6230 & Stereo Bluetooth headphones

[snoman]

Will the New Nokia 7230 be able to play its MP3 player through a set of stereo bluetooth headphones rather than having to plug the wires in?

Or is the amalgamation of these two technologies still a ways off?

[Michael]

No Bluetooth stereo to the best of my knowledge. Nokia offers no such device.

I think only a Korean firm do as this point. I forget their name.

[snoman]

Thanks for that Michael.

Why is it they always leave the most practical applications until last? The i-pod and similar would be spankin without having to drag a set of wires around all of the time.

Likwise the 6230 and no doubt all its immediate progeny and competitors would be majorly enhanced with stereo ability.

The jump from mono to stereo on bluetooth surely cannot be that much of a technological leap can it? Another case of the classic built in obsolescense. So they make us wait until the next generation of phones because the manufacturers know most will buy what is available now.

[snoman]

Juts saw my deliberate mistake on my first post. 6230 not 7230!!
L8rs M

[cdover]

...err, why was it deliberate?

[ipodee]

Originally posted by snoman
Thanks for that Michael.

Why is it they always leave the most practical applications until last? The i-pod and similar would be spankin without having to drag a set of wires around all of the time.

Likwise the 6230 and no doubt all its immediate progeny and competitors would be majorly enhanced with stereo ability.

The jump from mono to stereo on bluetooth surely cannot be that much of a technological leap can it? Another case of the classic built in obsolescense. So they make us wait until the next generation of phones because the manufacturers know most will buy what is available now.

there are a lot of considerations to be taken in here. firstly music playback on the fone consumes power already. bluetooth is known to drain the battery. if you listen to music with bluetooth earphones which means bluetooth and music player are on together - the battery will go flat quickly unless they can do sthg about batt life

[Michael]

Right, the battery issue is real, and the audio quality issue is big.

Who would pay for a heavy and expensive set of headphones (big battery) that sounded poor?

It's just not a good application for Bluetooth devices. Perhaps the next Bluetooth spec will address that, I have no idea.

[snoman]

Its called irony cdover ( i think) or a case of admitting a F**k up any way.

I stand muchly edumacated on the subject of Battery life and sound quality.

I think you are right Michael, the next version of BT will address a lot of issues.

So is this one more holy grail to which one aspires too? Being able to listen to music while running without wires and not having to worry about the batteries packing up half way through?

[Cyberdog]

I think the future of BT is going to be great. The initial uptake was quite slow, but now almost every little electronic device has it, and it can only get better from here.

Then again, if you can have IR wireless stereo headphones, i cant see why BT stereo would be such an issue, for mobiles the battery life surely plays a part. Im not sure if you can already buy stereo BT headphones for use with a PC or anything like that, but surely if you cant it wont be too much longer.

What is needed is a revolutionary new battery design which can deliver more power for longer, then we would be able to have all kinds of interesting gadgets working together. Or perhaps something like what Citizen has in their watches - Eco-drive, where it has no battery but is powered by light, which is stored in a capacitor and any exposure to light charges the watch!

That would be an excellent idea for mobile phones i think, sure it might be expensive at first, but look at LCD monitors, when they first came out they cost a fortune, mine was $2200 now you can get decent ones for under $1000 and that's 17"! How cool would that be if your mobile could simply charge on the table while you have coffee with friends, or at home or in the office while you work, and all the time while you're listening to MP3s it can be charging, thus never needing a charger! But of course it would still be good to have one as a backup :p

[DEViANT]

Bluetooth also has a maximum bandwidth of 8000Hz which as you are aware is WAY below CD-quality at 44100Hz. If you want to hear what music would sound like, then get a PenBlue PC Bluetooth adaptor and route some music through it - it sounds like its being played underwater - this is how I found out. Saying that its quite neat being able to have a voice conversaton in MSN through a Bluetooth headset.

Citizen's idea is clever, but a watch drains on the order of micro-amps and a radio transmitter is on the order of milli-amps so I wouldn't see it succeeding.

On the case of listening to music over Bluetooth, frankly the stereo headset would require a 'dongle' type block to house the electronics and battery (unless you want that hanging over your ear?) so why not just exchange the wireless dongle for a small MP3 player instead? Panasonic's SD-SV80 is tiny, lightweight and offers hours of playback.