When Bluetooth Leaves You in the Lurch: How to Get It Going Again
Does using Bluetooth
ever drive you crazy with dropped connections to your desktop mouse, or
with pairing and sound-quality problems on your smartphone? If so,
you're not alone.
As a wireless connectivity technology, Bluetooth is designed to be
relatively easy to use, and typically it requires little more than
entering a four-digit PIN to instantly pair, say, a keyboard with your
iPad.
And yet, for all its purported simplicity, online forums are full of
users complaining about Bluetooth problems--whether it's iPhone owners
looking to pair a novelty handset
or a first-time laptop user just looking to turn Bluetooth on. "I
cannot use Bluetooth. I don't know what is wrong with my laptop but this
problem is frustrating for me," said one user in the TechArena forum. Another user, on Tech Support Forum, wrote: "I KNOW I have bluetooth, I checked BIOS and it says it is enabled... so lost right now, and a touch frustrated."
Bluetooth mysteries appear to fall into several different categories.
Some are as simple as not knowing how to turn on a Bluetooth chip in
your PC or smartphone. Others include figuring out which software driver
to download for your PC, or understanding how to deal with signal drops
on a headset. A more problematic situation is when Bluetooth capability
breaks down, through no fault of the user.
In early 2011, for example, many Windows Phone 7 users started
complaining about Bluetooth pairing and audio-quality issues; Microsoft
soon said it was investigating the issue. In October, a number of Mac
owners complained about Bluetooth pairing problems after upgrading to
Mac OS X 10.7.2 Lion. "I am having trouble with my bluetooth mouse after
upgrading to 10.7.2," wrote a frustrated Apple forum
user going by the aptly chosen online moniker "arrrrrrgh." Others told
similar stories of being unable to use Bluetooth. These problems have
since been resolved.
How Bluetooth Works
Bluetooth is by far the most popular short-range wireless technology
for device-to-device data transfers. And it's everywhere--in
smartphones, laptops, cameras, televisions, car dashboards, and home
audio systems. You can use it to stream music wirelessly from your PC to
a Bluetooth-enabled smartphone or MP3 player. Many people use Bluetooth
for hands-free calling, and Bluetooth headphones are also a popular
choice for listening to music on the go.
The technology ships in more than 19 million devices every week,
according to the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, a trade association
dedicated to advancing Bluetooth technology. The Bluetooth SIG has more
than 15,000 member companies, including major consumer technology firms
such as Apple, Intel, Lenovo, Microsoft, Nokia, and Toshiba.
The most recent version of Bluetooth, version 4.0,
includes new low-energy protocols for transmitting data from medical
devices such as glucose monitors and stethoscopes, and other low-powered
gadgets like pedometers and watches. Bluetooth 4.0 also includes the
capabilities of its predecessor, 3.0 + HS, which improved Bluetooth's
data-transfer capabilities thanks to its ability to pair two devices and
then switch large data loads from Bluetooth to the 802.11 wireless
standard, the same standard used for Wi-Fi connectivity.
News Group : IT
Date: 2012/2/20
news_source : ITNews.com
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