How standardized is Bluetooth?

Just wanted to get experiences from folks on how well their Bluetooth headsets have worked with their phones. I know that some phones (such as my lovely Treo 700p) really don't work well with many (if any) BT headsets, and it seems to be because of issues with the 700p Bluetooth chipset. The 700p was designed more than two years ago now... has bluetooth standardized in that amount of time? Or are there still tons of compatibility issues?

My wife wants to get a BT headset for her new blackberry... should I be worried?

I have no personal experience with this stuff, but some quick research seems to indicate that compatibility is still an issue.

Googling "bluetooth compatibility" turns up a bunch of manufacturer pages; the first hit is a PDF from pioneer that suggests that compatibility is still spotty, even between different models from the same manufacturer.  Meanwhile, this chart mentions at least a half dozen "supported bluetooth profiles", suggesting that there is standardization... around a half-dozen incompatible standards.

Palm and RIM (blackberry) have both published compatibilty lists.  Seems like those are probably your best bet.  And of course, I'm sure your service provider would be happy to offer you a compatible headset at a steep markup :p

Can anybody explain why won't the Samsung phone music player music come through the blue tooth earpieces?  If I plug an earpiece in to the phone I can listen to the music just fine, but it doesn't work with the blue tooth earpieces that the phone functions work with.  My wife's brand new LG doesn't work any better.  It was advertised to have stereo blue tooth connectivity. I guess it may work with a car stereo or computer with bluetooth connectivity?   Is there a better blue tooth phone headset that will work with the music players in phones, or is that a plug in only feature with these?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charleston 

 

Can anybody explain why won't the Samsung phone music player music come through the blue tooth earpieces?  If I plug an earpiece in to the phone I can listen to the music just fine, but it doesn't work with the blue tooth earpieces that the phone functions work with.  My wife's brand new LG doesn't work any better.  It was advertised to have stereo blue tooth connectivity. I guess it may work with a car stereo or computer with bluetooth connectivity?   Is there a better blue tooth phone headset that will work with the music players in phones, or is that a plug in only feature with these?

A quick google turned up this thread, which suggests that some bluetooth headsets compress audio so much that they'd be absolutely useless for playing music.