The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) today announced two new members to its board of directors from Apple and Nordic Semiconductor. Leaders in their perspective markets, Apple and Nordic join Intel, Motorola, Lenovo, Nokia, Microsoft, Ericsson AB, and Toshiba on the Bluetooth SIG board. These companies, plus the more than 14,500 additional Bluetooth SIG member companies, will drive Bluetooth technology’s expansion into platform and sensor markets.
“We see the importance of platform development and ultra-low power sensor silicon for Bluetooth technology and believe guidance and board participation from Apple and Nordic, industry leaders in these perspective fields, is essential,” said Michael Foley, Ph.D., executive director of the Bluetooth SIG, in the press release. “We have set the ambitious goal of shipping five billion devices in 2015 – to get there we must continue to build a technology that will offer a simple and secure solution that can be found everywhere, in every type of device. These additions to our board will ensure we succeed in new markets we have targeted for growth.”
The way consumers utilize digital devices is undergoing a fundamental shift – mobile phones, laptops and tablets, TVs and even cars now stand to serve as hub devices that capture data from small sensors monitoring everything from footsteps, heart rate activity, blood pressure and sugar levels to house temperature. Hub devices turn that data into useful information at the application layer, then may push that information to the cloud. Apple and Nordic understand this shift; insight from Apple on platform development and Nordic for sensor silicon demands will ensure a smooth growth trajectory of Bluetooth v4.0 into these new areas.
Nordic Semiconductor’s Svein-Egil Nielsen brings extensive experience in R&D as well as his entrepreneurial spirit to the Bluetooth SIG. Nielsen’s vast understanding of the ultra-low power space and its demands will help guide continued development of the Bluetooth v4.0 specification.
“Bluetooth technology has been the main R&D focus at Nordic for the last six years and we are now in a position to enable new and exciting products for consumers,” said Svenn-Tore Larsen, CEO Nordic Semiconductor, in the press release. “ With our success in ultra-low power wireless technology, we know the market, applications and the customers. Nordic is proud to have the opportunity to extend this knowledge to the Bluetooth community.”
Apple and Nordic’s two-year appointments were agreed upon by unanimous vote of the current board of directors and will officially begin on July 1, 2011.
Source: The Bluetooth Special Interest Group
Will this in any way alleviate the totally crappy Bluetooth connection of my iPhone 4 that arbitrarily disconnects from my Jabra headphone without rhyme or reason. I often make calls not realising the Bluetooth connection has gone AWOL and then have to live through the embarrassment of the person I’m calling having to listen to random bits of heavy breathing and background noise transmitted through the phone’s microphone because I’m not aware that the Bluetooth connection is broken.
The iPhone Bluetooth stack is the worst piece of crap ever.
Or is it the Jabra headset at fault?
With all your experience at Microsoft, you must know the beauty of the vendors pointing the finger of blame at each other, of taking NO responsibility for your flaws, and leaving the consumer completely frustrated.
No, the deficiency arises from the way the iPhone Bluetooth stack is written. The Bluetooth specification calls for automated pairing once the receiver comes in range once it’s authenticated. Apple’s implementation calls for repeated authentication and re-pairing after a connection is lost. In earlier releases of iOS, connections that were authenticated would arbitrarily drop but iOS 4.3.2 seems to have cured that problem. But the problem of automated, non-intervention pairing once the receiver comes in range has not been consistently implemented causing arbitrary dropouts.
“the problem of automated, non-intervention pairing once the receiver comes in range has not been consistently implemented causing arbitrary dropouts.”
This hasn’t been my experience with my iPhone 4 at all. I’m using it with:
2 different Bluetooth sunglasses
2 different Bluetooth speakers
1 Bluetooth to FM transmitter
1 Mercedes
In fact, with the Mercedes, I can wait in the car with my Bluetooth turned off on my iPhone, and see when my girlfriend is coming down the stairs of her house because it will pair with her iPhone as she does.
Thus, I think there’s something wrong with your iPhone or headset.
I’m running 4.3.1
No, the iPhone 4 Bluetooth problems are well documented. Failure to pair, intermittent pairing, pairing dropout, and failure to reconnect have been attested by people using a variety of products.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2498329?start=0&tstart=0
https://discussions.apple.com/message/15410048?tstart=0
I’m running iOS 4.3.3 on mine.
Can you link to where the problems are well documented as you suggest as opposed to links of people randomly complaining with people not experiencing problems. You can look for virtually any potential issue (“iPhone won’t turn on”) and find people commenting on it. It doesn’t make it “well documented”.
As I mentioned, I’d had no problems with numerous devices with my iPhone. Oh, I forgot it also works perfectly with my Motorola Bluetooth headphones. So can you tell me what’s wrong with Bluetooth stack such that it works flawlessly with all 7 of my devices?
I can’t help it if you aren’t able to read English. There are over 50 pages of complaints in total on an Apple forum. These are real, documented complaints consistent with my own. As the problem is not isolated to a single piece of equipment the conclusion must be that the Bluetooth stack contains errors.
“I can’t help it if you aren’t able to read English. There are over 50 pages of complaints in total on an Apple forum.”
No, these are pages of posts in an Apple forum, not every one is a complaint, and of the complaints not every one is of the problem you suggest, and of those, how many definitively attributed to a code flaw in Apple’s Bluetooth stack? Or are you suggesting that the following DOCUMENTS that there is an issue with the Bluetooth stack:
“Are you stating your experience, or are you asking for help? I’m unclear from your posting.”
Are you suggesting that it’s “been documented” that iPhones, don’t turn on, don’t turn off, are stuck in trees, are in toilets, etc… and thus it’s an Apple flaw that iPhones are sitting in trees/toilets, simply because people post comments in the forums?
You made a statement of fact, but you’ve got nothing to back it up. Show us where it’s documented that there’s a flaw in the way Apple’s Bluetooth stack is written. Go on, post the code.
Explain why, this doesn’t occur with any of the equipment I have: “Apple’s implementation calls for repeated authentication and re-pairing after a connection is lost.”
The fact is, you’re wrong.
Now, you can make up stuff like saying Apple wrote bad code, or you can ask yourself why there are others who aren’t experiencing the same issue as you. Perhaps you have a defective iPhone. Perhaps you have a defective Jabra headphone. Perhaps it’s an inherent flaw with the Jabra headphone. Perhaps you’re doing something wrong.
Whatever the case, you could be living with an iPhone that doesn’t require re-authentication or re-pairing with a Bluetooth headphone, but your obstinateness is preventing this.
Bluetooth in general sucks with poor device connectivity, dropped connections etc etc. It it not only Apple products which I use heavily but it relates to all products (my motorola car phone speaker and Blackberry, keyboard etc).
MAybe Apple joining the SIG will actually help to make it useful.
Good. Now maybe we’ll get Bluetooth printing from iPads. One can always hope.
What took them so long?