TRENDnet Bluetooth USB Adapter TBW-101UB (Blue)
by TRENDnet
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List Price: Our Price: $1.99 You Save: $31.00 (94%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days 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 TRENDnet Bluetooth USB Adapter TBW-101UB (Blue)
Customer Review: Excellent
Summary: 5 Stars
Even though the price is cheap, this bluetooth adapter delivers. I bought it from Amazon.com (with free shipping, it took merely two days to be delivered!).It comes with a free USB extension cable in case it won't fit into your hub/computer with wires next to it (it is rather wide, but the extension cable more than makes up for it). The range is good: about the standard 10 meters (it has full range over the room that it's in).
Integration with Mac OS X is superb; it's merely plug and play for Macs, though I assume it is a lot less easy/reliable with Windows computers.
The one down point of Bluetooth is its low transfer rates: with it interfacing with my Sony Ericsson T616, it has an average bandwidth of 4KB/s. I suspect that it is the phone's fault (as it's not necessary to have very high bandwidth for such small files). Bluetooth's official rate is about 90 KB/s, so this is vastly underperforming.
However, due to the cheap price, free cable, and reliability of the TRENDware Bluetooth USB adapter, I give it 5 stars and recommend it to anyone with a Mac looking for a decent, cheap way to become Bluetooth-enabled.
Customer Review: An amateur in Bluetooth-ville
Summary: 5 Stars
Purchased this TRENDware TBW-101UB Bluetooth USB Adapter a week or so ago. Being unfamiliar with using Bluetooth, I did a lot of research which basically scared me to death. The angry reports of things not working or not working well made me do a lot of second-guessing. But I wanted to connect my phone and iPaq to my laptop and the price point (with rebate!) helped me decide that the risk was worth the investment.
Bottom line: the TRENDware TBW-101UB worked as advertised. Great price. Works like a charm. Had the connection to my iPaq in <3minutes flat.
Advice: there's a lot of sturm und drang out there in user reviews about drivers. My advice is that if you're using Windows XP SP2, simply stick the thing in the USB port and let Windows do the work. Don't use the supplied drivers, don't read the instructions, just stick it in. Voila! I may pay for that blithe approach in the future (i.e., some sort of driver shortcomings vs. OEM drivers), but I'm guessing that my needs are squarely within the abilities of the standard Windows XP driver.
Customer Review: Works great, but not with Mobile Phone Tools
Summary: 5 Stars
Works great with Motorola V551 and Razr V3. The one I received looks like the photo supplied by Valerie Holifield, and not like the stock photo. It also comes with a nice dark blue rubber dust cap for the USB connector.
Worked with no problems for copying MP3's and JPEGs to a Motorola V551 and Razr V3. It also paired with a Motorola A1000, but unfortunately the A1000 didn't support the file transfer profile.
I only had to learn about how the pairing sequence works, along with understanding how the passkey works. But some of the other reviews here are very helpful for learning how the whole process is supposed to work.
I couldn't get Mobile Phone Tools to recognize it at all. I eventually gave up after many tries, and used a mini USB cable from my Canon digital camera instead for use with Mobile Phone Tools. Still give it 5 stars, since it's probably Mobile Phone Tools that is quirky or is designed only for use with the Motorola-branded Bluetooth dongle.
Customer Review: Best overall Bluetooth USB Adapter....
Summary: 4 Stars
With all those Bluetooth USB Adapters that are out in the market, this is good overall adapter. Most computers today would detect this TBW-101UB Adapter and would not need to install the software for it. Once the adapter is installed and detected on the computer, the rest is pretty straight forward for those that know how to search devices in the My Bluetooth places.
The transferring rate of files is decent. It is not blazing fast, but faster than the traditional USB connection. Syncing the bluetooth from your Bluetooth enabled phone to the computer is a little tricky. I have a Blackberry 8310 and using bluetooth as my mode of transferring was a little tedious.
In all, this adapter performs very well. I have a Motorola Bluetooth receiver that is hooked up downstairs on my Home Audio and playing music from my Office upstairs where the Adapter is hooked up. The music streaming is good knowing you are using it wirelessly through Bluetooth.
Customer Review: Problems with XP update SP2
Summary: 2 Stars
Not always detected by XP. I had SP2 already installed and XP would not find the bluetooth device. I ran the installation CD more than 6 times! Right after installation it would work, but if you reboot it would not detect it. Sometimes, it would just work if I remove the adapter and plug it right back in. It kept pulling up the 'Driver Signing' dialog box. The instructions even tell you this is not licensed by Windows! I didn't think much of it until it created detection problems. I couldn't tell if at any given time the adapter was still connected or not. When it works its great though. No complains there (although I did have trouble getting Nokia PC Suite to work with it). Would be a great product if it weren't conflicting with XP update SP2. This product went right back where it came from. Going to look for one that XP will recognize.