One thing has been holding me back from buying Bluetooth headphones: my Linux laptop doesn’t support Bluetooth APTX. Later Sony open-sourced LDAC, but those open-source devs are still too busy arguing about whether the code is “orthodox” to actually ship anything. Progress on APTX and LDAC support under Linux has been ongoing — some of it reverse-engineered, some of it code integrations — but none of it got merged upstream, because they’re still bickering. And at this point APTX has already been reverse-engineered, the LDAC source has been released, and it’s even been merged into ALSA, while PulseAudio still hasn’t moved. That makes no sense. So finally someone from China took action. Respect.

I wrote a note about this before, but I ran into a new problem recently. The problem is simple: Bluetooth keeps dropping. So I dug around and started trying to fix it, and saw this error message: Unable to register GATT service with handle XXXX for device F2:F2:F2:F2:F2:F2 So first, remove the already-paired device info from the pairing list and pair it again. Before pairing, turn on Bluetooth’s experimental mode: sudo vim /lib/systemd/system/bluetooth.service

Microsoft’s new “Designer” line of Bluetooth mice is pitched at “designers,” but honestly, designers probably wouldn’t touch this thing — same way a lot of Apple fans who swear the Magic Mouse is great wouldn’t actually put up with that feel. The full name is Microsoft Designer Bluetooth Mouse. It’s flat and portable, and it takes the unusual AAA battery, which means my pile of Eneloops are useless here. The upside of that battery choice is a big drop in weight, so the trade-off does make some sense. There’s not much to it: left and right buttons, a scroll wheel, and a middle click on the wheel.