INTERACT FORUM
More => Old Versions => Media Center 11 (Development Ended) => Topic started by: JimH on March 02, 2003, 03:19:51 pm
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I've been playing with bluetooth this weekend. It's a "standard" that's been around for a few years and is more popular in Europe. It is a wireless connection, slower than 802.11anything, but it does a good job of allowing devices to "discover" each other.
This discovery idea has been around awhile. Sun announced something a couple years ago that was like java only for devices. Stop in a motel, turn on your PC, viola, you see the motel's fax machine, etc.
The speed of the connection is around 200-400Kbps, not fast, but plenty fast enough to synch a PDA with a PC or a .....gasp....mobile phone.
What I played with was a new Sony PDA and a Bluetooth USB adaptor from Belkin. There were some ugly setup problems, but after four hours of HE-double toothpicks, it works. I can synch the PDA with my laptop or my desktop in 20 or 30 seconds. And I know it will work with mobile phones because we tried it last week with Peter Sohal's (our Zen Master of Marketing) cell phone (an Erickson, I think). I beamed Peter a memo and his phone received it immediately.
Each connection can be protected, by encryption, and by password. When devices discover each other, they will ask to authenticate each other with a password.
It isn't sublime, but it is pretty good.
Also this week, Best Buy, CompUSA, and Micro Center all have the new 802.11g routers and PC Cards at about $150 and $100, respectively. 54Mbps, I think. And they support 802.11b, the older 11Mbps standard.
And I read somewhere that there is a documentary tonight on the Discover channel on the construction of the Great Pyramid in Egypt.
I wish I could afford cable.
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>> I wish I could afford cable.
what do you have your Tivo Hooked to?
Building the Great Pyramid
9:00-10:00 PM EST NR(Not Rated)
Myths surrounding the construction of the largest Pyramid.
(Direct TV)
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what do you have your Tivo Hooked to?
--> V
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I've been toying with the idea of getting the t68i bluetooth (along with plenty of other features) phone. The ability to have a wireless handsfree that gets discovered by the phone makes this technology very attractive. Also, certain software allows your computer to automatically sync its address book with your phone whenever it comes in range. I think that's pretty neat
I think that there is also a lot of potential for bluetooth technology in various aspects of the home such as media control (an idea that interfaces well with the goal of MC along with the many remote add-ons for it), home automation, etc.
Anyway, I came across this website (http://homepage.mac.com/jonassalling/Shareware/Clicker/index.html) for software that allows one to control programs on a mac with a bluetooth phone. Does anyone know of something like this for PCs?
This would be a nice alternative to setting up IR receivers in various places throughout the house allowing for music control regardless of my location.
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Yes, try christersson.org for PCControl, which probably works much of the same way. You can use an Ericsson phone to scroll webpages and so on. And there's a Bluetooth plugin for Girder that I have only started to dabble in. Basically I won't even have to turn on a remote to play/pause a DVD, I can use the volume up/volume down of my Ericsson T39i.
As for using it around your house you'd better have a very small house! It will probably get you a full 30 feet!8)
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I've been using Bluetooth for a while now - and have to admit its really good.
My PC's all have Bluetooth, as does my phone (currently a T68i but I have a P800 on order) and my headset.
When I come home and park on my drive my phone starts syncing with outlook on my PC before I've even opened the front door ;D
Mark.
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I thought about the P800, but found it too limiting compared to the two piece solution: T39i and a PocketPC with built in Bluetooth and Running Voice GSM as the interface. A lot more versatile! Right now I'm considering getting the Ipaq 5450 which has both Bluetooth and WLan built in. Very nice tool (read "toy")! 8)