An Overview of After Market PDA Bluetooth Accessories
Bluetooth Makes it Easy for All Your Devices and Accessories to Work Together
Bluetooth is one of the latest marketing buzzwords for PDAs and cellular phones, along with PCs and especially laptops. It is a wireless technology designed to let products and accessories built by different manufacturers work together, without requiring special access codes or driver installation. Theoretically, any Bluetooth accessory should work with any Bluetooth-enabled device, and multiple accessories working with the same device shouldn’t interfere with each other.
Garmin GPS10 Bluetooth GPS Receiver with Mount and SoftwareList Price: $267.99
Buy New: $134.00
You Save: $133.99 (50%)
Garmin jumps on the wireless bandwagon with its GPS 10 Deluxe, a GPS receiver that communicates with Bluetooth-enabled Pocket PCs and PC laptops to allow easy, intuitive navigating. Unlike GPS devices with built-in screens, the GPS 10 Deluxe displays its mapping and navigational data on your mobile computer’s monitor, ensuring superior close-up detail, more memory storage, and faster operation than with traditional navigators. And because it’s wireless, users won’t have to futz with cumbersome cables that get in the way each time they need to move the laptop or reposition the receiver. The cable-free solution is ideal for cars and trucks, as the device installs via the included magnetic or Velcro mounts, or even outside the vehicle should users need a clear path to the satellites. It’s also waterproof, so it can withstand nasty weather and poor conditions.
The GPS 10 Deluxe comes with a fully unlocked MapSource City Select North America CD, which includes detailed maps of the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico, with more than five million points of interest and intensive street-level map data. In addition, the package boasts two easy-to-use navigation applications: nRoute, which installs on a Bluetooth-enabled laptop, and Que, a Pocket PC program. The applications turn both mobile devices into fully functioning navigators. Users can easily look up addresses, restaurants, and services, or they can select a destination and receive automatic routing, turn-by-turn directions, off-route recalculation, and voice prompts as they drive.
The Bluetooth communication works at distances of up to 30 feet, adding to the unit’s versatility. Additional features include rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that power your GPS receiver for up to a dozen hours at a time and a 12-volt power adapter that connects to your cigarette lighter. The GPS 10 Deluxe measures 1.77 by 3.46 by 0.75 inches (W x H x D) and is covered by a one-year warranty.
For example, if you pick up a Bluetooth headset for your current PDA, and then in a years time replace it with a new PDA, the headset should work with the new PDA without any difficulties. With some older PDA Bluetooth accessories and devices, this is not always the case, but generally the more recent the design of the accessory or device, the more likely it is to work with other Bluetooth products.
PDAs, Cellular Phones, and Computers
New PDAs today resemble cellular phones as much as classic PDAs like the Palm Pilot. Most of these devices are Bluetooth-enabled, and even have the capability to link with other Bluetooth-enabled PDAs and cellular phones to exchange data. For models that are not Bluetooth-enabled, there are frequently PDA Bluetooth accessories available that will add Bluetooth capabilities to the unit. Bluetooth adapters are also available for PCs and laptops, usually plugging into a USB port, allowing you to easily exchange data between your computer and your PDA.
Just about any type of data can be transferred over a Bluetooth link, from electronic business cards and pictures to word processing documents and PowerPoint presentations. For transferring data from a PDA to a computer, special software is often needed and included with the Bluetooth adapter. However, PDAs running Windows Mobile can communicate natively with computers running Windows XP Service Pack 2 or Windows Vista.
Having a Bluetooth PDA and a Bluetooth adapter for your computer can eliminate the need for a docking station or sync cable, removing one more piece of clutter from your desktop. You can even set the two devices up so they automatically synchronize their data when theyre in range of each other.
Other PDA Bluetooth Accessories
Headphones and headsets are the most common PDA Bluetooth accessories right now. Wireless headphones are great if your PDA has music stored on it, because you dont have an unsightly wire running from your head to your pocket or purse. Headsets and earpieces allow hands-free operation of your cell phone or smart phone, which is not only convenient but is also quickly becoming a legal requirement world-wide for using your phone in your car.
Printer manufacturers are quickly adding Bluetooth capabilities to their products, turning them into convenient PDA Bluetooth accessories. Previously, to print something stored on your PDA, you had to use the docking station or sync cable to download the information to your computer, then print it from the computer. With a Bluetooth-enabled printer, you can send your data directly to the printer without the intervening steps. If your computer is also Bluetooth-enabled, it can send data to the printer as well, eliminating the need to hook up the printer to the computer or network.
There are many other PDA Bluetooth accessories available for your PDA, and with Bluetooth it doesn’t matter who manufactures either the device or the accessory. A Motorola headset will work with an iPhone, and a Palm Tungsten can print spreadsheets on a HP LaserJet. Manufacturers are constantly coming up with new PDA Bluetooth accessories to meet the demands of consumers. Bluetooth technology is making it easier for everyone to communicate.
R James Cook is a personal technology aficionado (some would say geek), and is especially entranced with the wide world of PDAs and their accessories. He shares his thoughts on this world at Bling PDA.
