How do I work with Bluetooth on an older Mac?

December 26, 2006 8:01 AM

General questions about Bluetooth on an old Mac (400mhz g4) and specific questios about bluetooth with a Sony Ericcson Z525 phone using Bluetooth on said Mac.

Got a Sonyericsson z525 phone for Christmas,woo hoo! It comes with Bluetooth and I'd like to get a bluetooth adapter for our home mac. As I mentioned it's a 400mhz G4, running 10.3.9 at the moment.

I'm looking at using this USB-Bluetooth adapter from Otherworld computing. Will this work? or Would you recommend one of the more expensive models? Or perhaps something else all together? These adapters should work fine when updating the OS to 10.4 yes, and for any Bluetooth phone, yes?

Using Bluetooth shouldn't be a problem with 2 or 3 phones (not at same time), right?

I'm interested in using the Bluetooth to copy pictures and video off the phone, and snyching/saving contact info. What tools would you recommend that could work with several phones under one user account?

Once I have Bluetooth adapter on the Mac, I can dump the Cingular media package, yes? Only got it for being able to email pix/movies, which I can easily max out and the internet crap doesn't interest me.

posted by Brandon Blatcher to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

Response by poster: Oh yeah, one more question:

I don't and do not plan to use the Push to Talk feature. However, the Push to Talk button, located on the side of the phone, keeps getting accidently pushed, which pulls up the PTT screen, which I then have to exit. Is there a way to completely disable that function, so the phone will quit asking me to use it? Bad design, bad!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:05 AM on December 26, 2006

Best answer: I have the same phone. I hate the PTT button. I wound up just pulling off the rubber button and storing it away in case I ever decide to use it (or find a way to reprogram the button).

I have used several generic bluetooth adapters without any problems on bluetoothless macs.

You can dump the internet package. My z525a is always connected to my laptop via bluetooth (I DO have the internet package because I use mine to dialup at times, but there's no need for it for your uses).
posted by zerokey at 8:23 AM on December 26, 2006

Be careful with that one- it's USB 2.0 and your Mac is only 1.1. You can get a pci card if it's a powermac and add 2.0 ports or find a dongle that is 1.1 compatible.
posted by eleongonzales at 8:43 AM on December 26, 2006

You can use basically any USB adapter with your Mac, including a $10 one from your local phone accessory shack, and yes, you can share it between many phones.

It's possible for Cingular to disable some of the Bluetooth functionality on your phone, so double check they haven't.
posted by cillit bang at 8:44 AM on December 26, 2006

Best answer: A USB 1.1 device will operate on USB 2.0 and vice versa; they are fully compatible. The connection will operate at the speed of the USB 1.1 device. Since Bluetooth only operates at a fraction of that, this is not an issue.

I have a USB 2.0 Bluetooth dongle on my 500mhz G4 Mac. It works fine. I can't answer any questions specific to your phone, but you are unlikely to damage anything by trying Apple's Bluetooth software with it.
posted by ardgedee at 8:51 AM on December 26, 2006