New Bluetooth spec offers improved pairing, battery life

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), responsible for Bluetooth wireless technology, on Tuesday announced the adoption of Core Specification Version 2.1+EDR (Enhanced Data Rate), which brings advances in security, simplified pairing and power consumption.

With the wireless technology being widely adopted in most mobile devices, the update aims to bring consumers an improved Bluetooth experience. The new specification will simplify and unify the Bluetooth pairing process with a consistent and intuitive solution that includes finding devices, securing the link and authenticating the devices automatically. Furthermore, the specification supports future implementation of NFC (Near Field Communication), which would initiate the pairing process just by holding two devices close together.

Power consumption is also said to be improved with the implementation of a new feature called Sniff Subrating, which could increase battery life up to five times for devices which spend a lot of their time on standby. Version 2.1+EDR remains backwards compatible and should find its way into devices by the end of this year.