Good news from the simplicity front: The Bluetooth SIG told InfoWorld's Ephraim Schwartz that the 2.1 update to the standard that would appear later this year would automate parts of the pairing process to reduce hooking up two devices down to perhaps 2 to 3 steps.
In writing about Bluetooth, I've always been stunned by how many steps are necessary to create a connection, even in ideal circumstances. The Wi-Fi Alliance learned from this, and their Wi-Fi Protected Setup--a kind of pairing for simple WPA security--involves as few as two steps on a base station and one on a computer trying to associate to form an encrypted pairing.
The new 2.1+EDR spec also uses as little as 20 percent as much power through better sleep modes. Schwartz writes the spec should ship to device manufacturers in two months, but I wonder if he means that chipmakers will have implemented versions that can be integrated in devices in two months?
"The new 2.1+EDR spec also uses as little as 20 percent as much power"
...is ambiguous. It probably means 20% of the power the previous standard uses, but it could mean "only 20% more power than the previous standard". (how do you get a paragraph break in to these comments?)
[Editor's note: I'll try to see what the word is. I suspect it's 20 percent of the power used by 2.0 because if there are bad power standby modes, then you use a ton of extra power. In Wi-Fi, some chips go down to 1 to 5 percent of their transmit power use when in standby, but it took years to reach that point.--gf]