So, nic has been harrassing me about whether bluetooth headsets currently work with Panther. To the best of my knowledge they do not, but I don’t have one to test. I think I will be rectifying that situation soonly. From what I have found it looks like Orange Micro is working on getting the Jabra Freespeak working with Mac OS X, but they are expecting late 2003 for a working date.
This is a great technology. The Jabra is really cool when used with your phone, and could potentially be a lot cooler when used with your PC. Frankly, I’m really suprised that Apple has not built this functionality into the OS. You would think that bluetooth audio input would not be all that hard to implement. Especially with the advent of iChat AV, a bluetooth headset would be an essential part of a very cool VOIP implentation. I know that I would use iChatAV’s audio chat much more often, simply because I don’t like the speakerphone-like implementation of having audio play out of my speakers and having a mic on my desk pick up the audio. But that also brings up a good point.
Why can’t I use my mac as a speakerphone for my phone? Addressbook has some really cool features in this area. It can show who’s calling you, let you send them an SMS, send them to voicemail, or even answer the phone. But you can’t use your speakers and mic to talk to your caller. I think this would also be a killer app, and can’t believe that no one is working on this solution. I know a great many people who would pay well for this functionality.
These kind of convergence solutions are what Apple is becoming known for, and while it’s a small thing in the scope of operating systems development, its just another cool thing that sets the Mac apart from the rest of the game. I hope we see this functionality soon.
Listening to: “Puss ‘N’ Boots” by Crash Test Dummies