RE: Wireless
Teething pains
Despite a spate of new Bluetooth devices, the short-range wireless networking technology has yet to live up to its promises.
By Hiawatha Brayk, Globe Staff, 11/11/2002
The Dell laptop's in one room, the Hewlett-Packard inkjet printer in another. Between them are just a wall, a door and some air - no wires.
And yet, at the touch of a button, the printer cranks out a document stored on the laptop's hard drive. It's a moment of sweet vindication for the Swedish engineers who, eight years ago, invented the short-range wireless networking system known as Bluetooth.
Designed to eliminate the need for short runs of cable between computers and their peripheral devices, Bluetooth has been hailed for years as the networking system of the future. And to judge by a sudden explosion of Bluetooth-based computers, phones, printers, and personal digital assistants (PDAs), the future has finally arrived.
Or has it? A couple of weeks spent with a variety of Bluetooth devices reveals that the technology still doesn't live up to its promise.
The original goal was to create a wireless networking system so simple that the user would have to do almost nothing to make it work. At the touch of a button, a Bluetooth PDA like the new Tungsten from Palm Inc. would download the day's appointments and to-do items from a Bluetooth-equipped laptop. Or a Bluetooth cellphone would be able to dial into the Internet, and feed incoming data to that Bluetooth laptop.
In practice, it's not so simple. Despite years of efforts to create a set of global Bluetooth standards, many of the devices just won't work with each other. Even when they are made to work, the setup process is often so confusing, and the performance so inconsistent, that many consumers will throw up their hands and go back to using old-fashioned wires.
Martin Reynolds, who tracks Bluetooth technology as an analyst for market research firm Gartner Inc., has learned about Bluetooth bugs the hard way. Reynolds spent 90 minutes getting an Ericsson T68 Bluetooth phone to communicate with his wife's Bluetooth-equipped home computer. Mike McCamon, executive director of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, which oversees Bluetooth technical standards, says initial setup should take just five minutes.
Still, Reynolds says he was delighted with the system at first. Bluetooth let him exchange phone numbers and appointment data between the phone and the computer with ease.
''It just worked,'' said Reynolds. ''The problem is it only just worked the one evening, and it hasn't worked since. ... I don't know why. It just doesn't do it.''
The Bluetooth devices sent to the Globe for a tryout suffered from the same unpredictable, inconsistent performance. Microsoft Corp.'s new Bluetooth keyboard and mouse worked perfectly after a fairly easy setup process. The system includes a Bluetooth transceiver which, according to Microsoft, will allow the user to connect up to five other Bluetooth devices to the computer - including devices not made by Microsoft.
Indeed, that's a vital part of the Bluetooth appeal. Like the Universal Serial Bus (USB) cables used today to link printers to PCs, Bluetooth is supposed to be a universal standard. Any Bluetooth-equipped device should work with any other, regardless of brand.
Not this time. Microsoft's software detected the presence of the Hewlett-Packard printer, but resolutely refused to work with it. By contrast, a Globe-issued Dell laptop with a Bluetooth transceiver from 3Com Corp. was able to use the printer. A spokeswoman for Hewlett-Packard revealed the surprising reason: HP's Bluetooth printer isn't compatible with Microsoft's version of Bluetooth. The two companies are working on an upgrade, due early next year. This kind of incompatibility simply isn't supposed to happen - but it does.
Neither the 3Com Bluetooth card nor the Microsoft transceiver worked with the Palm Tungsten, a PDA with built-in Bluetooth. The 3Com card detected the presence of the Tungsten but refused to synch up the laptop with the handheld device.
The same Globe laptop could connect with a Sony Ericsson Bluetooth phone, but couldn't exchange information with it. A Nokia Bluetooth phone was difficult to set up, but eventually allowed the laptop to connect wirelessly to the Internet and pull down Web pages. However, it wouldn't synchronize with the laptop's address book.
Bluetooth wireless headsets for cellphones are a bright spot. One unit, the FreeSpeak by Jabra Corp., plugs into phones that don't contain a Bluetooth system. It features a transceiver that clips onto the user's belt, and a headset that attaches to the ear. This device worked flawlessly, as did the Bluetooth headset that came with the Sony Ericsson phone.
On the other hand, we couldn't use the headsets to connect to the Bluetooth-equipped laptop. That's a shame, because a wireless headset could be used with PC speech-recognition software, like IBM Corp.'s ViaVoice, in place of the usual wired microphone.
Still, these wireless Bluetooth headsets and phones are one area where Bluetooth lives up to its ease-of-use promise. Perhaps that's because the technology's inventor, Ericsson, is one of the leading cellphone makers. Or maybe it's because so many cellphone companies have embraced the technology. Eric Janson, vice president of worldwide marketing for Cambridge Silicon Radio Inc., a British maker of Bluetooth chips, says that about 25 million chipsets have been sold so far, with the great majority going to cellphone companies like Nokia and Ericsson.
Janson said that other Bluetooth gear has lagged because of foot-dragging in the personal computer industry. Microsoft didn't add Bluetooth compatibility to its Windows XP operating system until a few months ago. Microsoft said this was because there were few Bluetooth products on the market at the time Windows XP was released last year.
Now Windows XP users can get Bluetooth support by installing a free ''service pack,'' available from Microsoft. Apple Computer Inc. already has Bluetooth support in its Mac OS X software, but because so few people use Macs, Bluetooth couldn't take off until Microsoft got aboard.
''It has taken longer than the initial hype, just like any other standard that comes along,'' Janson admits. And now that PCs and Macs support Bluetooth, device makers will have to get serious about making sure that all their Bluetooth devices meet reasonable standards for ease of use and reliability.
McCamon of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group said that he held ''an all-hands meeting'' of top Bluetooth device makers in early October to lay down the law.
If McCamon didn't get their attention, some new competition might. Cypress Semiconductor Corp. of San Jose, Calif., says their new WirelessUSB technology will perform many of the same functions of Bluetooth, but with greater ease.
''It's a lot simpler than what Bluetooth promises and tries to deliver,'' said Cathal Phelan, vice president of Cypress' personal communications division. ''We've reduced the requirements and delivered something that actually does work.''
One reason for Bluetooth's complexity is that each device has to carry a set of software ''profiles'' telling it how to talk to other devices, such as printers, PDAs or phones. WirelessUSB dispenses with all this. It's strictly seen as a substitute for today's USB cables. The transceiver in a WirelessUSB keyboard would broadcast the same signal that would be sent down a standard USB wire, with encryption added to prevent eavesdropping. To the computer on the other end, it all looks like a standard USB connection.
Phelan said that WirelessUSB devices aren't intended to replace Bluetooth in all applications. Indeed, the technology is mainly meant for keyboards, mice, and joysticks. But if the system is reliable and easy to use, it could become a major rival to Bluetooth.
WirelessUSB devices are supposed to hit the market by the middle of next year. Bluetooth device makers have already had about eight years to tinker with their technology. Maybe given six more months, they'll finally get it right.
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