Bluetooth Demystified

Rating:
Summary: Lacking Technical Review
Review: I am not a Bluetooth expert (hence the purchase of this book) but even to a Bluetooth novice like me it is obvious that this book has clearly not undergone technical review.

A quantitative example of a gross error that should have been caught well before publication, would be the claim, on more than one occasion, that the Bluetooth packet time slots are 625 ms (milliseconds) long as opposed to 625 us (microseconds). This is such a fundamental error it is almost laughable (if it weren't for the fact I paid good money for this book).

Another quantitative example would be in the description of CVSD modulation. Figure 2.7 which shows the relationship of the reference voltage to the signal voltage, with the axes unlabeled so we have to assume the x axis is time and the y axis is voltage, isn't monotonic along the time axis. i.e. the signal actually doubles back on itself with respect to the time axis. This is such a fundamental error it is almost laughable. (Sound familiar.) This error is such that it leads me to believe that the author did not have a good understanding of CVSD modulation.

Silly things like incorrect acronyms should have been caught by any proofreader; VIFR for Very Fast Infrared for example (again on more than one occasion).

This book was clearly rushed out, bypassing any proper review process, to be the first guide to Bluetooth technology, and unfortunately it shows.

I just received my copy of Bluetooth Revealed by Miller and Bisdikian, and from what I have read so far I would have to recommend this over Bluetooth Demystified (by a very large margin indeed).

Rating:
Summary: table 1.4
Review: table 1.4 page 23: Performance Characteristics of Bluetooth Products

item: Range Up to 30 feet(???3 meters???) -> 9,144... meters

Rating:
Summary: table 1.4
Review: table 1.4 page 23: Performance Characteristics of Bluetooth Products

item: Range Up to 30 feet(???3 meters???) -> 9,144... meters

Rating:
Summary: No blue tooth to demystify
Review: The book covers extraneous information that is not "relevant" to the Bluetooth standard. For example, it has a one-pager on Jini and the last line was "At this writing, Jini's future is in doubt". As a Java developer, I may not necessariy agree, but the book also fail to mention Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) if the author really wants to be impartial and covers the whole gamut of lookup and discovery technologies.

There were also mispelled commercial products (page 7) of Cisco's Aeronet (should be Aironet), but the accompanying digital photos clearly showed Aironet. This is one of the examples where both the author and McGraw-Hill's book editor failed their proofreading and/or research tasks.

The Bluetooth protocol descriptions came pretty much straight out of the Bluetooth specifications, without any comments or analyses. This indicates that that author, in this reviewer's opinion, has limited understanding on how or why the Bluetooth teams arrived at certain technical decisions. The last chapter on Global Scheme of 3G Wireless has little to do with Bluetooth.

I'm rather disappointed with the book in general since it contains information that can be downloaded directly from the Bluetooth Web site (for free). Rather than trying to rush out the "first" Bluetooth book, both the author and publisher should focus on delivering quality content rather than another door stop. Save your $US49.95 for another book.

Normally, this reviewer does not write such a strong opinion unless the book is extremely bad or good. Unfortunately, I am mystified on why this book was published at all.

Rating:
Summary: No blue tooth to demystify
Review: The book covers extraneous information that is not "relevant" to the Bluetooth standard. For example, it has a one-pager on Jini and the last line was "At this writing, Jini's future is in doubt". As a Java developer, I may not necessariy agree, but the book also fail to mention Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) if the author really wants to be impartial and covers the whole gamut of lookup and discovery technologies.

There were also mispelled commercial products (page 7) of Cisco's Aeronet (should be Aironet), but the accompanying digital photos clearly showed Aironet. This is one of the examples where both the author and McGraw-Hill's book editor failed their proofreading and/or research tasks.

The Bluetooth protocol descriptions came pretty much straight out of the Bluetooth specifications, without any comments or analyses. This indicates that that author, in this reviewer's opinion, has limited understanding on how or why the Bluetooth teams arrived at certain technical decisions. The last chapter on Global Scheme of 3G Wireless has little to do with Bluetooth.

I'm rather disappointed with the book in general since it contains information that can be downloaded directly from the Bluetooth Web site (for free). Rather than trying to rush out the "first" Bluetooth book, both the author and publisher should focus on delivering quality content rather than another door stop. Save your $US49.95 for another book.

Normally, this reviewer does not write such a strong opinion unless the book is extremely bad or good. Unfortunately, I am mystified on why this book was published at all.

Rating:
Summary: Should Be Called "Bluetooth Mystified"
Review: This book has absolutley no practical value. I purchased it in order to answer some very simple questions about the technology, none of which were answered. Instead, the book strays off into a thorough description of WAP and other tangentially related topics.

All I want to know is the following: Do current Bluetooth enabled devices use the devices TCP/IP stack, or does Bluetooth depend on some other non-standard protocol? Answers anyone?

Rating:
Summary: Helpful Roadmap To Bluetooth Specifications
Review: This is an extremely well written and organized book. It provides guidance for anyone who wishes to understand Bluetooth communication from the development or business perspectives and delivers a great deal of clarity in showing how the protocol is actually designed to work. The authorial insight throughout proved very helpful in navigating the Bluetooth specifications.

Rating:
Summary: Bluetooth without pain
Review: This is the only book on Bluetooth I've actually been able to read. As in his excellent Telecommunications Encyclopedia Nathan really takes the time to explicate and explain concepts, not simply list them, as if you already knew most of what he's discussing. Page through the book: nearly every other page has a useful table or figure helping to illuminate the writing. The description of BT protocol architecture is the best I've ever seen. If you're a fan of Nathan's encyclopedias, or someone needing to learn (painlessly) the basics of Bluetooth, check this out.