opportune times while trying to lift that weight. So I got a Moto RIZR with a 2GB memory card. Loaded it up with MP3s and got a stereo BT headset on Woot! for a few bucks. Now I leave my mp3 player at home and only have to deal with 1 device to stay connected (phone calls interrupt the music) and listen to music. No more wires that get in the way. The mp3 player on the phone is a joke and sometimes I have to re-connect the headset if it connects in headset mode but other than that it's pretty sweet. BTW in the last 9 months I've only had 1 call on my cell while in the gym so I'm not one of those annoying 'talk in the gym' guys. Just making sure I can be reached if needed.
Now I use wires when I can but some cases wireless has real advantages. As for the scaremongering regarding BT radiation, that's absurd. A microwave blasts, what 1000W into a steel box. Dangerous. A BT headset has a tiny tiny battery that lasts for many hours. Do the math. We're talking puny amounts of radiation here. Sure, it's probably better to have no radiation hit you at all but in that case you need to live in a cave and never fly an airplane. Cosmic radiation hits us all the time and still most of us live long lives. Relax.
By Raymondjram at 7:16 AM ON 07/07/08
If people wanted real wireless devices, not just for signal but for power, those devices can tap into the 60 Hz electromagnetic energy that flows along all power lines. The only bad thing is that the transformer/inductor will be large. Maybe someone can use some of Tesla's theories and create the ultimate wireless device, using a remote power and signal source. When this happens, we will not need batteries or wires of any kind.
Until that happens, someone will try to get other wireless power sources (solar energy is one), or tap into the human body for a new source.
Raymond
By tmanting at 8:38 PM ON 07/08/08
I love my bluetooth headphones. Yes, headphones, the kind that cup your ears and drown out all the other noises. I use them with my BlackBerry when I mow the lawn and they sound excellent. Truly excellent. Way better than any other headphones I've tried on the crackberry. Any others I've tried weren't loud enough to use while mowing. Of course, I spent $150 on the best Sony's I could find.