Filed under: Wireless, Bluetooth, Leopard
Leopard, Bluetooth and my new Pantech Breeze
It may be a personal preference, but I try not to use or abuse phones that can't survive a 3-foot drop onto concrete. That's why last week I ordered myself a sweet little Pantech Breeze.
It offers one killer feature that I refuse to live without: a dedicated speakerphone button. I have this on my beloved Kyocera Slider and I demanded it on any new phone that I would buy. The Breeze brings that to the table along with a video camera and full Bluetooth support. After rebates, the phone cost about $70 and works perfectly with my iPhone SIM.
So after unboxing my new toy, I enabled Bluetooth on the phone and opened Leopard's Bluetooth File Exchange.
BFE isn't some super-spiffy CoverFlow all-dancing all-singing phone interface. It's a simple little utility program (with the emphasis on "utility") that allows you to browse your BT connected devices and use its drag-and-drop interface to transfer data to and from the unit.
Leopard recognized my phone without incident and opened the browsing window shown here. It took just a few clicks to offload my latest pictures from the phone and drag them into iPhoto. Going the other direction, I threw a few mp3 files into my Download > Audio folder and they instantly appeared onboard, ready to play.
Obviously the Pantech Breeze isn't the iPhone (even as I end up tapping its screen and wondering why it's not responding) but in some ways, it should have been. Why does Leopard offer this fantastic Bluetooth interaction between phone and Macintosh for an also-ran third party phone, while balking at any iPhone interactions? This is the interaction that should have been on my iPhone, using functionality already built into Leopard. I wonder why it wasn't baked into the flagship Apple product of the century.
Get a WordPress.com Blog
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
rollthelosindice said 8:07PM on 8-26-2008
test from my aim account
Reply
chris said 8:23PM on 8-26-2008
*claps
Right on.
Reply
MacTipper said 8:23PM on 8-26-2008
Here's an interesting little "feature" of BFE: the "New Folder" icon.
Maybe you could call it a bug. Anyway, the "New Folder" icon has the Tiger style folder, not the Leopard style folder.
MacTipper
http://www.mactipper.com/
Reply
Maxintech said 8:38PM on 8-26-2008
When I get photos from my Motorola V3 Black with the Bluetooth File Exchange I can't drag and drop the pictures from the phone to the iPhoto. I use an intermediate folder for the exchange.
Very annoying... 8*(
Reply
Nathan Gimpel said 8:39PM on 8-26-2008
I have grown quite accustomed to the BFE since that's basically the only practical way to get anything on the LG Dare short of using VMWare or Parallels.
Reply
Tyrannous said 8:40PM on 8-26-2008
what phone cant survive a 3 foot drop?
Reply
Dan Woods said 10:41PM on 8-26-2008
If you throw it hard enough, onto a hard enough surface, the iPhone will get damaged over a distance of 3 feet.
It will probably void your warranty too.
carl said 8:47PM on 8-26-2008
Is this something that can be used via a 3rd party app on the iPhone or is Bluetooth restricted from 3rd party apps?
Reply
Bloobie said 9:18PM on 8-26-2008
Agreed! Apple should have included more Bluetooth connectivity/interactivity between OS X and the iPhone. For example, when I receive a call on the iPhone, it should pop up a caller ID on my screen.
Reply
Ewan said 9:44PM on 8-26-2008
Actually the Mac has far cooler BT integration than that - go to Address book and click the BT icon in the tool bar. You will be paired with the phone and from then on every time your cell rings you are notified who is calling on your Mac screen AND you get to decline the call and SMS an explanation with a single click!
Not only that but you can compose and send SMS messages through your phone on your Mac.
Why on earth Apple thought such useful integration need not apply to iPhone stumps me...
Reply
MacTipper said 10:21PM on 8-26-2008
Does this work with any cell phone? What phone do you have? This sounds like a really cool feature....
sam said 1:38AM on 8-27-2008
You sure about that?
A.) I don't see a bluetooth icon in the toolbar and B.) I'm pretty sure bluephoneelite wouldn't exist if this was really a feature in OS X.
Johnny said 10:29AM on 8-27-2008
I'm afraid I have to call shenanigans on you sir. That is not a built-in feature that I know of or am able to find.
Tom said 3:28PM on 8-27-2008
That feature was added in Jaguar and even demoed by Jobs at one of the keynotes. And it went poof in Leopard for no good reason.
saycarramrod said 9:33PM on 8-26-2008
I liked Erica better a year ago.
Reply
hafiz said 9:33PM on 8-26-2008
Great idea by the way. I did this a while back with my Razr V3- downloaded all the photos using Leopard BFE just so in case I lose my phone or retire it, I still got my photos. :)
Reply
Shawn said 9:37PM on 8-26-2008
Great idea. I did this a while back with my razr v3- downloaded all the photos off of it using Leopard's BFE. Just in case I lose my phone or retire it, I still got my photos :)
Reply
Dan Woods said 10:09PM on 8-26-2008
Does it sync with iSync?
Being a computer user, and not a programmer, I prefer the ease of use of the iPhone or a Phone which works perfectly with iSync over something I have to hack to get it to behave properly.
That's one of the reasons I prefer a Mac to a Windows PC. With Windows you have to hack to get a Windows-Mobile phone to sync properly, with a Mac and an iPhone, it all just works!
Reply
Tyrannous said 11:10PM on 8-26-2008
doesnt your "throw hard enough, at a hard surface" example holds true for most phones?
jeyadev said 10:23PM on 8-26-2008
cos then the PC using crowd would scream at Apple, and demand the same functionality on their WinXP & Vista boxes.
This is why everything and anything related to iPhone is passed via iTunes, even though iSync is a much better sync app.
Reply