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Dangers of Bluetooth
Funny Ad for beer - with Bluetooth playing a bit part.
Installed base: 1 Billion; rate per week : 13 million - Bluetooth roll continues
Latest stats from the Bluetooth SIG make good reading for promoters of the technology.
- 1 Billion Deployed devices (need to say this with little finger at the mouth, like this: “1 ..... BILL - YON!!! Wah Hah Hah HAAAAAAH!!!”)
- 13 million units shipping per week
As CSR is a bit of a bellwether for the whole Bluetooth industry, their results also make rather interesting reading. Apart from the fact that they are generating shedloads of cash, the following was enlightening:
- Over 50 per cent of revenue is now from non-phone areas, including Sony PS3, Samsung TVs and Digital Media Players
- PCs, gaming and automotive seen as key growth areas in 2007 and beyond
- CSR wins an astonishing 84% of Bluetooth headset design wins in 2006!!! Talk about dominant!
The only wrinkle was a reference to a “challenging second half”, due to two things : 1) over ordering form a key account, and 2) market shift to low-cost phones (most of which are currently without Bluetooth). Share price got somewhat hammered as a result. Interesting punt if you believe that both their operational efficiency, and market dynamics will recover in 2007.
In more Bluetooth Good News, the SIG announced the latest version of the standard a few weeks ago. The snappily titled “Bluetooth Core Specification Version 2.1 + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate)), is actually very good news for, eh, humans, as follows:
- Simplified pairing of devices to enhance the chances of your mum using it
- Much better power management (up to five times better) for certain types of devices (mice, watches, keyboards etc)
All in all - a good period for Bluetooth.
JSR82 Fora
My google alerts caught a new JSR82 Forum today. So I thought I'd briefly recap where to go initially to find information and help related to jsr82. If you find others - let me know!
- First off, the source - the Motorola-hosted JSR82 forum (Motorola chair JSR82 standard); here you can get the specs, download the TCKs and share information about the standard.
- Next - the JSR82 group on Yahoo Groups. Probably the most active and longest running discussion group on JSR82 - set up when the standard was launched back in March 2002. Over 2000 members.
- The new kid on the block: jsr82 not much here yet - but with that domain name, should being to get contributors and users over the next while
- www.javabluetooth.com - Bruce Hopkins's site that covers the book and gives some background on devices, tools etc.
Big Bang Year for Proximity Marketing
Some more coverage on new Proximity marketing solutions rolling out in the UK this year. Interesting to see how these work out. Anecdotally, most people I've talked to who've experienced these kinds of things as pure "end users", have actually quite liked them!
Bluetooth Gloves
I snowboard, and I cycle (to work mostly). I got a present from my sister of a pair of O Neill H3 "Fat Controller Gloves". Demo on their site here.
I finally got around to using them this week. Very nice. Pairing is a doddle (press the button on the iPod connector and then press any button on the gloves). They pair and then "just work". Lovely.
You can then control volume and forward, back, pause and play from the gloves. Perfect for the bike, haven't yet had a chance to try them on the snowboard. Now all I need is some Wireless Headphones and I'm sorted! :-)
This stuff actually works!
When I first saw this laser Bluetooth Keyboard, over two years ago, I thought "no way". I genuinely thought it was either a) a mockup or b) a hoax!
Nope. It really does work! I took one for a test drive at the recent 3GSM in Barcelona.
Light, portable, not cheap. But very, very cool. More for my shopping list :-)
I want: Headphones
OK, I'm definitely in the market for a nice new set of Bluetooth Headphones. The time has come, and so my research is commencing in earnest.
The Plantronics reviewed here look to be some of the nicest (and admittedly priciest) so far. Sweet!
More to follow...
The Treo and The Prius - it should be love at first sight!
I'm at ETel in San Francisco this week. I met a man with a Bluetooth problem and I'm trying to help him out.
As he says himself - "it's weird, one of the world's most technically advanced cars and one of the world's most advanced phones!!! - And they don't work together".
He has a Prius. The model he has comes with Bluetooth built-in. So far so good. He had an older Treo, which played nice with the car no problem. Dialling, audio, steaming, voice commands etc. Beautiful. Then he upgrades to a shiny new Treo 700.
And everything stops working.
No dialling. Glitches. Pairing fails. Yucch! Seems pretty broken - fundamentally.
When he described this to me I was transported - back to the days of 2000-2002. That was the norm then - Nokia handsets wouldn't play nice with Motorola headsets etc. Those days are now long gone, and pretty much everything plays nice with everything else.
So this is wierd. I've been trawling the message boards and I can't figure it out yet. There's talk of a patch for the Treo, but I'm not sure. If anyone knows, a hint would be very welcome. Meanwhile my hunt for the answer continues.