IOGear Enhanced Data Rate Bluetooth USB Adapter with Range up to 66 ft. GBU221
by IOGEAR
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List Price: Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of IOGear Enhanced Data Rate Bluetooth USB Adapter with Range up to 66 ft. GBU221
Customer Review: Works Great but Supplied Product Manual, Installation CD, and Drivers are Useless
Summary: 4 Stars
Back Story:
I specifically bought this dongle because the official Microsoft Windows Vista compatibility web page states that this product is compatible with my 64 bit version of Vista. Also note: this is my THIRD dongle. I first purchased the $1.00 mini dongle listed on Amazon. That only worked on my XP computer. Then I bought the BTT004 listed here on Amazon because user reviews stated it works with Vista. It does, but only the 32 bit version. As you can see, I really wanted this product to work! I specifically wanted it to work with my bluetooth headset.
Review:
The manual that comes with the product is outdated and wrong. The installation CD fails because it can't find setup.exe! Things were not looking good. Then I remembered that someone on Amazon reviewed this product and stated that you need to download the latest drivers directly from IOGear. A quick review of Microsoft's Vista Compatibility website also states a download is required. After the new drivers were installed, it all worked!
Summary:
Just download the drivers from IOGear first. Ignore the manual. Don't use the installation CD. Then plug in the dongle and get working.
Rating:
I'm so happy that I finally got a dongle that works with Vista 64! I wish I could give this a 5 star rating, but the useless product manual and CD would most likely cause non computer-savvy types to give up. They are only useful for taking up space in a landfill. I also wish they had a micro version of this dongle. They are safer to use in laptop USB ports.
Customer Review: Works with Windows 7 RC!
Summary: 5 Stars
Although it didn't work out of the box with Windows 7 RC I'm still giving it 5 stars because of the excellent support that got me through.
To install under Windows 7 (and save yourself the support call) here's what you do:
1. Make sure the device is NOT CONNECTED to your computer
2. Go to [...] and download the file (it's one file no matter what version of XP/Vista/W7 you are using)
3. Once its downloaded extract it and double click on setup. Let it do its thing until it complains it can't find the device. Click CANCEL and it will finish the installation.
4. Reboot your computer
5. Insert the device and wait for the driver to be installed. Once its done, you are good to go. If after waiting a bit (10 minutes) nothing happens, right click on the bluetooth icon on your taskbar and hit "start using bluetooth".
6. If you've done the installation a different way, you may run into the software complaining about an invalid license. Disconnect the adapter from the computer, uninstall the software, reboot the computer and go to step 1 above.
Once everything is installed the adapter and software work like a charm. I'm using it with a Plantronics 590 and Skype 4.0 and voice quality couldn't be better. In terms of range I wouldn't go much beyond 20 ft. but frankly, this may be a limitation of my Plantronics headset (although the same headset coupled with my iPhone allows me to roam a bit further).
All in all, very satisfied.
Customer Review: Good product
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this with a Plantronics Voyager 520 Bluetooth Headset to use as a microphone for online PC gaming, such as Left 4 Dead 2.
Setup is easy enough. Don't let Windows Vista install the default drivers for this. It will look like its working, but the audio tab will be missing from the headset properties and it will be impossible to make your bluetooth headset act as a sound device recognizable by your applications. So install from the CD and just follow the instructions. You'll get a new little icon in your system tray for bluetooth. Double click this to see how what devices are paired. Follow the instructions on your Bluetooth headset to enable pairing mode to register it. Mine is listed as ATT V521. Next right click that and go to properties. Then go to the services tab and uncheck Handsfree Telephony and put a check mark on Headset. Hit OK to get back to the main bluetooth window and click Bluetooth settings. Go to the audio tab and highlight your headset and click connect down at the bottom. Go into your App and test it out. It should be working at this point.
The first time I installed I didn't use the Driver CD so I was missing a few tabs including the audio tab, a quick google search helped me figure out what I had done wrong. I seems like you have to go back in here and click connect every time you shut down your PC. I don't know if there is a way to auto connect it.
Customer Review: Works with Win7 64bit!
Summary: 5 Stars
Worked perfectly with Win7 64bit right out of the box. No need to update drivers or hunt drivers like I have seen many people say is needed with certain Bluetooth adapters. Getting it setup with my Palm Centro was a little confusing at first, but that was Palms fault, not the adapters (on screen instructions on the Palm were a little screwy). Finally just decided to keep hitting next on the phone till the end of setup and see what happens, and to my surprise it worked flawlessly. I was really impressed with the speed of the Hotsync, it seems to be about the same speed as the USB cable was before I got this new computer.
This phone is the only Bluetooth device I currently have, so I have no way to test it with other devices. But I'm impressed either way since I took a flyer on this... I must have posted on 10 different websites asking for info on Win 7 64bit compatible adapters, and nobody ever responded to me, and Microsoft compatibility website was no help at all. I am really happy I got it right on the first try without having to test out a bunch of different adapters to find one that worked.
Customer Review: Works well with iPhone and a bit of trouble getting a good fit
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought this do I could pair the headset to both my iPhone and my computer at the office. Pairing was easy. I then did a test between my Jawbone 2 and this new one. I would have to say that the jawbone 2 has very slightly better audio quality (to the person you are talking to). I then turned on the blower in the car to full to test the noise cancelation. The Motorola actually did a little better job on noise cancelation than the Jawbone 2. The only problem I have had is getting a good fit in the ear. Some people has mentioned that it doesn't go loud enough. For me it's plenty loud when it's in my ear properly. If it's too loose and not all the way in the ear the volume is too quiet. The stereo Bluetooth streaming also works well. Since it's only one ear it's not great for music, bit does work well for books. Also, on my iPhone I can use it to voice dial which is awesome. I can even remotely control the music when it is the cradle playing music. I can still issue voice commands to pause or play something different.