CSR shareholders overwhelmingly back $2.5bn Qualcomm takeover

Qualcomm announced their intention to acquire CSR back in October. With no rival bidders coming forward, CSR’s shareholders have now voted overwhelmingly in favour of accepting Qualcomm’s offer. The two companies will now move ahead with the formalities of the acquisition, which they expect to be complete by the summer.

CSR said that 98.6% of their shareholders voted on the takeover, with 95.2% of those votes being in favour of the acquisition.

For our thoughts on the acquisition, see here.

Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) formally adopts Bluetooth® Core Specification Version 4.2 to enable IP connectivity and deliver industry-leading privacy and increased speed

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) have announced that they officially adopted version 4.2 of the Bluetooth® core specification this week. This new release is focused on improved privacy and increased speed, and a soon-to-be ratified profile will enable IP connectivity for better IoT support.

“Bluetooth 4.2 is all about continuing to make Bluetooth Smart the best solution to connect all the technology in your life – from personal sensors to your connected home. In addition to the improvements to the specification itself, a new profile known as IPSP enables IPv6 for Bluetooth, opening entirely new doors for device connectivity,” said Mark Powell, executive director of the Bluetooth SIG. “Bluetooth Smart is the only technology that can scale with the market, provide developers the flexibility to innovate, and be the foundation for the IoT.”

Privacy and Security

Bluetooth® 4.2 introduces industry-leading privacy settings that lowers power consumption and builds upon the government-grade security features of the Bluetooth® specification. The new privacy features put control back into the hands of the consumer by making it difficult for eavesdroppers to track a device through its Bluetooth connection without permission. For example, when shopping in a retail store with beacons, unless you’ve enabled permission for the beacon to engage with your device, you can’t be tracked.

Speed

Bluetooth® 4.2 increases the speed and reliability of data transfers between Bluetooth® Low Energy devices. By increasing the capacity of Bluetooth® Smart packets, devices transfer data up to 2.5 times faster than with previous versions. Increased data transfer speeds and packet capacity reduces the opportunity for transmission errors to occur and reduces battery consumption, resulting in a more efficient connection.

Internet Connectivity

Building on the capabilities released earlier with Bluetooth® 4.1 and the new features released in 4.2, the Internet Protocol Support Profile (IPSP) will allow Bluetooth® Low Energy sensors to access the Internet directly via IPv6/6LoWPAN. IP connectivity makes it possible to use existing IP infrastructure to manage Bluetooth® Smart “edge” devices. This is ideal for connected home scenarios that need both personal and wide area control. This profile will be ratified by the end of the year.

Further information on Bluetooth® 4.2 can be found on the SIG’s website.