Add Bluetooth capability on the cheap
Written: Aug 20 '03 (Updated Aug 20 '03)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Cheap, compact, works well on Macs
Cons: Windows drivers clunky and unreliable
The Bottom Line: I would definitely recommend this for Mac users, but the Windows side is not very user-friendly or reliable
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| majid's Full Review: D-Link PersonalAir DBT-120 USB 1.1 Network Adapter |
Bluetooth is essentially wireless USB, with a short range of up to 10 meters (30 feet), although the Bluetooth consortium's attempts to position the technology as the end-all of wireless have merely succeeded in confusing the market as to its benefits and leading many to conclude (incorrectly, I believe) that it is in direct competition with IEEE 802.11 (WiFi) and an also-ran. Bluetooth has much lower energy consumption and is optimized for devices with low power requirements like cell phones and wireless headsets.
Since Bluetooth is still very rarely included in computers, you have to add an adapter. I have two of these dongles, onde for my Windows 2000 laptop at work, one for my iMac G4 at home. I use them mostly to synchronize my Sony Ericsson T68i with Outlook and iSync, although I have used it to hotsync my Palm Tungsten T just for the heck of it.
This model is one of the few supported by Mac OS X, and very well integrated. All I had to do was plug it in and start the Bluetooth utilities to pair with my phone. iSync worked well.
The Windows driver software supplied emulates a serial port for the Bluetooth connections. It seems to support other modes of communication, but I have never been able to use them. Unfortunately, my T68i has a tendency to lose its pairings, which never happened with the Mac or the Palm Tungsten T. When syncing Outlook with the T68i's phone book (an excruciatingly slow process), the connection will drop every 60 contacts or so, which is of course very annoying.
The problem is not with the hardware but with the Bluetooth middleware. You might have better luck with XP, but I doubt it. I also had to map devices to serial ports explicitly, which is a major pain in the neck, specially as it has to be redone whenever the device leaves range and is reconnected. The whole user interface is very clunky, sort of like USB circa 1997, and will probably improve only when Bluetooth gets natively supported by Windows. I suspect most other Bluetooth adapters use Windows middleware from the same company, and thus have the same problems.
The range is very good, I had to go over 20m (60 ft) from my desk to break the connection between my Tungsten T and my laptop. I haven't measured the impact on battery life, I suspect it will be very low.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
majid
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Member: Fazal Majid
Location: San Francisco
Reviews written: 53
Trusted by: 5 members
About Me:
I'm the CTO of an Internet startup
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