Bluetooth

John used to be able to listen to music from his phone to the radio using the headphone jack on his phone. But now he can't do that because his phone doesn't have a headphone jack. So what can he do now? Leo says that a Bluetooth cassette that he can put into the cassette player can then pair it to the phone. There's plenty of them on Amazon. EluraTech makes one for $29.99, but he can get them for half that as well. He'll want to make sure it has Bluetooth 5 though. So be sure. The player also has a 4-8 hour battery life too, depending on the model.

Elizabeth wants to be able to listen to music from room to room that can plug into her laptop. Leo likes Ultimate Ears UE Speakers. Leo likes the UE MegaBoom.

Alex recently built a new PC with an AMD 8 core processor. But he can't connect a Bluetooth PS4 controller to it. It can detect his cell phone, but not his controller. Leo says that if he can pair it to other devices, then he should try reconnecting it to the PS4 and see if there's an update to the controller. If there is, update it. Then try again!

Mike runs a CNC machine to create custom precision parts that he sells on eBay. He thought it would be cool to get a GoPro camera and mount it to his machine to grab some CNC footage of what he makes or to monitor the machine as it runs. But he doesn't have a cellphone, so how can he see the live feed? Leo says that's a problem. But Mike could use an iPod Touch and connect to it that way. So if he doesn't want a smartphone, the Touch is a smartphone without the phone and it'll have both Bluetooth and WiFi. That's the way to do it, and you don't need the most expensive one either. 

David wants to know if he can put Bluetooth stereo in the house and then listen to them from his computer? Leo says it depends on how close they are to the room. Bluetooth has a range of about 33 feet. If the computer doesn't have Bluetooth, then he can buy a Bluetooth receiver that can plugin and then pair it to the radio. But why do that when he can just listen to streaming audio online from services like IHeartRadio or Pandora? Or even his favorite radio station's website will have a listen now option.

Max is looking for a small and simple wireless printer that's easier to use. Leo says that most printers are wireless these days, connecting to the network. An inkjet is probably the best if one needs color, but understand that they'll need to use it regularly in order to keep the ink flowing without getting the heads clogged. If one seldom uses it, a color laser printer is the best bet, but the colors aren't bright and not for printing photos. 

Aaron's kids play a lot of Fortnite on the Xbox, but it's only a one-player game and he has two kids. So he bought a refurbished Dell computer for $150 and added a graphics card to it. Is there a way to hook the Xbox controller to the computer? Leo says you can, even wirelessly. But recently, the Xbox controller has stopped working even though it works with Microsoft's Xbox app. It doesn't work with Fortnite. Leo says to try using Bluetooth, but it's possible that Anti-Cheating features are blocking it because desktops may have an advantage through tricks and hacks like Aimbots.

Paul recently bought a pair of Aftershokz Trekz Air headphones. Leo says they are fine. Not great, but good enough. Paul complains though, that after ten minutes, the sound drops and gets garbled. Leo says that's a Bluetooth issue that's likely specific to that model. Worth returning or exchanging. Leo says he has the older version, which works well. He may want to try the Aeropex.  At the end of the day though, Bluetooth is just terrible, because it handles far more bandwidth than it was designed for.