Bluetooth Reviews

Our Business owns 2 Bluettoth Access Points. The AXIS model and a unit from Red-M. The AXIS model works great, but requires you to manually set the IP address of the AP by entering the MAC address using Ping on the command line. This could be made a little easier, by having a USB interface as the Red-M unit does.

After obtaining the IP address of the Access Point, you use a simple web interface for configuration...very easy. Many of our staff have Pocket PCs and they really find it convenient to use Bluetooth and our Access Points.

I'm using this product to connect a PowerBook G4 running OS X 10.2.8 with a Nokia 3650 telephone. Though Apple certifies only the D-Link Bluetooth adapter, I have found the Asante FBT100 performs well, and its documentation is more complete, especially for Mac users, than that of any competing maker I have found. I have tested the product for file transfer in both directions, synchronization, and GPRS modem connectivity. The configuration can be tricky, but that has nothing to do with whether you get the Asante or another adapter. Also, the adapter has a connector stem that is 1.3 cm (0.5 in.) long, which is too short to guarantee a solid contact in a deeply recessed USB socket, such as that in a Macally keyboard, for which you would need a midget USB extension cable; but no competing maker of USB Bluetooth adapters seems to solve this problem either.

My only quibble with Asante on this product is that its published support policy (on its Web site) appears finger-pointing*. Making this product work involves 4 companies' products interoperating, for example Asante, Apple, Nokia, and ATTWS. It's reasonable for any of these to insist that the others support their own products, but most of us users usually don't know whose product is defective or misconfigured when they don't interoperate. In selling to Mac users, Asante has to face the fact that Apple certifies only D-Link as compatible. The best way to do that is to (1) guarantee compatibility and (2) offer to help diagnose and fix problems even if it might turn out that they are the fault of one of the other companies.

By the way, of these four companies, ATTWS has done the most to provide step-by-step Web pages detailing how to configure both the Nokia phone and the Mac OS X computer to work together with ATTWS's GPRS service. (See its document ATTW8604.)

*The Asante policy on this subject is: "In order to use all the services of the cellular phone - such as Internet access through Bluetooth - please refer to the cellular phone manufacturer's manual. Asante does not provide training or support for third-party products or software."

I recently bought this unit; it seems to be working fine. Although the range of the unit is not great, about 10 feet when obstacles are present. I did some testing and found that if in line of sight the range is close to the 30 feet. I have yet to try the unit with the included adaptor, I have a Bluetooth enabled phone (Sony Ericsson t68). It seems to be working fine with the functions built into the phone. The battery life so far has been great; I leave it on my desk all day and charge it at night. The coolest thing about it is that I never have to take my phone out of my pocket when I get a call; I just put the thing in my ear and push the answer button. A problem with the T68 is that it has two modes for Bluetooth, one constantly on, and automatic. With "on" the battery life of the phone is diminished but you can use advanced options like voice dialing by only using the headset. With "automatic", the phone will ask you if you want to answer a call with the headset and if you don't press "no" then it is sent to the headset. So you save power on the phone. The size of the headset is very small. Not as small as the Jabra headset, but not large enough to be a distraction. It is very light and has pretty strait forward buttons. I have heard that this headset has been docked because of it quietness, I have had no problems with it not being loud enough. I even use it while driving with the window down. I would recommend this product although some stores offer it for under 60 bucks, I think I would try other products if it were much more then that.

I still remember when I bought my first Palm III: it was a cool product, but the replacement of batteries made it a very annoying toy. I also find it very un-ecological. Fortunately, the Palm V eventually came out, with a rechargeable battery built in. That made the whole difference to me.

Any cordless device is bound to have this problem, since we haven't yet discovered how to transfer power through airwaves (wouldn't that be a great invention).

The Logitech Cordless Desktop MX for Bluetooth is a perfect example of the above. The mouse ahs a built-in battery that can be recharged in a station, just like a cordless phone. More unfortunately, the keyboard uses four AA batteries.

Any desk product that trades off batteries for a power cable is very questionable in my opinion. If it was hardly justifiable for a Palm, I just can't find a reason to do so for your desktop keyboard. The mouse, on the other hand, is an excellent item. I see that it can be bought without the keyboard--probably a smart trade-off.

The set itself is very beautiful and sturdy, and the installation on XP was extremely easy. I cannot wait to use Bluetooth with my Palm m515. Whether it will drain the battery in two hours is a question I would like to know the answer to.

I bought this set after a long search for a wireless set with a USB keyboard connector for my laptop (thanks to Toshiba for not putting one on my P10). When I opened the box and installed it on my laptop (prior to installing the drivers, which I had to download from Logitech's website) and no problems of detection (both on my Windows XP and Gentoo Linux systems). And everything worked like a dream after installing the software packages. If you take to time to play with the iTouch settings you can create a monster of the keyboard (attaching menus (instead of direct commands) to the hot keys, etc.)

I actually had no intentions of writing a review for this set, I didn't even buy it from Amazon but some of the reviews here gave such a bad impression that I had to. First the bluetooth hub works fine with non-Logitech devices, however if a bluetooth hub or similar device is installed prior to this set, the setup utility limits the hub to the keyboard+mouse set in order not to screw your existing Bluetooth configuration.

Someone made a point about the hotkey icons.
"Shopping Cart" for Shopping

How can you better describe shopping. The same goes for all the other hotkeys. I'm starting to doubt that you are talking about this particular product.

Also the keyboards battery consumption is quite economic, compared to my heavy usage (about 10-15 hours per day)

Why 4 stars? No users manual or software is included with the box. Downloading the software (around a total of 40 MB) can be frustrating for people using Dial-up.

I purchased this product due to its Bluetooth capabilities. While it takes a bit more setup than your standard keyboard and mouse, it works extremely well. The keyboard and mouse work very well and have a great feel. The keyboard is extremely comfortable. The mouse charger also acts as a Bluetooth hub, which I used to connect my Palm Pilot and hope to use with a Bluetooth enabled phone soon.

The software also provides a few nice extras, such as onscreen volume display. Cap Lock/Num Lock/Scroll Lock onscreen display.

It came down to this product or the Microsoft Bluetooth setup. I chose Logitech both because of my previous success with their products and because the keyboard is a standard layout. The Microsoft version moves the Insert/Delete// block of six keys into a two column formation and doubles the size of the delete key. As a programmer, this frustrated me to no end.

Overall I am very impressed and I am planning on purchasing a duplicate set for my home.

Works perfectly on my 2 1/2 year old iBook with OS X 10.3. Just plug it in and have iSync search for your telephone. Once it's found it, you're in business from now on. All you have to do to is hit the sync button on Isync and that's it. No probs. My friend that also has a Nokia 3650 and a PC can't get the bluetooth to work for the life of him. Sounds like many other people have this hassle. Well, at least your computer was cheap, huh? Guess you didn't think about what your time is worth. My time is worth more than dinking around with a PC and dealing with crashes. I have work to do.

This product has been with me for years. I have the revision 3 and I believe they are up to revision 5 already. It has worked flawlessly with my old Sony Ericsson T610 phone. And it works even better with my current Nokia 6600 mobile.

I installed the product in my Apple PowerBook G4 and iBook Dual USB and it instantly recognized the product without any drivers. I also believe this is the same product found inside every Bluetooth-equipped Mac because Apple did release a firmware update to their internal Bluetooth and it included these external D-Link DBT-120 units, if a user had one. (The only problem is that if you updated the firmware that Apple provided, you will not be able to use the D-Link on a PC. I haven't updated mine and never ran into sync problems).

I sync my address book and calendar in Jaguar and Panther OS to my mobile phone and iPod without any hitches.

Pros:
1. Small, compact, light
2. No drivers needed for Mac OS Jaguar and Panther and Windows XP OS.

3. Price. This product used to cost a lot. Now it has dropped down to USD40. Which is great, because this very same product that is installed internally in Macs still cost USD45 for the option. Shouldn't an OEM product installed during production be cheaper? Furthermore, if it's installed internally then you cannot transfer it between computers. The external is cheaper and transferrable.

Cons:
1. The only difficulty I can think of is the implementation of the Bluetooth standard across products.

I love gadgets and find myself tinkering with anything technological so I usually don't have problems making one product operate with another.

The problem with Bluetooth is that there is no standard way to activate and access operation between products. Each product has its own graphic user interface to contend with. Bluetooth is being billed to consumers as an easy plug and play product. I'm sure it is - just not right now as manufacturers are still fiddling with how to integrate it with their products. Hence, other consumers will have to read the manual on how to access and use Bluetooth across products. In products that come with no manual, they will have to be used to fiddling the interface. Until then, I can't wait for the time where Bluetooth actually performs the way it is billed.

If it doesn't work the first time, try to understand the logic behind each product's interface. The problem is that if they can't get it to work, they blame D-Link. If you're computer recognizes the product upon install, then there is no problem. If it doesn't and the activity lights don't work, then send it back. Unlike Wireless/Wired Ethernet products, the user interface is not embedded in the Bluetooth unit. This Bluetooth product is only a vessel. The actual operation is dependent on the computer and interface it has been programmed to interact with Bluetooth.

This is a great adapter which is high quality, and relatively low price. I use it with a laptop running windows XP and a Hewlett-Packard iPAQ 2215.

This adapter is very easy to setup and all of the necessary instructions and software come with the adapter. Setup is a farily automated process and the installation wizard and instruction booklet will guide you through the process.

The adapter lets you use a variety of different services such as internet connection sharing, ActiveSynch, file transfer, and others. All of these services can be enabled/disabled at any point after installation and configuring them is for the most part a simple procedure which can be done by following the instruction on the computer.

The adapter has a very good range of twenty to thirty yards, which is about the maximum a PDA can handle, so connecting to the adapter won't be an issue. Several of my friends and I have PDAs, so I got this adapter so we could all use my laptop as a wireless hub to get online. None of use have had any problems and it can handle several devices using it at once.

As an added bonus the adapter comes with a free USB extension cable.

I bought the dongle to use with my nokia 3650. The supplied driver version is 1.4.2.10. The setup took minutes and it worked fine on both Windows XP professional and Win98SE desktops. However, within a few weeks, the drivers stops working, prompting "Bluetooth license check failed." Hawkings support has not returned my emails after two weeks.

I had the dreaded connectivity problems with my Nokia 3650 as others have had. But here is my solution because the one that the previous reviewer had didn't quite work for me. Ok, here are my steps:

1. Install the bluetooth software on the CD (not from the website - version 1.35 I believe).
2. Install PC suite from Nokia website. (On the reboot, there should be the mRouter icon in the system tray. Right click it and select properties and make sure both COM3 and COM4 are checked.)
3. Make sure bluetooth is enabled on your phone.
4. Open "My bluetooth places" icon.
5. Click "Entire Bluetooth Neighborhood" and your phone should appear.
6. Pair the pc to phone (any code will do).
7. Right-click the now-paired phone icon and select "connect bluetooth serial port". An error may appear, check to see if the mRouter icon changes. If it does, then you can now open PC suite. Done.

Some problems I have encountered were on the reboot of my system. My PC "forgot" what the bluetooth dongle was. I simply unplugged it and plugged it back in and that worked for me. Also if you have problems re-establishing connection,unpair the phone AND pc, turn off phone, reboot PC,and then start at step #3 again. This may not be the ideal solution for everyone but it worked for me. Hope this helps!

I wasn't too impressed with this dongle, which is why I turned around and sold it. Bottomline: it installed simply in WinXP, and did connect to my Palm Tungsten successfully. But Bluetooth is just not ready for prime time. Which I suppose is not the fault of this HT adapter, but the fault of the IEEE. However, as far as this product goes, the software worked very well and the signal strength in my apartment was always good. The constant need to validate connection on both the handheld and the PC was the deal breaker for me. If I'm 25 feet away and want to access an email or webpage, it's a massive pain in the backside to have to get up and walk over to the computer in order to accept the BT connection. And it entirely defeats the purpose of having a wireless device in the first place!

Please sign the petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/osxmicmv/ requesting Sony support this camera (and other MicroMV camcorders) on Mac OS X.

This is a great camcorder, but it is impossible to use because you cannot get the video onto your Mac. For those of you that use a PC for video editing (yeah, right...) and don't mind using Sony's proprietary Movie Shaker program to do your editing instead of something like Premier (again, yeah, right), you will find this camera wonderful. But for the rest of us, Sony needs to take steps to open up this format or support the camcorder on the most popular digital video platform (Mac).

This camera seemed ideal for my needs and although I spend most of my time in Europe I opted for an NTSC format as I know that I am able to access this format in Europe whereas I cannot access PAL in the US, thus it being much more universal.

I bought this camera and after 40 days it developed a fault. I contacted Sony Service Centre in London, who after keeping it for 5 weeks explained that they could not repair NTSC Models in the UK and I would have to send it to the US for repair. I suggested that they should do that but no. I returned to the US and took the camera to one of their service centres who said that I would have to pay $216 labour charges as it was now over 90 days old.
After a great deal of hassle they eventually agreed to give me a work order to have this charge waived. I then sent it to Sony in PA and although I have been informed that it has been repaired I still am awaiting its return over 6 months after purchase. Just be sure you realise that the 12 month warranty only applies to parts, the labour warranty is 90 days, it is in the small print but easily overlooked. This review may not be helpful to everyone but if one person is helped then great.

In a nutshell, the major issue with the IP55 is the small trade-off of video quality versus size.

Mind you, you're getting by far one of the smallest video cameras on the market, with all the camcorder features you'd expect in a larger model. However, its only major limitation in my eyes is the video quality.

Regardless, it's still very impressive. In all my use of it, the only thing that bugs me is the slow autofocus. That's it. I can only tell the video quality issues when compared side by side with the TRV50, but after converting to DVD there's little difference between the two.

MicroMV isn't a hard format to handle once you get it converted to the MOV format. To do this you need Quicktime Pro 5 (Quicktime Pro 6 doesn't work), which Sony should've bundled with it. Simply open your MMV file in Quicktime, select Save As, and save it as a MOV. Load it into Premiere or whatever video editing software you like and away you go, no other issues to speak of. I've successfully edited my videos using a variety of programs, so don't let the MicroMV format put you off.

Quibbles aside, the best bit of owning the IP55 is when you pull it out of the case (which, incidently, is the size of a regular camera case, not a camcorder). You can't beat the wow factor.

First of all, I couldn't find a board to post my review on AT&T wireless, so I had to choose to review some product. I'm giving 4 stars to it since I heard this is a good phone.

However, what I want to do today is to WARN YOU that AT&T WIRELESS SUCKS. Their customer service can provide wrong information and force you to pay more than you should.

Here is my story. I had a AT&T wireless phone, but for personal reasons I wanted to cancel it. It was 2 months before the contract would expire, so I confirmed with the CSR that I would have to pay the $175 cancelation fee, which is actually reasonable and under contract.

But, but, at this time he gave me wrong information. He suggested that I suspend the account for 2 months and cancel it afterwards. I was a little doubtful but, since this was the information directly from a CSR, I did as what he told me to do.

Then, 2 months later, I called in again. This time a different CSR said that time of suspension does not count in the contract. This means I must wait for another 2 months, and pay, before I can cancel the account. Unfortunately I don't have the conversation record with the first CSR due to a system crash, so I have no strong evidence to support myself.

It is all OK to me since I am not using the phone anyway, and it only costs < $100 for 2 months. However, I can't stand the fact that CSRs provide wrong information and mislead customers. AT&T has lost a customer forever, and I bet they will lose more once more people know about their bad customer service.

AT&T WIRELESS SUCKS, DON'T BUY AT&T WIRELESS

Would have been 5 stars, but . . .

Sony claims that they worked hard to make the phone compatible with iSync on the Macintosh, unfortuantely it isn't fully compatible. Multi-day and all-day calendar events won't transfer over. When contacting Sony, they say they don't support the feature and I need to contact apple. Doesn't sound like they worked too hard after all.

I love this phone; its small, has a tremendous amount of features, and has great synch abilities. Although the camera quality isn't the greatest, its made for a phone...if you want high quality, buy a digital camera. That said, quick photo snap is nice and the menus fly by in a breeze. The reception I am getting on ATT is great!

I know there have been complaints on activating this bad boy, but I really didnt have much of a problem. If you get the phone through Amazon you are going to have to call ATT in order to activate your SIM card and be able to start making and receiving calls. I called 1-888-288-4202 and talked to a guy named Nikolai who got my stuff straight within 30 minutes. The only problem was that a day after I had called him it still read 'inactive SIM', but on a whim I powered it down and then back up and it worked. My advice to anyone getting this phone is to call that number and let them activate it, then wait like an hour and shut down your phone and then restart it...it should probably be rearin and ready to go by then. Again, great phone and great features!!

I was able to connect to my T610 on XP without any extra software installation. But the Belkin bluetooth GPS is problematic, had no luck with that yet. The software that comes with this device does not work with later service packs of XP, which have built-in bluetooth support.

The coolest part is that you don't have to hold your phone in position, or even near your computer to connect to internet through it (I use Tmobile).

It has a neon blue light inside the plastic, but it's impossible to see that blink in daylight. I guess that's why other people haven't noticed it.

If you have a gift certificate and a nice bluetooth phone, this is a good choice.

Laptop: Toshiba P25-S408
OS: XP PRO with Service Pack 1

Installed smoothly. Small 'quarks' exists. some times
Windows throws "New Hardware Found" multiple times though you have installed the drivers.

Reboot and I was all set.

As my Bluetooth Devices (cellphones and PDAs) are still being shipped the only bluetooth device I had is my car with Integrated Bluetooth based "Hands Free Link"(HFL) system.
Went into the garage and initiate "pairing sequence" and my laptop readily recognises the HFL device.

Not yet tested the range though. My car was about (30-40)feet behind 3 walls.

Most of the frustration that other reviewers seem to have appear to due to installation of drivers and other related problems.Not necessarily related to the integrity of the device itself.

Additional Pros:
1. The "glowing florescent carrying band" so that one can easily find their device.

2. USB Extension cable (though the device is thin enough)is helpful when u have a lot of usb devices connected at the same time.

Cons:
1. This one is minor though. I wish there were "power on" and "data transmitting" LEDs on the device. However the taskbar icon mitigates the absence of "Power On" LED.

Hope this review is helpful in making a decision.

I was iffy as to wether I should purchase this adapter after having read some of the reviews and looking over the ratings. I decided to take a chance, seeing that most negative reviews showed some for of misunderstanding on the buyer's behalf. Either it seemed like they did not know how to properly install it, or did not bother to check the compatibility list. I'm glad I took that chance. This device is great! It works great, it has a slick, compact, and low-profile look. It definetely works within a typical apartment/house. I have taken this as far out as 210 feet with no problems whatsoever. It DEFINETELY works with your typical HP/COMPAQ dekstop and it is compatible with all Blutetooth enabled Pocket PC's from HP/COMPAQ. My wife has a 1945, it works. I have a 3975, it works. My buddy has a 5555, it works. My mother has a 3870, it works. Don't be fooled by others mistakes. I have yet to test it with a cell phone. I myself don't own a bluetooth enabled phone, and I don't know many people who do. Notebooks work too. My COMPAQ Evo worked great (you need to adapter's for this) The range is great, and the price is even better. You get what you pay for ladies and gentlemen. You won't regret this purchase. Enjoy!!

I was in the market for a new cell phone, preferably with a new provider. After reading positive and negative reviews of this phone, I was finally swayed into purchasing this phone due to the hefty rebates offered at Amazon.

After about 6 hours out of the box (four of those hours charging), the phone's operating system locked up, and the screen is now blacked out (probably permanently). The phone only responds with a pleasant chime as it starts up, but sadly, nothing else.

I sincerely thought that some of the negative reviews for this product were from purchasers with gripes against the manufacturer or service provider. At worst, maybe these bad reviews were isolated incidents, and I could beat the odds. However, in the end, I must sadly concede and admit that this is a terrible product and should be avoided at all costs. Hopefully, Amazon will allow me to exchange this for a different model and manufacturer.

I bought the Sony Ericsson T610 in December 2003 because I was disatisfied with the customer service of my current carrier and wanted a bluetooth capable phone. The results have been mixed. On the plus side, T-Mobile did an excellent job transferring my existing cell number and their customer service has so far been good. The T610's bluetooth capability also works as promised, as does the very cool Jabra wireless headset that Amazon packaged with the phone.

Unfortunately, the phone has a very poorly designed interface that is difficult to use and often requires multiple steps to perform simple functions that my Sprint-Samsung A500 did easily. The T610's voice recognition and voice dialing functions are almost completely unusable (a feature I truly miss from Sprint), and there is also no plain vanilla ring tone appropriate for business use. From a service standpoint, T-Mobile's coverage in the South Florida area seems to have just as many holes as Sprint's -- they're just in different locations -- and dropped calls are still a problem.

In short, while number portability is a great convenience, all cellular providers have shortcomings, so don't expect a change in phones or carriers to be a quick fix for the problems you may be experiencing with your current service.

I got this phone over Nokia 3650 after reading all reviews (some negative, most positive). I just love this phone!! Its sleek, compact and packed with features.
Pros:
----
1) Great looks, small size.
2) Powerful battery, needs charging once in 3-4 days.
3) Bluetooth and Infrared work like a charm.
4) WAP support is neat to have.
5) Tons of downloads from the web - themes, ringtones, games etc.
6) Great reception - no problems with T-Mobile service. Never drops a call.
7) Organizer is a good feature.
8) Screen resolution of 64K makes a lot of difference - it shows!!
Cons:
----
1) Camera resolution is not good.
2) Need to keep wiping the screen, since its black when sleeping and shows anything deposited on it immediately.

Overall comments:
----------------
I would recommend this phone over any Nokia phone any day! Its a piece of art. SonyEricsson has done a great job of not only designing this phone, but also packing it with so many cool features. Go for it!!!!!!!!!