Bluetooth discovery.

kenny

Registered
I just discovered something very useful (to me at least) over the weekend. I've done a quick search of the forums for the last few months, and didn't see any mention of this, so forgive me if this is not new to anyone.

As you all know, Jaguar has on-board support for Bluetooth, and the Apple store sells the D-Link USB-Bluetooth adaptor. What I didn't know is that other Bluetooth adaptors also work.

So, over the weekend, I got my hands on both a Belkin (F8T001) and an Ambicom USB Bluetooth adaptor. Both were immediately recognized by the Mac, and within moments, I was able to sync up my Palm Tungsten T, my iPod, iCal, and Address book wirelessly (except the iPod, of course)!!! And, sending Memos, Voicenotes, contacts, todo's, and appointments individually all works perfectly, as does installing applications to the palm without using iSync, HotSync or anything else -- just drag and drop! I am so stoked!!

Nice thing is that the Belkin is the same price as the D-Link, but has a huge antenna on it, so it should have a much better range than the dongle thing from D-Link (Belkin claims up to 100 metres). The Ambicom was not so hot (short range, and expensive), but works nevertheless.

I'm guessing that there's probably others that work; anyone have any other confirmed compatible BT USB adaptors?
 
Did you MEASURE the range of the Belkin device ?

What about the respective datarates ?

I wonder if these devices deliver what they promise.
 
BTW at 2.4 GHz, the size of the antenna should not make any difference as long as it is "long enough" which can be as small as one inch.
 
Come to think of it, do you think Apple will put bluetooth support into the iPod? It seems a logical move, but a bit expensive.
 
100 meters? So are you saying I can take my iPod into the park, or school, and mess up peoples palms?


Nice... :D lol
 
Originally posted by chevy
Did you MEASURE the range of the Belkin device ?

What about the respective datarates ?

I wonder if these devices deliver what they promise.

I don't have the full-on lab facilities to MEASURE the Belkin range; I was merely quoting what Belkin claims. However, while the Ambicom has trouble remaining reachable for more than 8-10 feet, the Belkin seems reachable for at least 40 feet. This is an informal test at my house, using the T68i phone. At the same time, the Palm Tungsten has a bit shorter range, so the effective range is going to be a product of the devices used.

Data Rate is another thing... as the range increases, the data rate decreases (naturally). A thumbnail test with this shows that at around 25 feet, through stone fireplace and a bit of drywall, I was able to send a file at a sustained rate of around 39KBps (that's kilobytes, not bits) for a 17meg file. That's with my iBook and my desktop G4 with Belkins on both. It's not stellar, but it's quite sufficient.

Stay away from the Ambicom.. :(
 
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