Bluetooth Interaction with Cell Phones for Seniors
This is a non-technical explanation of Bluetooth interaction with Cell Phones for Baby Boomers and Seniors. It has been my observation that Bluetooth technology is taking over our lives. How does this relate to seniors? My first inkling of this was when I purchased my iPhone 7 Red some years ago. This was after I “drowned” my two iPhone 6’s fishing. This was after a couple of “Senior Moments” or “Chemo Brain” or really just me forgetting?
Either way, I was already irritated because I had to buy another iPhone which cost the same as a new refrigerator? Doesn’t seem Equitable somehow for something we never even used to need like paying every month for cable or satellite TV (This is another article someday!!). It also did not have an earphone jack for my earphones it only had a speaker. The salesman told me it was a great cell phone but I did not clearly understand this at first.
I figured this out pretty quickly after purchasing one day when I went to plug in my earphones to listen to my audiobook when I was going to walk. Hmm, no earplug jack? Then I started tearing through my place looking for alternatives. Well if you don’t have Bluetooth Wireless Earphones “No Worky”
What it meant was I had to go to Cell Phone school which also meant Bluetooth School fast. I had already been dealing with Bluetooth Wireless in many ways but that was the first time I understood things were changing. I have always listened to my downloaded music at the gym with my wired earphones and my cell phone. Also lately, meaning the last few years, and especially with my vehicle as my iPhone would link with my stereo in my truck.
I could listen to my Music or Audiobooks in my truck while I was driving at work or traveling. This was an amazing and wonderful innovation and very enjoyable.
Bluetooth can be frustrating
Bluetooth can also be very frustrating at times. I am getting older and whenever I have to learn a new technology it means I have to read the directions. Often when I get in my Chevy truck and start it, the stereo goes straight to the same song or book I was listening to on my iPhone when the Bluetooth connects to it. If I then plug in my iPhone to charge it from the truck’s USB wire port it will then go to a different song. It always goes to the same song every single time on my iPhone.
It kind of feels like the movie Groundhog Day with Bill Murray when that same song starts every day and has become irritating. I have been unable to figure out whether that is an Apple or a Chevy problem but neither one takes responsibility nor acknowledges the problem. I have wasted a lot of time and further irritation researching it and trying to fix it which I still have not been able to achieve.
In addition, sometimes my iPhone will not recognize a new set of Wireless Bluetooth Headphones right away. So I am going back and forth to the directions and the phone to see why or why not it is working. Again a waste of time to me and frustrating. 99% of the time it will always recognize the Wireless Bluetooth Headphones.
Bluetooth is like Magic
Now we can always look at the glass as half empty or half full. I choose to look at the glass as half full. If we had seen this technology 20 or 30 years ago when were still dialing our Ma Bell Telephones and did not know what a microwave oven was you would be in awe as I still am today.
Every day that I am walking around with a small computer in my pocket that I can ask a question to on the internet and most of the time it will give me a correct answer too is just about unimaginable.
That I can attach this same small computer, dictionary, thesaurus, telephone, talking map, stereo music player, audio book reader, star trek’s baby computer Siri. Then ask through my Wireless Bluetooth Headphones and Noise-Canceling Microphone; Siri find the closest coffee shop or call Brian. Right? How spoiled have we become?
You will either embrace this or just shun it and not use it. But whatever our decision, it is an amazing gift with unparalleled usefulness. We know also that many Baby Boomers are sharp in these areas and will continue to embrace Bluetooth technology.
Apple iPhones will no longer have a traditional Wire Earphone Jack
Apple had confirmed that the iPhone 8’s and X’s did not include a wired headphone jack. Moving through 11, 12, and beyond we will never see them again You can use the lightning/charger port with a special wire or adapter but all of your old earphones are no good really.
Apple’s removed the headphone jack from the iPhone 7 in 2016. It actually removed it to make more room in the phone itself. Apple wanted to launch all large screen phones in the future, devices that didn’t have a home button. To do so, Apple needed to remove the 3.5mm headphone jack since it wasted so much space.
In the 7, 8, and X iPhones as well as the 7 Plus and 8 Plus, the company had included a tiny adapter that let you use the phone’s Lightning port with 3.5mm wired headphones. That adapter is no longer in the box. Instead, if you want to use your wired headphones with your new iPhone, you’ll need to spend another $9 to buy the Lightning to 3.5 mm Headphone Jack Adapter.
The company also no longer includes the adapter with the iPhone 7 through 12. Apple does include wired Lightning headphones in their boxes. It has included headphones every year since it removed the headphone jack and sells AirPods earphones. All of their phones also support Bluetooth 5.0 for use with third-party wireless headphones.
Bluetooth is in everyone’s cell phone future
Wireless Bluetooth Headphones are in everyone’s Apple and Google’s future and eventually Samsung’s because actually once you are used to it there is no comparison. Why would you want to have wires everywhere when you don’t need them? Plus it will be uncool at some point.
Apple has worked with Hearing Aid manufacturers create Bluetooth accessible hearing aids and sound processors designed specifically for iPhone and iPad. There are also Wireless Bluetooth Bone Conduction Headphones to use with your cell phone.
Bluetooth is on Android phones of all types and iPhones and hooks up to remote speakers. It is used for hands-free connections in your vehicle to your cell phone and syncs with your car stereo for talking on your phone or listening to the music stored on your phone through your vehicle speakers.
You can do file transfers and internet tethering. Tethering is the sharing of a mobile device’s Internet connection with other connected computers or Mobile Phones. Take pictures on your camera phone and download it to your computer – without having to search for a cable or adapter.
What is Bluetooth?
The development of the “short-link” radio technology, later named Bluetooth, was initiated in 1989 by Nils Rydbeck, of Ericsson Mobile in Lund, Sweden and by Johan Ullman.
The technology is named after Harald Bluetooth, a Viking King that promoted communication between Denmark and Norway.
The Bluetooth logo is the combination of “H” and “B,” the initials of Harald Bluetooth, written in the ancient letters used by Vikings, which are called “runes.”
Bluetooth is a wireless networking procedure (like WIFI) designed to quickly and automatically connect devices like Mobile phones, mouse, keyboards, and printers. It also does Wireless Earphones and activity trackers, such as Fitbit and Jawbone fitness tracker watches. And attaches to computers and to each other without wires.
For Smartphone use Bluetooth uses, low cost low power transmitters and receivers with a range of 10 meters or 30 to 320 feet approximately.
The main difference between Bluetooth and WIFI is that Bluetooth is primarily used to connect devices without using cables, while Wi-Fi provides high-speed access to the internet also without cables. Bluetooth 5.0 is a wireless technology standard that is used to exchange data over short distances (less than 30 feet), usually between personal mobile devices
What is WIFI?
WIFI uses wireless adaptors on all the devices of the network, a wireless router and/or wireless access points. This is good for Notebook computers, desktop computers, TV, and the latest cell phones but is much more expensive than Bluetooth. WIFI is more complex than Bluetooth and requires configuration of hardware and software.
WIFI has typical range of approximately 100 feet indoors and 300 feet outdoors. Different WIFI configurations have greater range. 2.5GHz Wi-Fi communication has greater range than 5GHz. Solid items like concrete or Sheetrock drywall can greatly weaken communication signals.
WIFI Extender can also increase range. Wired WiFi extenders use a home’s or buildings existing Ethernet wiring or coax cable using MoCA to extend the WiFi network into a far corner of a building. There are apparently some special systems and antennas that can go up to 2.5 miles with a clear line of site.
Many of these Bluetooth advances are coming every day
Many of these Bluetooth advances are coming every day and will continue to improve our lives as we use them. For me, with Tinnitus in my ears, I am continuing to research Wireless Bluetooth Bone Conduction Headphones all of the time. I am very interested in Bluetooth-accessible hearing aids for my parents, family members, friends, and eventually me.
Ok Beam Me Up Scotty.
References:
- https://www.apple.com/accessibility/iphone/hearing/
- https://www.bluetooth.com/about-us/bluetooth-origin/