[NTLK] Why Isn't Everyone Excited with Eckhart's Bluetooth?

From: David Deranian (deranian_at_mac.com)
Date: Mon Dec 15 2003 - 18:43:17 PST


Hello All-

This post is a few weeks old from Eckhart but I have to respond. Now,
either I'm a weirdo, or the people on this list are half asleep. In my
opinion, Blunt could be the next killer app for Newton. As an avid user
of a Sprint PCS Merlin card on my Titanium Powerbook, I can't tell you
how fantastic it is to have the ability to connect to the Internet
remotely from where ever I happen to be. NO Wi-fi or Starbucks
required! Now, to have that same capibility with my Newton through a
Bluetooth enabled phone like a Sony-Ericsson T616 would breathe years
of new life and usefulness into my Newton. (By the way, Sprint doesn't
support my Mac either, the Merlin Card driver is a hack from one of the
techs that works at Sprint.) Ironically, Apple decided to start
supporting the Merlin Card in 10.3.1 (Panther).

As we all know, currently there is no way to connect wirelessly on a
Newton from a remote location, unless you're near a hotspot using a
Wi-Fi card. Now that's fantastic in of its self, but if you're not at
home, the office or hanging around Starbucks, it's a problem if you
need to get online. For years, I used an analog Motorola Flip Phone and
matching cellular card modem, so I'd have some sort of wireless
connectivity on Newton. Of course, eventually I had to give up that
phone, so no more remote connections.

I'll stop with the rant now, but I have to say that I'm really
surprised that there was no "rush" of enthusiasm for Eckhard and his
efforts to [potentially] bringing our good old Newtons to even a higher
level usefulness than they are already.

So here are my three questions for the group is:
1) How many people here would be thrilled to have this functionality on
their Newton?
2) How many people here already own a Bluetooth enabled phone?
3) How many people would buy or upgrade their current cell phone to
Bluetooth to get this capability?

Thanks, and let's all show as much support to Eckhart as possible for
all his great work.

Regards,
-David
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------
On Nov 25, 2003, at 4:17 PM, Eckhart Köppen wrote:

> the first release of Blunt, the Bluetooth stack for the Newton is
> ready. It contains already everything which should be in the final
> version, but might not work properly or at all - crashes and reboots
> are to be expected. Still, I'm currently using it to connect via PPP
> and a Nokia 3650 and to send some data back and forth.

--
David Deranian
Digital Arts & Sciences, Inc.
Communication Arts
for the Digital Age
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