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Bluetooth needs to be replaced with: Something allows a device to select what it connects with. I have a laptop, tablet and phone with me most of the time and

Bluetooth needs to be replaced with: Something allows a device to select what it connects with. I have a laptop, tablet and phone with me most of the time and managing the connection by disconnecting via the laptop/phone/tablet/car/whaever is silly - sometimes you have to kill bluetooth on two or three devices to get the device you want connected. Something that has high quality audio in headset mode. Something that makes data sharing easy. Having 500 different apps that must be the same on both ends of the connection so send a file or three is silly.

baybal2 5y ago
Nothing needs to be replaced, it's all in the standard, and Apple just needs to support it. Every dumbphone around 2005 was able to share, and receive files, use HID devices, and put a lot of context to things like remote control info. Apple famously was unable to get proper BT keyboard support for 5 years. Nor still it supports OBEX.
- gjsman-1000 5y ago
  It's... pretty terrible standards to be honest. Have you ever tried Bluetooth File Transfer for anything substantial? It's snail speed in the real world. Nothing like AirDrop. It's almost unusable in 2021. A video would take minutes to transfer.
  - baybal2 5y ago
    The speed of Bluetooth is also a solved issue by an alternative PHY mode. It works, it's a solved issue. And if Apple wanted more bandwidth, at lower power, they had just to put lawyers to destroy UWB patent trolls.
    - indymike 5y ago
      > It works, it's a solved issue. That's nice. It will be nicer when I can pair my phone with my laptop and move big files quickly. Long story short: faster bluetooth file transfer that I can't use is not useful to me.
vmception 5y ago
Apple's products do this well. Airpods can seamlessly switch between phone and computer.
- indymike 5y ago
  > Apple's products do this well. Airpods can seamlessly switch between phone and computer. The issue isn't just the headphones. It's the way bluetooth devices cannot manage what they connect to. A classic: I'm listening to music with headphones in my bedroom. My wife starts the car, and my phone automatically switches to the car. It's crazy, and the even the best headphones in the world (and maybe airpods are) can't fix this mess.
  - joeman1000 5y ago
    True, it needs to stop. My wife keeps commandeering my AirPods to Rick-roll me…
    - philistine 5y ago
      I like her.
gruez 5y ago
>Something allows a device to select what it connects with. I have a laptop, tablet and phone with me most of the time and managing the connection by disconnecting via the laptop/phone/tablet/car/whaever is silly - sometimes you have to kill bluetooth on two or three devices to get the device you want connected. What's wrong with the current process? If turn on a bluetooth device (eg. bluetooth headphones) and it connects to a random one you don't want (eg. your tablet rather than your smartphone), then you can rectify that by going to your smartphone and connecting to that device. It's a bit of a hassle, but it's certainly less of a hassle than going around turning off all bluetooth devices in the vicinity, or trying to get device selection working on a bluetooth headphone (weird tap combinations? voice recognition?).

baybal2 5y ago

Nothing needs to be replaced, it's all in the standard, and Apple just needs to support it. Every dumbphone around 2005 was able to share, and receive files, use HID devices, and put a lot of context to things like remote control info. Apple famously was unable to get proper BT keyboard support for 5 years. Nor still it supports OBEX.

gjsman-1000 5y ago
It's... pretty terrible standards to be honest. Have you ever tried Bluetooth File Transfer for anything substantial? It's snail speed in the real world. Nothing like AirDrop. It's almost unusable in 2021. A video would take minutes to transfer.
- baybal2 5y ago
  The speed of Bluetooth is also a solved issue by an alternative PHY mode. It works, it's a solved issue. And if Apple wanted more bandwidth, at lower power, they had just to put lawyers to destroy UWB patent trolls.
  - indymike 5y ago
    > It works, it's a solved issue. That's nice. It will be nicer when I can pair my phone with my laptop and move big files quickly. Long story short: faster bluetooth file transfer that I can't use is not useful to me.

vmception 5y ago

Apple's products do this well. Airpods can seamlessly switch between phone and computer.

indymike 5y ago
> Apple's products do this well. Airpods can seamlessly switch between phone and computer. The issue isn't just the headphones. It's the way bluetooth devices cannot manage what they connect to. A classic: I'm listening to music with headphones in my bedroom. My wife starts the car, and my phone automatically switches to the car. It's crazy, and the even the best headphones in the world (and maybe airpods are) can't fix this mess.
- joeman1000 5y ago
  True, it needs to stop. My wife keeps commandeering my AirPods to Rick-roll me…
  - philistine 5y ago
    I like her.

gruez 5y ago

>Something allows a device to select what it connects with. I have a laptop, tablet and phone with me most of the time and managing the connection by disconnecting via the laptop/phone/tablet/car/whaever is silly - sometimes you have to kill bluetooth on two or three devices to get the device you want connected. What's wrong with the current process? If turn on a bluetooth device (eg. bluetooth headphones) and it connects to a random one you don't want (eg. your tablet rather than your smartphone), then you can rectify that by going to your smartphone and connecting to that device. It's a bit of a hassle, but it's certainly less of a hassle than going around turning off all bluetooth devices in the vicinity, or trying to get device selection working on a bluetooth headphone (weird tap combinations? voice recognition?).