Why?  They’ve noticed the upsurge in popularity for the games of old.  Call it nostalgia if you like but emulators for classic computers can now be found all over the place and 67% of all smartphone users now say they use their handset for gaming.

The new kit would see the return of the squidgy keyboard but with no computer inside.  Instead there would be a Bluetooth system to pair the keyboard with your phone.

Quite how this will work with a mobile phone screen remains to be seen however some smartphones, such as Nokia’s N8, are now being equipped with HDMI ports so that you can plug them directly into a modern TV.

It’s all jolly exciting as once again we could be enjoying the likes of JetPack, Manic Miner or Death Chase (three of my personal favourites) the way they were originally intended to be enjoyed.

There has been a resurgence in recent years of nostalgia gaming.  This was boosted by the Nintendo Wii which demonstrated that graphics didn’t have to be cutting-edge for a game to be enjoyable.  Smartphones capitalised on this and now games such as Angry Birds are everywhere and some of the most popular games around.

Last year the Commodore 64 was reborn as a low-powered PC.  It wasn’t really a Commodore 64 though.  We await the release of the new Speccy eagerly, at least I do, and it will be great to experience the games on that keyboard again.

Bluetooth Driver Installer is a free software for Windows that has been designed to make that process as easy as possible. Users who want to install Microsoft’s generic Bluetooth driver need to perform the following steps:

• Uninstall the existing Bluetooth driver software, often referred to as Bluetooth stack that came with the device, computer or was downloaded from the Internet.
• Reboot the PC afterwards and make sure to cancel when Windows requests a driver when it finds the new hardware without driver.
• Run the Bluetooth Drvier Installer and follow the instructions on screen.

The program scans the system for Bluetooth adapters and displays the discovered adapters in its interface. It will create a System Restore point automatically which can be used to restore the system at a later point in time. Only then can the Bluetooth drivers be installed on the system. A test at the end completes the installation of the driver.

Bluetooth Driver Installer is worth a shot if the original driver is not working properly or not at all. The free portable application can be downloaded from the developer site.

The software makes it comfortable to lock the computer. The standard locking of the system happens after a given time no matter where the user is. It would for instance lock the PC even if the user is at the PC reading something ready to continue working. The Bluetooth technique ensures that the PC gets locked if the user leaves the proximity of the PC.

It is on the other hand not as easy to setup as a third party software needs to be installed and configured for this to work. Another benefit of using the Bluetooth Proximity Lock Utility is that it can launch an application if the device gets connected or disconnected from the system. It can for instance be used to perform an automatic system cleanup, unmount an encrypted hard drive or run a system tool whenever the device status changes.

The time it takes to lock the PC after the device is disconnected can be configured in the program’s options. The Open Source tool is available for the Windows operating system. Interested users can download both the binary and the source code at the Sourceforge project site.

A common workaround for this problem was to fall back to the generic Microsoft Bluetooth driver instead of the driver that was supplied by the manufacturer of the Bluetooth adapter. This required changing one system file of the Windows operating system and was therefor something that some users did only execute reluctantly.

Bluetooth Driver Installer is a software that will perform the operation for the user. The software will patch the file bth.inf in the Windows\inf\ directory and install that driver afterwards. This is a lot easier than doing it manually.

How to use

1. Uninstall your existing bluetooth stack (driver software that came with the bluetooth adapter).
2. Reboot your computer and click “Cancel” when Windows asks for the driver.
3. Run BluetoothDriverInstaller.exe and follow instructions of the wizard.

A system restore point is created for security and recovery reasons before the operating is performed Bluetooth Driver Installer is a free software program that is compatible with most versions of the Microsoft operating system. It can be downloaded from the developer’s website.

Bluetooth CL has been designed to provide a quick and effective way of detecting Bluetooth devices on computer systems running Windows that support Bluetooth. It is a command line software that detects Bluetooth devices and displays its MAC address, name, major and minor device type and optionally the company name of the device.

The command line tool does not come with a lot of options unlike other Nirsoft applications. It can be executed by simply launching BluetoothCL.exe without parameters. The results are then displayed in the command line window. It is possible to dump the results in a text file by simply appending > bluetooth.txt (or whatever you want to name the text file) after the file name.

The only other parameter that is available is the timeout parameter that defines the timeout for the Bluetooth scanning process. Appending -timeout xx where xx is the time in seconds will do the trick. To dump a list of all Bluetooth devices in the file blue.txt with a timeout of 20 seconds one would issue the following command:

BluetoothCL.exe -timeout 20 > blue.txt

The company name of the device cannot be detected unless the text document oui.txt is downloaded from another website and put in the same directory as the BluetoothCL executable.

This all occurred to me when I recently bought my Palm Pre. After buying the device and returning to the car, I expected to use the same car charger I used for my previous Blackberry Curve to charge my new device. But when I opened the USB 2.0 jack I found out I was out of luck. So on my way to South Carolina I had to stop by a Sprint store and shell out nearly $30 for a charger. Why couldn’t Blackberry, Palm, Apple and Samsung agree to use the same type of charger?

That might have been one case, but it’s not the first, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who gets frustrated when they have to buy a million and one variations of the same cable to do the same damn thing. I’m not saying we have to compromise performance, but just like all (well almost all) cell phone manufacturers have agreed to use either miniSD or microSD in their devices, it’s the same thing that should be done to stuff like headphone jacks chargers and better yet accessories.

I have no idea what Google and HTC were thinking when they didn’t equip a standard 3.5mm jack on the G1. Or why do we need to have ‘Apple Certified’ accessories for our iPhone’s. Yes I know the answer, its just a way for these companies to make more money even after they sell a device, because since Apple and Sony have certified accessories for their iPod and PSP line (respectively), you’ll notice that they will void your warranty if they can prove you used an accessory that was not approved by them And of course the certified accessories are more expensive cause the manufacturers are going to transfer their licensing fees to the consumer.

Thankfully there has been progress especially with Bluetooth, FireWire, CF card, eSATA and of course the indispensable Universal Serial Bus. I’m sure it’s going to take a while before I’m able to transfer my Palm Pre battery to my Motorola Q or worse notebook, or use the same charger I have plugged into my notebook for charging my cellphone, but at least some progress is here. Will ya speed it up though?

What are your thoughts? Let me know in the comments below.

The Bluetooth software will display information like the device name, Bluetooth address, major and minor device type plus the first and last detection time. The program can either notify the user by displaying a balloon tip in the Windows system tray or by playing a sound. Interesting for some users is the surveillance opportunity that arises as the first and last detection time are recorded. An example would be to know when family members or neighbors arrived or left.

Bluetooth View can try to connect to any detected Bluetooth device. This can be used to test the connection. No data will be transferred however and the connection will be closed automatically afterwards. The program requires a Bluetooth dongle and either Windows XP or Windows Vista. The program probably works fine under Windows 7 as well. Bluetooth View is an excellent software program for detecting Bluetooth devices.

1. Enabling bluetooth

The first thing you need to do is enable bluetooth on both devices. You should find bluetooth under connection settings on your phone, or some similar place. I use a Sony w880i, I have it under Settings, Connectivity, Bluetooth. Make sure to set your phone to visible, although this should be the default setting.

On your computer you should have a bluetooth icon in the tray. If you do, right click it, and select “show devices”. If you don’t see the icon there, go into your control panel and double click on “Bluetooth Devices”. This should take you to the same screen. If you don’t see bluetooth settings here, you might not have bluetooth capability, or you might need to install drivers.

2. Adding your device

On the Bluetooth Devices screen you might already see your phone, or you will need to click on “Add Wireless Devices” in the top menu. All devices which can be discovered should be listed after a few moments of searching, if you wait a few more moments, their names, brands, or types should also be visible.

Double click on the device you want to add, and you will be taken through a very simple procedure to add the device to your list. You will need to enter a code into a dialog on your computer, the code for it will be shown on the phone. Once done, your device will be listed on the Bluetooth Devices page.

3. Importing contacts

Double click on your newly listed device and you should see a screen similar to the one below. Select “Backup Contacts and Calendar Information from your Phone”. This will quickly copy all your contacts to the contacts folder in your user directory. You can now sync your contacts between your computer and phone. If supported you might be able to do the same with calendar items, emails and notes.

4. Using your computer as a phone

On the same page, you can see that at the top, you can enter a phone number and call the number. Doing this will work, but it will all be initiated only on the phone. Simply click connect next to the headset option “Use this computer as a headset or speakerphone for calls on your phone”. This will make your computer act like any other wireless headset, so any calls your receive or initiate can be conducted by just talking at your computer. I have a good speaker and a built in mic, so I don’t even have to stop working to talk to people.

The great thing is that you can also initiate a call by right clicking a contact, going to “actions” and clicking on “call this contact”. The call will be initiated from your phone, but since your laptop is your headset, there will be no need to touch your phone, or for it to be anywhere near you.

The PC server application has to be started first. A small notification area displays status information and error messages. Everything else is handled by the mobile phone application. It provides four different modes: Mouse mode, Keyboard mode, Application mode and Utilities.

Mouse and keyboard mode give the user control over the computer’s mouse or keyboard which can be controlled with a joystick or the numeric keys. Application mode handles six applications that can be controlled using that mode if installed and on top of any other windows on the computer desktop.

The applications are Firefox, Winamp, Windows Media Player, PowerPoint, Internet Explorer and Explorer. The last mode Utilities provides access to running commands or sending messages.

The application does not require any configuration of Bluetooth or Java on both the client or server which will appeal to many users who usually shy away from such applications. It could be handy in several situations like business presentations, lying on the coach at home and listening to Winamp or Windows Media Player or starting a command without having to go near the computer.

Carl added Wiimote support to Glove (Glove Programmable Input Emulator) Pie which makes it possible to use the Wiimote and the Nunchuck to control applications in Windows. You need to have bluetooth enabled to be able to communicate with the Wiimote and Nunchuck though. Just download and start the Glove Pie software. After that you could add scripts to support the devices.

I found a forum post that had some good examples for scripts that you could use to use the buttons of the Wii devices for example.

Up = Wiimote.Up
Down = Wiimote.Down
Left = Wiimote.Left
Right = Wiimote.Right
A = Wiimote.A
B = Wiimote.B
One = Wiimote.One
Two = Wiimote.Two
Home = Wiimote.Home
Minus = Wiimote.Minus
Equals = Wiimote.Plus

Some scripts for the Glove Pie can be found at Joseph Coulstons website. The two scripts that he offers make it possible to use the Wiimote with Google Earth and one script to display the battery level of the Wiimote.

It is quite possible that we will soon witness some games that work specifically with the Wiimote connected to your computer.