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Bluetooth on Mac OS X
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Upon discovering the T68i, I clicked the Pair button to perform the pairing of the my computer and the T68i. You would need to supply a Passkey on the computer as well as on the T68i. This passkey is necessary in order to establish a connection.



Entering a passkey
Entering a passkey

Once pairing is completed, you need to specify a serial port to use so that it can communicate between the two devices. To do so, click the Serial Ports tab and click New...:

Locating a device for communication

Click on Select Device ... to further select the serial port to use for communication:

Select a serial port

Once the serial port is selected, I am now ready to "talk" to my T68i.

Using the Ericsson Client

There is a handy application on the Internet called the Ericsson Client (version 1.0.0) The Ericsson Client is an application for Mac OS X that allows you to transfer files to and from your Ericsson phone using a cable or a wireless Infrared or Bluetooth connection. Developed by Jonas Salling, Ericsson Client is a shareware and folks who find it useful and use it should preferably pay for it ($10).

Accordingly, Ericsson Client is capable of the following:

  • Make use of the PIM capabilities in your phone by importing contacts and calendar items from your favorite calendar/address application.
  • Make a backup of your phone's calendar or phone book.
  • Transfer cool images (.gif) and ring tones (iMelody/eMelody) to the phone.
  • Transfer themes (.thm) files to Ericsson T68i.

And so I went on to download and install the Ericsson Client. After installation, you need to select from the Preferences window the serial port to use; else it will not be able to find your phone.

Specifying the serial port to use in Ericsson Client

If everything went well, you should see the following:

Ericsson Client connected to the T68i

To test the capabilities of the Ericsson Client. I copied a few background images and a few themes (free.)

Some background images for the T68i

Copying the themes and images to the T68i is then a matter of dragging and dropping them onto the window:

Transfer files to the T68i by dragging and dropping onto the image

Besides uploading images and themes, you can also perform a backup of your phone's calendar or phone book.

Files Transfers Between Macs and Devices

Another utility that came with the Technology Preview is Bluetooth File Exchange. This utility allows Macs and devices equipped with Bluetooth devices to perform file transfers. To transfer files between devices, simply drag the file(s) that you want to transfer and drop it onto the icon, and a dialog box will let you discover and choose other Bluetooth-enabled devices. You can use this utility to transfer files between Macs and PDAs such as Palm and Pocket PCs. For example, you can send a business card from a Palm handheld to a Mac.

File transfer using the Bluetooth File Exchange

Final Thoughts

So far I have only described one particular use of Bluetooth--connecting to my Ericsson T68i. However, there are many other Bluetooth uses: for example, you can connect to the Internet using the T68i as a GPRS modem. Another use would be to print wirelessly to a Bluetooth-enabled printer. Or a Bluetooth-equipped digital camera that sends images to the computer as soon as they are taken. The list goes on and on. While Bluetooth will not replace your AirPort (due to its lower throughput of 1Mbps versus AirPort's 11Mbps), be prepared to see more devices that are Bluetooth-enabled in the future! But for now, I am just glad my PC USB Bluetooth adapter works!

Wei-Meng Lee (Microsoft MVP) http://weimenglee.blogspot.com is a technologist and founder of Developer Learning Solutions http://www.developerlearningsolutions.com, a technology company specializing in hands-on training on the latest Microsoft technologies.

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