Bluetooth

John has problems with his Bluetooth earbuds breaking up when he's outside. He's tried more than one model and it still happens. But when they're inside, they play just fine. Leo says that Bluetooth is a frustrating art form that Apple has tied us to, so they can make money selling Bluetooth headphones. Now everyone is doing it: drives him nuts. It's likely interference. More expensive models usually have better reception, so it may just be a case of you get what you pay for. OneMore makes a pair that wires both pods together.

Paul has an iPhone SE and wants to know how he can print from it without having to do it via WiFi. Leo says you really can't. Apple wants an iPhone to print via WiFi (called Air Printing), but if your printer is Bluetooth compatible, you can try printing via Bluetooth. If you don't have a Bluetooth-capable printer, you can get a Bluetooth Printer Adapter. 

HP makes a few models that use Bluetooth. So check there. All you'll need to do is pair your phone to the printer after it's been made discoverable, and you can print.

Billy has a four-year-old Insignia TV and wants to listen to the audio with Bluetooth speakers. But it doesn't have Bluetooth; what can he do? Leo says that Bluetooth has latency issues that will drive you nuts watching TV. Leo would recommend wireless headphones; he likes the SennheiserTV brand. Another option is to get a Roku streaming box. Most of the models have a headphone jack built into the remote. So you can plug in headphones and listen without your neighbors complaining.

Jim is hard of hearing and would like to know if there's an app or something that will enable him to boost his hearing aids or use bone-conducting headphones to hear. Leo says that there are in the iPhone. The iPhone will route sound to your hearing aids if they are modern. But if you want to use bone-conducting headphones, then you'll end up with some lag via Bluetooth. There's no lag with hearing aids because they use RF Radio technology and not Bluetooth. But if you need Bluetooth, then there are various wireless microphones that can do what Jim needs.

Michael has a Samsung Galaxy Tablet and when he connects via Bluetooth to his headset, the audio quality really drops.  Leo says to try removing the device and then repairing it. It's also possible that the profile Michael is using is the wrong one. The sad part is, Michael may not have a choice to use a different one. So he may be stuck. He will want to use a profile suitable for music, like Aptex or A2DP. But it sounds like the tablet may be older, and thus relies on an older headset spec that doesn't support stereo and won't sound good.

Ross has ripped all his CDs so he can enjoy the mp3s in his car with an external hard drive. Leo says that is cool, but hard drives have the same problem as a record player; they will skip when jostled. So if you hit a bump, the hard drive could skip, and that could damage your hard drive. Leo recommends a solid-state solution like a thumb drive or SSD drive in an external enclosure. Or you can put the music up in the cloud and just stream it from your mobile phone through the car's Bluetooth connection.

John upgraded to a Moto G7 recently, and now it reboots when he goes to the supermarket and ONLY the supermarket. What gives? Leo guesses that there's a signal that the phone is receiving that it gets confused with. Try putting it in airplane mode first and see if it reboots. If it doesn't, then there's some sort of signal.  ScooterX says there's a Google TechNote to reboot your phone. The way to fix it is to turn off Bluetooth.