Is Bluetooth Still Relevant?
I have been testing out the Jabra FreeSpeak BT 200 Bluetooth headset to see how it works. Generally speaking, I have been pretty happy with the voice quality, the form factor, and (surprisingly) the battery life. A colleague of mine saw me using the headset and made a remark to the fact that he didn’t even know that people were still pursuing Bluetooth development. This got me to thinking about whether Bluetooth is still a relevant technology.
I think that Bluetooth matters and will make it into products in the very near future, but faces some challenges that I could not fully appreciate until I started playing with the products and thinking about how I would use them in everyday life.
Problem #1: Pairing – Overall I would say that the process of “pairing”, or establishing a link between my t68i and my headset was a bit clunky, but manageable. If I had to go through that process for creating a link with every Bluetooth device I own, that might be a bit much.
Problem #2: WPAN has no UI – One of the most suprising things that I realized was that the lack of UI for WPAN has a very significant impact on how you use the devices. In addition to my t68i, I also have a Bluetooth enabled Toshiba e740. I would have liked to use my headset to dial a phone call using the address book in my PDA (that’s what WPAN is supposed to be about, right?), but I hadn’t a clue how to do it. Also, I found myself constantly having to pick up the handset to scroll through my address book or view caller ID. Without a UI to help me organize all of the devices in my little WPAN, I was not able to 1) use them all efficiently or 2) benefit from the mobility benefits associated with wireless networking. I am not sure how one could address this problem, but I am sure that it is an issue for anyone looking to integrate multiple Bluetooth products.
Problem #3: Use Case for Voice Recognition? – Given the lack of UI for my little WPAN, it seems to me that the best way for me to use all of these devices would have been via voice. It would have been nice to use simple voice commands (something to the effect of “Find Joe’s mobile phone number in my PDA and call him” would have been nice) to tell my network of devices what to do.
I think that voice might be the best way for me to interact with my wireless PAN for a couple of reasons. One, because each individual’s WPAN will be a personally-assembled federation of devices, I doubt that any one device will have a UI that is optimal for interacting with all of my devices. Second, one of the benefits of having a wireless PAN is that you don’t have to have your hands full of devices, fumbling back and forth to find the piece of information that you want.
In the end, there are a lot of user-related issues that Bluetooth needs to address before it will really appeal to a mass market. But, if the prices continue to fall and radios are integrated into more devices, I have to believe that someone will come up with a workable solution to this problem.
**Update — I found a very similarly themed article on the ZDNet website for those who are interested. Click here if you are interested.
Related Posts
Related posts:
- Why I’m Slowly Starting to Love My Google Nexus One My Google Nexus One is slowly starting to win me...
- Buying a Google Nexus One Unlocked is a Terrible Experience – Fixing It is Easy I have had my Google Nexus One for about a...
- My Four Gripes with Highrise (iPhone, Offline, Syncing) I’ve been using Highrise CRM from 37signals for about a...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
Is Bluetooth still relevant? How can you even ask this question?
First, there is no realistic alternative (don’t even think of mentioning 802.anything, you will just make me laugh).
Second, “still”? The truth is that Bluetooth is still emerging, especially in the US, widely regarded as a mobile/wireless technology laggard. So absent any alternative, its relevance can only increase for at least the next few years. In Europe it is already well established, widely used, for the simple reason that it “just works”.
Your “problems” are little more than nits, entirely attributable to the characteristics of the particular devices you happen to have experience of, or in the case of #3, your own speculation on how the technology should advance (how is the fact that you’ve seen nothing that works the way you imagine it should any kind of problem with Bluetooth technology?)
I don’t know why I bothered to post this, your feeble comments don’t really deserve a response.
Is Bluetooth still relevant? How can you even ask this question? First, there is no realistic alternative (don’t even think of mentioning 802.anything, you will just make me laugh). Second, “still”? The truth is that Bluetooth is still emerging, especially in the US, widely regarded as a mobile/wireless technology laggard. So absent any alternative, its relevance can only increase for at least the next few years. In Europe it is already well established, widely used, for the simple reason that it “just works”. Your “problems” are little more than nits, entirely attributable to the characteristics of the particular devices you happen to have experience of, or in the case of #3, your own speculation on how the technology should advance (how is the fact that you’ve seen nothing that works the way you imagine it should any kind of problem with Bluetooth technology?) I don’t know why I bothered to post this, your feeble comments don’t really deserve a response.
online poker
You are invited to check some helpful info about online poker poker party poker
texas holdem
Atheistic existentialism, of which I am a representative, declares with greater consistency that if God does not exist there is at least one being whose existence comes before its essence, a being whi
online poker
Please check some information in the field of online poker interest only mortgage
party poker
In your free time, visit some helpful info about party poker online poker
online poker
You can also check out the sites about online poker pacific poker
free poker game
Please check some helpful info in the field of hold em poker full tilt poker
multi net poker 7 card stud
You may find it interesting to check out some information in the field of online 7 stud poker game
poker accessories
Please check out the sites about winning net poker matches virtual poker888
poker rules
Please check the pages about poker strip free poker game
Fat Burner
To be healthy Fat Burner
mortgage loan
mortgage loan
black jack card game
casino card gamebaccarat card game free card gameis alcoholism geneticmichigan alcoholism screening testis alcoholism geneticmichigan alcoholism screening testDental Plans
carisoprodol
carisoprodol
Patricia Johnson
Zoofiles about dogs life.
cheap tickets
cheap tickets
Insightful read. I have stumbled and twittered this for my friends. Others no doubt will like it like I did.