7100t and Bluetooth
 

Well it's official. On our internal site, training materials for the 7100t indicate that the bluetooth will only support handsfree and headset profiles. I wonder if that will be an option in future software releases....

Posted from a mobile

Re: 7100t and Bluetooth
 

You're wondering if what will be an option? Bluetooth devices other than headsets for use with Blackberry?

Yeah, I wonder how hard it would be to for them to add code to support bluetooth keyboards.

Not terribly I imagine, it just has to be done. It is, however, above my level of programming knowledge...

Yeah, I suspect bfrye is correct -- not terribly hard, just has to be done. Problem is that I suspect it will not be a very high priority, and will NOT be done. At least not for a while. I wish it was, but I am not going to hold my breath (I'm too busy holding my breath for the 7100t, the official release of 4.0, and world peace -- I've been told that one is right around the corner, just as soon as that whole middle east thing can get cleared up...)

If I had to hold my breath for that, might as well change my name to Papa Smurf...

:) Haven't heard that one before!

I will PM Guess to have your handle changed to Papa Smurf. Best laugh I had all day :D :D :D

;)

No it's not hard. It's a matter of having the proper Bluetooth profiles. All they've got included with their Bluetooth profiles is the Headset profile and the Handsfree profile. There are a ton of bluetooth profiles, and they allow for all sorts of things like data transmissions which is why RIM's not including them with their Bluetooth. It's supposed to be to prevent unauthorized access to BBs through Bluetooth. I think that's horrible. It should be turned off by default, but able to be enabled. I want my computer and BB talking to each other.

Agree completely! And security issues have been addressed in Bluetooth in many other situations, so they could be addressed here too. In any case, as with so many of the features that could be EASILY included on the device -- give us the choice! Let us muck it up if we want too. And let BES admins have the ability to turn it off if it bothers corporate policy.

While they can and probably will be addressed, don't you think it makes a lot more sense for them to only include the things that they have fully tested and support in their initial release of bluetooth capable hardware?

By not rushing to include things that haven't been tested properly, they avoid potential delays in shipping, they don't risk any security issues and they have a ready supply of new features that they can give their users for free at a later date.

That is a more philosophical question. I am a big fan of "get it right" but I am also a big fan of "get it now". The two or often in conflict. It is the reason I am a huge fan of Beta releases. I get to handle the "now" fix, and I have to accept the "it aint right yet" risk. Not sure how that could best be addressed in this situation -- perhaps offer a beta patch to anyone that wants it, but explain that it comes with no support? I dunno...

Even if it was a stated to be a beta and unsupported they would still get the flak if it killed somebody's device or turned out to be a security risk somehow, its clearly not something that is worth them doing since theres no benefits to them and plenty of potential drawbacks.

Personally, I wouldn't expect us to see them add anything new to bluetooth before the release after 4.0, 4.1 or whatever since their developers would actually be kind of busy before then with that whole making 4.0 work thing. ;)

LOL -- good point. I'm still dying to get my hands on one of these!

The REAL question is whether the Bluetooth stack is part of the radio circuitry OR if it's just a small add-on that taps the audio off the circuitry. In the last case it would mean that nothing is possible with it AT ALL, in the other case a rewrite of the BT stack would be sufficient...

We'll just have to open one up as soon as we see them :D

My postulation is simply that it's easy to ship a Bluetooth device that connects with more than just a headset, now as far as security concerns go, I think they'd be better off shipping the device WITH that fucntionality, however leave it off by default. Give the user the OPTION of being able to wirelessly sync with their computer would be nice. Corporate users could keep it locked off, prosumers and the like could use it fully while RIM sorts out fully securing the BT

Postulation, that sounds so much more impressive than unfounded guess now doesn't it. :wink:

So basically, you'd like them to spend a significant time ensuring that a feature worked when their core customers could not trust it enough to use it and rim would still be liable for any fallout from security flaws in that feature. You are also overlooking the fact that they were clearly working to a very strict deadline in order to get this product released and approved in order for it to be available before christmas.

Also, for a product to use the bluetooth logo it has to be certified by an independent body, so any issues found in these extra bluetooth options would also delay certification for the core bt functionality and could have delayed shipping.

Looks like the new 7100 will have an embedded wireless modem in it.

Posted from a mobile device

Has anyone heard about any manufacturers of wireless headets that will fit the 7100t?

What the price point will be and when those are expected out as well?