Do you have Bluetooth devices and an older Mac with USB but without Bluetooth support? Want to add Bluetooth support for a song? USB Bluetooth dongles are cheap nowadays, but the vast majority only mention support for the usual flavors of Windows – Windows 98 and later, the versions of Windows that support USB. Short of taking a chance and spending your money, how can you know if it will work with your Mac? That’s where Low End Mac is stepping up to the plate. We’re going to acquire USB Bluetooth dongles one at a time, test them on our G4 Power Macs running and (and earlier versions), and report back to you on this page. Unbranded USB Bluetooth 2.0 Dongle I suspect we’re going to run into this a lot – unbranded dongles.
Bluetooth MAC Address Changer for Windows is a freeware tool which allows you to change the bluetooth MAC address of your adapter. Bluetooth MAC address is also known as 'Bluetooth Address', 'BD_ADDR', 'Bluetooth hardware id'.
This one supports Bluetooth 2.0 and is made in China. It’s identified as on my receipt from BudgetGadgets.com (no longer online) in Hong Kong, where it sells for $5.07 – and quantity discounts are available. I ordered this on October 22 and received it on November 9 via airmail, not an uncommon turnaround time from the Orient.
It was packed with a USB keyboard that we plan to review in a few days, and the whole package was well wrapped. I don’t have a lot of Bluetooth hardware to test at present: my LG phone, my old Motorola phone, and a Plantronics Voyager 510 headset. I was able to pair each of these on my OS X 10.5 Mac, and the LG phone, the only device I tried with it, on my OS X 10.4 machine. I did not try using the phones as a data connection to the Internet, since I don’t want to pay Alltel Verizon for data service. Since first posting this article, I have also used the dongle with my Blue & White G3 running, and it works with my phones. However, the Bluetooth drivers for 10.3 do not support headsets.
I’ll be look into picking up some other Bluetooth gadgets for testing purposes and update this articles as I test them. I’m still planning to test it with on my Blue & White G3. BudgetGadgets.com has a host of low cost computer and electronic gadgets available, including several other Bluetooth dongles, mice, keyboards, USB flash drives, hard drive enclosures, USB hubs, memory cards, speakers, and even some netbooks. BudgetGadgets.com is offering Low End Mac readers a 5% discount using the coupon code DM5OFF23. Manufacturers and distributors: Interested in having your product reviewed?
Please read our. Keywords: #bluetoothdongle #usbbluetoothadapter searchword: bluetoothdongle.
I'm using a Magic Mouse with my MacBook Pro and Mountain Lion. The cursor sometimes start to lag. I figured, the reason for this could be the distance between my Mac and the mouse (about 1.5 meters / 5 foot).
I bought an external USB Bluetooth dongle I want to plug into my monitor on my desk, so the mouse is closer to the controller. However, I can't figure out how to make OS X use the external dongle instead of the built in controller.
When I go into System Prefs Bluetooth and hold the Option key to display the reception, I see that it is the strongest when it's next to my Mac and not when it's next to the dongle. So what can I do to change that? I just went through this using this no-name adapter on OS X 10.10: The easiest way to use the USB adapter is to reboot. If you hold down the Option key while clicking on the Bluetooth menu icon, the MAC address of the adapter should be different. You can also verify in System Profiler. You'll know it's working if any existing pairings break. I've found that a BT 4.0 adapter is working better than the built-in adapter in my 2010-era Macbook Pro.
Especially with a headset, there's much better sound quality. The on / off button in System Preferences is a little buggy. Turning off the adapter works fine, but clicking 'on' turned the internal adapter back on.
I had to unplug the adapter, plug it back in, and then turn Bluetooth back on. If you want to work around this without rebooting, you can use Bluetooth Explorer from the OS X developer tools. You'll need a (free) developer account. There's a ton of useful tools to debug interference, pairing issues, and so on. This is now part of a package called 'Hardware IO Tools for Xcode V x.x' and can be found at.
I've often had the exact same problem! I've found that the following method works consistently to switch to the external adapter. Starting with the external bluetooth dongle unplugged:. Turn off Bluetooth. Wait about three seconds. Plug in dongle. Again, wait about three seconds.
Turn on Bluetooth This works every time for me. No reboots or additional software required! Additionally, there's a much quicker way to see which bluetooth adapter your mac is currently using. With your external Bluetooth adapter unplugged:.
If there's no Bluetooth icon in your menu bar, go to system prefs - Bluetooth and check 'Show Bluetooth in menu bar'. With the external dongle unplugged, option+click on the Bluetooth icon in your menu bar. Note the sequence of letters and numbers after 'Address:'.
This is the name of your computer's internal Bluetooth adapter. (I usually just pay attention to the last two characters) Now, try to switch to your external adapter, and repeat the above steps. If the address changes, your computer is definitely using the external adapter.