Bluetooth Everywhere

Alright folks, it’s time. If you’re interested in getting a free beta version of BlogRadio, then you need to act now.

So, it’s very easy to qualify for the beta test. First of all, we won’t require any personal information. All you need to do is write a comment in this blog posting that answers the following five (5) questions:

1. Why do want to try out BlogRadio? (Most people will use it while commuting, but we’re curious about if there are any other use cases that we haven’t explored)
2.  What mobile devices do you own that you can test with? (If you’re like me, then you have more than one mobile device)
3. BlogRadio currently reads blog items in English, but what other language(s) should we support?
4. Do you have a blog? (If the answer is “no”, that’s ok).
5. What are the top 3 blogs that you would use BlogRadio for?

We’re going to accept applications for the beta only for this week (Sunday May 17 - Saturday May 23). If you’re chosen for the beta test, then we’ll contact you via email about further instructions and how to get started.

Well, if you’ve heard any of the news, press releases, or blog postings about Bluetooth 3.0, then you should be as excited as I am about this stuff. It’s nicknamed Bluetooth 10x for a reason; we’re talking about sending your data at 24 Mb/s! However, some folks are a little confused about how all this stuff works, so please allow me to explain a few concepts.

First of all, let’s take a look at some wireless standards (you’re probably familiar with the first one):

• 802.11
• 802.15.1
• 802.15.4

So, in the past decade, the IEEE standards body came together, designed, and formed all of the wireless standards listed above. Now, Wi-Fi is a brand name of *an* implementation of 802.11 wireless standard. Wi-Fi is such a common brand name, it is synonymous as the only implementation of the 802.11 standard. But that’s not the case.

The same things goes for Bluetooth. Bluetooth is an implementation of the 802.15.1 wireless standard, but it is not necessarily the only implementation. Likewise, this pattern applies to ZigBee. The SunSpot wireless devices natively communicate over the 802.15.4 wireless protocol, but they do NOT implement the ZigBee protocol stack.

So here’s what you can expect in the new Bluetooth 3.0 devices that will be coming next year. Bluetooth 3.0 devices will be able to discover and search for services for remote Bluetooth 3.0, 2.1, 2.0, 1.1, and 1.0 devices. However, if both devices support Bluetooth 3.0, then when the data payload is being sent, the data will be sent over the 802.11 “channel” and not the 802.15.1 “channel”.

I hope this makes sense.

Ok, it’s been a long time since I’ve been to JavaOne. The last time I went, it was JavaOne 2000, and I had a blast. It is absolutely my favorite conference to attend (even though I haven’t been back in 9 years).

I won’t be presenting this year, but if you can find me, I’ll either be wearing a BlogRadio t-shirt or a Java Champions shirt. And yes, I will have the prototype of BlogRadio with me  :-)