Skip to main content

Bluetooth needs an overbite


Bluetooth was once a bit of a gimmick and was hard to come by. It was toyed with by some of the gadget freaks but never really found a proper niche as they were very few devices that you could connect with.

The last couple of generations of handsets has seen Bluetooth have a pretty healthy comeback and now you can find the technology embedded into phones, thru headsets, stereo headphones and on to cameras.

However until very recently you were still limited to one channel, this gave you very little flxibility and the profiles are a bit clunky.

Again this is in a state of evolution and my future phone; the Nokia E60, comes with six bluetooth channels.

There is the usual banter about how WiFi enabled handsets will start to undo the handcuffs that the Mobile Operator has put on your wrists, although in reality the MNO will still own the pipe, but many people forget about Bluetooth. It is a complementary connectivity option as it to can be a route into the UMA and out on to the mobile network.

As Martin observed earlier this week many people are using some of the bridging capabilities of Bluetooth radio. This is allowing them to use their mobile handset as a over engineered Bluetooth headset.

So there is some work required to give the Bluetooth the bite it needs to really make it's mark but the market is ready for the new standard.

So there are more options for you to reveal the potential of Bluetooth. Although here's some free advice. If you're picking up a headset accessory for your Nokia stay away from this model, the Nokia HDW-3.

Here in Thailand it retails for just shy of 4,000 Baht (that's 60 of your British Pounds and pushing up and over 100 bucks) so it's not cheap. Unfortunately the quality and the usefulness of the unit is completely over turned by the plastic ear clip that costs around 3 Baht (5 pence) to manufacture. The clip ring frequently fails meaning that the headset can not be used in a hands free mode.


When I get round to changing my phone I'll spring for this guys newest brother, Nokia HS-26W. The clip is more of a rubberised affair that is more flexible and it lends itself to left or right usage much better.
Labels:

Comments

Anonymous said…
David,
While you are at it, try out the Bluetooth Class 1 Dongles for your notebook. I got one, and I absolutely love it. 100m Range. Good sound quality.
2:58 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

PC over IP - The Teradici Effect

Teradici are hoping to blur the lines between PC and Data Centre. Their solution allows a use to view multiple screens and control the blade PC over IP. This is kind of like the dumb terminals with a new edgy deployment. The intention is that all of the computing power is performed offsite in a centralized area, the Data Centre, and this will save on power and maintenance costs as the engineers are co-located with the hardware and therefore don't have to go out to the client site for basic maintenance. The Teradici Company Article found in the Wall Street Journal
Post a Comment
Read more

e-Olympics

This year's Olympics should be the best ever for coverage. Fring are looking for onsite commentators and as a means to encourage people are offering a 3.5G phone as your reporters tool. I hope that this will be the games of the micro blog. The potential for services like Twitter or Jaiku to open up access to the games in a way never seen before is encouraging. Essentially there are three dimensions to the games: Nation Event Athlete Typically broadcast of the games ha content defined by the nation. The USA channels closely follow the USA squad, the same for UK, NZ Australia etc. This is targeted at the national pride. For those people who are actively engaged in an event themselves, marathon, it's the event that is king. There will still be an element of "my country" but this is equally balanced by "my sport". The final element is the followers of a specific athlete. Friends, family and fans may elect to follow all of the events surrounding a person. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Cashless Society? Micropayments up for disruption

New Zealand, although small, is a long way ahead in many aspects compared to the UK. Some of their new schemes are being adopted by the UK government. What I remember from my first trip here 6 years ago was the impact of the EFTPOS system. Long before the UK was using Chip and PIN New Zealand was moving towards a cashless society with the ubiquitous EFTPOS (Electronic Funds Transfer Point of Sale) cards and terminals. The system is good and robust. But the one place you can't find it for some of those micropayments is on the public transport system. Buses would benefit from some form of electronic payment system. There is one drawback of the system in it's implementation today, the time taking to pay. For small payments, say a Moro (think Mars) Bar at the local dairy (corner shop) is the time taken for the system to recognise the card and for the user to select the account (Cheque, Savings or Card) and input their PIN. This would certainly slow down the boarding process...
Post a Comment
Read more