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Pairing, sometimes known as bonding, is a process used in computer networking that helps set up an initial linkage between computing devices to allow communications between them. The most common example is used in Bluetooth, where the pairing process is used to link devices like a Bluetooth headset with a mobile phone.
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Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is limited to 2.5 milliwatts, giving it a very short range of up to 10 metres (33 ft). It employs UHF radio waves in the ISM bands, from 2.402 GHz to 2.48 GHz. It is mainly used as an alternative to wired connections to exchange files between nearby portable devices and connect cell phones and music players with wireless headphones.
The Bluetooth Special Interest Group is the standards organization that oversees the development of Bluetooth standards and the licensing of the Bluetooth technologies and trademarks to manufacturers. The SIG is a not-for-profit, non-stock corporation founded in September 1998. The SIG is headquartered in Kirkland, Washington.
OBEX is a communication protocol that facilitates the exchange of binary objects between devices. It is maintained by the Infrared Data Association but has also been adopted by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group and the SyncML wing of the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA). One of OBEX's earliest popular applications was in the Palm III. This PDA and its many successors use OBEX to exchange business cards, data, even applications.
Bluesnarfing is the unauthorized access of information from a wireless device through a Bluetooth connection, often between phones, desktops, laptops, and PDAs. This allows access to calendars, contact lists, emails and text messages, and on some phones, users can copy pictures and private videos. Both Bluesnarfing and Bluejacking exploit others' Bluetooth connections without their knowledge. While Bluejacking is essentially harmless as it only transmits data to the target device, Bluesnarfing is the theft of information from the target device.
A Bluetooth stack is software that is an implementation of the Bluetooth protocol stack.
A headset is a combination of headphone and microphone. Headsets connect over a telephone or to a computer, allowing the user to speak and listen while keeping both hands free. They are commonly used in customer service and technical support centers, where employees can converse with customers while typing information into a computer. They are also common among computer gamers and let them talk with each other and hear others while using their keyboards and mice to play the game.
Wireless speakers are loudspeakers that receive audio signals using radio frequency (RF) waves rather than over audio cables. The two most popular RF frequencies that support audio transmission to wireless loudspeakers include a variation of WiFi IEEE 802.11, while others depend on Bluetooth to transmit audio data to the receiving speaker. Sony, JBL, and Anker Innovations are some of the top manufacturers of wireless speakers as of 2024.
SBC, or low-complexity subband codec, is an audio subband codec specified by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) for the Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP). SBC is a digital audio encoder and decoder used to transfer data to Bluetooth audio output devices like headphones or loudspeakers. It can also be used on the Internet. It was designed with Bluetooth bandwidth limitations and processing power in mind to obtain a reasonably good audio quality at medium bit rates with low computational complexity. As of A2DP version 1.3, the Low Complexity Subband Coding remains the default codec and its implementation is mandatory for devices supporting that profile, but vendors are free to add their own codecs to match their needs.
Bluetooth Low Energy is a wireless personal area network technology designed and marketed by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group aimed at novel applications in the healthcare, fitness, beacons, security, and home entertainment industries. Compared to Classic Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy is intended to provide considerably reduced power consumption and cost while maintaining a similar communication range.
aptX is a family of proprietary audio codec compression algorithms owned by Qualcomm, with a heavy emphasis on wireless audio applications.
Wi-Fi Direct is a Wi-Fi standard for peer-to-peer wireless connections that allows two devices to establish a direct Wi-Fi connection without an intermediary wireless access point, router, or Internet connection. Wi-Fi Direct is single-hop communication, rather than multi-hop communication like wireless ad hoc networks. The Wi-Fi Direct standard was specified in 2009.
Sideloading describes the process of transferring files between two local devices, in particular between a personal computer and a mobile device such as a mobile phone, smartphone, PDA, tablet, portable media player or e-reader.
Android Beam is a discontinued feature of the Android mobile operating system that allowed data to be transferred via near field communication (NFC). It allowed the rapid short-range exchange of web bookmarks, contact info, directions, YouTube videos, and other data. Android Beam was introduced in 2011 with Android Ice Cream Sandwich. This was improved after Google acquired Bump. By 2017, ComputerWorld included Android Beam in a list of "once-trumpeted features that quietly faded away", observing that "despite the admirable marketing effort, Beam never quite worked particularly well, and numerous other systems for sharing stuff proved to be simpler and more reliable."
The i'm Watch is a smartwatch developed by Italian company i'm S.p.A. It was conceptualized by Manuel Zanella and Massimiliano Bertolini in early 2011, with funding provided by H-Invest and then released in the middle of 2012. The i'm Watch can receive calls, texts and notifications from social media accounts, provide news and weather reports, control music, view and save photos, and create appointments. The watch can also be paired to iOS 4 or higher, Android 4 or higher and BlackBerry 10 devices. On September 19, 2014, i'm S.p.A. announced the discontinuation of sales and its exit from the smartwatch market.
Bluetooth beacons are hardware transmitters — a class of Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) devices that broadcast their identifier to nearby portable electronic devices. The technology enables smartphones, tablets and other devices to perform actions when in close proximity to a beacon.
The Google Fast Pair Service, or simply Fast Pair, is Google's proprietary standard for quickly pairing Bluetooth devices when they come in close proximity for the first time using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). It was announced in October 2017 and initially designed for connecting audio devices such as speakers, headphones and car kits with the Android operating system. In 2018, Google added support for ChromeOS devices, and in 2019, Google announced that Fast Pair connections could now be synced with other Android devices on the same Google Account, a feature which Google expanded to ChromeOS devices in December 2023. Google has partnered with Bluetooth SoC designers including Qualcomm, Airoha Technology, and BES Technic to add Fast Pair support to their SDKs. In May 2019, Qualcomm announced their Smart Headset Reference Design, Qualcomm QCC5100, QCC3024 and QCC3034 SoC series with support for Fast Pair and Google Assistant. In July 2019, Google announced True Wireless Features (TWF), Find My Device and enhanced Connected Device Details.
Find My Device is an asset tracking service provided by Google to remotely trace, locate and wipe devices that are compatible with the Find My Device network. It was initially launched on the 2nd of August 2013.
The Temporary Contact Numbers Protocol, or TCN Protocol, is an open source, decentralized, anonymous exposure alert protocol developed by Covid Watch in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Covid Watch team, started as an independent research collaboration between Stanford University and the University of Waterloo was the first in the world to publish a white paper, develop, and open source fully anonymous Bluetooth exposure alert technology in collaboration with CoEpi after writing a blog post on the topic in early March.