Wednesday, May 17, 2006
A Fresh Catch: Bluetake's BT400 G5 Bluetooth Headset on the Platter
Posted by Darius Wey in "HARDWARE" @ 08:00 AM
Pairing and Connecting
You will need to pair the headset with your mobile device prior to use. In this section of the review, I provide a step-by-step guide for pairing the headset with a Windows Mobile 5.0-based Pocket PC using a HFP/HSP-equipped Microsoft Bluetooth stack. If you have Adaptation Kit Update 2 (AKU 2) installed, the connection wizard will appear unchanged. If you have the Broadcom Bluetooth stack, the exact instructions for pairing and connecting will vary.
Figure 5: Turning on Bluetooth in one simple step.
The first step involves putting the headset in pairing mode. Bluetake advises you hold the Power/Mute button down for 7-8 seconds. I timed it, and it's actually more of a 10-11 second press-and-hold process. At any rate, when successfully in pairing mode, the headset's indicator light will alternate between red and blue.
Next, activate the Pocket PC's Bluetooth radio. To do this, tap on the Bluetooth icon in the bottom-right corner of the Today screen (alternatively, your OEM may have provided a separate Bluetooth Today plug-in, so tap on that instead). This will launch the Bluetooth Settings manager and default to the Mode tab (Figure 5). Tick the box labelled 'Turn on Bluetooth', and then tick the box labelled 'Make this device discoverable to other devices'.
Figure 6: On the way to creating a new partnership.
Figure 7: Discovering the BT400 G5.
From there, tap the Devices tab, and then tap New Partnership (Figure 6). After a few seconds, your device will display a list of discoverable Bluetooth devices, of which the BT400 G5 should be one (Figure 7). Highlight the BT400 G5 entry, and tap Next. You'll then be required to enter the generic 0000 passkey (Figure 8 ), followed by the tapping of Next.
Finally, enter a display name (the default BT400 G5 name is suffice), select the desired services (in this case, Hands Free), and then tap Finish.
Figure 8: Staying secure!
The headset should now be paired and connected to your Pocket PC. If you have a Phone Edition device, you should see a headset icon in the Phone application (Figure 9). You can now use the headset for all voice communications (e.g. cellular or VoIP).
Figure 9: Up and running with a Pocket PC Phone Edition.
