Bluetooth - What Good is It?

mfterka · Oct 30, 2011

Seems like the i4S bluetooth is just as crippled as before. With my ancient Sanyo dumbphone I used to be able to send files/pics using bluetooth to my laptop. That ended when I got my first iPhone and seems to have continued with the 4S.

Hopefully you can at least hook up a bluetooth handsfree headset but that seems to be all thats available.

How come Apple restricted bluetooth in such a fashion? Do the 'Droids do this as well?

crowd pleaser · Oct 30, 2011

mfterka said:
Seems like the i4S bluetooth is just as crippled as before. With my ancient Sanyo dumbphone I used to be able to send files/pics using bluetooth to my laptop. That ended when I got my first iPhone and seems to have continued with the 4S.

Hopefully you can at least hook up a bluetooth handsfree headset but that seems to be all thats available.

How come Apple restricted bluetooth in such a fashion? Do the 'Droids do this as well?

Think other platforms are less stringent, Apple try to make it hard to reverse engineer or fiddle with their devices, note there is no memory slot on the pod, pad or phones.

Pinkpoison · Oct 30, 2011

mfterka said:
Seems like the i4S bluetooth is just as crippled as before. With my ancient Sanyo dumbphone I used to be able to send files/pics using bluetooth to my laptop. That ended when I got my first iPhone and seems to have continued with the 4S.

Hopefully you can at least hook up a bluetooth handsfree headset but that seems to be all thats available.

How come Apple restricted bluetooth in such a fashion? Do the 'Droids do this as well?

Ah you just hit the nail on the head,i tried to connect my 4s to my mbp today for the first time and they paired but wouldnt connect,tried it with ipad2 and nothing,wouldnt connect to my husbands sony ericcson either so i phoned apple and was told theyr not meant to work together with bluetooth,so why put bt on in the first place?cant understand it.

crowd pleaser · Oct 30, 2011

Apple devices work with most headsets, car radios with BT, some external BT satnav dongles.

They just won't transfer data, one reason is to prevent piracy being to easy between devices.

thewitt · Oct 30, 2011

Bluetooth works fine for transferring data between two iDevices running the same transfer program

mfterka · Oct 30, 2011

thewitt said:
Bluetooth works fine for transferring data between two iDevices running the same transfer program

Ah! Thats the key! Only between iDevices.

ipadnuby · Oct 30, 2011

mfterka said:
Seems like the i4S bluetooth is just as crippled as before. With my ancient Sanyo dumbphone I used to be able to send files/pics using bluetooth to my laptop. That ended when I got my first iPhone and seems to have continued with the 4S.Hopefully you can at least hook up a bluetooth handsfree headset but that seems to be all thats available.How come Apple restricted bluetooth in such a fashion? Do the 'Droids do this as well?

Not sure what would make you think they had changed this in the 4s, since you already previously had an iPhone. Lol

crowd pleaser · Oct 31, 2011

thewitt said:
Bluetooth works fine for transferring data between two iDevices running the same transfer program

Agreed, i was meaning to between Apple and other make devices. i think this restriction is more about Apple's traditional snobbery lol!

Pinkpoison · Oct 31, 2011

thewitt said:
Bluetooth works fine for transferring data between two iDevices running the same transfer program

well my 4s didn't even recognise my ipad2,wouldn't pair let alone connect.

kdhpga · Oct 31, 2011

My 4s will not work (intermittent at best) with bluetooth stereo unit no matter how close in proximity. My droidx worked perfectly. Annoying!!

crowd pleaser · Oct 31, 2011

kdhpga said:
My 4s will not work (intermittent at best) with bluetooth stereo unit no matter how close in proximity. My droidx worked perfectly. Annoying!!

I'm guessing either an app is playing up (try reset by holding both the front springboard and top button and swiping off, or you have a fault with the handset.

mikedeanellis · Nov 11, 2011

I have 1400 songs that play perfectly in my car pairing automatically with my blackberry stereo gateway. I get in my car I tell Siri to play music and it just comes out of the car stereo. This is why we have Bluetooth.

jpcamaro70 · Nov 12, 2011

All iphones work well with BT in most cars including contact transfer. They cannot transmit text via BT to the new cars that allow Blackberry or Sony. I'm using my iphone with BT for phone, and it allows hook up for audio with Pandora and Turn by turn nav.

thewitt · Nov 12, 2011

Poisonivy said:
well my 4s didn't even recognise my ipad2,wouldn't pair let alone connect.

You need to be running software on both devices that will talk to each other. The devices will not pair simply because you turn the Bluetooth radios on.

Run file transfer software on each device and they will pair just fine.

This uses the Gamekit API, and is designed for multi player games.

I don't believe Gamekit runs on the Mac or PC yet, but I suspect an enterprising programmer could reverse engineer the Bluetooth communication protocol and provide a file transfer mechanism to the desktop over Bluetooth from iOS devices.

We've only used it to transfer information between iOS devices.

AntonCartel · Nov 18, 2011

I, too, have always had issues connecting my iDevices to my lap/ desktop. My iPhone 3G & 3Gs with my Acer laptop. To the 4 & 4s with my HP TouchSmart 600.
As with You, it will pair but won't actually connect. I had given up really. Gladly we have other alternative options for most connection desires.

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