Comments on: Palm Bluetooth Card on PalmStore

but after that, it was working great.
It says it can reach a distance of 10m, but when i try to leave my t39 in my room and go to my living room (about 2m away with doors, walls) it is unable to connect....

otherwise it's a great product!

ps: bought it for 1280HK

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No, but he does call it "stampsized". The PicoBlue access point would make a truly Brobdingnagian stamp. :-)

I think the tone of second person's complaint was excessive but there is a reoccurring problem on these boards of people writing comments who clearly haven't fully read or understood the articles they are talking about. I would suggest that everyone read the entire article over twice before commenting. You'll save yourself some embarrassment and all of us some time.

http://www.palminfocenter.com/forum/

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News Editor

Truth is, Ed, that from now on innovations will primarily come from these two companies and within a period of two years, I would predict that the only innovations we'll be talking will come from one of the two companies. Next thing you know it would be SonyEricsson vs. Palm/Nokia (Remember the connection kit?) Be it bluetooth, Wi-Fi, SD/MS, 3G.....if it is Palm OS, you simply won't be able to take those companies out of your discussions.

You could express your views as a user or a technical person, as long as it is reflected in the user experience over a period of time. (Durability, range, etc). I want to be an informed buyer so please feel free to express.

File exchange is similar to IR Beam. Instead of Beam function from the menu bar, you will get a Send function on the menu bar.

Both card have same wireless range, 30 feet in-door, room to room. 50-60 ft in open area.

Speed benchmark of SDIO is far less than 700KB. Avg. is about 320KB. This is about the same benchmark for almost every BT PCMCIA cards available on the market, so does iPAQ 3870.

Battery drainage is acceptable. In my case, I charge m505 every other week without BT. With BT always in the SD slot, I need to charge it every week.

As far as eavesdropping, I think with the phones, encryption is set to on by default, so unless they crack bluetooth encryption, they can't eavesdrop. And supposedly, the strength of the encryption depends on your PIN length that you select during the PAIRing process.

WLANs typically cover distances from ten to a few hundred meters. This smaller coverage distance allows lower power transmissions that often permit the use of unlicensed frequency bands. Because LANs often are used for relatively high-capacity data communications, they often have fairly high data rates. IEEE 802.11, for example, has a nominal range of 100 meters and data rates up to 11 Mbps. This combination of coverage and data rate leads to moderate-to-high power consumption; thus, the types of devices normally used with WLANs are ones that have a robust computing platform and power supply; notebook computers, in particular.

WPANs cover distances on the order of 10 meters and typically are used to connect various personal portable devices without using cables. This peer-to-peer device communication doesn't usually require exceedingly fast data rates. Bluetooth wireless technology, for example, has a nominal range of 10 meters with raw data rates up to 1 Mbps. The short range and relatively low data rates result in low power consumption, making WPAN technologies suitable for use with small, mobile, battery-powered devices such as PDAs, mobile phones, pagers, digital cameras, and so on. In addition, low-power transmission allows for the use of unlicensed frequency bands. Bluetooth technology operates in the unlicensed 2.4 GHz spectrum.

from The phony conflict: IEEE 802.11 and Bluetooth wireless technology by Brent Miller
http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/wireless/library/wi-phone/

Little Bluetooth Review:

-No battery-sapping: Low power
-Robust wireless connection method with a small footprint that makes it very well suited for millions of handheld devices
(A Bluetooth chip, designed to communicate in the 10m range, consumes only 1mW of power, compared to an 802.11b chip, which consumes more than 1W. A single Bluetooth chipset is also fairly small, with a size of 8x8mm, compared to the smallest 802.11b at 30x14mm.)
-Chips will be cheap (volume)
-Bluetooth does not need a base radio station because every device can create a local network.
-Another advantage of Bluetooth as a cable replacement technology are the applications (*e.g http://www.bluetags.com ). Retail kiosks, pay phones, and other public access points will support proximity services.
-Bluetooth also holds an advantage concerning voice communication. Here, Bluetooth can be used in a cordless phone within a 10m range, in an office environment or home, without the need for handoffs. Other WLAN technologies need voice-over-IP to support voice communication

Bluetooth can perform a number of automatic functions:

• A PC and Palm can be set up so that when they are in proximity, an auto-sync takes place. So instead of putting the Palm in the cradle and hitting the HotSync button, just walk within a few feet of the PC and the two will automatically synchronize.
• One Bluetooth-enabled phone can do three tasks. At home, the phone functions as a portable phone, using a landline. When the user is on the move, it functions as a mobile phone, and when the phone comes within range of another Bluetooth mobile phone, it functions as a walkie-talkie.
• A user can compose e-mail on a Bluetooth-enabled laptop while flying on an airplane and queue up the e-mails to be sent. In her briefcase is a Bluetooth-enabled cell phone, switched off. After she lands, she switches on the cell phone, which connects to the Internet and transmits the mail while she waits for her luggage.
• A field rep has a sales meeting noted in her PalmPilot, and the meeting time changes. Someone calls the rep's cell phone, transmits the new data and the phone routes the new information to the PalmPilot, which beeps to let her know her schedule has changed.
• Products and accounts can be assigned a scanning code. With a swipe of a mobile phone, a sales rep can transmit on-hand inventory status and order information back to the main office.

Good luck.

Uh, NO! I move data way faster than that over wired and wireless Ethernet on my HandEra 330. Note how fast data transfer is to/from SD cards on the various Palms that have it, way faster than 56k. At 56k it would take 10 seconds to load even a small database or application. Yes the CPU on the Palm is a limitation, but 56k is absolutely wrong.

Who is it that keeps posting this 56k/serial speed crap in every thread on this site that is discussing Bluetooth? I've seen it about at least three times in different threads on this site. Stop it. You do not know what you are talking about.

For what most people would like to use Bluetooth for with Palm OS machines (connecting to the Intra/Internet for light web browsing, email and some instant messaging) 1Mbit is probably overkill.

Swift

I've only had experience on the m505 - so for the Handera guy and the Handspring guy up there - hold your fire.

My 802.11b Xircom sled on my m505 connected to a Cisco Aironet 350 AP gives me ~30kbps (tested in my office).

My BT SDIO card on the same m505 connected to a PicoBlue Bluetooth LAN Access Point gives me ~40kbps (tested at PalmSource).

Methinks this says MORE about the implementations rather than the respective technologies. BOTH should be MUCH faster.

As for what processor speeds will do to these numbers - I will have results in a few days on PocketPC 2002's (iPAQs) with 802.11b vs Bluetooth.

BT in a meeting to distribute one set of meeting notes to the entire table at once would be great. But I'm really looking forward to connecting to my cell phone and ditching my Vx/Minstrel combo.

Mike
miknny@yahoo.com

Motorola 270c with bluetooth module, CDMA (Verizon)
Motorola 280i, coming this summer, GSM (Voicestream sells the 280, so I think they would carry the upgrade)
Ericsson T68i, coming this summer, GSM (ATT)

Anyone know of others?

Phones not mentioned so far are (these are available now): Ericsson T39m, Ericsson R520m (same as T39 but a lot bigger!), Ericsson T68 (identical to T68i, except it has the "old" Ericsson covers, not the new SonyEricsson ones).

I am pretty sure Nokia will make "copies" of their European phones for the US market.

Another phone that will be launched soon is the SonyEricsson P800 (a Symbian 7-based PDA/phone with built-in camera and JAVA).

What do you mean ? The 6310i and 8910 BOTH have BT built-in! The link to the Nokia web-site was only given to see the pictures.

Before you drool out BS, get your facts straight first!

Bluetooth at Teleadaptusa
http://www.teleadaptusa.com/nme/bluetooth101.htm

GSM Cellular Handsets that work in USA and Canada
http://www.mphone.co.uk/usa.htm

Ericsson T68 at UStronics
http://www.ustronics.com/bimborsrchtt3.html

AT&T Wireless Expands Portfolio of GSM(TM)/GPRS Phones
Sony Ericsson T68 Premieres Color Screen; Nokia 8390 Debuts With Color Covers
REDMOND, Wash., March 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Adding to its portfolio of GSM/GPRS devices, AT&T Wireless (NYSE: AWE - news) today introduced two new wireless phones in select markets across the country.

The Sony Ericsson T68 wireless phone is the first GSM/GPRS phone in the United States to feature a color screen and Bluetooth(TM) wireless technology. The tri-band phone works on 900, 1800 and 1900 megahertz GSM networks and, in the near future, will allow customers to use their wireless phone domestically or when traveling abroad. Additional features include joystick navigation, calendar/organizer functions and voice control. The Sony Ericsson T68 is priced at $199.99.

more
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/020305/nytu061_1.html

Bo Larsson, general manager of Sony Ericsson's North American operations, said that he expected ALL major carriers to begin offering new Sony Ericsson models this year. First out of the gate was AT&T Wireless, which on Monday said it would offer the T68 with Bluetooth local wireless capabilities.

from Sony, Ericsson Bet Fun Phones Spark Gains
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020307/tc_nm/tech_sonyericss on_usa_dc_1
Sony Ericsson unveils six phones (one with camera, 3 of them have built-in Bluetooth), two new Bluetooth™ handsfree solutions and more
http://www.sonyericsson.com/spg.jsp?page=C2_1&B=ie
http://biz.yahoo.com/fo/020307/0307tentech_1.html

I can connect to the internet using my laptop anywhere in my home, and reasonably far outside using 802.11b, and still have my superfast cable modem speed.

When a product comes out that will let me HotSync at a slower speed than a serial connection and at a limited range, I'm less than thrilled.

ohmygoditsdead@27sherwood.freeserve.co.uk

Setting the palm to dial "*99#" or "*99***1#" doesn't work. I'm not quite clear on why though, my Palm Vx was able to connect to GPRS via IR with the latter dialstring, but the M515 wont.

I'm really looking forward for the T60c's driver.

TIA