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Palm Bluetooth SDIO Card Available

Posted by michael on from the sufficiently-advanced-technology dept.

boredadmin writes "It looks like Palm have finally released (a few weeks ago) their Bluetooth SDIO card to allow SD-Slot equipped Palms communicate with cellphones, PC's, access-points, etc. Now if only I could find somewhere in this sad little corner of the world that I'm stuck in that actually stocks them."

20 of 82 comments (clear)

  1. Where are you? by Paul+Bristow · · Score: 4, Informative

    Try http://www.expansys.com ,who seem to have them in stock in the UK and will ship everywhere.

    --
    - Paul
  2. Where to buy... by gmanske · · Score: 2, Informative

    Here with a link to sales info outside the US here.

  3. next.... by nostromo_42 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    they need to start working on wireless recharging. has anyone seen a palm accessory that recharges the battery from kinetic energy of being carried around, like those watches? would this be feasible?

    1. Re:next.... by Hadlock · · Score: 2

      my electric shaver, which is touted as 100% waterproof, has a "wireless" charging feature :) - what it does (to the best of my knoweldge) is the "base" modulates an electromagnetic field of some sort, which pushes a small piece of iron (or the likes) up and down, and somehow creating an electric charge from that, and charges the battery. of course, the charger and shaver have to be w/in 2 or 3 mm, but it's been doing the trick for about 3 years now. it's a panasonic, i think. standard feature. my friend looked into doing a "wireless power" for a science fair experiment - turns out the amount of radiation it would cause (he was thinking tesla-coil archs between components) would kill the user of either a) radiation poisioning in a week, or b) kill the user of radiation through cancer in a year or so. not exactly healthy.

      kinetic recharge would be interesting. very doable, except that people are particularly gentle with PDA's, and are "worn" in the shirt pocket, or belt, which don't go "upside down" very often, if ever, unlike the wrist.

      what i'd like to see is a hack job of a 3.0 v solar panel from radio shack (~$3) and letting it run off that. I don't know if it has enough amperage, though.

      --
      moox. for a new generation.
    2. Re:next.... by Lumpy · · Score: 3, Informative

      wireless recharging has been around for at least 30 years.
      I had a electric toothbrush that used a field coil (example: take a transformer and cut it in half put 1/2 in the device the other 1/2 in the base. when they are close enough the circuit is coupled.) and you had to only set it near the base in any position.

      I was working on making my webpad recaharge in the same way except for that it only needed to be placed on one certian end table in the living room. The problem I had with that was you had to be sure NOT to leave metal objects (or floppy discs) on that table. as they would heat up.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    3. Re:next.... by radish · · Score: 2


      The word you're looking for is "induction". Two coils, one in each part, no moving bits of metal. An AC current in the base station's coil induces a current in the other coil, by adjusting the ratio of winds in each coil you can also get a step up or step down effect. Works well, but high currents are hard and the coils have to be very close. Good for toothbrushes, not so great for PDSs (mine draws 3A when charging!).

      --

      ---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"

  4. Bluetooth by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    For when the people you chat with are sitting 6 feet away.®

  5. of course by Hadlock · · Score: 3, Informative

    heaven forbid that you're an existing palm user, with, say, a m100, or a IIIex (the cheap model), that were the last models to come out before the SDIO slot was standard. i guess this is the "killer hardware" to get people to upgrade. I'd still like to see a bluetooth "chip" that i can plug into the serial port of my m100.

    there's a serial -> USB adaptor.... i'm sure that + a bluetooth card from Apple + lots of time and effort = a usable solution. of course; it won't work with any of palm's new spiffy bluetooth apps, such as "bluechat" (aim over bluetooth, essentially), and blueboard (networked "whiteboard" app)

    personally what i'd like to see is a USB bluetooth adaptor like apple's d-link one, that has the driver software on it (linux, mac, windows) on 64k of flash memory, + java aim/jabber chat, lynx web browser, and dhcp built in. plug it into your ipaq, laptop, or school computer.

    --
    moox. for a new generation.
  6. Re:What's the point of Blue tooth? by Emil+Brink · · Score: 2

    d) bluetooth is i think 7 megabits, which is faster than serial/paralell's 116500 bps
    Bzzzt. I'm too lazy to actually download the specs right now, but from prior reading I'm fairly confident in saying that the theoretical max bandwidth is more like one megabit per second. In practice I think it maxes out around 720 kbps, which should still be able to at least beat the serial port, so at least you're correct in that respect. Just wanted to point this out.

    --
    main(O){10<putchar(4^--O?77-(15&5128 >>4*O):10)&&main(2+O);}
  7. Finally, bluetooth is starting to take shape by Vegeta99 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    and there are some cool applications. For instance, Nokia is planning a Bluetooth headset piece so there will be no wires connecting cell phone to headset. I can't wait to see that in action.

    1. Re:Finally, bluetooth is starting to take shape by IronChef · · Score: 2


      ATT wireless offers the teeny Ericsson, the one with the color screen... T68? It's got bluetooth for sure and it's GSM. I recently shopped cell phones so I saw all this stuff. Head to an ATT Wireless shop.

      (of course, ATT's GSM phones won't work outside the US, which stinks... at least, that's what they told me when I asked.)

  8. Re:What's the point of Blue tooth? by Bud · · Score: 2
    Bluetooth is also a channel-hog; it uses a _lot_ of the available channels in the 2.4GHz spectrum, and jumps around between them like nothing else. Good luck trying to run bluetooth and 802.11b in the same room.

    If you were speaking out of your own experience, you would know that BT and WLAN can coexist fairly peacefully. The BT protocol is more robust compared to WLAN, but WLAN uses 10 times more power.

    The only thing to watch out for is heavy BT traffic close to a WLAN base station, but that's about it.

    --Bud

  9. Re: Ericsson had had a BT handsfree for a while no by @madeus · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Ericsson have had a BlueTooth hands free for months (maybe even a year now).

    They have 3 different models, the first one had technical probs, there is a new one which looks identical but fixes the bugs :)

    There is a third one which looks like a set of stereo headphones, but it attaches to a battery back around your waist (so you may as well just get a normal hands free and stick your phone in your pocket). This one is lame :)

    My boss has one of the new, good kind (and I will two just as soon as my flat mate and my tenant both pay me the rent the are owe :). Steep at 150 UKP though!

  10. Way too expensive by znu · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Does anyone else think that $129 is an absurd price for this? I thought the entire idea of Bluetooth was that it was going to be so cheap it could just be integrated into everything. Looks like we're still going to have to wait a while for that.

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    This space unintentionally left unblank.
  11. Works wonderfully on Mac OS X by d0n+quix0te · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Just download the Bluetooth software from Apple and viola! Palm Desktop will automagically sync with your Palm!

    Apple's done a wonderful job with their software, I even got it to pair with my SonyEricsson! No third party drivers required! Cool stuff...

    1. Re:Works wonderfully on Mac OS X by pacc · · Score: 2

      I don't know the state of the standard for hotsynching, but I guess the subject is complex enough to be left out of what's Bluetooth.

      If it's emulating a serial link that's one thing since there is already an application synching to palm on the mac - but to get two "stupid" bluetooth devices to work together based on standards would be in a different league.
      But that's what Bluetooth is aiming for.

    2. Re:Works wonderfully on Mac OS X by British · · Score: 2

      Imagine if USB wasn't allowed to market until after the first few years during which its initial bugs were worked out...

      I think it was called the serial port.

  12. Re: Ericsson had had a BT handsfree for a while no by radish · · Score: 2


    For you IMDB buffs, the ericsson model was of course featured in the Tomb Raider movie.

    --

    ---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"

  13. Does this look fragile to anyone else? by Phil+Wherry · · Score: 2

    Is it just me, or does this card look fragile? It sure looks like the antenna will protrude beyond the edge of the device. Given how thin MMC/SD/SDIO cards are, this might afford the user considerable opportunity to damage the card and/or device it's installed in. I haven't seen the cards myself, so it's certainly possible that I'm simply incorrect--but it's worth checking out before spending the $130, I imagine...

    Phil

  14. Re: Ericsson had had a BT handsfree for a while no by Kris_J · · Score: 2
    I bought the limited edition Bluetooth kit for my Ericsson T28 about a year ago. It's nice except that it's too easy to knock the butt-plug off the end of the phone if you just, say, toss it in a jeans pocket. I've had to take an old glasses case and cut a hole for the antenna.

    It works well, but it's a lot to carry around compared to any given small mobile phone -- and keeping two devices charged just to use my mobile phone (which can go for days without being used) is a little on the annoying side. I'm sure if I used my mobile more I'd also use the handsfree kit. Also, winter is just about to arrive so I'll be waering a jacket with more carrying capacity.

    It's a shame that I can't use it with my corded MP3 handsfree kit. And it's also a shame that there hasn't been a Bluetooth solution for my TRGpro released yet. At least, not last time I checked.