I finally bought an iPhone. I was expecting a hardware rev yesterday, but obviously that’s not forthcoming, so I threw in the towel. It’s still in its shrinkwrap though as I do some research before I commit.
According to this blog post (and others), the iPhone only supports two (TWO, 2) Bluetooth profiles: HFP (Hands-Free) and HSP (Headset). There are over two dozen Bluetooth profiles, including a couple really useful ones like: DUN (Dial-Up Networking – so the phone can be used as a modem for your computer) and A2DP (Advanced Audio Distribution) so you can listen to music on a Bluetooth stereo headset. The latter seems like a particularly major oversight.I use Bluetooth DUN all the time (not daily, but many times a week) on my Treo. I’m a fan – super useful when there’s just no WiFi handy. This site reports that folks are getting about 200 kbps on ATT EDGE. my WM5 Treo 750 gets about 300 kbps (I haven’t upgraded to WM6 to get HSDPA yet) on ATT. I can likely live with the slower speed, but not sure I can live without the functionality.
The Bluetooth stack that the iPhone uses is apparently sourced from OpenInterface, and they seem to support every Bluetooth Profile known to mankind. So my only logical conclusion is that this stuff was purposely crippled by Apple for some business or marketing reason, which is a major, annoying bummer.
So is there a way to hack around this or not?
October 19, 2008 at 21:35 |
Isn’t this type of thing illegal? I thought the idea is freedom of choice. Almost all the basic phones have bluetooth DUN or some sort of DUN even if it isn’t bluetooth.. and here comes the Ferrari of all phones .. NO DUN, NO BLUE TOOTH stereo headset.
It’s just another way for them to make money I suppose. Look at Andriod from Google. Everything is going to be available on that operating system. Apple should stop being so short sited!
Yes, Jobs, this means you. Your not a young puppy anymore… stop taking and start giving for a change.
nuff, said.
June 23, 2008 at 8:19 |
[...] (and then some) to argue that this objet d’art is not a stupendous product. However, as I and others have pointed out, it suffers from some material shortcomings that make it a stretch for [...]
February 21, 2008 at 11:58 |
UPDATE: My iPhone never left its box. It was returned a week after I bought it for a full refund. I need my BT DUN or PAN and use it 3-5 times a week. Furthermore, I’ve gotten addicted to 3G speeds. Too many odd marketing decisions made on the iPhone that just don’t work for me. Clearly I’m not the target market.