Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Bluetooth 5 will quadruple the range, double the speed

engadget.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 250 posts

Re: Bluetooth 5 will quadruple the range, double the speed

#21

Post by 9935c101ab17a66 »

kalleboo wrote: post #9
williadc wrote: post #2

John Gruber from Daring Fireball has already written his review: > “Next year it will work great” should be Bluetooth’s slogan. http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/06/10/bluetooth-5

Isn't this a problem with anything wireless in general? WiFi is also plagued with connection issues, inexplicable dropouts, and slowdowns. With Bluetooth in particular it seems like there are a lot of poor implementations (if it's rock solid or buggy seems to have to do with which two devices you're using ) - maybe they would benefit from a more stringent conformity licensing process.

But.... it's really not. The WiFi issues you describe affect some people who most likely have 1) bad routers 2) poorly configured routers 3) tons of interference 4) Bad ISPs 5) Other clients on the network

I'm not saying that setting up a WiFI network well is super easy, and there are definitely lots of things that can impact WiFi connectivity, but for it's ubiquity, I'd say WiFi works very well. In my three story townhouse with fibre and a decent router in the basement, I have none of the problems you describe.

Re: Bluetooth 5 will quadruple the range, double the speed

#22

Post by nowarninglabel »

honkhonkpants wrote: post #10
modeless wrote: post #4

I don't need more range or more speed. I need it to reliably connect and stay connected while devices are well within range of each other, and stop breaking every time I upgrade anything. Unfortunately that would require making it less complex, which is about as likely as a broken egg spontaneously reassembling.

As a matter of fact "more range" is quite the opposite of what I want from Bluetooth. Do I really need to have 5000 keyboards within range of my computer at the office, instead of the 100 I already have? I definitely do not.

I'm currently wearing a heart monitoring device that communicates over Bluetooth and would greatly benefit from greater range. Which is to say, there's certainly a market for folks needing greater range.

Re: Bluetooth 5 will quadruple the range, double the speed

#23

Post by thomaskcr »

bokenator wrote: post #20
the_watcher wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Headphones are the big benefactor here, for me at least. I can walk to the kitchen with my wireless headphones.

I've found that microwave interferes very strongly with Bluetooth headphones

And bodies. Had to move my laptop dock to the other side of my desk when I switched headphones from a pair that had the transmitter in the left ear to the right.

Re: Bluetooth 5 will quadruple the range, double the speed

#24

Post by roymurdock »

honkhonkpants wrote: post #10
modeless wrote: post #4

I don't need more range or more speed. I need it to reliably connect and stay connected while devices are well within range of each other, and stop breaking every time I upgrade anything. Unfortunately that would require making it less complex, which is about as likely as a broken egg spontaneously reassembling.

As a matter of fact "more range" is quite the opposite of what I want from Bluetooth. Do I really need to have 5000 keyboards within range of my computer at the office, instead of the 100 I already have? I definitely do not.

The range increase is for distributed industrial network architectures, such as smart grids/cities. Bluetooth LE is aimed at long range, low power devices that are checking in with telemetry-type data every so often rather than pairing your phone and your keyboard to your computer.

Re: Bluetooth 5 will quadruple the range, double the speed

#27

Post by jamesrom »

Bluetooth is very easy to hate. It never ever just works: the pairing rituals, the flakiness. It's annoying.

But in recent years it has become more and more invisible. You've probably used Bluetooth in the past 12 months without noticing. Invisibility is something that the Bluetooth SIG should strive for.

Re: Bluetooth 5 will quadruple the range, double the speed

#29

Post by klagermkii »

voltagex_ wrote: post #19

I think a lot of the comments here could be attributed to the terrible Bluetooth software stacks that are around (Car head-decks, Android (all versions), Windows 8-10 default stacks). I've got a brand new Plugable BT4 dongle that barely works in Win 10 because Broadcom haven't updated their suite so it relies on the default 10 drivers - you can't have a HFP and A2DP service running at the same time so a headset with…

At what number of terrible Bluetooth software stacks does one start wondering if there isn't something fundamentally wrong with the specification that makes it so incredibly hard to get right?

It's been bad from day one with Widcomm and later Bluesoleil on Windows. Mac OS X for years had a Bluetooth where after a couple of hours of using the DUN profile it would need a reboot, on an otherwise nicely reliable operating system. Mice on Bluetooth have never worked as smoothly, reliably, or as well as just using a proprietary protocol like Logitech Unifying.

It's not that I necessarily think it's an unsolvable problem, it's just that after a decade with so many multiple implementations that can't get it right I feel Bluetooth itself has to bear some responsibility.

Re: Bluetooth 5 will quadruple the range, double the speed

#30

Post by danjayh »

bokenator wrote: post #26
danjayh wrote: post #13

For those who have given up on Engadget (I can't be the only one): http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/06/bluetooth-5-spec-comi...

What's wrong with Engadget?

I left when they kicked off a series on modern male masturbation devices by putting a graphic cartoon of a dude with his pants around his ankles using a fleshlight-like device on their front page. Some people (legitimately) use Engadget at work ... personally I used to read it while I ate lunch. Not cool.

EDIT: Found it. Warning: totally NSFW

NSFW -> https://www.engadget.com/2016/01/27/a-first-hand-quest-for-t...

Post reply on HN