Bluetooth

Most of the older technology eventually goes away and is replaced with something newer. We said goodbye to the back then popular infrared port in mobile phones. Bluetooth became the standard, and Apple came up with AirPlay 2.

Bluetooth was created back in 1994 by Ericsson. Initially, it was a wireless replacement for the serial wired interface known as RS-232. Previously, it was primarily used for making phone calls using wireless headsets, but not the kind we know today. A single headset could not even play music (unless it had an A2DP profile). It is an open standard for wireless communication linking two or more electronic devices.

Indeed, interesting why Bluetooth is called what it is. The Czech Wikipedia states that the name Bluetooth is derived from the English name of the Danish king Harald Bluebeard, who ruled in the 10th century. There are already several versions of Bluetooth which differ in data transfer speeds. For example, version 1.2 was able to handle 1 Mbit/s. Version 5.0 can already do 2Mbit/s. The commonly quoted range is 10 meters. The latest version is Bluetooth 5.3 and was introduced in July last year.

AirPlay

AirPlay is a proprietary set of wireless communication protocols developed by Apple. It allows streaming and initially sends audio but now works with video, device screens connectivity, photos, and associated metadata between devices. It has a clear advantage over Bluetooth. The technology is fully licensed so that third-party manufacturers can use it for their solutions. It is already quite common to find support for the feature in TVs or wireless speakers.

AirPlay was initially referred to as AirTunes to have continuity with Apple’s iTunes. However, in 2010, Apple renamed the feature to AirPlay and implemented it in iOS 4. Then in 2018, AirPlay 2 arrived alongside iOS 11.4. Compared to the original version, AirPlay 2 improves buffering, adds support for streaming audio to stereo speakers, allows audio to be sent to multiple devices in different rooms, and can be controlled from the Control Center, the Home app, or with the help of Siri. Some features were previously only available using iTunes on macOS or Windows operating systems.

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