David Berlind exposes the truth about Bluetooth: that the wireless standard just doesn’t work all that well when it comes to connecting devices together. He describes meeting with a couple of representatives from the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, and being completely unable to link together any of his three Bluetooth-enabled laptops. Helpfully, he does have a suggestion for what can be done:
Instead of coming up with a implementation guide, and then having each vendor build from scratch it’s own implementation in hopes that they all work the same, I have a better idea. The Bluetooth SIG should join the Java Community Process and create a standard API so that a Java Virtual Machine can access the Bluetooth hardware. Then, the Bluetooth SIG should develop a single Java-based application, one for each of the platforms (phones, PCs, PDAs, etc.) and distribute that application to the 2,000 vendors that are members of the Bluetooth SIG. Then, from one PC to the next, from one PDA to the next, and from one phone to the next, the application for getting something done with Bluetooth would look the same.
Somebody better do something, because we’re getting perilously close to the point where it’d be better to just scrap Bluetooth and start over with a new standard.
