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Comment by micheljansen | Hacker News Reader

That's nice, but the biggest UX problem with Bluetooth is still the pairing misery. It's 2016 and it's still nearly impossible to use any one Bluetooth device with multiple other devices. Try switching a Bluetooth headset from an iPhone to a Mac or convincing your car to switch from one phone to another.

It's a huge mess and its not just a matter of the technology not working as designed. These are fundamental problems that nobody seems to worry too much about, apart from a small number of vendors (Apple did a decent job solving the pairing problem with the Apple TV: http://9to5mac.com/2013/07/29/new-apple-tv-os-offers-nfc-lik...).

I realise it's pretty hard to beat the intuitive action of plugging physical cables into devices to connect two things, but if we really want to get rid of cables, things need to be easier.

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So true. At first I couldn't believe it, but it is IMPOSSIBLE to completely remove a paired bluetooth device from windows. After having connected my wireless keyboard to my mac for a day, I tried to reconnect it to windows. It fails silently and doesn't show up any more in available bluetooth devices. The connection to my mac obviously changed the pairing code, while windows still tries the old one. I googled for hours, tried everything from uninstalling bluetooth drivers to removing entries from the registry. Windows always silently re-adds the keyboard to the installed devices and fails at pairing. So I've got 2 choices left: Buy a new keyboard or reinstall Windows. Yay!

I went the 'new keyboard' route when I needed to repair my Logitech K811 - I now have two keyboards on my desk, one for the mac, the other for the PC.. Absolutely ridiculous, but saved me wasting a day of installation (and inevitably having to re-pair the K811 in the future)

Doesn't the K811 have built-in functionality for changing it's bluetooth pairing by a button press? Does that fail to work or were you just disappointed in its build quality?

I went with an HP wireless elite keyboard and mouse with it's proprietary plug. I plug that into a usb switcher and then plug the switcher into my mac and windows machines.

I get sooooo tired of Windows either remember old stuff or forgetting new stuff. It is such a kludge of an OS.

I went back to a wired keyboard and have been happier ever since. Same for mouse, though that is somewhat irritating at times... I use a unicomp keyboard, and a logitech m500 mouse... Though I do miss some of the older mice that were more sturdy feeling.

have you tried

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/63589-63-cannot-remove-b...

I couldn't agree more. I have a set of headphones that I love using with my phone and several computers. It's such an annoyance to connect it from one to the other and it doesn't appear that ANYONE is even working on making this better anymore. There was that brief period where some bluetooth devices included NFC where you could take it to the device to pair which was actually interesting but it only happened to such few products I have no idea if it ultimately ended up being usable or not.

I bought an August EP650 Bluetooth headset recently that has NFC pairing. The problem is that my phone is the only other device I own that also supports it.

It strikes me as a software problem in the device, not a bluetooth limitation.

For example, some devices that I have pair only to a single peer, while others have no problems switching between several, while another device is limited to two peers--requiring a reset if you want a third.

I suggest that anyone buying a bluetooth device test out pairing between multiple devices and if the device makes you jump through hopes to switch between bluetooth peers then immediately return it.

I found the NFC pairing feature to be pointless, tbh. The headphones still had to be put into pairing mode first, so the only step that it saved was going into settings on the phone and tapping the item in the list. It worked most of the time, but the one or two times that it didn't more than outweighed the benefits.

Apple’s stylus has a pretty effective and reliable pairing method: just briefly plug it into the tablet.

Too bad this method can’t be more generally used.

Apple Magic Trackpad 2/Mouse/Keyboard do work this way.

How? I always have issues switching my trackpad from my laptop to my mac mini and back...

edit: nevermind, just noticed you said magic trackpad 2

They have a USB => Lightning cable. Plug it in briefly.

thanks, just noticed i missed a crucial '2' in the reply

You get pretty much the same thing these days if both devices support NFC. Just get within range, and ding.

Standardise that and make it ubiquitous and then it's interesting. Apple has the advantage that they own their entire platform so they can adopt a new "standard" immediately.

The standard already exist, and has been with us since 2.1. Now the ubiquity thing is quite another kettle of fish...

I didn't know that, cool! Though also depressing...

Im expecting the new beats to have something similar to this, or at least NFC if not.

Even with the Apple pencil, the pairing reliability is not great. Every time I disable Bluetooth on my iPad, I have to re-pair.

I'm surprised they didn't use some custom protocol, especially given how bad Bluetooth is, and they control the entire software and hardware stack.

probably because the hardware for bluetooth stacks have gotten crazy small and efficient. I doubt even apple could recreate it without straight up acquiring a company that already can do it.

That, and there would be the need for an additional chip and antenna.

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