We don’t have iPhones with Bluetooth 6 but—the truth is, solely a pair second-tier Android telephones even declare to help it to date. However that’s not stopping the Bluetooth group, which is preserving with its twice-a-year cadence and saying the Bluetooth 6.1 spec.
You’ll recall the Bluetooth 6 spec added a formidable new Channel Sounding functionality that will give it centimeter-accurate location and distance monitoring much like Extremely Wideband, along with some new options that may enhance latency and throughput.
The Bluetooth 6.1 replace is targeted on a brand new characteristic referred to as Randomized RPA (Resolvable Non-public Deal with). This characteristic permits for the timing of RPA tackle adjustments, which improves privateness. Your Bluetooth gadget and people it connects to can change tackle at instances that may’t be predicted, which makes it more durable for snooping units to trace your exercise or location. To enhance energy effectivity, this tackle change operation could be offloaded to the Bluetooth controller as an alternative of the gadget’s CPU, which is able to save battery life.
We anticipate the primary premium telephones to help Bluetooth 6 someday this fall, and that might very effectively embrace the iPhone 17. It’s fairly potential these will help these new Bluetooth 6.1 options as effectively, particularly given Apple’s enthusiasm for privateness and energy effectivity.
