Friday, March 15, 2002
BlueTooth - AAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!
Posted by Ed Hansberry in "THOUGHT" @ 02:37 PM
I have been hearing about how BlueTooth is going to revolutionize our lives for quite some time now, and finally we have products. Well, I have been spending the last hour configuring, tweaking, rebooting, resetting and generally mumbling trying to get ActiveSync with my 3875 iPAQ and Anycom BlueTooth card with XP Pro working - and yes - I have the new Anycom drivers. I just downloaded them, never actually bothering to load the ones from the CD. The best I've done so far is to get my iPAQ to start the ActiveSync process and the orange light on the Anycom BlueTooth to blink for a few seconds, but ActiveSync on the desktop never formally starts the connection process, and this despite following the simple 1.5 page "ActiveSync for iPAQ 3870" directions that came with the card.
It isn't just this though. I spent 30 minutes with Dale Coffing last week trying to transfer a file from my iPAQ to his - both 3870 iPAQ's. After half an hour, we gave up. We actually got the process started, but the signal kept dropping. The distance? He was in the front seat of the taxi, I was in the back!
I guess I'll bang on it for another few hrs and if all else fails, email Anycom on Monday. Anyone else having some realworld seamless scenarios working with BlueTooth?
UPDATE! Well, I gave up and took the kids to the park. Came back, ejected the card, rebooted, reinserted, configured it up for the eleventeenth time, rebooted again (required) and it worked. Yahoo! I still question the technology. I think 802.11 will ulitimately replace BlueTooth, but I hope in the mean time, the configuration software becomes much more user friendly. I guess like all new technologies, you have to put up with the teething pains.
It isn't just this though. I spent 30 minutes with Dale Coffing last week trying to transfer a file from my iPAQ to his - both 3870 iPAQ's. After half an hour, we gave up. We actually got the process started, but the signal kept dropping. The distance? He was in the front seat of the taxi, I was in the back!
I guess I'll bang on it for another few hrs and if all else fails, email Anycom on Monday. Anyone else having some realworld seamless scenarios working with BlueTooth?
UPDATE! Well, I gave up and took the kids to the park. Came back, ejected the card, rebooted, reinserted, configured it up for the eleventeenth time, rebooted again (required) and it worked. Yahoo! I still question the technology. I think 802.11 will ulitimately replace BlueTooth, but I hope in the mean time, the configuration software becomes much more user friendly. I guess like all new technologies, you have to put up with the teething pains.
