This may be off topic but here goes...I was thinking about getting a blue tooth palm to use in my tl...(preferably with phone)---I know that you can hack certain phones to be able to use the internet...can you do the same with a palm that has wireless capabilites or do you always have to pay fro the service...just wondering...there seems to be a lot of technical people here..

 

Why don't you just get a Blackberry? The one I have has unlimited web browsing and email capacity.

 

Bluetooth in and of itself is just a wireless short (life 10ft) connection to another blue tooth device. So the TL can communicate wirelessly to another device, such as a phone.

Your Palm Bluetooth can connect to the Internet but it needs to have an ISP connection that also has a Bluetooth transmitter, such as they have in Starbucks.

 

Be careful, you need a Bluetooth phone that has Hands Free Profile on it. Currently non of the PDA/Pocket PC/Smart phone combos have the Hands Free Profile. If you go to the Acura web site they list the phones that should work with the Hands Free Link system. http://www.acura.com/models/model_co...asp?module=tl#

 

30ft

 

And most of the time a lot more than that. I've seen it work up to three times that distance.

 

Depends on the Power Class of the Bluetooth Chip, anywhere from 30 ft to 300 ft max currently.

 

I dont actually have the bluetooth palm yet..but I was considering buying one --I am wondering if it can be rigged up to get free internet. You can do this with LG verizon phones(and I am sure others)...If it can I may have to get one...after that I will see how I can hook it into the TL...maybe using the bluetooth on the tl with VOIP...

 

I'm assuming that you want to connect the internet to your navi screen. I think the bigger obstacle than getting internet to your PDA would be getting your PDA to the screen. I guess there may be some adapter out there to accomplish this or maybe bluetooth. Whichever way you go, it would be an interesting first step to get your PDA on the screen.

 

Wow, better hope that our phone conversations are encrypted, 300 ft is better than my 802.11G

 

I dont have the tl in dash navi..
I am considering getting a palm--putting navigational software on it..and using it to surf the internet if possible(an added bonus)...I am curious if there is a way to mess with the WAN settings on a plam to get the internet for free...

 

there are a couple of ways

1) if you got wifi at home you can access the internet within its range
2) scan for wifi signals. you'd be surprise as to how many people either don't protect their wireless network or have default settings. my gf used to live in this apartment complex and she was about to get dsl for her place. i pulled out my iPaq 5555 and scanned for any networks and bam 3 showed up. 2 were unprotected so i got her a wifi card for her laptop and bingo free internet

other than that you can go through sprint and get one of their pda phones but the cost for the internet i believe is $40 and you get connection where ever there is service. also look into omnisky. they do unlimited internet access for mobile devices. they're about $30-40 last i check. there's really no way to use the TL to connect the internet since it does not have a device to connect to an isp. now i've heard some cars have wifi capabilities with 802.11x (don't know if it's a, b, or g) and those have a much better chance of this upgrade.

 

Well I'm not talking in general, but specific for the TL. The TL is 30ft max according to acura.

 

That's not quite true. I have an o2 XDA II which supports the Handfree Profile.

http://www.myxda.com/XdaII/personal/...aIIPersonal.vm


BTW, the XDA II is a Pocket PC 2003 phone.

 

How do you have this? The websitte doesnt say its availabel in the usa...

 

http://www.expansys-usa.com/product.asp?code=106055

You can find it at other places including ebay.

 

Well, have you ever paired to a Hands Free Device that does not have Headset profile? If so, I would love to know what it was. Anyway, I've researched this in the past and I did again today (because of your comment). I wanted to make sure the status of the XDA and others had not changed (from Headset profile only vs. having Hands Free Profile now), rumors say it will happen. Anyway, below is the link from the O2 site from the FAQ with the quote also below. I also found in another section were they mention what Bluetooth profile are avialible and they do not mention Hands Free Profile but they do mention Head set prifile. If you have something to prove me wrong I would love to hear about it. We need some upper end devices with Hands Free Profile.

http://www.myxda.com/XdaII/personal/...id=33&id=1#cat

1 Can I put my bluetooth headset to handsfree ?
The Xda II supports bluetooth headset but not hands free. This means you cannot voice activate commands hands free with your bluetooth headset, even if the headset supports hands free. The Xda II does not support hands free bluetooth profile.

 

There appears to be free software for XDA II that enables hands-free profile:

http://www.angeltowns.com/town/bluetooth/

I would be curious if anyone has tried it with the TL.

 

Actually, the latest release of Bluetooth will do an astonishing 33 feet. This exceeds the previous standard by a full 10%.

 

SilverJ, regarding your wants for Internet over Bluetooth: I think you'll end up being disappointed or frustrated or both. Basically, BT really isn't wide enough or prevailent enough to act as a reliable path to the Internet. Not only that, but the 30ft you can expect from BT isn't a sharp line, its pretty blurry. So the quality (and therefore speed) of your signal will degrade pretty sharply the further from the source you go. Additionally, the software in the TL is only designed for phone connectivity in a certain specification (Hands Free Link). For Internet connectivity, you are far better looking for a device that supports 802.11b (or g if available).

Concerning the use of a Pocket PC or Smartphone in our cars, the setup is up to the provider of the phone during the design stage. So as AfroCreame mentioned here, the O2 device could have this capability. (I have not tried since I no longer have any of those devices.) So Microsoft releases the OS with basic BlueTooth drivers built in. Device Manufactuers (think Taiwan) then built the actual hardware. Including BT radios. They are then responsible for writing the actual driver for their hardware, and those driver specs are typically provided to them by the OEM (HP, Dell, O2, AT&T, etc.) based on what kind of market they want to appeal to. SO, I don't believe anything sold in the US at this point supports Hands Free Link in BT, however O2 could have specified that as a requirement and their manufacturer would then built the driver to do so. Thats not surprising since O2 overall is very aggressive with higher technology like this.

Sorry for the book, this is my "field" and I saw a place to hopefully clear the air.

 

Be careful with the Blackberry. E-mail is very strong but its standard web browsing ability is very weak with some carriers such as Verizon.

 

im sorry i didnt read alot of this post but if you get Tmobile and a bluetooth fone it comes with unlimited Tzones. with the tzones you can conect from your palm or laptop to the internet for free... now just to let you know only port 80 and a few others are open, but thats the only way i can see free internet being done. I have heard that verizon has free internet. I have it on my tungsten T and it works great. now if you get the VPN unlimited plan for 20 a month you get everyport open and its pretty cool to be in the passenger seat in the car and VNC'ing to the server at home...

 

Something I would Love to see in the future is the ability to use the GPS via Bluetooth. As in, laptop with BT adapter, connected to the Navi's GPS.

Or even better would be a way to use BT on your home PC/laptop to download, edit, and re-upload your Car's Address book.

Any bets on how long these features will take?

PS: Any good threads/links on jacking into the Navi Screen? I havent even looked yet.

 

I noticed most people talk silly things on their phones, not worth encryption... many times.

For safety you should use a land-line when talking more confidencial stuff, not that it cannot be tapped, but it's a lot safer...

2c