I haven’t used Bluetooth before because I don’t see the point in having headphones and whatnot with batteries to wear down when you can just use a cord, but my new desktop PC came with it, so I have it. So far I paired it with my iPhone SE. I can see the phone and the charge amount of the battery on my PC, but it doesn’t appear I can have it do anything useful like browse photos on my phone or have my PC show a notification when my phone rings. So what things can I do with this linking?
Also I see that Philips has some Bluetooth enabled light bulbs. These might be cool for my “man cave”, I presume I can configure and set scenes directly on my PC without a bridge. Would motherboard RGB software (Mystic LIght) be able to see and control them? Would Bluetooth reach my entire basement (about 11 feet wide by 50 feet long, although computer is located in a niche on one end.
I use mine for the speakers. Sometimes for a headset. There are many mice and keyboards bluetooth enabled also but as I game I prefer wired. Most desktop bluetooth transmitters have approximately 30 feet or so line of sight range.
There are different classes of bluetooth.
Class 1 - transmits at 100mW with a range of 100 meters/328 feet
Class 2 - transmits at 2.5mW with a range of 10 meters/33 feet
Class 3 - transmits at 1 mW with a range of fewer than 10 meters.
Your bluetooth is most likely Class 2, so figure 30ish feet.
My Ring doorbell and Blink cameras use Bluetooth. I have them all tied to my phone, tablet and desktop. Scared my neighbor the other morning. Said “Hi Dave” to him through a camera. He had no idea where it was coming from.
I use Bluetooth on my Mac laptop for my external Keyboard (more comfortable than a laptop keyboard), external mouse or touchpad (in a better position for a being with arms to the sides instead of sticking out the middle of my chest), external speakers (louder than internal speaker).
I don’t use wireless earphones because I would lose them immediately and they’re too expensive to replace as often as I would lose them.
Nothing terribly exciting. It’s like asking “What can I do with an invisible, medium-length wire?” You can connect shit… with a wire you can’t see. There’s not much more to it than that… computers have come with Bluetooth for the better part of a decade now, and most people either never use it or just use it for the occasional external keyboard/mouse/headphones/Xbox controller.
Most likely they’re controlled by a specific app on iOS or Android, and it’s unlikely they have Windows versions. Check the manufacturer’s page for more info. It’s also extremely unlikely your gaming RGB software will talk to smart bulbs. You could write a translator program to talk between them if you’re technically inclined, I suppose, and have your whole room synced up to the pulses of your music/games… but probably not out of the box.
The typical range is like 20-30 feet, less if there are obstructions or walls in between.
They might’ve used Bluetooth to facilitate the initial setup (it’s an easy way for phone to identify and connect to nearby devices to tell them how to get on wifi), but then they use wifi for the actual video transmission. Bluetooth is too slow and too short-range for that.
I use the Bluetooth on my computer for two purposes. First I have a Bluetooth mouse since it saves a USB port. Second, my new computer has very poor sound volume and I have connected my computer to my sound system via Bluetooth. It works well, except for one “feature”: it turns the tuner on at random times or overrides what I am playing. That even happens at times when the computer has been put to sleep.
I believe my mouse and keyboard connect via bluetooth, maybe. My phone is paired with my work computer, but I’ve found very little use for it. The only thing it’s used for is that my computer is set to automatically lock when I walk away (with my phone, of course). But that seems to be hit or miss if it actually locks. And, what it doesn’t do, is unlock it when I walk back over.
Bluetooth uses for me include the usual mouse and keyboard as mentioned, but I also have my devices linked via bluetooth so that when I take a photo, it shows up in my desktop and laptop and iPad files in addition to my phone. I also am linked to my printer, so I can print the photo I just took on my printer inside the house. When I get into my car, my iPhone automatically links to it, so I can do hands free phone, and play any music on the car from my iPhone music files. I can monitor the moisture levels in the soil of plants outside since they have bluetooth hydrometers inserted into the soil.
I also have bluetooth ear pieces that I love to wear while exercising (Mine cost $19), and of course my devices all use bluetooth to connect to the internet seamlessly anywhere in my house.
I am not a real computer savvy guy, but bluetooth is easy, reliable and very useful.
I have set up my Apple devices (desktop, laptop, iPad, iPhone) to sync. This is a choice I can make As far as I can tell, they use bluetooth as it has happened without any internet connection. But I could be mistaken. Very handy; I automatically share photos, email, and messages. My wife’s iPhone is also synched for messages.
Just remembered - I also have a waterproof portable speaker that synchs with my iPhone, so I can take them anywhere and play music. Nice at poolside or while working on the patio. The sound is pretty good.