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More techo-lust: Altc Lansing Soundblade
Available November. Thin Bluetooth speakers that can be used as handsfree phone speaker (as they have a microphone). Niiiice.
Set Top Bluetooth
Bluetooth in Set Top Boxes has long been speculated about, but actually rarely seen in shipping devices.
Interesting then, that Broadcom has added Bluetooth support to their reference platform for consumer set top boxes.
Aside from the usual "remote control" and streaming audio scenarios, I think this is partly about positioning the platform for the higher-bandwidth versions of Bluetooth coming down the pipe. As mentioned here before, when the newer versions of Bluetooth ship in the next 12-18 months with UWB support, it'll be possible to stream video at high quality from (say) set top box to (say) a suitably-equipped flat panel TV.
More wires that can be junked. Excellent! Imaging being able to drag a flat panel screen to the garden, the kitchen, whereever, just plug it in and start watching. Yummy.
Wow. Dem's big numbers
If these latest stats quoted are even remotely correct, then there's a bright future for Bluetooth in marketing.
Two killer factoids:
At a shopping centre in Newcastle, out of a possible 45,000 shoppers who were offered to receive Bluetooth content, over 20 per cent opted to download
Another recent study carried out on a global sample by Universal McCann demonstrates that opt-in Bluetooth content is the most popular form of mobile advertising, with 72 per cent of the global sample expressing their approval. Conversely, ‘interruptive’ mobile advertising, including banners on mobile internet pages and TV adverts on mobiles, were rejected by 61 per cent of respondents.
I'm quoting from this story about Bluetooth marketing in Cinemas in the UK. If these numbers hold up (and I see some anecdotal evidence that people are more willing to opt-in to Bluetooth campaigns), then we're going to see lots more Bluetooth marketing in the next 12-24 months.
Good news for JSR82 too I suspect.
There's no Bluetooth in the iPod Touch. Wait. Yes there is. No, there isn't!
Kind of non-story seems to have circulated about there being Bluetooth, or not, in the new iPod Touch.
For heaven's sake, let's get A2DP in to the Macs as a priority so I can stream wireless music to my Moto S9s at my desk!!!
Then the Apple munchkins can fix the iPhone-minus-phone later!!! Let's get our priorities right people!
Bluetooth got Religion
Eh, ok.
So it turns out that Bluetooth has been used for sending messages "of a sexual nature" in various places in Riyadh over the last while. A local study in the Al-Qasim region (northeast of Riyadh) intercepted 500 Bluetooth messages, of which 90 percent were sexual in nature.
The fantastically-named Riyadh Branch of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, who once were perceived as being anti-Bluetooth, have now embraced the technology as a potential force for good.
To that end, they're trialling a new service called the "Awareness Messaging System via Bluetooth" to spread, well, "awareness messages" to young people visiting on of Riyadh's largest shopping centers. Presumably the messages will say things like: "Think pure thoughts" and so forth.
As someone reared in Ireland (ninety-x percent Catholic, historically), I can respectfully suggest that this is a total waste of everyone's time. That sniggering sound you hear is the sound of local youths gleefully deleting "awareness messages".
Cool though. Report here.