Re: [NTLK] BlueTooth / blunt capabilities

From: DJ Vollkasko (DJ_Vollkasko_at_gmx.net)
Date: Tue Aug 02 2005 - 00:35:55 PDT


Subject: Re: [NTLK] BlueTooth / blunt capabilities
From: Martin Joseph <martyNT () barknaturalpet ! com>
Date: 2005-08-01 5:18:15

> On Jul 31, 2005, at 10:35 AM, Marco Mailand wrote:
>
>> How is the state of that often mentioned blunt pkgs for the Newton?
>> Are they reliable?
>
> Yes they are reliable and work quite nicely. I have the Ambicom
> compact flash card (purple antenna) and a CF adapter.

Worky great with the BT Class II Pico Cards, too; cheap on German eBay.
And they have a nice transparent green antenna casing and green
flashing LED inside that case. The whole thing just shouts "Made for
Newton(TM)"! (I wish they had a Class I version, though... But they
have a parallel/serial BT-dongle that Adriano has toyed with on
Newton's IC port
http://tools.unna.org/wikiwikinewt/index.php/SerialToBluetooth)

>> Do they follow any standard, maybe even that one of
>> M$/Outlook?
>
> That's not a standard.

I beg to differ -- it is actually. If only substandard, but still,
that's also a standard... ;=]
I'd place nearly any bet on the fact that Blunt will work with anything
Nokia does, at least as long as Blunt is maintained by Eckhart. ;=}

Any way, you can create a group vcf-card from your desktop's address
book and BT it over to the Newt and put them away to Names via IC/VC.
Works great from what I hear of others, but still no joy for me
(Eckhart, any pointers for me?). BTing all Names as group vcf *off* the
Newton to the BT-download directory on your desktop works great though.

>> How do I bring the Newton to talk via BlueTooth? Are there
>> PCMCIA or CF (non-card bus) Bluetooth cards out?
>
> I would look over at www.40hz.org for a list of cards that Eckhart
> has working...

I would also look at
http://tools.unna.org/wikiwikinewt/index.php/UsingBluetoothIndex ,
where many helpers have kindly linked helpful ressources (e.g.
http://tools.unna.org/wikiwikinewt/index.php/BluetoothCards and several
guides to set up stuff on either Newton, desktop or phone). Any
confirmations, comments and additions there much encouraged! (Do the
Wiki, everybody, do the Wiki! Let's do the Mashed Potato, and let's do
the Twist, but let's also do the Wiki! ;=} )

> As far as how it works, I can't comment too much for windows. On the
> Mac I can send files back and forth as well as installing packages
> (Also need IC/VC). I can also send vcard to the phone from the newton
> and vice-versa.

You can browse the web via desktop or mobile phone, and some people
have (limited) joy with VNC (I'd love to read a *really* detailed
VNC-setup step-by-step walkthrough on the Wiki... Any takers?).
    The speed bottleneck at the moment is the Blunt code, which is
brilliant, stable and everything, but not extremely fast. We all await
eagerly for the E-Man to finish Blunt II (see
http://www.40hz.org/mottek, the project currently moves ahead again,
hooray!) which will bring an improvement there. And maybe also some
bonny new features, like multi-connectionivitytation with like more
than one device and on request from that device (as opposed to the
current manual mode of triggering via InOut Box/Receive/BtObex).

> I am unaware of any "syncing" setup that works via bluetooth currently.

I have discussed this to some extend with Eckhart and the swinging Mr.
Nowhereman (who took over the project from the original developer John
A. of Everchanging.com) some time last year.
   At least Mac-to-Newton should be a cinch to implement for a
developer, if I understand Eckhart correctly. All it needs is a thing
on the desktop that redirects NewtSync's (http://newtsync.com/)
requests to a virtual serial port to actually pass through Bluetooth,
and Eckhart can help with pointers there. Mr. Nowhereman has since
obtained a BT-card (http://feeds.feedburner.com/nSync), but fixing
stuff in NewtSync broken by
AddressBook- and iCal-updates seems to have sucked up all available
ressources since then. ;=/
    It would be really precious to have BT-synching at least as soon as
Blunt II is ready. Well, one can always hope, and maybe if some of you
give
support and encouragement to NewtSync and Blunt II you, too, can help
it make happen.

If I could make one birthday wish today, it would be BT-synching of
NewtSync.

> Also Sony/Ericsson phones have had an issue with GPRS internet access,
> that has been a problem for Newton. In other words, I have setup both
> the t68i and a t610 to get internet access from the the GPRS
> connection, but in both cases these connections were frequently
> dropped (especially in Mail V) do to an "echo packets" issue.

There's something on setting up a GPRS phone with BT on the Wiki, don't
know who wrote that, though, and what phone it (doesn't) work with.
Maybe you could look that page up and start a compatibility list at
it's bottom?

> From the mac you can disable the echo packets and the phones then work
> great for access... Too bad I can't do the same from newton, as this
> would be a killer portable setup.

Have you asked Eckhart if its possible to implement that in his code?
If it improves the experience so much, it sounds like an excellent idea
to me. But what do I know.

> Bluetooth is very easy on the
> batteries also, unlike WIFI.

Indeed, plus (currently much of a theoretical thing) much more
versatile, as it doesn't only define a medium (such as Wifi, which is
Ethernet w/o
wiring), but also services. Faster BT on the Newton could bring a lot
of new tricks to an old dog... Dream mode on: Practical VNC-usage,
BT-keyboard and mouse, BT-GPS... Oh, and I've just read that there are
now consumer electronics/computer peripherals starting to use BT-aware
cellphones as remote controls... THAT is something the Newton should be
able to do nicely, too, and with much less probs than the IR-remote
with its zillion (sub)standards and codes.

DJV.

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