Windows Phone Mango Bluetooth stack updated, but not much

June 19, 2011 | By Surur

Design Name

Windows Phone 7

Subsetted Designs

Date Created	Type	PICS
Apr 5, 2011	Main	PICS

Member Company

Microsoft Corporation

Specification Name

2.1+EDR

Design Model Number

Windows Phone 7

Hardware Version Number

N/A

Software Version Number

7.5

Qualification Assessment Date

June/05/2011

Listing Date

June/05/2011

Design Description

Mobile Phone Operating System

Product Type

Host Subsystem

Profile / Protocol

Role / Version (If Any)

Headset Profile

Audio Gateway (AG)
Headset Profile v1.1

Service Discovery Protocol

Logical Link Control and Adaptation Protocol

Generic Access Profile

Serial Port Profile

Audio/Video Control Transport Protocol

AVCTP 1.0 Target

Audio/Video Remote Control Profile

AVRCP 1.3 Target

Generic Audio/Video Distribution Profile

Acceptor
GAVDP 1.2
Initiator

Audio/Video Distribution Transport Protocol

Acceptor
AVDTP 1.2
Initiator
Source

Advanced Audio Distribution Profile

A2DP 1.2
Source (SRC)

Hands-Free Profile

Audio Gateway (AG)
CVSD audio coding over SCO
Hands-Free Profile 1.5

Phone Book Access Profile

PSE

Host Controller Interface

Microsoft has updated the Bluetooth stack in Windows Phone 7.5, with the new stack receiving Bluetooth SIG approval on the 5th June 2011.

New is Hand-Free Profile 1.5, which should mean better support for Bluetooth car kits. Also updated is the AVRCP (Audio Video Remote Control Protocol) from version 1.0 to 1.3, which brings track and other meta-data information transmission and playback status information (paused, stopped, etc).

Unfortunately it still does not bring the stack up to even iOS 4 level, which supports Personal Area Network (PAN) profile, often used of peer to peer multi-player gaming and Human Interface Device Profile, used for Bluetooth keyboards and controllers.

See the profile at the Bluetooth SIG here.

About Surur

Site Admin and Windows Phone enthusiast, he has been using Windows Mobile devices since before they were called PocketPC’s. He is currently sporting a HTC 7 Trophy.

Tagged bluetooth, mango, windows phone 7.5

GP007

You don’t have to use BT for p2p multiplayer if you do it through a wifi-host type deal. Or you can just make the connection through a server like Xbox Live or how Messanger works and start the game link that way.

I think the more important thing is the ability to sned and get files via BT, like pics,music,vids etc. They do lots of file transfers from phone to phone via bluetooth here in Europe it’s crazy. That’s like basic features that need to be added.

Anonymous

Will never happen. Did not happen on the iPhone either and WP7 has a similar ethos.

Anonymous

The most important thing for me is finally having the audio from video playback over a Bluetooth headset. Right now only music audio plays, but if you play a video it switches to the phone speaker. Its so basic and stupid that its not there.

Anonymous

I suspect it is due to processor load. It takes a lot of to convert audio to the data streamed used in A2DP. Add that to decoding video also and it is a recipe for stuttering and frame drop.

Anonymous

If I remember correctly Windows Mobile 6.x did it fine.

Anonymous

If I recall Windows Mobile would stutter sometimes even just decoding mp3′s into A2DP.

Osx

Well a Nokia Symbian phone does this easily so hopefully they’ll figure it out.

Anonymous

If I recall Windows Mobile would stutter sometimes even just decoding mp3′s into A2DP.
Anonymous

If I recall Windows Mobile would stutter sometimes even just decoding mp3′s into A2DP.

Anonymous

Nope. All my other phones handle it just fine (N900, Desire, 5800, and 3gs)

http://twitter.com/HankBinCA hank barber

iOS 4 does not send metadata info to my car stereo (2011 Fusion with 3GS (for now)). All it can does is pause/play/skip. iOS 5 is bringing that finally… iOS only supports a subset of what SYNC can do with a phone – hoping Mango will do better.

Can’t wait for an LTE Mango phone in the fall!
http://twitter.com/churchwa Edward W Churchward

Still no SAP support, I think this is something Nokia phones might have above the others as they have always had SAP in their phones.

Anonymous

What do you mean by “SAP” support? Do you mean http://wmpoweruser.com/sap-business-one-client-arrives-for-wp7/ ?

http://twitter.com/churchwa Edward W Churchward

Sim Access Profile, use on a lot of VW, Audi and Mercedes. Basically allows the BT kit in the car to replicate the SIM internally and thus gives much better sound quality in the car because the audio is not transmitted from the phone, just the sim data.
http://twitter.com/counterblow the person

that will never come here because europe is standardixed on GSM and the US is a mishmash of crap. Maybe when everyone gets on LTE in about 20+ years.

WeNeedRSAP

You logic is &%$#@!!!! rSAP is a must-have for many cars/owners and far better than Bluetooth if you have a car with rSAP support. It is not just the SIM address book advantage, the car itself has an ‘open cell phone’ built into it that has a far and away higher performance antenna and amplification to send and receive calls far better than a smartphone itself.

rSAP is NEEDED for many of us!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous

Bluetooth is one of the major minuses of windows phone 7, together with such things as tethering and ability to transfer files from your computer other than videos and music. WP even with Mango update will be quite weak OS and really not for those who consider them-self as power-users. Lets say I have some excel and word documents in my computer and I want to sync them to my windows phone. It looks like I can’t do it. I should email these files to myself or upload them to some cloud services and only then from there I can download them to my device. I like windows phones but some of these limitations look quite weird to say the least and I would not recommend such phones for power-users/business users.

Gaby_shaw

I totally agree with this. I consider myself as a poweruser and hate WP7 more and more…. It’s so much lock down and boring.
How do I transfer easily my files? Word documents, Excel, media files, etc. Don’t talk to me about the cloud or emailing the files to myself. Where is the USB mass storage, where is the f…. file explorer.
I am not a kid or an idiot!
Mainly I have the feeling that Mango is overestimated and will change nothing, and will not change the “iPhone” philosophy of WP7.

GP007

You’re arguing over a small thing that effects a small group in the end, a niche. Local document transfer isn’t an option right now because the phone uses the Zune client which is a “media” focused program. It does pictures, videos and music, not documents because those don’t fall into the catagory.

Also your argument doesn’t effect business either, business will use Sharepoint or in the future Office 365, Mango brings wifi sync to those services plus skydrive, no connecting of a cable over USB and stupid file system management. There’s zero reason to have a file explorer on the phone, it doesn’t need one. The file system and the hubs bring everything you need where you need it. All your pictures are in the pictures hub, games in games hub, documents in office where they belong. Going through some folder tree to drop files into specific areas and manga? GTFO We’re not stuck in 2000 and the phone is not a PC.

Monkey D Black

thank you. I couldn’t have said it better myself.

http://chmun77.myopenid.com/ Jimmy

Forget it. They are just die hard fans of WP7. They DO NOT understand the meaning of having a choice. Why must we do everything on the Cloud???! What if the Cloud is down or not available? Then we will just stuck thumbs?

Is ok. Just drop WP7 and use Android. Android has its reasons for being the best mobile OS out there.
Anonymous

“Why must we do everything on the Cloud???! What if the Cloud is down or not available?”

Seriously?!? Go look at yourself in the mirror and say that again. Do you realize how moronic that sounds? Everything is becoming interconnected. “The Cloud” is nothing more to the average user, the frickin Internet. The term “the cloud” is so overused, it truly has lost all meaning IMO (but that’s for a different discussion.)

Sync’ing files to SkyDrive, or SharePoint for Enterprise Customers, is THE way to do document editing while mobile. You don’t have to worry about those precious files being trapped on your phone. Especially if it is stolen, lost or is damaged. Your files are stored Online, on a redundant infrastructure that you can access from any other device, anywhere in the world that can provide you with data connectivity services (WiFi, 3G, 4G, NG.)
Monkey D Black

I was going to respond with something nasty to jimmy but you said it better.

so +1

Anonymous

yeah “im not a kid or an idiot” but you are behaving like one?… if you dont like it dont use it. thats it, it doesn’t seem to bother alooot of people i know with wp7. it would be a nice feature but why would wp7 need it. anyway, with official ChevronWP7 tool, you can get a homebrew file explorer.
and i bet when you start getting malware and stuff like happens to android you will complain about how insecure wp7 is, some people dont care about that and rather like to be in a safer environment using wp7. and it seems 500 features aren’t enough for you?… cooler live tiles, finally be able to real multiplayer in games and voice IM stuff like skype, and faster phone, and multitasking and the card arent enough for you?… sure right, you arent behaving like a kid /s… good luck.

http://chmun77.myopenid.com/ Jimmy

All those stuffs which you mentioned are ALREADY EXISTED in other rival OSes. What’s the big deal of those anyways? The phone should already be FAST and multitasking enabled from day 1. Just like Copy & Paste. The tiles should be already working too since version 1 but that’s not the case. From what I see MS, is just patching the missing holes that are SUPPOSE to be already there from day 1.

What’s so bad about having a file explorer? It is a SMART PHONE. Just like a computer, users will need to browse for files – music, pictures, documents, etc. Why everything to the Cloud?! Are you not going to work just because the Cloud is not available? Why can’t we have a alternative beside everything in the Cloud? FYI, Cloud is just there to SUPPORT us, and not depending on it.

Monkey D Black

“f…. file explorer” really? dude, if you can’t accept WP7 for what it is and is going to be then move on to another platform no one is begging you to use it. calm down. a file explorer is not needed. if you don’t want to use skydrive where all your documents can be saved and viewed easily then thats your problem. but I too at one point thought a file explorer was most definitely needed. now I know it’s not.

windows 8 will be tied into skydrive also just as how windows phone is, thats when it will be seamless and will be most evident that a blasted file explorer is not needed on the phone.

http://twitter.com/HankBinCA hank barber

SkyDrive – 25G free cloud storage which appears will be deeply integrated in Mango.

Gaby_shaw

Skydrive…
- Which does not allow to upload folders?
- Which limits uploads to 50MB?
- Which does not let you deleted a batch of files?!!
No thanks.

Monkey D Black

media files are handled by zune with no problem. and transfer is fast and easy to me.

you’re going to upload a folder of how many files?

in any case Microsoft is going to be updating their live online services when mango comes out so we’ll see what they do. also live wave 5 is in the making.

again, if you don’t want to use it and enjoy what is does then no one is forcing you to.

Anonymous

It is impossible to sync office documents directly from your computer to windows phone, think again if really “no one is forcing you”. Ok, ok, there is “alternative” – you can send files by email. Both scenarios look quite weird to me.
Monkey D Black

just as how you would make the effort to sync the documents from pc to phone, same way you could just save the documents to skydrive from the computer and then access them on the same easily
Anonymous

On Android you have options to choose from. Here you don’t. Do you really think such situation is better? Syncing files directly and uploading/then downloading is not the same. First of all, you use your internet connection. Secondly, what about security? Do you really always want to upload your personal data to MS servers?
Monkey D Black

I’ve went from Windows mobile 5 to WM6, to WM6.5, to Android and right now I’m with WP7 and I have a better experience with WP7.

choice? I rather have a solution that works very well and smoothly than to have a whole bunch of “options” that doesn’t works so well. my whole time on android was spend looking for the best configuration, flashing new roms searching for good performance. I hated the web browsing experience (laggy and choppy). and one too many times I had to FORCE CLOSE one too many apps. choice? really? get real.

and I can’t believe you’re asking me about security with a straight face. Android is that mobile OS with all those viruses even in its official application store. and I will tell you this, I trust Microsoft way more with my data that how I trust google with my data. why? because google is an advertising company they make money from your data. simply put.

On WP7 there is more security as someone can’t just run off with your SD card (and even if they did, they couldn’t decrypt the data). on Android all your files are left open on the SDcard.

My pictures, my documents are all up there in skydrive and I find that such solution is working real well for me.

I don’t need choice if all of them are no good. I rather have one solution that works well for me. and at the present its WP7, if android works good for you then thats good for you. use what works for you.

I don’t have to think negative things on android, I experienced them.
Anonymous

Well, I went from pocketpc 2002 in the past all the way to windows phone 7 and android now, but that does not matter. My intention was not to start wp7 vs android war, I just want wp7 to be better. Including possibility to sync office documents through zune would not make wp7 into android and wp7 won’t get all the minuses of android.
NarcoSleepy

Doesn’t Live Mesh 2011 handle this for you? It still uploads your stuff to SkyDrive, but at least it facilitates synchronizing any changes to what is on your PC & phone.

http://fxfp.com/ Alex F.

Most of those limitations will be gone from autumn.

Anonymous

how hard is to upload it to skydrive, specially since office has skydrive integrated in their save to web thing. i wonder if you can do the same with other phones, i mean, have the same word or excel document, sync it directly to the phone and then edit it and stuff. you know you can edit stuff in windows phone.

http://chmun77.myopenid.com/ Jimmy

FYI, internet connections is not everywhere like in US. There are other countries that finding a hotspot itself will be darn difficult. I just don’t understand why everyone is so into cloud now when the internet connectivity is not even powerful enough!

Monkey D Black

not everyone is always into the samethings or likes and dislikes. so you can’t get internet connection? then that sucks for you. I can’t feel pity for trolls.

Anonymous

All I want is for them to fix the video bug.

Monkey D Black

what video bug?

Anonymous

No A2DP over video.

Monkey D Black

You meant no audio for video over a2dp? That’s not a “video bug” and its certainly not a “bug”.
Its a feature that they choose not to implement yet. Please do a web search bing/google/blekko whatever works for u and find out what a “bug” in an app/ code is. I can tell you this: a bug is not an unimplemented feature.

Sent from my Windows Phone 7

Anonymous

Calm down dude geez, it’s a bug by design.
Monkey D Black

i’m actually calm just coming in from work so i’m all smiles and in relaxation mode actually. but it’s really not a bug by design or bug by code….it’s an unimplemented feature. think about it.
Anonymous

Well it’s by design that they left it “unimplemented”. Not sure about you bro but I really want/need that feature. There are many others: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/winphone/forum/wp7-wpdevices/a2dp-bluetooth-stereo-problem-when-watching-video/66c09381-a904-4ad5-be61-86f417008fd9
http://www.facebook.com/people/Raul-Martinez/502023346 Raul Martinez

Well that’s worse.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Milad-Bazzaz/100000479683479 Milad Bazzaz

I absolutely never use bluetooth. So for me, its a nonexistent issue. It would be nice though if Microsoft would add this gimmick features to shut up those crybabies who are always looking at whats missing rather than all the great stuff that is there.

Lehel Bara

try once connecting a heart rate monitor that is working in almost every other platform to your wp7 phone and after observing that it won’t happen, be happy that the phone still has so many great stuff there!

http://twitter.com/VizagDude Satish Pamidiparthi

All I care about is if the Audio from my Videos can be transmitted to my BT headset using the A2DP. IMO this is a basic function of any BT Stack. All OSs are capable of this functionality and I want my WP7 also doing this. PERIOD. I do not want to hear any reasoning behind why it’s not doing it or how difficult to it.
http://twitter.com/VizagDude Satish Pamidiparthi

All I care about is if the Audio from my Videos can be transmitted to my BT headset using the A2DP. IMO this is a basic function of any BT Stack. All OSs are capable of this functionality and I want my WP7 also doing this. PERIOD. I do not want to hear any reasoning behind why it’s not doing it or how difficult to it.
http://twitter.com/VizagDude Satish Pamidiparthi

All I care about is if the Audio from my Videos can be transmitted to my BT headset using the A2DP. IMO this is a basic function of any BT Stack. All OSs are capable of this functionality and I want my WP7 also doing this. PERIOD. I do not want to hear any reasoning behind why it’s not doing it or how difficult to it.
Anonymous

damn man, you would think that microsoft would at least get fuggin bluetooth stacks up to date. i have a bluetooth keyboard i was able to use with my wm6.5 devices, but not my wp7. that’s a bit of a joke

WP7BluetoothSTINKS

Agree, the WM6.x had better Bluetooth in many ways (keyboard, rSAP, etc), as MS really dropped the ball here is a BIG way. Android and the iPhone are eating MS alive on Bluetooth!!!

http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/6G3ZZJCHOLYP3S5CRCIHQ7WDSE MVIM

Finally! My car supports the phonebook profile for handsfree dialing and calling name display, neither of which currently work between my car and Windows Phone because of the phone’s lack of support. Now that I know this is coming I will be very angry and disappointed if Mango is held back for months by AT&T, as they have done with NoDo and the trivial 7392 security update; the latter of which has nothing to do with cellular connectivity and has no reason to be held back for “testing”. In fact, carriers shouldn’t even be allowed to “test” and delay updates that do not contain changes to cellular-related code.
http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/6G3ZZJCHOLYP3S5CRCIHQ7WDSE MVIM

Finally! My car supports the phonebook profile for handsfree dialing and calling name display, neither of which currently work between my car and Windows Phone because of the phone’s lack of support. Now that I know this is coming I will be very angry and disappointed if Mango is held back for months by AT&T, as they have done with NoDo and the trivial 7392 security update; the latter of which has nothing to do with cellular connectivity and has no reason to be held back for “testing”. In fact, carriers shouldn’t even be allowed to “test” and delay updates that do not contain changes to cellular-related code.
Phobius

I take a picture with me and my friends and i can’t send them over the bluetooth. They have cheap dumbphones and I have Omnia 7 (it’s very expencive in Bosnia) and I’m embarrassed. Bluetooth filetransfer is essencial feature.
http://nanapho.jp/ tezawaly

“Hands-Free Profile 1.5″ is already supported now.

https://www.bluetooth.org/tpg/QLI_viewQDL.cfm?qid=16801
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2449475
Aceofspades25

And still no way to transfer files =/
Brandon Hortman

AUDIO FOR MY VIDEO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Seriously!
http://www.facebook.com/people/Mike-Wen/623739877 Mike Wen

Bluetooth Serial and HID are VERY important for some people.

They need to add that to future Windows Phone.
Second thought, future Windows Phone will have same core of Windows 8 ?
http://twitter.com/TheNetAvenger The Net Avenger

Weird, when running across older articles like this.

PAN functionality is not as important as the author seems to think, as there is this technology called WiFi that is built in phones today. Back in the early 00s, bluetooth PAN and transfer support was necessary and handy since the devices were not online and often didn’t have WiFi.

Ironically, PocketPC Phones (aka Windows Mobile) back in 2002 had PAN features, and far more robust bluetooth support, but as the functionality tends to be a security risk and congests the 2.4ghz range, the usage in modern devices should be relegated to ‘going away’.

As for the comment about needing PAN for ‘gaming’. Go look at the Zune and ZuneHD, which outside of a dedicated gaming device, pioneered the ability to play games with friends without any setup. It did this by using WiFi which all Zune devices had, just like all WP7 devices have.

If you want to implement gaming between you and your friends, the developer can use WiFi with Mango, just like the Zune did, and why you saw people swinging their ZuneHDs in a room together as they were all ‘linked’ and bowling or playing some other game over the WiFi.

Additionally, there is this thing called XBox Live that developers can use, so people can play games in different parts of the world, much like you would find the ‘old school’ phones using PAN to play a game in the same room.

Also a slight correction, as the ‘stack’ does have PAN features and abilities; however, they are not exposed to developers as they are NO LONGER NEEDED. (Look up WinCE kernel, it has had more Bluetooth functionality since the late 1990s than iOS or even OS X does today.)

So this article is ‘technically’ correct that Apps won’t be able to use PAN technology, but it misses the bigger understanding that is no longer needed. It is like complaining that a Corvette doesn’t have a place to put the feedbag or a way to tie it up to the hitching post.