02-22-2005, 02:55 PM

Hope it's true...

http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=901

02-22-2005, 03:05 PM

BT ipod, really cant see it happening just yet but its a possibility

02-22-2005, 03:16 PM

Originally Posted by inflexion

BT ipod, really cant see it happening just yet but its a possibility

my new PB has bluetooth 2.0. so i'm hoping it happens. I can deal with that transfer speed...

Josh

02-22-2005, 04:10 PM

So people near you can steal your music????

02-22-2005, 04:24 PM

i think bluetooth in the iPod would be AWESOME. wireless transfers, headphones, maybe a program to take in photos from a bluetooth digital camera, a remote, synch calendar and contacts when you walk in the room, just endless possibilities. if they come out with bluetooth. i'll be in line for a purchase!

Josh

02-22-2005, 04:25 PM

Originally Posted by shaun89

So people near you can steal your music????

i am sure it would be possible. but not easy...

Josh

02-22-2005, 05:06 PM

Yeah..... you would have to put in a password on the computer or something before you could do anything on the iPod from the computer. Then bluetooth would be kind of pointless, because you would still have to be at your computer and have your iPod there at the same time....

02-22-2005, 05:30 PM

If Bluetooth does come about with the updated iPod line, I'm really looking forward to finally getting to use the Bluetooth on my iMac. There could be many possibilities, if this comes about.

02-22-2005, 06:29 PM

On the note of people stealing music, you can always turn your bluetooth off when you are done with it so that shouldn't be to much of a problem.

02-22-2005, 06:39 PM

Can bluetooth support the quality needed for wireless headphones?

If the iPod mini thing is true and they are the same size as the old minis, I might buy one, I wonder if I could get $150 for my old mini?

02-22-2005, 06:44 PM

OMG. My 40GB iPod photo is obsolete. Whatever shall I do? Might as well throw it in the trash.

(just kidding)

I wonder what bluetooth earphones would do to battery life?

02-22-2005, 07:05 PM

There are a few important aspects of data transfer. Security (pros vs cons), power, and what most people care about, transfer of data speed. I will only focus on the only reasonable connections for the iPod. Bluetooth, USB and Firewire 400 - IEEE 1394. (I will include USB 1.1 where I can, since you can use USB 1.1, though i wouldn't recommend it.)

For starters, all Input/Output (I/O) ports have limitations. Despite facts given by manufacturers for optimal potential, they can be tested in real world scenarios and an average can be found. These averages are what I will be using for comparison since the difference on the speeds is small between the top and low end of computers made in the last 3-4 years.

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Security
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This really only applies to WiFi transmissions (Bluetooth and wireless network). Besides the flaw in iPod OS in allowing access to the files themselves to take them on and off the iPod, there really is no worry of someone hacking your iPod if theyre not connected to the wire on the other end.

Source = Tom's Hardware
Hackers have found many flaws with Bluetooth devices. As these devices gain in popularity, the public needs to be made aware of vulnerability issues with the various Bluetooth devices such as phones, PDAs and wireless headsets.

Three of the most interesting attacks were Bluesnarfing, Bluetracking and Bluebugging. Bluesnarfing is attacking the Bluetooth device, usually a phone, to rip out information. Hackers can obtain phonebooks, calendars and stored SMS messages.

Bluetracking is tracking a person's movement by tracking their Bluetooth device. All Bluetooth devices have a unique address, similar to a MAC address on computer network cards. By using special sensors or antennas you can see where a particular Bluetooth device pops up and record a person's movement.

(^cool story on Hacker's device)

Even if DRM security increased, access to your files would still exist. Then it's only a matter of another Scandinavian hacking the new DRM, or being able to stream media with a WAP application and something like wiretap to record.

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Power
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Unless you can harness the power of the sun, there is really no way to send power successfully through the air without large possibilities of shocking yourself. So that limits us to USB and Firewire.

Max Power Capabilities:
USB 1.1 = 100 mA/3.3V
USB 2.0 = 500 mA/5V
Firewire (400) = 1.25A/12V

Under 5m of cable, USB has a max capability of 127 devices, and firewire can support 63 devices. Really not important, Voltage potential will remain constant, if anything less resistance (from less devices) should result in more power per device. But it would be hard to tell, firewire is 6-pin and USB only 4-pin. so there could be more resistance per device, but I diverge.

USB 2.0 will charge the battery, but it takes about an hour longer compared to firewire. A USB car charger (12v) will charge faster than the computer USB bus itself.

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Speed
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Now to the heart of it. The real question, how much time will it take to put a song on there? Filling an iPod depends on capacity and available memory. So I will compare speeds for one song (about 3Mbytes).

USB:

Source = Adaptec
USB limitations.... it has a maximum bandwidth limit of 12 mbytes per second (1.5Mbytes/s for USB 1.1). Furthermore, the same inherent simple design that allows for it to be low-cost also makes it "host centric" -- meaning that the host CPU must initiate every transaction occurring between every device. The practical ramifications of this are that once you've added more than a handful of devices on the USB bus, bus latencies increase, efficiency goes down and real sustained throughput is only a fraction of the 12 Mbytes/second upper bound.

FireWire:

Unlike USB, Firewire supports direct memory access (DMA) -- meaning that it does not require host intervention with every transaction. So when connecting one or many devices Firewire speeds still average about 21Mbytes per second

Bluetooth:

Source : CSR
Bluetooth EDR (the newest Bluetooth standard) offers a maximum data transfer rate of 3 Megabits per second (Mbps) - compared to the current 1Mbps for standard rate Bluetooth.

meaning Bluetooth EDR has a max of 3/8 of a Mbyte (8 bits per byte)


SO we have:
one song (4Mbytes) / Firewire (@21Mbytes/s) = 0.19sec
one song (4Mbytes) / USB 2.0 (@ 12Mbytes/s) = 0.33sec
one song (4Mbytes) / USB 1.1 (@ 1.5Mbytes) = 2.7sec
one song (4Mbytes) / BluetoothEDR (@ 0.38Mbytes) = 10.7sec

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Conclusion
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Bluetooth just doesn't fit the bill for a device like the iPod. It's perfect for phones, for short distance, small data transfer between personal communication devices. It would be good for sharing contacts and calendars between iPods, and maybe even games. But its just too limited for the epitome of mp3 players.

For USB in Windows by default the song must first be copied to Page/Swap file from the disk, then from the Page/Swap file to the iPod. Where as in Unix (ie. OS X), the file is loaded in memory and the address directly sent to the iPod to access from memory, just like Firewire, but controlled by the computer, not device.

I think its fairly obvious that Firewire is the way to go on a storage device, like the iPod. Lots of data and power needed for music on the go. While USB 2.0 isn't much slower, I would recommend using the Firewire wall plug in to charge.

02-23-2005, 12:48 AM

wow... great research on this!

02-23-2005, 03:39 AM

Bluesnarfing is a load of crap im yet to see any program of proof of this. Yea i know its possible but yet to see evidence so i wouldnt pay much attention to it

02-23-2005, 08:21 AM

It might come out today, because the apple store is being updated.