Bluetooth hits speed bump
Transfers large files in seconds... sort of
Thursday, 9 April 2009, 18:37
THE BLUETOOTH SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP has announced early details of the 3.0 specification today ahead of the expected full anouncement on April 21st.
It says that Bluetooth 3.0 will feature dramatically increased speeds which compare with current standard Wi-fi allowing for the transfer of large video files, music collections and photo libraries wirelessly 'within seconds'.
But when you look a bit further into the specs it all seems a bit cheaty to us because, while Bluetooth is used to create the pairing between two devices, the data transfer itself is handed over to Wi-fi.
The spec also includes a new feature which will prevent annoying dropped connections when a device is put into a pocket or bag. µ
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Considering most bluetooth controllers are now integrated into the same silicon as the wifi, this makes sense, especially if the bluetooth+wifi stack automatically sets up the peer-to-peer wifi network for the file transfer without any faff (as it sounds like). How much of this is software (potentially at the hardware firmware level than the OS level) and how much is hardware?
So, it can transmit at speeds approaching conventional WiFi.........over Wifi. Genius!
Joking apart though, I'm all for device convergence and ease of use, and this is another step along the road.
Well, every transfer is done in seconds. It just depends on how many seconds... :)
question: So can i still use my Wifi & transfer a file via bluetooth at the same time ? Or will I now have to disconnect from wireless LAN first to do bluetooth.
"The spec also includes a new feature which will prevent annoying dropped connections when a device is put into a pocket or bag."
So hang on, they've figured out a way to fix the age old problem of radiowaves transferring through the incredibly dense material known as clothing.
/sarcasm