Quote:
Originally posted by DarkEmerald@Jan 28 2003, 07:40 PM
Can you add anything (again, for a newbie) on the use Bluetooth at home?
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Actually, I do not use Bluetooth AT HOME with my Axim very much. However, because my cell phone (Sony Ericsson T68i) is Bluetooth-enabled, and I purchased the Jabra Freespeak Bluetooth headset, I do use Bluetooth always to speak on the phone (I make a ton of long-distance calls and my cell service's local area is the whole country).
I also use Bluetooth to synchronize my contacts and calendar between my cell phone and my desktop, as well as my Axim and my cell phone (though this becomes superfluous if you keep your Axim cradled to your computer and you simply sync the contacts between your phone and the computer).
I usually do not get online with my Axim much at home because I do prefer to use my laptop computer in that situation. However, when I do go online with my Axim and I am at home (infrequent bedtime reading), I usually use the Linksys Wifi 802.11b CF card. I really do believe if you have wifi and ethernet, it is a better choice (much faster and less costly) to go online with wifi.
On the road, it's a different matter. I do not spend a lot of time at Starbuck's and even though I live in the most connected area on earth (San Francsico Bay Area), wifi hotspots are still few and far between. The hotspot in every phone booth notion is still many many years away.
But with the Axim, the Ambicom Bluetooth CF card I got on eBay for $50, and my cell phone, I do have easy internet access with my PDA from anywhere I can get a cell signal. If you are interested in this, I believe that both ATT Wireless and T-Mobile offer GPRS web access on their services. I use ATT and their service is called mMode. They even have software available on the ATT site to facilitate connecting your PDA and cell phone via Bluetooth. It is actually very simple.
It is definitely not as fast (about 57 kbits) as using wifi on an ethernet network that has a broadband connection to the internet, but it is certainly very usable. If you are a commuter, it is the only way to connect because the technology to seamlessly jump from one wifi hot-spot to another has not yet been developed (Toshiba is working on it, but it will be a long long time, if ever, before it is rolled out in such a way that you can use wifi like you use your cell phone, switching cells as you move).
One thing I do covet is a Bluetooth-enabled car stereo so that I can play MP3s directly from my Axim, and to use the car stereo as a bluetooth hands-free unit for my cell phone. Those are still out of my price range, however.
There are a lot of other devices available that take advantage of Bluetooth technology. You can read a pretty comprehensive list at
http://www.bluetooth.com/tech/products.asp.
On the PDA front, look for a combination wifi/bluetooth CF adaptor to be released in the near future. Aslo, it is rumored that Dell's Axim 7 (to be released later this year) will have built-in bluetooth and wifi (Toshiba already makes such a unit).
If you need help connecting (it's called "pairing") any two specific Bluetooth devices, I will gladly offer what I know. In the meantime, there's a lot of good reading on wireless technogies around. Check out
http://www.dansdata.com/wireless2.htm for a great article on how Bluetooth and 802.11 work together.
