Tuesday, August 20, 2002
The good and bad on bluetooth
Posted by Ed Hansberry in "THOUGHT" @ 11:00 AM
A week or so ago I said I would post a semi-retraction on my eternal ranting on bluetooth technologies, but I can't find the post to link to so you'll have to trust me. Duncan probably has it bookmarked, so ask him. 
So, I got a T68 with bluetooth and infrared to use with my iPAQ and absolutely love it. To the noticeable annoyance of the nice sales lady at the VoiceStream store, I had figured out just enough about the T68 to get it paired with my iPAQ right there in the store as she was explaining my service. Her eyes and my wife's eyes were rolling in unison. I have no clue how to check my voice mail, but hey, my devices are bonded. If you leave me a message, you'll know why I never called back.
But the truth of it is, bluetooth still isn't idiot proof, and I guess that is OK as long as those are the expectations. No one expects WiFi to be plug and play by someone that doesn't know TCP/IP from a hole in the ground, yet bluetooth is always advertised as a simple and easy to use technology to replace cables. Hogwash. I still don't understand why I have to configure all of those tabs on my iPAQ's bluetooth manager. Furthermore, if you want to hose your T-68's contact listing, mass beam a bunch of contacts from your iPAQ to the T-68 and hit the X button on the transfer screen instead of "quit." The next time you send data over, it will remember those old contacts and duplicate (or triplicate) them. IR software on the iPAQ and T-68 prevent this error recognizing dupes. So, is that the fault of the programmers, the bluetooth standard, the maturity of OBEX over bluetooth? Who cares?
Bottom line, bluetooth has a place in my mobile world for some time to come and I LOVE IT! But it isn't always a bed of roses, and it certainly isn't for the masses just yet, no more than configuring a spanking new 9,600 modem was in 1994.
So, I got a T68 with bluetooth and infrared to use with my iPAQ and absolutely love it. To the noticeable annoyance of the nice sales lady at the VoiceStream store, I had figured out just enough about the T68 to get it paired with my iPAQ right there in the store as she was explaining my service. Her eyes and my wife's eyes were rolling in unison. I have no clue how to check my voice mail, but hey, my devices are bonded. If you leave me a message, you'll know why I never called back.
But the truth of it is, bluetooth still isn't idiot proof, and I guess that is OK as long as those are the expectations. No one expects WiFi to be plug and play by someone that doesn't know TCP/IP from a hole in the ground, yet bluetooth is always advertised as a simple and easy to use technology to replace cables. Hogwash. I still don't understand why I have to configure all of those tabs on my iPAQ's bluetooth manager. Furthermore, if you want to hose your T-68's contact listing, mass beam a bunch of contacts from your iPAQ to the T-68 and hit the X button on the transfer screen instead of "quit." The next time you send data over, it will remember those old contacts and duplicate (or triplicate) them. IR software on the iPAQ and T-68 prevent this error recognizing dupes. So, is that the fault of the programmers, the bluetooth standard, the maturity of OBEX over bluetooth? Who cares?
Bottom line, bluetooth has a place in my mobile world for some time to come and I LOVE IT! But it isn't always a bed of roses, and it certainly isn't for the masses just yet, no more than configuring a spanking new 9,600 modem was in 1994.
