03-11-2002, 02:02 AM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 135
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Review: AXIS 9010 Bluetooth Access Point
http://pdanews.scoca-k12.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=133
I think Bluetooth is one of the best ideas to come around in the area of mobile technology to date. If they could only get their act together, I think some really amazing things could begin to happen. One of the most important things, in my mind, is to keep the price of equipment in a reasonable range, and it should be only marginally more expensive than comparable non-Bluetooth enabled equipment. It's quite possible that these are dreams, but at this point (at least in my corner of the world) the whole idea of Bluetooth is a dream.
At any rate, a site covering PDAs for Ohio educators, has recently posed a review of the AXIS 9010 Bluetooth Access Point, a Bluetooth access point that will connect with your LAN and provide a Bluetooth gateway onto your network. In open area this access point may provide you with a maximum range of up to 300 feet in open air. This looks like a great idea, if only it were reasonably priced.
"Priced at $495, the AXIS 9010 is meant for the businees user at this point. While certainly much less expensive then our Cisco WiFi Access Points, it's still about $200 more than consumer grade WiFi APs like the Netgear AP I have for home use. Recent articles have been tantalizing with the prospect that BT Access Points could get as low as $30, making them an extremely viable option for the home user. I'm sure that as Bluetooth progresses in the marketplace, we'll see the price of Access Points begin to drop dramatically."
"The AXIS 9010 Bluetooth Access Point is a fine product that does exactly what it is designed for, without annoying bugs or 'gotchas'."
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03-11-2002, 03:03 AM
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Thinker
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 384
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Bluetooth prices
Bluetooth will eventually be MUCH less expensive than 802.11b equipment.
The Bluetooth prices we see today can be attributed to supply/demand issues.
Look for Bluetooth prices to fall dramatically throughout 2002. Christmas of 2002 should be Bluetooth's big push toward 'ubiquity'.
One caution: Bluetooth will NEVER be a generalized wireless LAN solution. It's just NOT designed to serve that role. The access point advertised is intended to service "satellite" device connectivity.
This is NOT the technology for home networking. Wireless syncing, ad-hoc communication between mobile devices, yes. Streaming MPEG-2 from a server NO.
I suspect that an super-scalable wireless technology will be coming down the trail to replace Bluetooth, 802.11x, etc... Until that time, the ideal wireless technology solution for palmtops IS Bluetooth.
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03-11-2002, 06:15 AM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 135
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I agree. I think the best parts of bluetooth is it's ability to connect all of the devices that I cary around, without any hassel (keyboard, cell-phone-if-i-had-one, head phones, digital camera, etc.). Being able to contect these devices to my computer/network is a good ability, but bluetooth doesn't really have the range (even with this extended rage AP) to power a wireless network.
There is always a new technology thats 10-100 times better that what we already have, thats just a fact of being a geek. There is always something cooler that is just about to be released, developed, become afordable, etc. Bluetoth will be around for a good little while, and with luck, they'll get the prices right and it will indeed become ubiquitous.
Cheers,
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03-11-2002, 06:57 AM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 248
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I agree. As long as this stuff is not in a reasonable price range, it will be a non-technology for me personally. Almost 500$ is simply ridiculous.
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03-11-2002, 12:32 PM
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Neophyte
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 9
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Somewhat agree.
While the price of this AP certainly puts it out of the range for home use, I think it's a little too early to say that a BT AP is not useful for the home. A lot will depend on just how pervasive Bluetooth becomes. If I have lots of BT devices at home, and iI I only have maybe a desktop PC and a PDA, if I can get a BT AP for $30 vs. consumer grade WiFi for $179, I would go for Bluetooth. True, larger home networks would be best served by WiFi.
Of course the main use for the AP is in meeting rooms, or public areas like airports, not the home. As bluetooth begins to appear in more and more PDAs and laptops, having the ability to walk into a meeting room and get connected on the network easily is a big plus. What needs to happen is for the software to make this happen much more easily for the user.With upcoming built-in BT support in XP and the next generation of CE, we should see a more consistent interface to allow this to happen.
In industry, a business may not have or even need a WiFI infrastructure. A few workers on a plant floor may be using an app on a PDA, and sending the info from the PDA through a BT AP to the business intranet, and this makes a lot of sense. For business the price of the AXIS unit is almost half that of WiFI. So, with Bluetooth the cost of providing wireless connectivity for the 5 or 6 workers on the floor becomes less expensive.
In regards to the earlier comment about streaming media over Bluetooth, that was done just to show that BT could handle the streaming connection without hiccups.
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