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'Bluetooth 5' to be Announced Next Week [Update: Bringing 2x Speed, 4x Range]
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You mean I'd be able to charge my Pencil on my mac?
Yup. Actually you raise a very good point (no pun intended). I think it's generally agreed that iOS and MacOS are going to merge eventually. A Mac that shares iOS touch screen peripherals via Lightning would be useful when Apple finally moves there. Certainly the rumored OLED touch bar is a step in that direction. At a minimum, I could see sharing apps on a MacBook in an iOS shell environment like Classic was to OS X, except it's transitioning the other way, i.e. becoming the primary OS while maintaining 'Classic' OS X compatibility. Imagine a glass top MacBook, where the TouchPad is invisible, and only available for OS X apps. Perhaps even the keys are virtual with taptic feedback. A simple swipe between environments at first and then OS X apps appear in windows, as they are relied upon less and less.
I use bluetooth headphones all the time. I like to take notes when I am talking with my clients, whether it be FaceTime, Skype, or plain 'ol audio. I am extremely unhappy with my headphones. They may be fine listening to music, but for communication, they all stink. I have a Sennheiser MM450X, Plantronics Pro and Bose. The Bose is the most comfortable, the Sennheiser is working on Bluetooth 1.x, and none of them work properly. None of them last more than 1 phone conversation. None of them can switch from a call on the computer to a call on the phone reliably, or more than once. Collectively, they are a joke...
If Bluetooth 5 gets these connecting issues handled, that would be nice... however, given the recent level of technology I don't hold out much hope.
If Bluetooth 5 gets these connecting issues handled, that would be nice... however, given the recent level of technology I don't hold out much hope.
Well that sucks. Now you have a much larger circle to search for lost but connected by devices.
That's the pesky and annoying little problem with new technologies coming on stream. There's always the one latest feature you really want but can't have unless you upgrade once again, at which point the cycle repeats.
You can never really get ahead and stay there unless you constantly upgrade, grrrrr......
A problem, not confined to tech products, but rather indicative of our lives in general. It's just that with technology advancing at such extreme speeds, we're seeing the need for updating happening much faster than in the past.
For those of us of a certain age, we lived through a time when things we bought did last. I bought a really nice Harman Kardon receiver and B&W studio monitors back in '83, sold them to a friend in '98, and he's still using them today. I regret selling them, because both were such high quality and clearly meant to last for ages (I was young and stupid for selling them). That being said, I am still using a Pioneer amplifier bought in '95, not nearly the same calibre of the HK unit, but again, there is little to no reason to buy new. Instead of powering a turntable, or cd player for that matter, I've hooked up an Airport Express and it's pushing iTunes (more and more streaming) into 4 rooms of our place.
Maybe they'll adopt the new aptX HD codec introduced at CES earlier this year...but then again they never adopted standard aptX, so probably unlikely.
I never tried to watch videos with sound over bluetooth...
But probably so, should be better according to their claims.Where do you live? Many of us live in areas that are highly saturated in 2.4 Ghz wifi networks which in my experience wreck havoc with BT. In fact, until I went to 5ghz Wireless AC, I couldn't even connect to my own Wifi AP at times...
Not exactly, it is a three way trade off of power, bandwidth and MpW (MIPS per Watt) of the system. Low power computing has consistently become faster as low-power semiconductor processes improve. The Bluetooth SIGs knows this and upgrades the standards to reflect this improved performance. My take is we'll see little increase in power but improvements in BT5. This will mean new silicon just like the upgrade to BT4 / BLE.
Update: The article title and first paragraph originally stated that Bluetooth 5 would bring quadruple the speed and double the range of the existing protocol, when in fact it promises 2x speed and 4x range.
Bluetooth SIG's PR agency contacted MacRumors to request the correction, owing to a mistake in the original newsletter copy that the SIG's executive director sent out.
Article Link: 'Bluetooth 5' to be Announced Next Week [Update: Bringing 2x Speed, 4x Range]
So this article press release below is incorrect based on the above statement?
http://link.bluetooth.com/m/1/58195...7/25/924/b9503bd4-66ea-4261-9e38-48620b7b3c14
So to be clear, we are getting 2x the speed and 4x the range and not 4x the speed and 2x the range with Bluetooth 5.0?!?!?
Which BT 4.x HR sensor or speed/cadence sensor or power meter will pair with more than one iPhone (as an example)? Or pair with an iPhone plus a Suunto/Polar sport watch?
I'm guessing you know something we all don't?
Or by "solved" did you mean a half-implemented spec with no real world application?
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Range is pretty huge for me since I can see myself using buds in the gym while being relatively far away from my bag and phone.
All I remember about bluetooth is that in early 2000's with your cellphone you can see others who have their bluetooth on and exchange files with them in any public area.
I think its used for wireless controllers today and maybe personal hotspot?
Any way, if you buy a new standard bluetooth device it will probably mean you have to upgrade all your other gadgets to reap the benefits....
I think its used for wireless controllers today and maybe personal hotspot?
Any way, if you buy a new standard bluetooth device it will probably mean you have to upgrade all your other gadgets to reap the benefits....
Apple is notoriously slow in giving us what we want, instead we will get 10 USB-C ports, for which we all have 0 devices without a dongle required.
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Wireless headphones too. I actually have the B&W p5 wireless, so I am looking forward very much so to Bluetooth 5.
Imo the best thing to do until the bluetooth/lightning/ usb c situation becomes more clear. I also want to see what is happening to the USB B/micro charging port on those bluetooth headphones. Currently they are often only used for charging. If you forgot to charge your headphones, most of them are dead (i know some high end models have a 3,5mm fallback/ or Philips had a pair with USB mode for PCs). But if they switch to USB C in the future, they could also implement a chipset, which uses USB C audio for those times you forgot to charge them. This could also allow some gimmicks like noise cancellation and adaptive noise control (e.g. JBL Reflect Aware C). I don't know if Apple is planning something similar with Lightning, but at least for USB C Android phones this could be very convenient.
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Bluetooth 5, the next generation of Bluetooth standard, will be formally announced next week, offering quadruple the range and double the speed of the current low-energy wireless protocol.
Executive director of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, Mark Powell, revealed the news in a published email sent to UK health and monitoring company Blue Maestro. The Bluetooth SIG, which is backed by Apple, Intel, and other major technology companies, will officially make the announcement on June 16 in London.
The standard's adoption of the title "Bluetooth 5" drops reference to both the version and point number, indicating both a significant revision of the protocol and an effort by SIG to simplify its marketing strategy.
The new standard is also said to offer significantly wider support for smart home devices and enhanced Internet of Things (IoT) functionality, in addition to increased support for location-based connectionless services, such as assistive navigation beacons.
It's unclear whether Bluetooth 5 will come to existing devices as a firmware update or require new hardware, but the latter is more likely. Previously, Bluetooth 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 devices were not upgradeable to newer versions of the standard, but Bluetooth 4.0 devices could be upgraded to Bluetooth 4.1 via software patches.
In October last year, Apple quietly added Bluetooth 4.2 support to the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, and iPad Air 2, bringing 2.5x faster speeds and up to ten times higher data capacity to the devices.
Rumors of impending upgrades to Apple's MacBook range typically make no mention of wireless protocols, while iPhone 7 leaks and speculation are also usually silent on the subject.
However, given the increasing likelihood that Apple will remove the headphone jack in the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, Bluetooth will become the primary means of connecting headphones for most users unless wired Lightning earbuds are included in the box.
Update: The article title and first paragraph originally stated that Bluetooth 5 would bring quadruple the speed and double the range of the existing protocol, when in fact it promises 2x speed and 4x range.
Bluetooth SIG's PR agency contacted MacRumors to request the correction, owing to a mistake in the original newsletter copy that the SIG's executive director sent out.
Article Link: 'Bluetooth 5' to be Announced Next Week [Update: Bringing 2x Speed, 4x Range]
If you have money to stack in a pile to burn & very little audiophonic knowledge or taste, and were going to buy those Bose- I kinda doubt whether buying them again in 6 months with a shiny new spec listed on them will seem like a big deal.
Current bluetooth 4 is 25 megabits/second = 3 megabytes/second. Uncompressed, lossless, dual channel stereo CD music @ 44.1 kHz/16-bit is just 176 KB/second. Even the Sony high definition audio format only used 3 megabits/second.
Whatever is wrong with current bluetooth, it is absolutely not a bandwidth issue. And if it were, merely doubling the BW couldn't make a fundamental difference.
Most new headphones are coming in a hybrid configuration like this. When the headphone jack is dropped, all headphone makers will likely create analogue/digital hybrids exclusively, some with batteries, and optional wireless radios. One cable will output whatever signal is needed on the other end. When the battery is dead on the wireless, plug them in to whatever device you want, Lightning, USB-C, or 3.5mm.
I now really wonder will the iPhone 7 implement Bluetooth 5 in hardware--possibly on a new chip. If it does, that means possibly CD-quality wireless audio transmission from the iPhone to Bluetooth 5-compatible wireless headsets. I wouldn't be surprised if Bose offers an updated version of the new QuietComfort 35 with Bluetooth 5 support some time this fall.
Here's to hoping that Apple gets off their asses and actually implements bluetooth correctly. Rumors of them getting rid of the headphone port, and yet I can't get any bluetooth device to stay paired correctly to ANY device. Issues between my Watch and iPhone, between my Magic Keyboard/Mouse and my rMBP, between my Bose/Beats headphones and my rMBP/iPad/iPhone. Non-stop issues.
Even now, as I type this on my rMBP keyboard with both my magic mouse and keyboard sitting in front of me because they just disconnected for no reason and refuse to reconnect. Absolute garbage!
/end rant
Even now, as I type this on my rMBP keyboard with both my magic mouse and keyboard sitting in front of me because they just disconnected for no reason and refuse to reconnect. Absolute garbage!
/end rant
