The Bluetooth SIG, the engineering group that controls the Bluetooth standard, today introduced Bluetooth 5, which the group says quadruples Bluetooth's previous range and doubles its speed. More than that, though, an 8-fold increase in Bluetooth 5's data capacity will put an end to the intrusive pairing process that Bluetooth's users are all too familiar with. The SIG says … [Read more...]
MWC Day 2: ANT+ Wants to Supplant Bluetooth in Home Control
If you've heard of ANT+ at all, you almost certainly know it as a way for your fitness equipment to communicate -- probably your chest strap to your treadmill or high-end fitness watch. But Garmin-owned ANT+ wants to be, oh, so much more: it wants to be how devices in your home are controlled and communicate. That's a field with no lack of standards, of course. WTI sat down … [Read more...]
New Bluetooth Version 4.2 Published; Allows Faster Speeds, Direct Connections to Internet
The Bluetooth SIG has published the specs for version 4.2 of the widely used Bluetooth standard, and the news is actually more exciting than it sounds. The latest spec promises data speeds about 2.5 times faster than the current version, and will allow devices to connect directly to IPv6 networks, instead of using phones or other devices as an intermediary. This means, for … [Read more...]
You Think Couples Argue About the Thermostat?
We're pretty sure we've heard about this before, but it may be worth repeating. The "adult toy" manufacturer OhMyBod is taking preorders for a vibrator controllable with a Bluetooth phone. (You may insert jokes about pairing and discoverability at your own discretion. We're too high class to do it ourselves.) They were showing it at CES. Just wait for the howls when Google … [Read more...]
BearTek Bluetooth Gloves
Anyone can make a glove that lets you control your phone by touching it. BearTek gloves let you control devices without even doing that. The globes use a Bluetooth module hidden in the gauntlet of the left glove. You control devices -- smartphone, a GoPro camera -- by touching your thumb to various control points on the glove. There are three models: for snow sports, for … [Read more...]
Reuters: Apple in the Hearing Aid Business?
iWhat? Somehow, a Reuters article saying that Apple was teaming up with the Danish company GN ReSound to make an iPhone-compatible hearing aid missed most people's attention. The story's not entirely coherent, but it seems that Apple went shopping for partners to make hearing aids that operate on Bluetooth's 2.4GHz band. Most competing companies use lower-frequency … [Read more...]