Bluetooth 2.2 to be released in mid-2009
Bluetooth 2.2 to debut next year.
(Credit: Bluetooth)According to the analysts over at IMS Research, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) will release a new version of Bluetooth in mid-2009, tentatively dubbed Bluetooth 2.2. Bluetooth 2.2 promises to be much faster than previous versions, allowing transfer rates at higher speeds.
The new High Speed Bluetooth specification will work in conjunction with WLAN or USB for improved data rates, and will be known as Bluetooth 10x and Bluetooth 100x, respectively. It will hopefully allow for wireless video streaming, wireless printing, and more. For this to work, your cell phone will have to have WLAN or UWB radio. It's said that Bluetooth 10x will be used first, since a lot of handsets have Wi-Fi capabilities now.
Since we don't have any news of devices that will use this new Bluetooth specification, we can't tell if it delivers its promises. But once we have some compatible devices on hand, we'll try it out and let you know.
UPDATE 12/05/08: The Bluetooth SIG just contacted us to let us know the new Bluetooth profile will NOT be called Bluetooth 2.2. We've also updated the source of this story, as it was inaccurate previously.
Nicole Lee is an associate editor for CNET, covering cell phones, Bluetooth headsets, and all things mobile. She's also pretty geeky--she likes World of Warcraft, comic books, and shiny gadgets. E-mail Nicole. 
Also, I'm hoping that drivers become better built and ready to go when 2.2 comes out. To be frank, a lot of bluetooth transceivers (accessory and PC-hardware wise) have been far from perfect in terms of consistency from product to product and overall performance.
At least Bluetooth 10x will be utilizing WLAN, limiting what needs to be upgraded on existing machines.
In any case, I'm hoping version 2.2 can meet my [high] expectations.
What do you not get. I said nothing about bluetooth on the iphone. I was ranting against fanboys and all these stupid comments. I was talking about my macbook up 2 posts ago, but might as well comment about your bluetooth 1.0 claim. The iPhone has a bluetooth 2.0+EDR chip inside it. It has very few bluetooth profiles installed in the software. An example for this is that windows does not support bluetooth audio by default, but you can install a driver from bluesoliel to support make it support it. The same can be done with the iphone by a future software update. I am not saying that apple is right I am just pointing out simple facts. So lesson is dont be blind to love or hate.
I use a BT-capable cell phone as a handsfree phone and MP3 music source, paired with a BT-capable car stereo receiver. While the actual phone function of the pairing works well, the music functionality is marginal. Sound quality is poor and the handshaking between phone and car only works properly ~80% of the time.
BT has been around for years now, and BT-capable products should NOT have hiccups like this. You may have two devices that pair well together, but we're far from a world where 100% of pairable devices work well together. From a consumer perspective, that's very disappointing.
You totally nailed what I was trying to say.
@wlau:
Don't get me wrong. I found bluetooth to be an enjoyable experience overall. What I meant when I said "heavily stressed," was that the hardware/software weren't working in a fully efficient matter. Bluetooth 1.0 supposedly had enough bandwidth to handle A2DP, but even with the larger output from 2.x, it's been far from reliable enough to become a standard anyone would want to use. I consider myself a light audiophile, and the performance I've had from the Voyager 855 was only mediocre. Hiccups occur once in a while with devices themselves, and its even worse on the computer--driver support isn't standard across the different hardware manufacturers, and apparently on some set ups, if the load on the other USB buses exceeds a certain thresh hold, you'll see that impact your bluetooth performance.
Point is (and I'm going to re-emphasize what cobra--2008 caught on from my original post), with all the years BT's had to grow into a capable technology, it's far from perfect. It's brought some innovative ideas, but other technologies have overtaken it in a lot of the purposes BT originally had. It's not 100% ready for the consumer market today and because of that, I'm setting high expectations for 2.2 to meet.
- by guymatrin December 8, 2008 11:54 AM PST
- http://www.wirelessweek.com//Bluetooth-SIG-2009-Update.aspx
- Reply to this comment
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(10 Comments)The update will probably be 3.0