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Bluetooth remains an 'unusually painful' technology after two decades

cnn.com

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Re: Bluetooth remains an 'unusually painful' technology after two decades

#161

Post by consp »

toxik wrote: post #107
smackeyacky wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They do agree on an awful lot of stuff, but the tools provided by the Bluetooth guys aged very poorly (i.e. their tools for generating GATT interfaces as C code is absolute garbage, full of holes and has a built-in buffer overflow capability). The one thing nobody seems to do is stick to the standards provided, because they simply aren't broad enough for the creative stuff that people do with Bluetooth and Bluetooth…

Something I’ve noticed is that Bluetooth breaks down around major construction sites, like infrastructure projects. It’s very strange, I wonder if they have some kind of high power BT transmitters for some reason.

Any high power 2.4ghz transmitter will destroy Bluetooth communication, this is all in the same 2.45ghz ISM band. I guess they use some devices communicating on that band.

Re: Bluetooth remains an 'unusually painful' technology after two decades

#162

Post by DoingIsLearning »

The biggest relevation I had with bluetooth was seeing an actual pairing sequence and data transmission on an RF spectrum analyser.

It really is low-power. Once you realize it is a rat's fart above the noise floor you have a whole new appreciation for the fact that it even works in the first place.

Re: Bluetooth remains an 'unusually painful' technology after two decades

#163

Post by Fire-Dragon-DoL »

ranger_danger wrote: post #44
ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #4

People seem to complain a lot about Bluetooth, yet I owned dozens of devices of all vintages and they all played nicely with each other, except for a cheapo pair of MPow earbuds off Amazon. I even managed to transfer old school photos off my ancient 2003 NEC flip phone to my current Android phone even though the former uses Bluetooth 1.1 and the latter 5.1. I also fondly remember using Bluetooth in school to transfer…

Your experience is NOT typical. I have had random connectivity issues with every single Bluetooth device I have ever used. My biggest complaint is bluetooth gamepads. They simply never work right for me... always registering phantom presses or just none at all. I always have to hold it above my head for it to work right which is unusable.

Xbox one wireless gamepad and ps4/5 gamepads are the most used out there and they seem to work fine, but I suspect these might not be using Bluetooth when connected to a console

Re: Bluetooth remains an 'unusually painful' technology after two decades

#164

Post by emrvb »

Aeolun wrote: post #70
gfrff wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My $400 Bose headphones have worse range than my cheap MPow headphones. Perhaps whatever great thought Bose puts in doesn't result in great products....

Or the improved sound quality comes at a cost?

Bose and improved sound quality in one sentence?

Re: Bluetooth remains an 'unusually painful' technology after two decades

#165

Post by blackhaz »

Fire-Dragon-DoL wrote: post #148
blackhaz wrote: post #91

My car (Lexus) and my iPhone X: The car detects iPhone presence, like, 50% of the time. If it does detect it, it shows me a couple of half-naked shaved guys hugging each other and begins playing "Songs of Innocence" the moment I turn the ignition on. I tried deleting this song from the iPhone, but it auto-magically restores itself somehow, as if it is in the telephone's firmware. The image of men hugging in shade is…

For what is worth, the same is for android. Whoever thought that changing volume should trigger "play" didn't actually test it. I thought Audible was a virus, I can't shut it down or stop it and whatever I do, it starts playing

Oh, I am sure they did test it alright. With a Grinch smile.

Re: Bluetooth remains an 'unusually painful' technology after two decades

#166

Post by ricardobayes »

blackhaz wrote: post #146
NikolaNovak wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haha, sorry, reminds me - my wife hates U2 with violent passion. Eventually I asked her what caused such burning rage, and she said her car starts playing a specific U2 song every time she turns it on. For years! Eventually I traced it to a promotional album U2 and apple and iTunes pushed to her devices without her knowledge. Man can these things backfire! But yeah we have a 2019 Honda and iPhones xr (not my choice;…

We should start a club! My son just bought a 3.5 mm adapter for the phone. Turns out the younger generation prefers wired too.

I sometimes wonder what the world would be like without FAANG. I'm lead to believe the world would be a better place if all companies would have a max company size of Bose, or Sennheiser. Then no stupid decisions could be pushed through by force, like the removal of the 3.5 mm jack. If the market really wants it, they will eventually vote with their wallet. Same goes with social media, fb killed off local country-specific social media, which sometimes had much better features and less agressivity/conspiracy theories/scams.

Re: Bluetooth remains an 'unusually painful' technology after two decades

#167

Post by mschuster91 »

toxik wrote: post #107
smackeyacky wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They do agree on an awful lot of stuff, but the tools provided by the Bluetooth guys aged very poorly (i.e. their tools for generating GATT interfaces as C code is absolute garbage, full of holes and has a built-in buffer overflow capability). The one thing nobody seems to do is stick to the standards provided, because they simply aren't broad enough for the creative stuff that people do with Bluetooth and Bluetooth…

Something I’ve noticed is that Bluetooth breaks down around major construction sites, like infrastructure projects. It’s very strange, I wonder if they have some kind of high power BT transmitters for some reason.

On construction sites, I'd suspect that the problem is an awful lot of EM noise from machinery that should have been replaced or at least maintained decades ago, like mechanic spark generators/distributors from simple combustion motors or brushed electric motors (e.g. in drills).

Additionally, remote controls for cranes, concrete pumps and other machinery may be the cause, depending on the frequency bands these use. Here in Germany, it's all 433/869 MHz from what I remember from sites I worked at, but no idea about the US.

Re: Bluetooth remains an 'unusually painful' technology after two decades

#168

Post by wildrhythms »

worthless-trash wrote: post #27
ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds more like an Apple Bluetooth stack issue at their OS level rather than something wrong with the Bluetooth chip/tech itself. It's where you should complain to Apple or ask for refunds/replacements. Granted, Apple is not alone here since both Google and Microsoft really botched their Bluetooth stacks on their OSs. Especially Google who hasn't learned you can't treat your C driver/embedded SW like front-end…

Apple have really, really weird BT stack issues.

I find that my Apple Macbooks (I have a couple) tend to try to pair with my headphones more "aggressively" than any other device, even when my Macbook has its lid closed and in my backpack, it immediately jumps in and pairs with things that I'm trying to pair with something else (my phone usually). Very annoying

Re: Bluetooth remains an 'unusually painful' technology after two decades

#169

Post by diogenescynic »

ChildOfChaos wrote: post #36

The annoying thing I have with bluetooth, is with my headphones, I connect them up, set them as the sound source and just..... nothing. I have to go round all of my devices and disable the bluetooth on them, because some other device is connected too and although that is not playing any sound at all, somehow has priority and doesn't allow any sound to be played by any other device.

This is my biggest issue. I use my AirPods to connect to my two laptops, tv, Bose portable speaker, iPad, and iPhone and sometimes have to spend several minutes disabling devices to actually connect to the device I want.

Worse, when I’m connected to one device like a laptop but I get a call that I want to answer on my iPhone, it’s nearly impossible to actually transfer or reconnect the AirPods to the iPhone.

I tried to get two pairs of AirPods to resolve this and keep one connected/dedicated to my iPhone, but even that doesn’t work because once you’re logged in with your Apple ID it will keep re-syncing to your other Bluetooth devices. It’s insanity.

Re: Bluetooth remains an 'unusually painful' technology after two decades

#170

Post by bluescrn »

sgt wrote: post #122
bluescrn wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good hardware ruined by non-replaceable batteries

Lithium-ion, should last a long time

If you're an audiobook or podcast enthusiast, you can get through a lot of charge cycles (and deep discharges) rather quickly.

If you're using them frequently, expect to notice significantly degraded battery life in less then 2 years of use.

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