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Bluetooth Shipments Exceed 1M per Week
An anonymous reader writes "Just when you think that Bluetooth is dead... The Bluetooth SIG releases a press story that quotes some pretty impressive figures - over 1M Bluetooth enabled devices have been shipped within a week. Bluetooth wireless technology has been quietly making progress over the past year and can now be found in an impressive array of consumer products, from mobile phones and headsets to PDAs, PCs, MP3 players and even automobiles. The technology has reached critical mass, with several books on how to write your own applications with the technology, including Java for those of you who want to create your own Bluetooth apps for your SonyEricsson P900"
New technologies take time to get established. Obvious but true. Think of how long it took for video rental stores to get a DVD section.
Random is the New Order.
I posted this on another forum, but I think it works here:
He's right. Bluetooth works very well in a very few, very limited situations, but for the most part it's useless. I think that's mostly due to OEM support than anything else. Not a single one of the phones I want support it, and the add-on adapters (that regularly fall off and get lost) cost way too much (Nextel quoted me US$170 for a little bluetooth dongle that I'd probably lose any way). It's not even being used for what it was made. BT, contrary to the claims of random discount hardware mfgrs is not for home networking.
If anyone wants me to use bluetooth, they need to give me at least some of what I want. Here's where you can start:
Decent keyboard that works with most things
I like the look of the MS keyboard, but it's the old square design and I need the split "ergo" style - unless I limit my typing to an hour or so a day and wear a wrist brace. A nifty add-on would be something that remembers a connection to multiple devices so I can flip a switch and have it cycle between my desktop, laptop/tablet, pda, and phone
Same for a mouse
Working on Pocket PC/Windows Mobile/whatever is kinda expected (but isn't supported at this time at all).
A reasonably inexpensive phone with BT
Weren't these chips supposed to cost like $5? Why am I nearly doubling the cost of a US$200 phone to get it? This is garbage. Filth. I'd be happy with a phone that did nothing but dial in and out, with BT (interfacing with a headset, pda dialer, etc would be nice - eg to the point where I don't even need an onboard address book - if I do have one, I want to be able to sync it with the PIM of my choice, like outlook). Or give me an overkill device like the Mot MPx200. I'm willing to pay a lot more for the extra functionality. My biggest gripe about phones right now is that they charge me out the boot for lots of irrelevant "features" that are only usable on the phone - my Mot i90c can store like 500 names, addresses, dates, tasks, and all that, but they don't exist outside the phone.
ditch this master/slave crap
I want a mesh, not locking one device to one host until I want to go through the hassle of retraining another one. I want my PDA, phone, and console to be able to grab my headset as needed. I want to be able to hear system events and dictate speech to my tablet on the bus, get a small beep when the phone (in my pocket) rings, maybe an onscreen notification of who it is, and tap a button on my headset to answer if I want.
funny munging
Anybody feels like taking this challenge?
I'm sure I'm going to see a lot of "I've never seen anyone using bluetooth, so who cares" type comments, but this misses the larger point.
Bluetooth *is* spreading. You can buy cars now that are bluetooth enabled. And trust me, it'd be nice to have your calls come over your speakers and have your voice picked up by a mic in a car. This is the kind of stuff that makes people *want* this technology.
Most PDAs come with bluetooth. The idea of being able to pick up a palm, hit a button and check my email while my phone is sitting in my bag or coat is pretty cool. No more cables to fumble with or IR ports to line up. This is the kind of stuff that makes geeks want this technology.
And that's what's cool about bluetooth, IMO. It has geek appeal, and regular people can see the value in it too.
I have a SE T616 phone, a Clie NZ90 and a BT dongle on my PC and PowerBook (I also have a DCR-PC120BT Sony DV camcorder with BT, but I haven't actually found a good use for it's BT support). I sync both the T616 and NZ90 via BT with my PC (WinXP and Outlook). I use the T616 as a BT modem on both the Clie and the PowerBook.
For syncing BT is great because I don't have to have a bunch of usb cables spider webbing out to my devices. My phone stays on my belt and the pda just sits where ever it's most convenient. I just press sync in outlook for the phone, or tap sync on the Clie and they just start syncing. Nice. No more having to plug cables in and remember to unplug to actually use the device.
Using the phone as a modem via BT is also great since I usually do this "out in the field", where if I had to drag my phone out of my pocket (where it usually is when I'm out and about) and have a cable running from it to either the Clie or PB, then that would suck. This way it stays where ever I have it (pocket, bag, backpack, maybe even not on me, but close by). It's very nice being able to just whip out the Clie and start surfing instantly.
Now all that said, getting all this wonder and joy to work was a pain in the butt to say the least. Support for USB dongles is sketchy even under XP (OSX is better, but still requires tweaking). And having two different things trying to sync on the desktop can confuse the heck out of the software. But when it's all sorted out, its great.
So I would say, you aint really a nerd unless everything you buy from this point on has BT built in. If you are poo pooing it, take a look first, once you start using it, you aint ever gonna go back.
- External CD Player
- PC
- DVD
- VCR
- Turntables
- (radio built into the amp)
The result? A clutter of tables and periodic fiddling behind the back of my stereo to change cables (not enough inputs).It would be nice if all of the sound devices could connect to the amp, and the amp would give me a little LCD menu of the devices. And when someone brings over their latest sound toy, the amp would pick it up and add it to the menu. No cables, no hassles.
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