FutureInternet's Blueberry Internet Sharing kit promises a world of simple file and connection sharing. That's what Bluetooth devices have always pitched, but does the Blueberry deliver?
Bluetooth as a technology seems to have been 'nearly here' for several years now. It was originally conceived as a part competitor, part compliment to other wireless technologies with a specific focus on low power devices such as PDAs, mobile phones and laptops. As a technology it's been all but entirely overshadowed by WiFi; the notebook market is practically 100% WiFi and newer PDAs such as Toshiba's E740 come with WiFi options in most markets. Bluetooth is carving itself something of a niche as a form of wireless USB, though; a low powered connection option for peripherals such as printers. Can a device that harkens back to the simple file sharing past of Bluetooth succeed?
The Blueberry Bluetooth Internet sharing kit comes with two USB Bluetooth devices, an extension cable designed to make plugging into desktop PCs a tad simpler, and a driver CD-ROM. Like the Muse USB media reader, all the supplied software comes on a business card CD-ROM. We can appreciate that to a certain market the business card CD looks neat; but to anyone with a slot loading drive it's a risky proposition. At least FutureInternet has put up all the necessary drivers on its website as well.
The main focus of the BlueBerry kit is Internet connection sharing through a program called Easygate. While the USB devices are Bluetooth 1.1 compliant, and could be used for an ad-hoc sharing network between multiple PCs, there's no supplied software to do this; users will simply have to work out how to get their Windows machines talking to each other.
The Easygate software works around a client/server architecture where one system will be defined as the "server" - the Net connected one. The Clients then search out the server PC and connect. Password protection is offered; users have 20 seconds to enter the correct password to gain access to the net sharing features.
Bluetooth's entire spin is that it's meant to be easy to set up and use, and one of the reasons that it hasn't fared all that spectacularly well is that up to now, it hasn't been. We were therefore pleasantly surprised to discover that the Blueberry kit worked very well for Net connection sharing, even beyond the theoretical 10m limit that Bluetooth devices are meant to have. We were less impressed with the file sharing; a 1Mbit link feels extremely slow compared to any other wireless technology and even standard 10MBit wired ethernet.
At the time of writing the local importer has yet to finalise pricing. They indicated to us that they expected the 2 piece Blueberry kit to come in somewhere around the AU$300 mark. That too creates something of a problem for the kit; at that price you could pick up two USB 802.11b wireless adapters.
Bluetooth can't compete with 802.11b for bandwidth, and in the areas of connection and file sharing, it gets blown out of the water. That leaves the lower power consumption of Bluetooth as its sole area of recommendation. If you're sharing a Net connection, chances are you're doing so from a tethered desktop or notebook with nearby power supply, which puts the Blueberry in a very small category indeed; wireless travellers who can't get a recharge easily. If that describes you, the Blueberry works well, but for everyone else an 802.11b solution would be much better value.
Blueberry Internet Sharing Adapter
Company: FutureInternet
Price: Approx AU$300
Distributor: MY2K Trading Co
Phone: (02) 9617 1180
Release date: Mid October 2002
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