Bluetooth 4.0 Devices To Make the Scene Later This Year 48
Engadget is reporting that new Bluetooth 4.0 devices could be hitting the scene later this year, and it looks like Bluetooth low energy has been added to the spec. "But don't expect any dramatic changes in battery life for most of your gadgets: while the low energy spec introduces connectivity to a host of lower-power devices that have in the past relied on proprietary technology (such as watches, pedometers, and cats), your traditional Bluetooth devices, such as phones and laptops, will consume roughly the same amount of power. Indeed, the low energy spec is merely throwing smaller devices (with smaller amounts of data to transfer) in to the mix: if you want Trans-Siberian Orchestra to sound as glorious as ever on your wireless headphones, you'll need to push as much data (and hence draw as much power) with version 4 as you would with version 3."
Re:Why are Bluetooth mouses so rare? (Score:4, Informative)
My first logitech mouse was a bluetooth one. It worked nicely, but I always had troubles with the pairing, e.g. having to partly redo it in some way or another. There was also the delay when "waking up" the mouse.
Their more recent mice with the extremely small usb receivers work flawlessly and are plug and play. I carry one around my college campus for use with campus computers (the mice on campus suck, and it helps me remember not to forget my usb drive...).
I also use bluetooth headphones with my laptop, and connection quality is much better when I only have one device paired at a time.
Re:Why are Bluetooth mouses so rare? (Score:3, Informative)
You mean these [wikipedia.org]?
I don't think so.
Re:Why are Bluetooth mouses so rare? (Score:3, Informative)
Oddly enough I had nothing but trouble with the Toshiba stack. I have an older Microsoft keyboard that uses Bluetooth 1.1 along with a high powered Class 1 Bluetooth 2.0 adapter from Cambridge Silicon Radio and it dropped keystrokes like crazy and the connection would frequently break and need to be reconnected manual with the Toshiba stack. The keyboard seems to work fine with the Bluetooth stack in Windows XP, but the stack in XP is limited, but actually works as intended. This computer does have an Intel ICH7 southbridge, which has trouble connecting to USB bluetooth adapters behind a USB hub, however, my BT adapter is connected directly to the computer and is not behind a USB hub.
Generally, BlueTooth labelling sucks (Score:3, Informative)
Because you often have no idea what profiles [wikipedia.org] a given multipurpose bluetooth device supports from looking at its manufacturer specs or packaging.
Particularly phones.