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iPhone and Bluetooth
On a minor follow up note to my last post. I should also of course have mentioned the Apple iPhone when I mentioned Bluetooth headphones and music over Bluetooth being "big" in 2007.
Apple really "get" Bluetooth. The consumer experience using it on their Laptops to date is simply one of the best around, and I'd expect them to carry this through to the iPhone. It has Bluetooth 2.0 support, so pretty soon, I expect to s the "cooloscenti" wearing wireless Apple and 3rd party headphones, streaming the music in CD quality to their ears from their new iPhone, and experiencing that seamless handover stuff that Bluetooth does very well when a call comes through (music fades, player pauses, call comes through, do the call, hang up, music restarts and fades up).
Niiiice :-)
Maybe later they'll also put JSR82 support on it, to support their widgety innovation on-phone.
Bluetooth Headphones
Music over Bluetooth, and in particular Bluetooth Headphones are going to be BIG this year, in my humble opinion.
Logitech, Motorola, Creative and others are all now shipping top-notch Bluetooth Stereo Headphones. It's hard to explain until you've tried one of these with say, an iPod or a true music phone, or your laptop. I think you'll find:
a) the audio quality is now very, very good!
b) you're never going back to wired headphones
It's one of those little things - once you'd had the freedom of a wireless headset, and been relieved of that awful feeling whereby you accidentally drag your laptop with you when you get up from your desk, 'cos you forgot you were "plugged in" it it via your headphones, there's just no going back. Some of them even look cool.
http://store.everythingq.com/content/accessories/73-136--769.htm
http://direct.motorola.com/ens/BTStereoHS_Web_Features.asp?country=USA&language=ENS
http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/details/US/EN,CRID=2412,CONTENTID=12492
http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=243&subcategory=248&product=11644
Won't be long before Nike does a wireless version of it's new Hatphone, surely?
Bluespamming
A number of our customers for our Java/Bluetooth Development tools are using the tools to build a variety of proximity marketing solutions. As a result, we're interested in following how they get on, and how such solutions are perceived by analysts, marketeers and customers.
Carlo Longino has a good article on a recent use of such a service in London. His article generated quite a bit of follow-up and useful comment.
Our view would be - done well - these services can still be a right for certain scenarios. For example, we heard that this promotion went down very well at the time in US movie theaters.
Salling Clicker - great software that uses Java/Bluetooth
I've mentioned them before (way back) - but it's time to mention them again: Salling, the company behind the incredibly handy Salling Clicker, has continued to add features to their software. If you have a phone with Bluetooth, and you use either Windows or a Mac, I strongly recommend trying it out.
What it is? Well, a soft-remote doesn't quite do it justice, but that's the core idea: your phone becomes a remote control for a range of applications on your computer. Start things up, make them run, all from your phone.
The classic business example is this: open your laptop, open your phone, and you can remotely start PowerPoint, choose the presentation you want, put it in to presentation mode, and then flick forwards and backwards through the pitch. Read any notes on your phone as you proceed! And so on.
The fun social example (one of many) is to control iTunes from your phone. So as you wander around the party in your pad, you can see what music is about to be played, change volume settings, and alter / add music in the playlist.
It's beautifully written - and Salling have achieved a lovely elegance to their user interface. They've made a potentially complex process very simple - even (dare I say) enjoyable!
Smart Fabrics and Bluetooth
Another snippet from GSM show. Talked to the people at Eleksen and they demo'd their stuff to me.
They don't use Java (yet), but they know their Bluetooth, and they've done a beautiful job of enabling a range of very cool products based around their smart fabric technology. This is one of those things that you have to try out to believe, and once you've tried it, you almost want an excuse to have to get one of the products: "Hey, think I'll buy a huge smartphone with a rubbish keyboard, just so I can get their Bluetooth Keyboard". Niiiice!
Esmertec on a roll...
Just back from GSM show in Barcelona, where I did a whistle-stop tour. Called by the esmertec booth and it happened to be the day they announced 100M units of their VM having shipped to date! Nice one :-) Onwards and upwards it seems....
Esmertec / Lenovo and Victory
Always good to see a partner doing well. Esmertec have bagged Lenovo as a new customer for their Jbed Virtual Machine. Seems the VM is going to be built-in to the new Victory line of mobile phones from Lenovo. And in China, any phone with any market share at all means millions in volume. Good for Esmertec.
Wireless USB
You may have heard about Wireless USB. If so - it can be tricky to figure out where it sits with regard to Bluetooth, Ultra Wideband (aka UWB) and other short range wireless technologies. The people behind Incisor Magazine, who are now increasingly doing short videos about wireless technologies, have a pretty good, up to date set of video discussions around Wireless USB.