A self observation today: Call it spring cleaning but today I felt like organizing the PC a bit and remove any unnecessary components and programs that just slow down the startup sequence and are no longer used anyway. One of the components that fell pray to this action is the Bluetooth protocol stack of my Bluetooth dongle as I noticed that I can't remember when I last used it.
In the past, I used Bluetooth for transferring files and pictures and every now and then also for connecting the notebook via a mobile phone to the Internet. I no longer do any of that:
For transferring files it takes pretty much the same time to find the Bluetooth dongle or finding a USB cable. In addition, file transfers are much faster and programs can work directly on the file system of the phone. Hence, no more Bluetooth. I wonder if it would be different if my notebook had Bluetooth built in? Probably, especially if the file system of the phone could be mounted as a virtual drive programs have access to.
As for the notebook tethering, a 3G USB dongle has taken over for two reasons. First, I am now usually using one SIM card for voice telephony and mobile phone Internet access and another SIM card in the 3G dongle. It has simply become affordable and it is much more practicable. And second, even while still using a phone for tethering I preferred a cable as the phone was charged over the cable automatically.
I still use Bluetooth for a number of other things like transferring contacts from the address book to another phone, transferring a picture I have taken to a friend's phone, for my mobile Bluetooth keyboard, and I can still imagine buying another Bluetooth headset with A2DP for high quality stereo transmission.
Nevertheless Bluetooth's usefullness for me is far lower than what it used to be. The cable has regained some territory. A bit odd.
Having it built-in is indeed much better. I pair all my phones with my PC. It makes it insanely easy to transfer files and such, and eliminates the need to find a free USB port.
There is no particular reason for having a dedicated radio for short distance communication (PAN). Intel is putting a lot of emphasis on what they call MyWiFi which basically intends to use Wifi to replace what BT was supposed to do.
The major issue with BT is that it seemed to have been designed by engineers not marketing people and as a result it is very cumbersome to use. You need to pair devices and enter security codes at both end. WiFi is likely to become the defacto standards for short distance PAN/LAN while LTE will become the standard for WAN.
I prefer to use bluetooth, it’s only a few clicks on the phone (browse to the file, hit the green “send” key, select bluetooth and then the computer name)
The file gets directly on the computer, I just have to click the baloon that pops to browse the bluetooth incoming folder.
I find this very useful, as I dont have my USB cable with me all the time, and for my phone (Nokia N81) I have to have Nokia PC Suite to use USB, which is very slow (way slower than the bluetooth software)
Hi all,
yes, having the Bluetooth device built into the device might indeed make the big difference for me, too. Let’s see, maybe in my next notebook 🙂
Kind regards,
Martin