We will try to get a GPRS internet connection using Linux-based phones as modems and route the connection to Mac OS X via Bluetooth. This guide is for Mac OS X, the US Cingular GPRS service only (other providers might work out of the box with the phone, others might not at all -- you never know with GPRS) and any of the Linux-based Motorola smartphones like the A760, A780, E680/i etc (they are all identical regarding their 'modem' functionality).
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Member since:
2005-07-06
what has your experience been ?
Member since:2005-06-28
1. There is no greek support in the Motorola Linux smartphones (at least the unlocked ones that one could find in the bazaar 
. There is only Chinese and English support. These smartphone's market is primarily for China and Singapore in fact, not even USA.
2. No, the full range of iSync does not work, as I already mentioned in the article. But Address Book syncing and modem-functionality does.
>what has your experience been ?
Did you not read my review of the E680i the other day? (the A780 and E680i software side is almost identical). I link it above!
Member since:2005-07-06
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Member since:2005-06-28
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Member since:
2005-09-17
Any way to browse with your mobile using your Mac's Internet connection through Bluetooth?
The Sharing system preferences seem to have a "share internet connection through Bluetooth, but I cannot sort out how to use it with my N-Gage, or if it is supposed to do that at all…
Member since:2005-06-28
Your question is a very valid one. There are a lot of PDA users who want to get bluetooth internet connection via their Mac, but Apple does NOT provide this feature. Apple provides the ability to share a bluetooth connection to another network interface (e.g. WiFi), but not from another network interface *to* Bluetooth device. So, don't waste any time trying to make this work. This is why I even wrote this a while back: http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=10923
So, no, you can't share a network connection to Bluetooth device with Tiger. You could do it with Panther with some command line work, but it seems that no one has figured it out for Tiger yet.
But even if this was supported, the Linux motorola phones don't support that. They only support accepting a network connection either via Edge, GPRS or CSD. No Bluetooth or WiFi, even if they had the hardware in place. They don't support it in the software level.
Member since:2005-09-17
Thanks for the reply.
Can you expand then, please, what is Bluetooth supposed to do in the Sharing system preferences? I see that you already mentioned that one could "share a bluetooth connection to another network interface (e.g. WiFi), but not from another network interface *to* Bluetooth device". But I still cannot make out what that means exactly, or what this literal (transl. from Spanish) setting means: "Share connection from Bluetooth with computers that use Ethernet/Firewire/Airport".
What would that accomplish? What would you use that with, for instance? (the Help System is quite lacking on that)
Member since:2005-07-06
I see that you already mentioned that one could "share a bluetooth connection to another network interface (e.g. WiFi), but not from another network interface *to* Bluetooth device". But I still cannot make out what that means exactly
I believe she means that, if you had a connection established over bluetooth (like the one described in the article, using a cellphone as a modem), you could then allow other computers on your local network to use that connection through NAT, wireless, or some other connection sharing scheme. But, if you already have a connection setup on the Mac (e.g., cable/dsl) and you want to allow other computers/devices to access that connection via bluetooth, it won't work.
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It should be possible although it'll be a bit of hardwork.
Once you have some sort of ethernet forwarding over BT from the freeBSD box (Bluetooth PAN Protocol implementation as an example). You'll need a client side bluetooth application running on the Linux phone, this would have to route the ethernet packets via the phone's built in subsystem.
I'm not huge on the linux phones, would you need to recompile the kernel to do this ? Surely there could be some way to do it without the re-compliation ?
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There is a community of linux hackers working on extending the functionality of these Motorola linux phones (E680/E680I/A780) at :
http://www.motorolafans.com/
Being based on QT and Linux, quite a few things have been hacked into the phone:
1) OPIE running alongside Motorola's phone application
2) BlueZ with PAND support
3) Adding unofficial localizations to the phone
4) Ability to act as a NAT gateway to Windows/Linux machines
Meanwhile work is underway on:
1) Bluetooth HID support
2) USB Host support (it currently operates only as a client)
I'm sure I've missed out quite a few. But what I can say is, this phone is definitely a good buy, providing me with hours of hacking pleasure.
