Last night I sat down for my weekly dose of motoring madness that is Top Gear. During the news section of the programme James May commented on one cars new feature list which included Bluetooth hands free phone integration. I actually have such a kit in my car which works very well, enabling me to make or receive phone calls while driving completely hands free programmed and controlled by my voice. In fact I’ve just changed my car and for the few days I was without the kit waiting for it to be transferred I did miss the use of it.

It was Jeremy Clarkson‘s following comments that made me laugh considerably loud! He stated that Bluetooth was possibly one of the worst technologies ever invented and that nothing ever worked via Bluetooth connection. He asked the audience if anyone used Bluetooth, quite a few yes replies echoed out.
I believe that my laugh along with Jeremy wasn’t due to audience laughs or even that he was stupidly wrong, but in fact that I totally agreed with him, Bluetooth is a large pain in the rear, I can’t quite believe how stupid the technology can be, although it is wireless, which like any wireless technology can be a pain at the best of times.

Now, my phone kit in the car works flawlessly, I turn the ignition, the kit comes to life with its little LCD screen and within a few seconds its connected to my phone and synchronising with my contacts list ready for a voice command.

My laptop also has Bluetooth connectivity. Before the weekend when my hands free kit was being installed into my new car, the engineer advised me I could connect my laptop to the phone kit and upgrade the firmware within it, so off I ran upstairs, sorry can’t lie, I actually ascended the building in a lift, and more than likely descended in the lift also! Laptop under arm I returned to the car and after a few button presses, downloads and more button presses I was connected and updating the car kit via wireless Bluetooth.

You may now question why I hate Bluetooth so much, phone kits working?? Laptops working?? All is good on two sides of this twisted triangle!!!! But the third side makes me bluer than blue on the bloody Bluetooth!!!! I could be very wrong and this be a Microsoft issue, but that would be too easy to blame Microsoft, I’ll leave that to the MS haters out there! I can’t synchronise my phone to my laptop via Bluetooth??????? I ask the phone to pair with the laptop, it asks me to enter a passkey, I type it in and it says "Your connected", I ask the laptop to pair with the phone, it asks me to enter a passkey, I type it in and it says "Your connected". I ask the two to synchronise and it says "can’t find any Bluetooth devices"???????????? The bloody things are paired like penguins and sat next to each other, what does it mean "you could be out of distance" and no I don’t want to connect to another PC instead. I’ve paired, unpaired, paired again, uninstalled, reinstalled, shouted, stomped and shouted a bit more and still I can’t synchronise!!!

It’s not all bad, I just use a trusty USB cable and the two happily dance together while exchanging contacts and appointments.

But I do agree with Jeremy Clarkson, Bluetooth is CRAP!!!

If you’ve had a similar experience with Bluetooth why not post your story here and see how many times you can write Bluetooth in one post?

The equipment I use is:

Parrot 3100 LCD hands free kit
QTek 9100 Smartphone

Related posts:

1. Bluetooth Printer
2. For Skiers, Bikers or Geeks, like me!