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Bluetooth Gets Faster & Requires Less Power
An anonymous reader writes "The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (BSIG) has announced a new specification named "Enhanced Data Rate" or EDR for short. EDR aims to provide faster data transmission and reduce the power consumption from traditional Bluetooth technology. The data speeds will be roughly three times faster which means you could easily use multiple Bluetooth devices simultaneously. The reduced power consumption also means longer battery life and less heat generated. The new EDR standard will be backward compatible with the current standard Bluetooth devices. This makes upgrading to the new standard effortless."
A faster Bluetooth. With my Sony Ericsson T616 speeds are laughable and slow and maybe now Bluetooth will finally be able to maximize its potential and actually start to compete with other wireless specs.
And the power consumption. A gift from the heavens. Bluetooth lowers my cellphones standby to about a 8 hours with no calls.
With all the new wireless technologies coming out, (wireless USB, wireless IEEE 1394, etc.) will this be enough to save the failing bluetooth. I use a Microsoft BlueTooth keyboard and mouse and while it is the best keyboard and mouse combo I've ever used, the lack of market saturation cost me $160.
"Here's a spoiler: You're will die alone."-Triumph the Insult Comic Dog
By compressing more data per packet, do they just mean they are using a better compression algorithm, or larger packets? The first should only help a little and for some uses, the second could theoretically make a lot more of a difference. But the less-power usage will be good anyhow.
Or can I just upgrade my Bluetooth dongle firmware?
???
Only Steve knows for sure...
Now that bluetooth is considered a more mature specification since they managed to make a specification update without having to break backward compatability.
Maybe it is time for more bluetooth enabled printers and external devices. I wouldn't mind keeping the printer in the other room.
Push harder towards Open Media/Content
The IEEE standard for Bluetooth is 802.15.3. The 802.15.3a standard is a revision for the standard using UWB signaling. It promises data rates of > 100Mbps plus lower power.
Maybe now I can leave bluetooth active on my cellphone 24/7 and not wake up with a dead battery. Although, people can hack into phones now with bluetooth and steal/change your address book. Scary.
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There's lots of cool things to do with Bluetooth but nobody'll implement it because they're all dumb.
1) Cell phone "submissiveness" - an establishment (like a movie theater or a school) installs a device that causes your BT-enabled phone to shutthehellup. When this happens, the phone beeps once to notify the user of the situation. The user can opt out if he/she wishes.
2) Tire pressures - to go along with our RFID license plates, our tires could tell our cell phones (or the dashboard) if they are low on pressure.
3) Coupons - a person's cell phone (once again) could be configured to receive (or not) coupons at the grocery store upon entering.
4) Wireless peripherals - the biggest usability problem with PCs these days is the rats nest behind (or on top of, in front of) the damn things. Holy shit... Some of you know what I'm talking about. This is crazy.
Sure - it was all a nice thought and some of it even made it (I have a wireless keyboard that could have used the BT standard but didn't for WHO KNOWS what reason) but now we've got wireless-serial-attached-SCSI and every other damn wireless specification coming. Great!
What the industry needs is an independent board to regulate this stuff. Intel doesn't like Firewire so they codevelop USB. Great! If we had a board that could pick a standard, we wouldn't be stuck with this cruft. Don't get me wrong - I'm all about having freedom but it would be nice if the industry said, "we like this standard - go ahead and develop that other crap but we will only endorse this".
Sure - Intel does have clout but you still have to buy a separate USB cable for that iPod (usually a second trip to the store, too).
Life is the leading cause of death in America.
In my opinion, Bluetooth has been much more plagued by lack of adoption than speed and power consumption. USB was immensily popular before it became fast. It's popularity is what spurred it to become faster. I would love to get a bluetooth phone or PDA, or wireless keyboard or wireless mouse to connect with the internal bluetooth in my powerbook, but options are limited, which is driving costs way up. We need more options, and we need costs to be driven down. Thats not going to happen until more manufacturers adopt it.
Bluetooth group preps 2.1Mbps spec By Tony Smith Published Thursday 10th June 2004 10:38 GMT Bluetooth communications are set to get rather faster with a new version of the specification that takes its data throughput 2.1Mbps in the offing. The new version, Bluetooth Enhanced Data Rate (EDR), is offered as a "prototype specification" by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG). The technology increases data transmission by compressing more data into each packet rather than by increasing the rate at which packets are sent. Today's devices support speeds of up to 712Kbps. Bluetooth EDR will use existing Bluetooth 1.2 technology for connecting devices and sending data, so older devices will still be able to communicate with machines supporting EDR. The SIG says EDR will consume less power than the current version - it reckons EDR devices will eke out battery power for twice as long as Bluetooth units do today. And the new specification also provides improved facilities to use several functions or devices simultaneously, due to more available bandwidth. The Bluetooth SIG expects the EDR specification to be finalised this coming Autumn. Products based on the specification are set to ship some time in 2005. The SIG needs to come up with improved versions of the spec if it's to prevent Bluetooth becoming overshadowed by UWB-based technologies such as the 480Mbps Wireless USB. WUSB's first spec isn't due until the end of the year, and even if it's implemented quickly, Bluetooth has a considerable lead in terms of the number of devices that support it.
Some newer cars (eg, BMW 5) have bluetooth integration so your phone works directly without needing a car-kit or cradle. Kind of neat.
They are complimentary,
/g and bluetooth together? See how complimentary they are... Having to use bluetooth *OR* wifi isn't very complimentary...
Complimentary my backside! ever tried to use 802.11b
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