Do You Bluetooth?

[Mike Temporale]

http://news.com.com/2061-10800_3-6042156.html?part=rss&tag=6042156&subj=news

"Bluetooth is in an ever-growing number of devices. Last year, 315 million products containing Bluetooth chips for short-range wireless communication got shipped, according to Michael Foley, who runs the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, the standards organization that oversees theb standard. This year, ten million items a week will get shipped. Getting people to use the technology, however, remains a challenge. It can be safely assumed that 80 to 100 percent of people who buy those wireless Bluetooth headsets use Bluetooth. But only around 10 to 40 percent of people who buy Bluetooth-equipped PDAs or notebooks do, Foley estimates. Fifty to eighty percent of people who have Bluetooth in their cars use it."

I don't think it's much of a surprise that usability is the number one cause preventing people from adopting Bluetooth. I can't count the number of times I've been pulling my hair out trying to determine why these devices won't work as they should! I tough it out, but many won't and they shouldn't have to. I use Bluetooth to connect my phone to my laptop and to my headset. Other than that, I have a Bluetooth GPS, but I don't really use that too much. What about you?

[Mike Temporale]

http://news.com.com/2061-10800_3-6042156.html?part=rss&tag=6042156&subj=news

"Bluetooth is in an ever-growing number of devices. Last year, 315 million products containing Bluetooth chips for short-range wireless communication got shipped, according to Michael Foley, who runs the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, the standards organization that oversees theb standard. This year, ten million items a week will get shipped. Getting people to use the technology, however, remains a challenge. It can be safely assumed that 80 to 100 percent of people who buy those wireless Bluetooth headsets use Bluetooth. But only around 10 to 40 percent of people who buy Bluetooth-equipped PDAs or notebooks do, Foley estimates. Fifty to eighty percent of people who have Bluetooth in their cars use it."

I don't think it's much of a surprise that usability is the number one cause preventing people from adopting Bluetooth. I can't count the number of times I've been pulling my hair out trying to determine why these devices won't work as they should! I tough it out, but many won't and they shouldn't have to. I use Bluetooth to connect my phone to my laptop and to my headset. Other than that, I have a Bluetooth GPS, but I don't really use that too much. What about you?

[mikestew]

I've had less problems with BT than I have other technologies (like the WiFi on my new 8125, for instance). Most of the time if the directions are followed, devices work fine. Headset, GPS, Think Outside keyboard work great.

Problem children:
ActiveSync over BT - ai-friggin'-yee. This is truly just not worth the hoops one must jump through. Sometimes I can get it to work, but when it doesn't I never get it to work.

GPS w/Mapopolis - I've simply never gotten this to work on my SMT5600. There are ample web pages with advice on how to do it, none of them have helped. Pocket Streets works fine every time, though. Too bad PS won't do routing.

[AdamaDBrown]

Pray tell, how do you connect one device to itself via Bluetooth?

[hotdram]

Bluetooth headset to SMT-5600
Bluetooth GPS to SMT-5600
Bluetooth GPS to Ipaq-4150
Bluetooth SMT-5600 to Bluetooth Motorola V551

mikestew,
what model BT GPS do you have? I had some issues at first with connectivity and mapopolis but I got them worked out as follows:

Pair the GPS and the phone:
Set phone to discoverable etc etc
Set com port 7 to incoming on the phone
Set com port 6 to the GPS receiver

Set up Mapopolis:
Select "Auto-Start GPS" under general options in mapoplis
Select COM6 for port under GPS options
Select Baud Rate of 38400 under GPS options
Select "Keep Connection Alive" under GPS options

On a daily basis, all I have to do to get mapopolis to recognize the GPS is this:
Turn on the power to the BT GPS (BEFORE starting mapopolis on the phone)
Start mapopolis from the the phone, the connection gets made with no hitch.

I use a Sysonchip Smart Blue Mini for my GPS, and am running version 4.64 Beta of mapopolis (found the link for it at gpspassion.com, I don't think it is available from the mapopolis website).

~Rob

[mikestew]

hotdram, using a Microsoft-branded Pharos (came w/Streets and Trips) and the Pharos BT sled. Your instructions sound like what I've tried before with no success (thanks, though). I personally know people with SMT5600s that have gotten this to work, I've seen it with my own eyes in operation. Just doesn't work on mine. Only thing I didn't try was handing the whole kit to someone that has it working and saying, "here, make mine work".

Hopefully my new 8125 has more success than my SMT5600, and the problem becomes moot.

[edgar]

Originally Posted by AdamaDBrown

Pray tell, how do you connect one device to itself via Bluetooth?

HUH? :?

I use:
Headset to MPX220
MPX220 to PPC
MPX220 to desktop activesync (after dumping phantom ports and setting up below Com 7 its solid as a rock)
PPC to Desktop AS
PPC to Printer
MPX220 and PPC to Globalsat 338 GPS
Laptop to Global Sat
PPC / Laptop to BT printer

I think thats all of em.

MIKE! You said you don't need GPS in the "GPS Distraction thread". Please send me yours - my wife love you long time if you do! She's always stealing mine.

-Edgar

[Mike Temporale]

Originally Posted by Edgar_

MIKE! You said you don't need GPS in the "GPS Distraction thread". Please send me yours - my wife love you long time if you do! She's always stealing mine.

That doesn't mean I don't want it. It might have been 6 months since I last looked at it, but I don't know that I'm ready to part with it just yet. What if that killer GPS app comes along? What if my wife decides we're going on a road trip?

Besides, it would reduce my gadget count. I don't know that I can handle that. :lol:

[MitchellO]

I tried sending a ringtone and a picture to a friend the other day over BT. He has a Nokia 6230 and it just would not work. Sometimes it would connect then not send, others it would take ages to detect the other device, or just show its MAC ID (which when there are 5 BT devices around makes it difficult.

So for the most part I don't use bluetooth. My dad uses it for connecting his Nokia 6260 to his Nokia BT carkit and it is almost flawless.


For syncing my SP5 I use a USB cable and for sending info I use IR. IR is just sooooooo simple. Line then up, click send.

Bluetooth 0 --- IrDA 1

[AdamaDBrown]

Originally Posted by Edgar_

HUH? :?

The poll asks how many devices we connect via Bluetooth, then it has an option for "1". Okay, I guess it could be read as "How many other devices, besides your smartphone, do you connect to over Bluetooth?" But it came off the other way to me at first, and it seemed funny to me.

[Mike Temporale]

Originally Posted by AdamaDBrown

The poll asks how many devices we connect via Bluetooth, then it has an option for "1". Okay, I guess it could be read as "How many other devices, besides your smartphone, do you connect to over Bluetooth?" But it came off the other way to me at first, and it seemed funny to me.

Ahhh.. Gotcha. Right, there should be an "other" in that quesiton. Or just different wording entirely.