Bluetooth OSX vs. Windows 7

Soldato
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25 Jun 2011
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Aberdeen
I'm starting to notice a trend with this, for some reason bluetooth just quite simply does not work on Windows but works like a dream on OSX (10.6.8).

At first I thought it was just my sig rig that didn't like anything bluetooth, as it wouldn't pair, find or really do anything of any use, it did on occasion connect to a device (phone) but ultimately would give me a file transfer rate of sub 10kb/s. Do the same in OSX I have the device connected, paired and sending a file at 170kb/s in a matter of seconds.

Now I have a fairly large .zip file (around 80mb) to send to my other half, thought her Dell laptop has bluetooth, I'll just send it over that. This is where I made my ultimate discovery that windows and bluetooth is a combination destined for failure!

Each device can find each other, hell I can even get them to pair, but her laptop keeps reporting that its a bluetooth audio device (headset or speakers), I thought thats not correct so looked on her laptop to see that yes BT in Windows is set up as it should but will only pair its self as an audio device?

I gave up, looked around for a CD-R shoved it on that.

Don't get me wrong I'm not a fan boy of either operating system, I use both on a daily basis and love both along with Ubuntu and android (2 more Operating systems that have flawless bluetooth I might add). So Have I just been unlucky or is BT on W7 just avoidable at all costs?

Its just baffling me how seamless it works on one OS compared to another.
 
It's also possible to send files wirelessly between two Macs with a new Lion feature called AirDrop. Essentially it's an encrypted peer-to-peer connection between two machines, using half of the wifi card's bandwidth for it (the other half stays connected to your regular wifi network).

Something Windows is also sadly lacking.
 
Unlucky in my experience. my old dell laptop had bluetooth and it it worked perfectly with a variety of phones and other devices. I've also seen others use blue toot on Windows 7 with no issue.

This thread needs to go into the GH or Windows sub forum (with a bit of snipping) me thinks... ;)
 
On a related note. Are there any Bluetooth keyboards other than the mac one? Preferably one wi quilt in touchpad for use with a htpc...
 
This thread needs to go into the GH or Windows sub forum (with a bit of snipping) me thinks... ;)

Could well do with a move yes, put it in here as I didn't fancy seeing the thread get demolished by the "my OS is better than yours" brigade :p

BT in Windows honestly just feels far too complex for what it is, I cant even begin to guess why my other halfs laptop reports as a headset.

May have to try W7 in bootcamp on my macbook and see if the BT side of things is still screwed up that way.
 
That's why I said snipping. :p

There is no need to talk about OSX in a thread about a windows problem, if you are actually asking about a windows problem.
 
I know it was just for making an example of how poor BT is on windows, well in my experience anyhow, wasn't asking for a solution to it either, I just won't use it in windows :p

Thought of using BT well, its there and should have been a simple case of send file > accept > job done. How wrong was I. Plus it was easier for the missus to understand :D
 
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