bluetooth headset info quest

[Maksim Yevmenkin]

Carl,

> I am on a quest for knowledge: I want to understand why all bluethooth 
> devices don't work with all bluetooth devices.  I kinda get that there 

it really depends on what do you mean by "work" :) almost all bluetooth 
devices are capable of establishing baseband connections and data 
transfer right out of the box.

> are “profiles” which seem to be another word for protocol.  I have also 
> heard that the current version of Mac OSC (4A428 ?) doesn't support the 
> bluetooth headset profile, but the next version of the OS will.  That 
> suggests that profile support is a software thing.

you are correct. "bluetooth profile" indeed means protocol, but it also 
means more. bluetooth profile defines one or more typical usage 
scenarios and how the whole system (profile) works.

> I have applications of this knowledge:
> 1)a friend says: : I need to know if i can connect a bluetooth audio 
> handset to a fujitsu siemens 420 aka hp iPAQ 4150.  I am guessing no,  
> because pdf Page 80 (printed 8-4) does not list "headset" 
> http://h200001.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00046424/c00046424.pdf 

you are probably correct. basically all correctly designed bluetooth 
hardware should be able to support all existing bluetooth profiles. the 
implementation of particular bluetooth profile is usually done in software.

> 2)I have a toshiba 6100 laptop that did not come with bluetooth.  For 
> $60 I can get the internal addon, or $25 I can get various usb or pccard 
> things.  But not all the $25 options list the headset profile, so once 
> again, is the limitation hardware, firmware, software, marketing-ware, 
> vapor-ware, new-wave-ware, or what?!  And is the $60 internal bluetooth

again, all it means that the software bundled with the particular 
bluetooth hardware only implements certain profiles. it (usually) does 
not mean that bluetooth hardware does not support other profiles. a $60 
internal bluetooth card for your laptop is not that much different (from 
  a hardware point of view) from a $25 bluetooth usb dongle or pccard.

this whole profile thing is how bluetooth is setup. basically if you 
want to call something bluetooth enabled then you have to give a list of 
profiles supported and have to pass qualification tests. then you can 
put bluetooth logo on the product and call it bluetooth enabled.

i give you an example. technically we can not call bluetooth stack in 
freebsd "bluetooth", because qualification tests were never performed 
(or at least i do not have any knowledge about it), but it works just 
fine with many bluetooth enabled gadgets.

> thing going to work with Linux, or is it some super secrit thing like 
> the built in CF card reader that doesn't even show up under lsusb, but I 
> am pretty sure it uses the usb bus.

i know of several laptop brands (ibm, dell etc.) with internal bluetooth 
  card that looks like usb device. and it works just fine with linux and 
freebsd.

> I have read about 30 google hits, and the best info was in this list's 
> archives. So I figure I will get some straight answers here.

hope it helps. feel free to ask more questions.

thanks,
max