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Bluetooth USB dongle?

I see these little Bluetooth USB thumb drives and have read a few reviews of them at Amazon.com. Still, I am not sure exactly what they do or how I might put one to use. I have a new tablet PC with Bluetooth and a desktop without it. If I bought one of these little Bluetooth USB drives, plugged it into my desktop, then I could do...what? That I can't do now.

Is the advantage just that I can radio files from drive stuck into desktop over to my tablet without disconnecting it from desktop and then plugging it into the tablet? If so, well, that is something. Might be worth the $40, over time.

Comment on various brands, features and benefits?

mack austin

Reply to
Mack McKinnon
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You're muddling USB BlueTooth dongle with USB thumbdrive. The USB dongle is a wireless transceiver to network a computer to other BlueTooth devices such as another BlueTooth PC or a BlueTooth headset or a cell phone. A USB thumbdrive lets you store files to it after which you can take the thumbdrive to another computer read or to make a copy of those files.

Tony

Reply to
Anthony R. Gold

"Anthony R. Gold" wrote

Not surprised if I am "muddling". I have USB thumbdrives and use them all the time, to transfer files, music, photos, etc. between computers. Recently, I have seen USB Bluetooth devices that look just like the thumbdrives and cost about $40. I thought this was what people were calling a "dongle". Maybe not, huh?

Anyway, is the Bluetooth USB device not a thumbdrive with a radio in it? If not, what is it? How would I use it, if I stuck it into my desktop (now without Bluetooth) and used it with my Bluetooth-equipped tablet?

mack austin

Reply to
Mack McKinnon

I have BlueTooth USB dongles which have no flash memory drive but maybe someone makes one. Doesn't the vendors description say? If it's silent about any thumbdrive memory then assume there is none. The plain BlueTooth dongle is a wireless transceiver and will allow you to network your desktop with the tablet to exchange files its. It's very similar to an IR connection or an 802.11 peer-to-peer (non access-point) Wi-Fi one.

Tony

Reply to
Anthony R. Gold

Well, thanks. The vendors' descriptions I have read may just assume I know some basic facts that I did not. In any case, it did not occur to me that the thing that looked like a thumb drive was not the same at all. I will have to hunt for some details about how these things work.

mack austin

Reply to
Mack McKinnon

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