What's the likelihood that this can be an update to existing products so I don't have to buy all new hardware?
Bluetooth 5 Now Available
21–30 of 170 posts
Re: Bluetooth 5 Now Available
#22I cannot think of a single way in which Bluetooth has changed my life. Of the Bluetooth devices I have, I do exactly the same things I've always done, just with slightly more annoyance. My smartphone let me answer emails and burning questions on the go, while also letting me give up my car. My VR headset is making me completely rethink what User Experience means to the point of making the current usage of the term UX…
BLE devices actually tend to work quite well. If you try a Logitech MX Master Mouse, or an Apple Pencil, or a Microsoft mobile keyboard, you will find that they all perform very well. And most importantly, the dreaded "pairing" is only done once, ever.
Re: Bluetooth 5 Now Available
#232x the speed. 4x the range. 8x the capacity "to send messages" Not using the x.x versioning anymore. Just Bluetooth 5 and the next will be 6. Also, apprently, there's 30.000 companies in the 'Bluetooth Special Interests Group' ? [Thanks Krasin, gerardnll for correcting me]
It's important to note that these improvements only apply to BLE. Classic Bluetooth (EDR) is not changing, at least not significantly.
Also, there will continue to be minor spec revisions (5.1, 5.2, etc). The "Bluetooth 5" terminology is for marketing and PR, to simplify the message. They don't want to confuse the general public with spec revisions.
Re: Bluetooth 5 Now Available
#24I cannot think of a single way in which Bluetooth has changed my life. Of the Bluetooth devices I have, I do exactly the same things I've always done, just with slightly more annoyance. My smartphone let me answer emails and burning questions on the go, while also letting me give up my car. My VR headset is making me completely rethink what User Experience means to the point of making the current usage of the term UX…
BLE devices actually tend to work quite well. If you try a Logitech MX Master Mouse, or an Apple Pencil, or a Microsoft mobile keyboard, you will find that they all perform very well. And most importantly, the dreaded "pairing" is only done once, ever.
My MX master needs to be paired at least a few times per week. It also doesn't wake up my Macbook Pro reliably. It sucks because other than that I love both devices.
Re: Bluetooth 5 Now Available
#25What's the likelihood that this can be an update to existing products so I don't have to buy all new hardware?
I would say 0 chance. Vendors typically need to rev silicon to support new bluetooth releases.
Re: Bluetooth 5 Now Available
#262x the speed. 4x the range. 8x the capacity "to send messages" Not using the x.x versioning anymore. Just Bluetooth 5 and the next will be 6. Also, apprently, there's 30.000 companies in the 'Bluetooth Special Interests Group' ? [Thanks Krasin, gerardnll for correcting me]
The range is quite important, a 4x improvement is a pretty big accomplishment. Although, obstacle/wall penetration is probably still fairly poor. The range is really the limiting factor in IoT uses IMO...
If the range can reliably get from my front pocket to my earbuds I'll be much happier with it.
Re: Bluetooth 5 Now Available
#27Why is general bluetooth connectivity so "buggy"? Why am I always struggling connecting my iPhone 6s to my bose bluetooth speaker? I would love to understand that.
In my experience, connecting a device with bluetooth has less than 50% chance of continued success. When it doesn't work it really doesn't work, and there's only so much you can do with most device interfaces. I avoid it whenever possible. Hopefully this new release will change that for future devices.
Re: Bluetooth 5 Now Available
#28Why is general bluetooth connectivity so "buggy"? Why am I always struggling connecting my iPhone 6s to my bose bluetooth speaker? I would love to understand that.
I think we'd need an RF engineer to answer this more thoroughly, but it's my understanding that there are a lot of materials capable of absorbing the low-energy microwaves that it uses as its transmission medium. Water is a big one, which I think is one reason that having my phone in my back pocket almost always results in a dropped connection to my headphones over the course of working outside for a few hours, compa…
Hi! RF Engineer here. Bluetooth sucks for a number of reasons, only a few of which actually relate to RF.
First, we're bad at naming things. Is it BLE? Bluetooth Smart? BTLE? Bluetooth 4.0, or Bluetooth 4 Low Energy? And what does this have to do with ANT+? This doesn't seem to be a big problem, but it's a sign of deeper problems with the spec. In the long run it makes it very difficult for developers to implement.
Bluetooth 2.0 is radically different from BTLE. In 2.0, you had one device which acts like a microphone, and another device which acts like a speaker. This was like getting two people to dance together, it takes a lot of practice to get the joined movements right. If one person stumbles, it all goes down like dominoes.
BTLE on the other hand, acts like a (more familiar) client server model. You come up to the bank teller, and have a limited set of operations you can preform (withdraw/deposit money, open/close account). Here's the catch though... the teller is only open for 10 seconds during a 24 hour day, and moves throughout the city. You have to arrive at just the right time, or you have to wait until tomorrow. (This was done for battery saving.) The throughput is also MUCH slower than 2.0, which makes applications like audio out of the question for now.
There's also a lot of bureaucratic hype surrounding it. If you look at the release from the BT SIG, it seems very much similar to Java's claim that it runs on a bajillion devices. All in all, BTLE seems to be a solution in search of an IoT related problem, much like Java.
So in short, the reason I think it sucks is because it's a very complicated protocol with poor and confusing naming conventions. It sure doesn't help that it keeps getting re-invented! (Although BT5 seems to just be add-ons, finally!) Implementers (both on the HW side and the mobile/desktop side) have a difficult time figuring out how to do things correctly, much less why they need to be done. Things are getting better, but until the next "killer BTLE" application comes out, it's just heart rate monitors and useless iBeacons.
Re: Bluetooth 5 Now Available
#29Why is general bluetooth connectivity so "buggy"? Why am I always struggling connecting my iPhone 6s to my bose bluetooth speaker? I would love to understand that.
Most chip manufacturers keep their firmware very close to the chest and from my anecdotal experience, a lot of that firmware is of a low quality; mush a smattering of shoddy chips together and you end up with really weird behavior.
FCC certs of a custom radio used with a bluetooth chip with a binary blob for firmware is the most painful thing I've ever done in my career...I think.
Re: Bluetooth 5 Now Available
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
BLE devices actually tend to work quite well. If you try a Logitech MX Master Mouse, or an Apple Pencil, or a Microsoft mobile keyboard, you will find that they all perform very well. And most importantly, the dreaded "pairing" is only done once, ever.
My MX master needs to be paired at least a few times per week. It also doesn't wake up my Macbook Pro reliably. It sucks because other than that I love both devices.
Do you have the Logitech software installed? I found it makes an appreciable difference in performance.