Regular Operation Gadget readers know that I recently picked up a Nokia 6600 to do a long term evaluation. One of the things I discovered after receiving the 6600 is that it syncs to a PC like other smartphones, but it does it without wires. You need to use infa-red or Bluetooth in order to make a connection.
I decided I wanted to try to use Bluetooth to sync the 6600. This was a bit of an arbitrary decision because I have never worked with Bluetooth and I am familiar with IRDA from my work with my Treo 180 and Polar S-Series heart monitors. The biggest problem I anticipated was the fact that none of my Windows PCs have Bluetooth support built in.
Belkin has two Bluetooth USB Adapters with similar features at different price points. The less expensive of the two, the
Belkin F8T003 Bluetooth USB Adapter, is the one you would want to connect with a Nokia 6600. The main difference between the F8T003 and the more expensive unit, the
Belkin F8T001 Bluetooth USB Adapter, is that the F8T003 only supports 10 meter (33 foot) connections while the F8T001 supports connections from up to 100 meters (330 feet) away.
The reason you don’t need the F8T001 is that the Nokia 6600 user manual says that the maximum connection range is 10 meters.
Before you buy a Bluetooth adapter for your PC, make sure that you know what connection profiles your Bluetooth phone needs. The Nokia 6600 supports:
- Dial-up networking profile (DUN) as a gateway,
- Fax profile (FAX) as a gateway,
- Object push profile (OPP) as a client and server,
- File transfer profile (FTP) as a server,
- Hands-free profile (HFP) as an audio gateway,
- Generic object exchange profile (GOEP),
- Generic access profile (GAP), and
- Serial port profile (SPP) with the PC connectivity software.
The product information on Belkin’s web site lists supported profiles for each Bluetooth USB adapter. The F8T003 Bluetooth USB Adapter product information indicates that it matches up with the Nokia 6600 on the DUN, FAX, FTP, OPP, and SPP profiles. As a general rule, don’t buy a Bluetooth adapter without knowing whether it is compatible with your Bluetooth device’s supported connection profiles.
I need to pick up a Bluetooth USB adapter in order to continue my Nokia 6600 testing. The Belkin F8T003 supports the operating system that I’m using on my PC. Once I get it, I’ll be sure to tell more about how well it works.