Apple's FCC Application for Internal Bluetooth for Laptops... Cancelled?

[MacRumors]

November 2, 2002 (http://www.macrumors.com/pages/2002/11/20021102123445.shtml), MacRumors posted links to FCC documents on the testing of Apple Bluetooth Modules "to be used only in Apple manufactured computers including the Apple ibook and Apple Titanium."

Test photos and an Apple Bluetooth instruction manual were posted at the FCC site.

The same original link (https://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/oet/forms/reports/Search_Form.hts?mode=Edit&form=Exhibits&application_id=930770&fcc_id=BCGBT1915) now points to a letter (written on November 4, 2002) from Apple Computer:


Per the written confirmation from Apple Computer, Inc. , Apple Computer would like to request the Commission to dismiss this application. Apple is not going to market this product any more.


Bluetooth rumors (http://www.macrumors.com/pages/2002/12/20021212125824.shtml) have infiltrated pre-Expo rumors... and this cancellation of Apple's Bluetooth module may simply be an outdated project, whose papers were simply brought to attention by the previous report. Or not...

[dabirdwell]

Anyone know what's up with this?

[GigaWire]

Apple crazy!!! Make no sense!!!

WHat happen??

Someone set us up the bomb.

We get signal!

Whaaaa....

Main screen turn on!

It's you!

How are you gentlemen.....


All you wireless are gone to dust.

[sparkleytone]

its 'someone set up us the bomb' not 'us up'

and anyways, i'm still convinced that bluetooth is going to be anything spectacular. i think its a smart move on apple's behalf. if you need it get the usb adapter. no need to waste money on a mobo addition.

[Scottgfx]

nevermind

[dricci]

Originally posted by sparkleytone
ino need to waste money on a mobo addition.

If what I've read is correct, the actual bluetooth chips are now very tiny and very cheap in bulk, so there really shouldn't be any issue for Apple to add them into the PowerBook. I'm thinking Apple is working on a new PowerBook design, so they just wanted to kill that old request off before they submitted the new design for approval.

[kishba]

Originally posted by dricci


If what I've read is correct, the actual bluetooth chips are now very tiny and very cheap in bulk, so there really shouldn't be any issue for Apple to add them into the PowerBook. I'm thinking Apple is working on a new PowerBook design, so they just wanted to kill that old request off before they submitted the new design for approval.

actually i believe bluetooth interferes with airport's range. if apple is focusing on making airport faster (with improved signal ranges) i believe bluetooth plans would be cut immediately.

after all.. the current bluetooth adapter is sufficient until more devices become bluetooth enabled.

[G4scott]

It's like, a,




bummer...

[Maxkraft]

Maybe apple got smart and decided to build the bluetooth adapter into an airport card.

[valypan]

Originally posted by Maxkraft
Maybe apple got smart and decided to build the bluetooth adapter into an airport card.

That would be SOOOOO neat! :)

[gopher]

Smells like a smokescreen to me. Apple doesn't want all its patents to be known before they actually release something. It is one thing to have an obvious Bluetooth patent, it is another to have these mood changing color patents which could mean anything. For all we know the iPod will have iTunes like screen savers.

Second thought, I don't think that the 802.11b Bluetooth frequency problem has been fixed yet. The problem with it is that anyone transmitting Bluetooth frequencies near 802.11b will obstruct 802.11b but not vice versa.

[arnette]

Sounds like a disinformation campaign. I wouldn't be surprised if Apple 'magically' included it with it's laptops.

Eh, either way I don't care. I've heard that the SE T68i sucks anyway.

[oldMac]

1) Why the heck would Apple make their own bluetooth chips? These things will be a dime a dozen in 2 years and are probably pretty cheap from other sources now.

2) Except for the potential interference issues, a combined airport/bluetooth card makes a lot of sense. Surely somebody is looking to combine the two into one card and that would save a hardware interface for Apple.

3) My friend who has joined the "AT&T M-Life" crowd is really lamenting his decision. Apparently the coverage is poor compared to his old AT&T service and he has never been very lucky getting all the whiz-bang bluetooth + cell phone + laptop + PDA stuff working. Everything is beta.

[mymemory]

If I have 2 powerbooks (for example) with bluetooth booth and I have one wireless mouse... if I move that mouse am I going to control booth computers?

If Apple is planing to integrateh Bluetooth in to the air port card that means... to whait for next generation airport card!!!

BTW, Bluetooth technology is not that popular in my country, I mean, just the other two Apple fanatics down here knows about it. That means that the technology it is not a secure investment just because it can be replace it by something better any time soon. Every time something is a secure hit there are lots of advertising down here, Caracas is a test tube for technology.

What I see is that we won't be able to use our portables in airplanes any more, just imagine the huge ammount of radio frequencies we are generating just with an iBook with booth transmiters.

[Schlomo]

What is great about apple is once they post a patent, 1000 macaddicts who check the USPO website daily will post whatever it is that they patent, and mac users will speculate on what it could be being used for. Few people check out HP or Microsofts patents. If I were Apple, I would leak links to the patents that we had but weren't really using, and maybe people would come up with an application.

[zarathustra]

Originally posted by arnette
Eh, either way I don't care. I've heard that the SE T68i sucks anyway.

Ah-ah - you didn't. (circles hand in annoyed fashion) ;)

I have a T68i and love it to pieces. I sync everything on it without a hitch, I send&recieve IMAP email from my .Mac account, browse the net and can connect via bluetooth flawlessly. The battery life is great, considering it has a color screen (220h standby, 8h talk), a world phone, and it's light and tiny. I have had it for a while, and am still discovering cool little features.

[zarathustra]

Originally posted by mymemory
If I have 2 powerbooks (for example) with bluetooth booth and I have one wireless mouse... if I move that mouse am I going to control booth computers?


Before you can use a device via Bluetooth, you have to pair them first. Let's say you want the mouse to work with computer A, you set up both to "Discoverable", the mouse will transmit a code to the computer, you have to retype it on the computer, tada - they are paired. Any other device trying to connect to the Mouse, will have to wait until you unpair the mouse and the computer A.

[porovaara]

Look before posting what you "believe" on bluetooth just go and look it up first. This site is constantly full of incorrect or missinformation on lots of technology. There really is no excuse for it considering you must be on the greatest resource of information man has ever known JUST to be here.

[kishba]

Originally posted by porovaara
Look before posting what you "believe" on bluetooth just go and look it up first. This site is constantly full of incorrect or missinformation on lots of technology. There really is no excuse for it considering you must be on the greatest resource of information man has ever known JUST to be here.

i'd like you to prove me wrong then... there was a site that documented how to add internal bluetooth to current powerbooks that did mention a decrease in bluetooth and airport range. i will look for the link when i get home from work.

further more...

you shouldn't complain about my information unless you can prove me wrong... i mean it *is* a rumor site... not everything here is going to be completely accurate.

[porovaara]

Originally posted by kishba

documented how to add internal bluetooth to current powerbooks that did mention a decrease in bluetooth and airport
Of course it would because you are kludging bluetooth into an existing case/machine. It has been proven that a company can make combo cards that are smart enough to avoid each other when choosing frequencies to transmit on and timing. And as someone who uses bluetooth and 802.11 *every* day on the same machine I can tell you the "decreases" are greatly exagerated. Are you constantly pegging your WLAN at 300k a second? Are you always moving 74k a second to and from your bluetooth phone?

The most dangerous thing to your WLAN is a 2.4Ghz phone. They are notorious for blasting out all over the band and forgetting what channels they were set on. Bluetooth is a *low* power, low bandwitch (meaning a small amount of frequency is used).

Everytime I see someone poopoo'ing bluetooth I see the same people that said CDROMS would never catch on, or that USB wouldn't work.

[OutThere]

Maybe Apple is bluffing to make it more of a surprise when they come out with bluetooth in their laptops. Or not.

[lmalave]

Originally posted by Maxkraft
Maybe apple got smart and decided to build the bluetooth adapter into an airport card.

I hope this is right. This would actually make a lot more sense than integrating it into the machine, since it would be an elegant solution for the large existing user base that already has AirPort-enabled machines. Sure, they'd have to shell out $100 bucks for a new airport card, but they'd be shelling out $50 for a USB dongle anyway, which is not an elegant solution, especially on a laptop. Even though I just bought an AirPort card, I would gladly get an AirPort/Bluetooth card as soon as I bought my first Bluetooth device. For now I don't have any Bluetooth devices - I'm still waiting for freakin' Bluetooth headphones! And my next phone purchase (probably at least a year away) will definitely be a Bluetooth-enabled phone.

[Elroy]

No Bluetooth isn't the end of the world... Take a look at this article:

http://www.outlook4mobility.com/commentaries/dec1702.htm

[skunk]

There's an article on MacBidouille (everybody's favourite!) about serious interference between Bluetooth, Airport and a microwave oven. The author says it's so bad that it'll need a miracle in the shape of Airport 2 to sort it. :confused:

[Noiseboy]

Zarathustra is absolutely right.

The T68i is an excellent phone, I've had mine since not long after they came out and with the dongle was happily transfering my address book from laptop to phone even before the splendid iSync came along. It has worked perfectly around the world with great reception and amazing battery life. Anyone who says they suck knows not of what they speak. Also, despite my 500MHz TiBook being one of the older ones with fairly poor airport reception, I have never noticed any further impairment when using Bluetooth.
Bluetooth, t68i's and Apple rock!

[Pale Rider]

Originally posted by zarathustra


I have a T68i and love it to pieces. I sync everything on it without a hitch, I send&recieve IMAP email from my .Mac account, browse the net and can connect via bluetooth flawlessly. The battery life is great, considering it has a color screen (220h standby, 8h talk), a world phone, and it's light and tiny. I have had it for a while, and am still discovering cool little features.

I completely agree zarathustra. I love my SE t68i. I have used it side by side with my Treo 300, and I will be turning the Treo back in.

On the subject of BT interference with Airport, I have yet to see any interference when using the BT USB dongle while on Airport with my PBG4, even when I try to orient the computer so as to put the BT dongle in the Airport signal path. I am sure there could be, but no matter the circumstances, I have never had such a problem, and I routinely use my PB right next to the microwave on the kitchen counter!

[G4scott]

Bluetooth right now takes channels on the 2.4GHZ frequency without checking if they're being used, which can cripple your 802.11b network. There's a new technology (I forgot what it's called) that can be implemented with bluetooth that has it check channels, seeing if they're being used or now, cutting down on interference. Anytime you have multiple items on the same frequency, you're bound to have interference. Personally, I don't use bluetooth, and I can get a constant download speed of 270 K/S with my WLAN.

The bluetooth people are hoping for 802.11a, or another WLAN standard that uses the 5GHZ, or another frequency.

[jettredmont]

Originally posted by mymemory
If I have 2 powerbooks (for example) with bluetooth booth and I have one wireless mouse... if I move that mouse am I going to control booth computers?


You will control the PowerBook that is keyed to the mouse.

Every BlueTooth device has an ID, and that ID (along with device characteristics) is sent before two devices connect. When you PB sees a Bluetooth mouse it will do something like this:
if ( have a bluetooth mouse connected )
{
..ignore
}
else
{
..if ( know this bluetooth mouse )
..{
....connect
..}
..else
..{
....ask user if he wants to connect to this mouse
..}
}

Theoretically, the BT mouse can also limit which device(s) it will connect to, but more likely the BT mouse will allow a connection to only one device at a time, and keep the ID of the last device it was connected to to try reconnecting the next time it is turned on.


What I see is that we won't be able to use our portables in airplanes any more, just imagine the huge ammount of radio frequencies we are generating just with an iBook with booth transmiters.

Well, currently most airlines say you should turn off WiFi/Airport/Bluetooth interfaces when you use electronic devices on the plane. With built-in networking, that means turning it off in the preferences pane; for PC-Card WiFi and USB BlueTooth that means unplugging the adapter. But, yes, if airlines start having problems with people not managing their broadcasts on their own, they will likely ask the governing authorities (US or otherwise) to prohibit broadcast-capable devices during flight, which would be a very Bad Thing for all involved (airlines like that business travelers can do work on the flight ... means they fly more!)

[arnette]

How the hell are you supposed to get your Mac to communicate with a Bluetooth keyboard/mouse if some of these optimists' dreams come true-Apple packaging Bluetooth peripherals with new desktops?
Wouldn't you NEED a wired keyboard to set everything up?

And secondly, I've only HEARD that the SE 68i sucks... reading all the mobile wireless forums as I do. To be honest just about anything would be better than the Siemens s46 I was suckered into getting. I'm holding out for a Nokia that has a color screen and BT.