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19 of 20 found the following review helpful:
 Worked like a dream....I wish everything were this easy!Dec 15, 2007
By Katy Lake
I have a bluetooth-enabled Mac ibook, and ever since I got a bluetooth-ready HP All-in-One printer, I've been curious to see if it was even possible to print wirelessly between the Mac and HP platforms.
HP has its own branded bluetooth attachment that they push (and give out as little info as possible); that thing has gotten some pretty crummy reviews, so I really wanted to try out a bluetooth adapter that had pleased at least a few people.
But as you'd expect, no one makes any of this stuff EASY. What's the diff between Class 1 and Class 2? Well, HP doesn't tell you, cause like if you KNEW, well, maybe you'd buy a different adapter!
I read a bunch of reviews, looking for ones written by mac owners in particular, and took at stab at this adapter.
As you've probably figured out, I'm no computer genius - but I got the IOGear adapter in the mail, and within 15 minutes, I was printing effortlessly AND wirelessly from my living room to a printer tucked away in my home office!
The only reason why the whole thing didn't take five minutes was that when you go to print, you have to CHOOSE the printer (like in the old mac "chooser" days before OSX.) The mac bluetooth setup system utility makes the whole process pretty painless.
And btw, the distance between the home office and my living room is WELL over 30 ft, and there are a bunch of walls and doors in the way. The printer performed like a champ; nothing stopped it.
My only complaint is that there seems to be a problem printing PDF files. Of course, that may just be because I haven't figured out yet how one does it (and obviously HP isn't going to tell me since I didn't buy their adapter!)
But that's a quibble. It's nice to be able to hit the "print" button no matter where I am, and have all the stuff done by the time I saunter into my home office.
If you've got a mac laptop and want to try your hand at long distance, wireless printing, this would be the bluetooth adapter I'd go with. Definitely frees you up and works like a charm!
17 of 18 found the following review helpful:
Don't use the included driverJun 30, 2008
By Vincent Zinkus
Have had this product for about a year now, and it has worked flawlessly with my BB Pearl 8100, Plantronics Voyager 510, and Samsung P2 MP3 player. However...I DID NOT use the included driver and software, as they did not work with anything very well. And Windows XP does not have a built-in driver for this device...except that it does, but doesn't know it. This device has a Broadcom chipset (BCM2045) in it, and XP has a builtin Broadcom driver (BCM2033) which are the same file; however, XP doesn't match the two up. So you have to edit the bluetooth driver .ini file manually to make it work. Needless to say it is somewhat involved, so to find out how to make it work, just google search broadcom 2045 XP setup and you should find it. This will enable XP"s bluetooth stack, which works very well. Oh, and while I have not tested range, it is nestled inside my computer, surrounded by cordless phones, routers, and other electronics, and can still communicate through several walls to my devices on the other side of the house. Hope this helps. Thanks.
9 of 9 found the following review helpful:
Works Great! Price can't be beat.Jul 03, 2007
By Tech Engineer
"Al"
I bought 2 of these and I could even connect two PC's or the PC with my cell phone for Active Sync from different floors in our office building! I have a bluetooth mouse and other bluetooth devices and I am very happy with the performance of this product. I chose the class 1 for range and it was worth the money - I turned off the internal bluetooth and choose to use this USB device due to the improved performance and reliability. I really got my money's worth (I bought 2 for less than I paid for one of the earlier version 9 class 2 device).
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
Great Value, Works fairly well.May 04, 2008
By James A. Settecase
"Jim S."
I recently decided to create a wireless Audio Network between my PC and my 2 stereo systems. I had been using a little FM Stereo transmitter and then tuning it in on my recievers so I could stream music throughout my home. Not bad, but not quite the fidelity I would like. I did some reading on the audio capabilties of Bluetooth and it claims to be able to sample at 48k or at or near CD quality. I wanted an inexpensive way to accomplish this. I picked up a Jensen Universal Bluetooth Stereo Receiver for about $15 then all I needed was a Transmitter that could be strong enough to cover my entire home. Many transmitters out there are pricey and only are good for about 30-60Ft. line-of-sight so reception between flors might be if-y at best. Then I found the IOGEAR with a 330 ft. broadcast range for about $29! It had some fairly decent reviews, plus I went to the IOGEAR website to get more details on this unit. I needed the ability to have at least 2-3 receivers simultaneously connect so I could pump music throughout the house(this can do 7)and maybe out onto my patio or even to a stereo headset so I could listen while cutting the lawn or waxing the car. The software documentation was pretty good. It left one litle thing out, but thankfully I read a review that mentioned that when creating a 'pair' between devices, it will ask for a 'security code'. The security code is a random number that YOU must create. Initially, I spent some time inspecting my devices and the documentation looking for this security code that I though was provided with them. So I just entered '0000' as the reviewer said and I was connected.
Now this device will do way more than what I am using it for. Besides being an Audio Gateway, it can be used to share files, access resources, to connect a printer and a few more that I can't recall at the moment. You can select which types of wireless functionality you want to allow. I just unslected everything except the Audio Gateway option.
As for the reception, PERFECT. I used the USB Extension cable that came with it to hang it off the back of my PC. My living room stereo is about 30ft. away and the Jensen and the IOGEAR paired easily and never drop connection although when we run our microwave oven in the kitchen I get a few drop-outs. The connection to my stereo in the basement(more than 60ft.) has no problems either. As for sound quality, my iTunes library sound great! Not quite CD quality, but about as clean, & clear with decent fidelity as if I connected my iPod directly to the line input of my stereo. I then tested playing a CD in the CD drive of my PC. I was not as pleased. It did not sound as if it was playing through the CD player of the stereo. Probably the result of an average to poor audio card and processing for the CD drive. I'll stick to playing CD's from the stereo. Now as for Streaming Internet Radio, I was somewhat pleased with the quality. Now, I don't subscribe to any pay internet radio service, so I realized the streaming rate may be limited for the 'free-users' and the better sampling rates are for paying subscribers, but it is good enough to use as background music for parties so I don't have to play DJ all night or for non-stop Holiday music. I will say that sometimesafter I have been connected and using it for awhile and I log off as the user and allow one of my kids to logon and use it, that I will have to restart the PC to get it to reload correctly. Otherwise, I am very pleased with my purchase. I highly recommend this product- at least as an Audio Gateway its a great value.
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
Works just fine!May 26, 2009
By Dan Turner
"Dr D"
Bought this to sync a Palm Tungsten E2 with a Windows Vista 64 bit computer (which doesn't allow USB sync). Setup wasn't that difficult, and it works just fine since then. Be sure to go to Palm's website for the latest software.
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