Bluetooth 5 has finally been unveiled, with headline claims of 200-meter range (quadrupling that of Bluetooth 4) and doubled bandwidth (now 2Mbps). There is a clear focus on Internet of Things devices and applications, but no sign of the proposed mesh protocol, which would do even more to improve the spec’s capabilities. The Bluetooth SIG’s timing comes before the busy holiday season – and the launch window of the huge Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January. This is Bluetooth’s attempt to provide device makers with a capable alternative to the low power mesh networking protocols that have been used in the smart home – namely, ZigBee and Z-Wave, and eventually Thread once it gets into gear. For device…