[TriLUG] BlueTooth dongle purchase

[Danielle White]

On 08/12/2012 01:32 PM, Chris Merrill wrote:
> Another example of the uses of bluetooth: many cars now support 
> bluetooth phones. Once they have been paired, calls to the phone are 
> routed (locally via bluetooth) to the car audio system. My car mutes 
> the audio when the phone rings and I can answer by pushing a button on 
> the steering wheel. I'm then on a speakerphone via the car audio and 
> phone integration. I don't use the phone much, but it is pretty slick 
> on those few occasions I've used it. I'd use bluetooth audio 
> integration MUCH more often, but for reasons I cannot fathom, the car 
> doesn't support that :( 

My wife and I make use of a variation of that when out on our 
motorcycles. We have Cardo Systems' Scala Rider Q2 headsets, which are 
wireless bike-to-bike communication plus can do BT audio to a device 
such as a mobile phone or GPS. In my case, it's to a GPS which, in turn, 
is paired to my personal smartphone. The GPS is mounted in a powered 
bracket on the handlebars of my  and it can access the contacts list on 
my mobile. Obviously, I try not to do that often, particularly when in 
motion, however, it has uses. For example, last summer we took a 
vacation on our motorcycles, staying in Little Switzerland, NC, and 
riding around various roads up there. A family member needed to reach me 
mid-day and, because of that system (and a bit of luck of being within 
range of Verizon's network) I knew right away rather than hours later 
when we had stopped and I retrieved my mobile from the trunk.

One rather humorous experience with that setup: several years and a 
motorcycle ago, I headed to work one day with that setup (though my 
mobile then wasn't a smartphone.) Somehow, a single MP3 had been loaded 
onto the GPS and that morning it began to play. Having never looked into 
that capability of the device I had no idea how to stop it, so my 
hour-long commute from Raleigh to Chapel Hill was accompanied by and 
endless loop of "Yakety Sax." I began to expect I would encounter an 
apparition of Benny Hill.

Danielle