Hacker News Reader

Comment by XaspR8d | Hacker News Reader

I'm so glad this is the top comment, and matches my experience 100%. If a product brags about its Bluetooth support, I immediately start losing trust in it. So many devices have such bad UX for pairing too, so I can't even get any communication about what I'm doing wrong. I think BT-enabled cars are the worst offender here. Some of them don't even provide obvious alternatives to the voice menu.

The only positive bluetooth experience I've had lately was playing the mobile game Spaceteam. Why is a 6-year-old free app the only example that comes to mind? My 1st-gen Pebble is still okay-ish; it does frequently disconnect but it usually manages to reconnect without intervention or disrupting itself.

(This rant bookends nicely into talking about how shitty smart TVs are too, but I'll try to restrain myself.)

View on HN

> If a product brags about its Bluetooth support, I immediately start losing trust in it

Unfortunately, there aren't viable wireless connectivity alternatives for commercial products other than Wi-Fi for long range and Bluetooth for short range. And both suffer from high (and rising) interference levels in the ISM bands.

Wifi direct had the potential to be a Bluetooth alternative, but they skipped out on defining "profiles" for common use cases.

With Bluetooth you have a list of profiles that define protocols for various use cases.

A car head unit is likely using A2DP and AVRCP to handle the streaming and playback controls respectively. It may also implement HFP to allow it to act as a handsfree.

Wifi direct do not even, last i checked, have a defined protocol for transferring files between devices. This while Bluetooth supports OBEX, that allows you to either push individual files, or browse the storage of a device remotely.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Bluetooth_profiles

Thats the list of Bluetooth profiles at present.

My first generation (non-Time, non-Steel) Pebble has refused to connect to my iPhone 6S since the day I got the new phone. Pebble doesn't seem able to help, the official answer I got was "use the old app" which won't pair to a watch with the Time firmware that their app upgraded mine to. Pairs just fine with my iPhone 5S that I use for work.

The damn thing has been sitting on my desk for months and I don't even know where the charger went. You'd think if your whole hardware experience is based around Bluetooth, you'd be able to iron out the rough edges.

Doesn't Spaceteam use Wifi, rather than Bluetooth?

Spaceteam can do either, but Wi-Fi is cross platform. IIRC Bluetooth was too locked down to support across iOS/Android.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com