OzBT; Freeware Automatic BT Switching Application

[Jonathon Watkins]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://207.153.195.134/ozbt.html' target='_blank'>http://207.153.195.134/ozbt.html</a><br /><br /></div>Oleg Zakharov found that switching Bluetooth on and off on his Pocket PC could be a bit of a pain at times, so decided to do something about it. He's written a freeware app called OzBT which can automatically toggle Bluetooth on and off, depending on which programs are launched and running: <br /><br /><i>"The main idea behind it was to have Bluetooth enabled when I need it and off when I don't. :) It would be great if there was an option in the WM2003 to turn it on automatically when some application is trying to use it... But since we don't have this option, let's settle on next best thing for a while - define "Turn On" and "Turn Off" lists of applications (windows captions), choose Matching method and decide what to do when Unlisted app is active."</i> <br /><br /> <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/BT.jpg" /> <br /><br />The application is manually placed in the Startup folder and scans windows captions to work out whether BT should be on or off. The current version of OzBT is 0.67, so you should not expect a finished product as it's very much a work in progress and Oleg is adding features all the time. The latest Beta adds control of Wifi as well, so it's shaping up nicely. OzBT is known to work with a variety of LOOX and iPaq models and I'm sure Oleg would appreciate being told if it worked on an unlisted model. If you want to have more control over your PPC's wireless activities, downloadit it and give it a whorl.

[jonathanchoo]

I tried this few months ago. Does not work well.

Contrast that with BTToggle (which fools the hardware into thinking that the radio is on when its in fact off) on the PalmOS platform which switches on Bluetooth magically when I press 'Get Mail' or 'Get SMS'.

But this is a freeware and I am sure it will get there.

[Jorlin]

Did you try version 0.67?

Automated BT control works fine on my Loox720.


@Jonathan: Took you some time to set that up... :p ... ;)

[Jonathon Watkins]

@Jonathan: Took you some time to set that up... :p ... ;)

Yes, I had mislaid the asignment in my inbox for a few days. I've got a better system set up now though - and I got to post about the 0.67 update. :wink:

(It's Jonathon by the way).

[paris]

thanks will try it on my hx4700 and see how it goes. seems quite usefull.

[alabij]

Just wanted to let you guys know that on my hp6315, whenever I use an app that needs to use BT to send data it automatically turns it on and then off after the file transfer. I first noticed this when I tried to use PI to send a contact to a friend. Even sending ringtones does it. That ugly blue light comes on and off when done.

[zilla31]

i pretty much leave BT on all the time - what's the issue w/ doing that? battery life?

[Darius Wey]

i pretty much leave BT on all the time - what's the issue w/ doing that? battery life?

Of course. The more gizmos you turn on, the more juice it uses. I think if you only turned on BT when you needed it, you'd at least save a couple of hours in battery life. :)

[zilla31]

nice! works well for me so far... anyone know the window title/caption for thunderhawk? find feature doesn't work w/ it because of the way thunderhawk "is" (full screen etc. etc.).

also - how do you distinguish between BT and wifi (which you want open by which apps?)

[dunos]

Fantastic. Just what I was looking for last week when I had to guide my girlfriend through turning on BT, TomTom, CheckPOInt, etc while I was also trying to drive.

Works great on the h4150.

DAn

[ctmagnus]

What would be cool is the ability to turn on BT when the *99***3# (or whatever you dial) item is tapped in the connection bubble.

[LightMan]

I just tried it on my 2215 and it rocks :) I simply need to turn on BT when I open PIE and turn it off when I close PIE and it allows me to do just that :)

Thanks a mil to Oleg for such a simple yet quite useful app (saving taps is always much appreciated for us lazy ppc users :mrgreen: )

[WyattEarp]

nice! works well for me so far... anyone know the window title/caption for thunderhawk? find feature doesn't work w/ it because of the way thunderhawk "is" (full screen etc. etc.).

also - how do you distinguish between BT and wifi (which you want open by which apps?)

I don't use thunderhawk but whatever name that pops up in the upper lefthand corner of the screen should do. Hope that helps. Works fine on my 5555. This should be a standard feature for all wireless connections.

[Darius Wey]

also - how do you distinguish between BT and wifi (which you want open by which apps?)

Well it depends on the purpose of your use of wireless. Let's say you were in a public hotspot. In most cases, they use Wi-Fi, so you'd use Wi-Fi. However, at home, you may have a BT network, so you'd use BT in that case. Alternatively, your mobile phone may have BT, and if you wish to pair the devices, BT would be your most suitable wireless technology to turn on in that case.

Your question is a bit of a fuzzy one. Usually, distinguishing between the two is a user thing. You merely use whichever one you need at the time. However, some applications do stipulate that they only work for Wi-Fi for example. Or even BT - in the case of the OzBT application. Hope that clarifies things to an extent.

[Jonathon Watkins]

also - how do you distinguish between BT and wifi (which you want open by which apps?)

Are you asking about controlling the app itself?

From the webpage:

But you can also put #b or #w before specific window caption in any of caption lists - it will specify which wireless function it will control regardless of "Control:" setting.

I.e. you can controll BT or Wifi by setting the flags in the program itself.

[ppcinfo]

So, does this program constantly run in the background on my device checking the window captions for the foreground active window? If so, what's the checking interval time, and how does this affect the system performance?

ppcinfo