undefined | Better HN

0 pointslloeki2y ago0 comments

> The gist is that certain headphones can connect to 2 Bluetooth endpoints and switch between whichever one is actively sending audio

I hate multipoint bluetooth. It only seems to work in the most basic of scenarios and nobody appears to have been testing the damn thing out of that in real life. Yes Bose I'm looking at you.

Good <deity> that is stupid hellhole of having audio stolen from you because some audio happened to play on the second device because you (or an unattended browser autoupdate) (re)opened some youtube tab, or constant nags about "foo disconnected / foo connected" when at range limit, or you took a call on your computer and moved and got out of range and sure enough it swaps to your phone which decides "oh sure you probably want to enjoy some loud music" and helpfully proceeds to blow your eardrums.

<Deity> forbids you have more than two regularly used devices in which case it's completely useless anyway.

Meanwhile my Beyerdynamic is not multipoint, it merely remembers what it has been paired to (I'm up to six devices now) and just connects to the last one on power up. If I want to use them from another previous one I just pop in bluetooth quick settings and choose "connect to FreeBYRD" which disconnects them from the other one, y'know, like we used to do when there were actual wires plugged into actual physical plugs, which BT is a glorified copperless version of anyway.

0 comments

4 comments · 1 top-level

talldayo2y ago· 3 in thread

I'm not steelmanning Bluetooth as a whole, or wireless audio as a sterling concept. Multipoint Bluetooth is better than iCloud switching, in my experience. In the rare situation where I'm juggling three devices at once, I turn off Bluetooth on whatever I'm not using and keep on rolling.

I can believe that some manufacturers dropped the ball on it, but none of my headsets are really that finnecky. Jabra, Sony, JBL, Samsung and even Skullcandy all seem to have good implementations from what I've seen. Fundamentally, any protocol-level solution is better than playing Monkey in the Middle with Bluetooth MAC addresses online.

lloekiOP2y ago

Oh I'm not using any iCloud switching either, just straight up Bluetooth connection requests from previously paired devices.

It just turns out that two clicks/taps when I want my headphones from the device I'm currently using is a mindboggingly more simple, consistent, and reliable solution than whatever a headphone's vendor firmware tries to intuit about what I actually want to do from the fact that it's receiving audio.

fragmede2y ago

> In the rare situation where I'm juggling three devices at once

If you're not running into that situation very often, then you're not going to consider problems with it a problem. Personally, between my personal phone and laptop, and my work phone and laptop, turning off Bluetooth isn't a good enough solution, especially because I also have a Bluetooth keyboard, and mouse in the mix as well.

talldayo2y ago

When I do carry two computers, they're not going to both feature iCloud syncing. Multipoint is still the more seamless option for me, but I guess you could pass the point of utility if you own 3+ iDevices with nothing else to sync.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse