Article – From the horse’s mouth
Sony Corporation
My Comments
There are steps taking place to make pairing and connecting Bluetooth accessories to smartphones and tablets much easier. Initially the pairing routine was very convoluted with us having to remember pairing passwords or routines. Now most of the devices use a three-click pair routine where you hold down the Bluetooth button on the peripheral then place your smartphone in Bluetooth scanning mode to show up the device, whereupon you click on the name of the device.
But Sony have taken this further with speaker systems and headphones that you just touch to the NFC-capable smartphone, tablet or laptop to set them up. The Sony XPeria and VAIO tablets and laptops will have the integrated set-up software as part of the deal but those of you with Android devices made by other names will need to pick up NFC Easy Connect from the Google Play app store. Of course, these devices will pair up and connect with other Bluetooth hosts using the conventional method. On the other hand, I would love to be sure that this “touch-and-go” pairing can work with Windows 8 / RT equipment like the HP Envy X2 that I previously reviewed.
This will also simplify the connection of a previously-paired Bluetooth host to the speaker, which with some Bluetooth hosts and speaker docks cam be come a real pain as I have seen for myself with a Bluetooth speaker dock that was paired with an iPhone full of music in an “ad-hoc” manner even though it was normally paired with an iPad. At times, this required the iPad to he “re-connected” when the guest device was finished with. This touch-and-go routine could simplify the reconnection phase for “resident” Bluetooth hosts with the speakers or headphones.
This will also be an improvement as far as automotive setups and hi-fi equipment is concerned because it could cut down the time required to pair-up your device to the car or the home-theatre receiver, thus allowing you to get going with the music.
