Following my earlier column about
Bluetooth 2.0's EDR (Enhanced Data Rate), today I want to follow-up with the
explanation why I've initially changed back to Toshiba's Bluetooth stack. As
mentioned in my personal blog, my
Fujitsu Siemens Lifebook Tablet PC originally came with the Toshiba Bluetooth
stack preloaded but I faced serious problems getting the stack working with the
Windows Mobile Device Center. Therefore I've decided to switch to the Windows
Vista Bluetooth stack and everything was fine and I was using sync and PAN over
Bluetooth. Until I got my Samsung i600. Sync still worked fine but I never got
Bluetooth PAN working to use my i600 as my UMTS/HSDPA modem.
In fact, Vista even hasn't recognized it as a Bluetooth PAN compatible device
and when I did a search for PAN devices around me, the i600 never appeared in
the list of available devices:
All my other Windows Mobile 5.0 and 6 smartphones were recognized and worked
fine - all of them, except the i600.
Well, for some reasons - including the Bluetooth 2.0 EDR support - I decided to
try the Toshiba Bluetooth stack again which is - thanks to Windows Vista's
System Restore functionality - an easy task since you can turn back to the
previous configuration easily in case anything goes wrong.
So I've downloaded the latest Vista compatible driver from Toshiba's Bluetooth
page, uninstalled the previous Microsoft stack, installed the Toshiba stack,
rebooted the PC and tried to connect to my i600 via Bluetooth PAN. For my
surprise - the Toshiba stack found the i600 straight forward without any further
problems. I paired the Notebook with the i600, exchanged the PIN et voila - the
i600 was available as my UMTS/HSDPA modem:
Okay, that's too weird. The Windows Vista Bluetooth stack (and I tried it
with two different Windows Vista PCs in addition to made sure it's not a fault
of my Notebook) isn't finding a Windows Mobile device which runs the Microsoft
Bluetooth stack for Windows Mobile but a 3rd party Bluetooth stack from Toshiba
does? What's wrong here?
I have no clue if the Windows Vista Bluetooth stack is so weak or if anything
screwed up at the i600 - so I don't want to blame anybody but I'm a little bit
clueless.
Anyway, even if I definitely like the way nicer Microsoft Bluetooth stack
integration into the whole OS, it looks like I will continue now with the
Toshiba stack again. Not only because it's offering more useful Bluetooth
profiles, like A2DP/AVRC, but also because it allows me to use my Samsung i600
as my mobile HSDPA modem via Bluetooth -which is essential for me. Last but not
least I can confirm that the Toshiba stack is Bluetooth 2.0+EDR compliant,
something I cannot confirm from Microsoft's Bluetooth stack.
Maybe someone from Microsoft, Toshiba and/or Samsung is reading this and can
comment on the issue above? I have no clue why the one stack is working fine
while the other one even not recognizes the device. Too weird...
Cheers ~ Arne
