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Comment by j1elo | Hacker News Reader

Always surprised to see people running around with their Bluetooth needlessly enabled.

Maybe I worry to much about battery usage, but I just got used to always enable WiFi, Bluetooth, or NFC, only at the moment of usage, and disabled afterwards.

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I have a smartwatch and airpods, turning off Bluetooth would cause both not to work.

I'm more surprised that anyone ever turns it off, battery use is negligible compared to the cellular modem as I browse the web/listen to music.

I use Bluetooth maybe once or twice a year because I don't want to be tracked everwhere. Wired headphones. Phone in airplane mode much of the day. I suppose I am a privacy outlier, and I'm also not a slave responding to calls/texts.

> and I'm also not a slave responding to calls/texts.

You do you, but I enjoy talking with my friends and family and I don't see responding to them as "slavery".

Yes, I enjoy experience of life in real life.

You're also very judgmental. My family lives far away, thankfully my phone allows me to maintain contact.

Well, I said needlessly because of the amount of times I saw people leaving Bluetooth enabled while not using any BT devices. Their phone enabled it by default, and that's how it stays for its lifetime. Even if it's small amounts, it must be chipping battery away!

Of course if you got a smartwatch you'll want to leave BT enabled to get calls messages and such. At least that's a good reason to leave it on.

I feel like you’re an extreme outlier. It’s not at all surprising, given the convenience in a range of modern day activities like driving a car, listening to music, being in a workplace, or simply being at home.

But that's what I meant, using it when there is a purpose makes a lot of sense of course. I'd just enable BT, drive, then leave the car and disable BT before putting the phone in my pocket. Why leave it enabled during times that it's not paired with any other device?

To me it sounds like leaving home and keeping WiFi enabled. It eats battery because it's still sending beacons and trying to find some known device to connect to.

Google/Apple obfuscating these mac addresses do not help anymore?

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