Try going from having bluetooth off on your phone to bluetooth being on in your car that has bluetooth capable device. It sucks. Every car I've been has trouble pairing if bluetooth wasn't on prior to me entering the car. For one car, I had to turn the engine off for it pair. WTF?
Bluetooth 5 will quadruple the range, double the speed
201–210 of 250 posts
Re: Bluetooth 5 will quadruple the range, double the speed
#202I could not care less. - 1.0 to 1.2: Hard to pair, and very unreliable. First major version, I'm sure they'll fix it... - 2.0: More bandwidth. Still hard to pair, still unreliable. - 2.1: Adds "Simple Secure Pairing". Still hard to actually pair. Still unreliable. - 3.0: More bandwidth. More features. Still hard to pair, still unreliable. - 4.0: Bluetooth Low Energy released. Still hard to pair, still unreliable. - 4…
I used to be in this camp. My Jawbone Big Jambox would never pair, never stay connected, the whole deal. But I then replaced it with a Marshall bluetooth speaker and it's just a dream. It connects immediately, on the first try, every time. It never disconnects. If it hasn't received audio in a while, it goes to sleep. Press the "wake" button and it immediately connects again. I used to loathe bluetooth, but now I'm w…
I'm convinced shoddy implementations are to blame. I have two examples, both anecdote. First, watches. I've had every Pebble since I pledged the original Kickstarter. I've hooked various Pebble's to various iPhones. The connection to this day is flakey as hell. If I feel the watch buzz, indicating that I've walked away from my phone, there's a 50% chance that I'll be doing the Bluetooth Pairing Watuzi Dance to get it to pair again. Such is the way of things, eh?
Except the Garmin Fenix I bought a month ago has been rock...m'f'ing...solid. I walk away from phone, watch buzzes, walk back, watch buzzes and says it's connected again. Every time. I pull up the Garmin app, it's always connected. In a month of heavy usage, it has NEVER failed to reconnect or stay connected to the phone. Always get my notifications. Couldn't begin to say what the difference is, but someone appears to be doing it right and someone else: meh, not so much.
I don't know what others are doing wrong, but I basically reimplemented Apple's Core Bluetooth for a hardware piece that allowed old iPhones (4 or less, IIRC) to pretend they had BTLE, and consequentially pretend they supported Core Bluetooth. We tested heavily, never had issues, sold it to users, and I don't recall support issues with connectivity (I'm sure someone had an issue, but not enough that it was ever brought to our attention). I believe the devices sold like dog poop sandwiches, but it was for a company large enough that they probably sold more of their devices than Pebble has sold, so I would think we'd have heard about it if there were issues. But if I did anything "right", I couldn't tell you what it was, as I just followed the specs as best I could.
In summary, it would appear that it's possible to get devices to reliably connect and stay connected, but I don't know what the secret is.
Re: Bluetooth 5 will quadruple the range, double the speed
#203I could not care less. - 1.0 to 1.2: Hard to pair, and very unreliable. First major version, I'm sure they'll fix it... - 2.0: More bandwidth. Still hard to pair, still unreliable. - 2.1: Adds "Simple Secure Pairing". Still hard to actually pair. Still unreliable. - 3.0: More bandwidth. More features. Still hard to pair, still unreliable. - 4.0: Bluetooth Low Energy released. Still hard to pair, still unreliable. - 4…
I'm so glad this is the top comment, and matches my experience 100%. If a product brags about its Bluetooth support, I immediately start losing trust in it. So many devices have such bad UX for pairing too, so I can't even get any communication about what I'm doing wrong. I think BT-enabled cars are the worst offender here. Some of them don't even provide obvious alternatives to the voice menu. The only positive blue…
Doesn't Spaceteam use Wifi, rather than Bluetooth?
Re: Bluetooth 5 will quadruple the range, double the speed
#204My hope for the future of phone/car interfaces is that once you've paired a phone, the touch screen basically becomes a display for the phone... I have a brand new (less than a week old) car, and the UI feels sluggish, and looks very dated at this point. I'd rather my N6P managed the whole thing. Hopefully BT5 can allow that to happen.
Re: Bluetooth 5 will quadruple the range, double the speed
#205I could not care less. - 1.0 to 1.2: Hard to pair, and very unreliable. First major version, I'm sure they'll fix it... - 2.0: More bandwidth. Still hard to pair, still unreliable. - 2.1: Adds "Simple Secure Pairing". Still hard to actually pair. Still unreliable. - 3.0: More bandwidth. More features. Still hard to pair, still unreliable. - 4.0: Bluetooth Low Energy released. Still hard to pair, still unreliable. - 4…
I'm so glad this is the top comment, and matches my experience 100%. If a product brags about its Bluetooth support, I immediately start losing trust in it. So many devices have such bad UX for pairing too, so I can't even get any communication about what I'm doing wrong. I think BT-enabled cars are the worst offender here. Some of them don't even provide obvious alternatives to the voice menu. The only positive blue…
> If a product brags about its Bluetooth support, I immediately start losing trust in it
Unfortunately, there aren't viable wireless connectivity alternatives for commercial products other than Wi-Fi for long range and Bluetooth for short range. And both suffer from high (and rising) interference levels in the ISM bands.
Re: Bluetooth 5 will quadruple the range, double the speed
#206I could not care less. - 1.0 to 1.2: Hard to pair, and very unreliable. First major version, I'm sure they'll fix it... - 2.0: More bandwidth. Still hard to pair, still unreliable. - 2.1: Adds "Simple Secure Pairing". Still hard to actually pair. Still unreliable. - 3.0: More bandwidth. More features. Still hard to pair, still unreliable. - 4.0: Bluetooth Low Energy released. Still hard to pair, still unreliable. - 4…
I use a pair of Presonus bluetooth speakers daily, and have for months. There's never been a bluetooth problem. Maybe you've got bad firmware or something?
I think the issue at hand, is these devices should be able to be treated mostly as appliances... you wouldn't put up with your TV tuner just randomly dropping, requiring you to turn it off and on again... or your oven suddenly switching to clean mode while you're cooking a chicken.
It comes down to standards compliance and quality control issues.
Re: Bluetooth 5 will quadruple the range, double the speed
#207Earlier quoted context omitted.
So true. At first I couldn't believe it, but it is IMPOSSIBLE to completely remove a paired bluetooth device from windows. After having connected my wireless keyboard to my mac for a day, I tried to reconnect it to windows. It fails silently and doesn't show up any more in available bluetooth devices. The connection to my mac obviously changed the pairing code, while windows still tries the old one. I googled for hou…
I went with an HP wireless elite keyboard and mouse with it's proprietary plug. I plug that into a usb switcher and then plug the switcher into my mac and windows machines. I get sooooo tired of Windows either remember old stuff or forgetting new stuff. It is such a kludge of an OS.
I went back to a wired keyboard and have been happier ever since. Same for mouse, though that is somewhat irritating at times... I use a unicomp keyboard, and a logitech m500 mouse... Though I do miss some of the older mice that were more sturdy feeling.
Re: Bluetooth 5 will quadruple the range, double the speed
#208Earlier quoted context omitted.
Indeed, they made a mess of it twice - right around when BlueZ finally got good, they switched to a different stack on Android 4.2 and broke everything again.
Remind me, was that before or after bluez introduced a pulseaudio dependency?
It was before BlueZ 5.0 was released. Not that it matters because BlueZ on Android doesn't use PulseAudio.
Re: Bluetooth 5 will quadruple the range, double the speed
#209Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm so glad this is the top comment, and matches my experience 100%. If a product brags about its Bluetooth support, I immediately start losing trust in it. So many devices have such bad UX for pairing too, so I can't even get any communication about what I'm doing wrong. I think BT-enabled cars are the worst offender here. Some of them don't even provide obvious alternatives to the voice menu. The only positive blue…
Doesn't Spaceteam use Wifi, rather than Bluetooth?
Spaceteam can do either, but Wi-Fi is cross platform. IIRC Bluetooth was too locked down to support across iOS/Android.
Re: Bluetooth 5 will quadruple the range, double the speed
#210That's nice, but the biggest UX problem with Bluetooth is still the pairing misery. It's 2016 and it's still nearly impossible to use any one Bluetooth device with multiple other devices. Try switching a Bluetooth headset from an iPhone to a Mac or convincing your car to switch from one phone to another. It's a huge mess and its not just a matter of the technology not working as designed. These are fundamental proble…
So true. At first I couldn't believe it, but it is IMPOSSIBLE to completely remove a paired bluetooth device from windows. After having connected my wireless keyboard to my mac for a day, I tried to reconnect it to windows. It fails silently and doesn't show up any more in available bluetooth devices. The connection to my mac obviously changed the pairing code, while windows still tries the old one. I googled for hou…