Five Bluetooth Myths that Are Still Trusted

Bluetooth is one of the preferred technologies for connecting two devices wirelessly. Over the years, the development of Bluetooth has become better. However, unfortunately some old school myths about Bluetooth still survive.

Quoted in Make Use Of, Bluetooth is now different from last year's Bluetooth. Here are the most common misconceptions that people still believe.

Enabling Bluetooth consumes the battery

At the beginning of the development of smartphones, yes, activating Bluetooth can cause a decrease in your battery life. That's because once the connection is active, Bluetooth will actively search for devices to pair at any time.

But now you don't need to worry about that. With the new Bluetooth standard starting with version 4 and so on, there is something called the Low Energy (LE) module. The LE module uses various technologies to search for Bluetooth devices around you without using the same power as previous versions of Bluetooth.

Likewise after a connection is made, the LE device will not draw large power when data is not transferred. For example, if you have connected your smartphone with a pair of Bluetooth headphones, it will not use power when you are not playing songs.

The overall power consumption of Bluetooth LE has been halved or more. Classic Bluetooth will use 1W, Bluetooth LE will use between 0.01 and 0.5 W, a big development.

Bluetooth is bad for health

At this point, it cannot be ascertained whether radiation from mobile phones is harmful to health. However, one thing is certain that Bluetooth headsets are much safer.

Radiation is power and Bluetooth is superior at that. The maximum Bluetooth output for Class 1 devices is 100 mW (milliwatt) of power, and rarely like that.

In fact, most of the Bluetooth devices you use have a maximum power of 1 mW. On the other hand, standard cellphones operate at 1,000 mW or 2,000 mW when you use 3G or 4G services. So, Bluetooth might not be completely safe, but wearing a Bluetooth headset is better to avoid radiation exposure.

Bluetooth only works in small rooms

Does the Bluetooth of your smartphone only work short distances? Maybe yes. But what you might not know is that Bluetooth has three classes. Bluetooth operating distance depends on the class included in the device.

First, third-class Bluetooth devices have a range of less than 10 meters, the second class has a range of about 10 meters, and the first class has a range of about 100 meters. In general, you will only get Bluetooth class 1 on devices that have their own resources or have significant power units, such as desktop computers or speakers that need an electrical connection. Most smartphones and tablets use Bluetooth class two or three.

However, 10 meters is the theoretical distance they are aiming for. Without interference, like a wall, you will find another device.

Bluetooth is not safe

Bluetooth technology has never had a good reputation for security. However, newer versions deny that. The main thing among these myths is that if you set your device so it can't be found, other people with bad intentions can't find it and you're safe.

The Bluetooth Device Address (BDA) may be hidden in a mode that cannot be found, but hackers are also increasingly good at it. Scanners and tracking devices can still find your BDA and infiltrate it even when 'hidden' mode is activated.

The biggest cause of this infiltration is the default password used on most Bluetooth devices: 0000 or 1234. Therefore, almost anyone can connect to your Bluetooth device once they have your address.

This simple and illogical system is the cause behind most cases of tapping and Bluejacking (connecting to the phone to send spam) on Bluetooth devices. So the first thing you need to do now is set your cellphone's Bluetooth settings and change the password to a safe four-digit PIN.

If you are really worried about malware attacks via Bluetooth, turn off your connection instead of not being found. Bluetooth cannot be infiltrated if it is not active.

Bluetooth interferes with Wi-Fi

Like most other wireless technologies, Bluetooth uses a 2.4 GHz radio frequency to send and receive data. That's the same frequency that is used by everything, from Wi-Fi networks to your microwave oven.

So naturally, the first thought is the stability and speed of your Bluetooth connection depending on what other devices are running around and whether they are broadcasting data on the wireless frequency. Bluetooth uses adaptive frequency and this has been really improved with Bluetooth 5.0.

The 2.4 GHz frequency is a band that moves from 2,400 MHz to 2,483.5 MHz. Bluetooth uses two channels, each monitoring 50 percent. The signal quickly jumps from one free frequency to another, ensuring that it will not be disturbed by other devices trying to use the tape.