Bluetooth Experience Icons

Bluetooth Experience Icons were introduced by the Bluetooth SIG to make it easy for anyone shopping for Bluetooth devices to find interoperable products. For example, if he wants a Bluetooth printer that can print photos captured by his digital camera, then he should look around for printer and camera bearing the Headset Icon on their packaging.

The presence of the relevant icons on all Bluetooth products will shorten the process of matching supported Bluetooth profiles between two or more Bluetooth devices. For average users, this is very useful for saving time and money when buying a Bluetooth product. A lot of users express discontent over buying incompatible devices.

On top of that, these icons will educate and thereby encourage users to utilize their Bluetooth devices beyond popular usage scenario. For example, many Bluetooth smart phones support other profiles besides headset profile. But being unaware of other supported profiles' capability, most consumers only pair it with a Bluetooth headset.

However, the effectiveness of Bluetooth Experience Icons in boosting global Bluetooth usage for its varied applications remains to be seen. It depends on the awareness of major hardware manufactures and software developers to follow the Bluetooth SIG recommendation to put relevant Bluetooth Experience Icons in their product packages. And the Experience Icons introduction is only one factor, other issues still have to be addressed by the Bluetooth SIG, the to-do-list must contain how to simplify the pairing process and develop non-techy user friendly Bluetooth software. Anyway, have you noticed any of the said icons on a Bluetooth product that you bought recently?

Microsoft Bluetooth stack in Windows Vista

After searching the web using few different phrases, I found this Word document that explains Microsoft Bluetooth stack. Below are excerpts from this article.

Windows Vista (and XP SP2) supports Bluetooth version 1.1, 2.0, and 2.0 with enhanced data rate (EDR). Windows Vista improves EDR performance relative to XP and coexistence between Bluetooth and Wi-Fi in the 2.4 GHz band using AFH (adaptive frequency hopping).

In-box Bluetooth profiles: HID, PANU, SPP, OPP, DUN. Other profiles requiring third-party software: fax, headset, A2DP, AV remote, hands-free, PAN GN, PAN NAP, phone book, SIM access.

By default, Bluetooth system tray icon only appears for 10 minutes after a Bluetooth device (e.g. dongle) is connected to a computer. To make it permanent on the system tray (never disappears again), tick the "Show the Bluetooth icon in the notification area" option in Control Panel (Classic View) > Bluetooth Devices window.

Bluetooth in Windows Vista

After installing Windows Vista Ultimate on one of my PC two weeks ago, I finally have time to play around with Bluetooth. To my amazement, no additional feature (profile, Bluetooth-speak). The menu, the tab, and the icon are too identical. The only difference is the Vista skin which is in aero style. I'm not quite sure if Microsoft Bluetooth stack on Vista is of version 2.0+EDR because when I tried it once for a PAN connection, the status window said the rate was 1.0 Mbps.

All in all, I still need another (third-party) Bluetooth stack for Windows Vista to use my Bluetooth headset and other fancy applications.