Ease of Wi-Fi/Bluetooth network switching on Sony Clie UX50?

Yeechang Lee · Joined: 25 Jul 2007 Posts: 4

[Crossposted to alt.cellular.bluetooth and two Palm OS-oriented newsgroups.]

I'm thinking hard about getting the soon-to-be-released-in-the-US Sony
Clié UX50 Palm OS organizer with built-in Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

I'd love to hear from Japanese UX50 owners on how easy it is to switch
between networks, whether between different Wi-Fi hotspots or between
Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. How transparent is the process? That is, will the
Clié automatically look for Wi-Fi first, then Bluetooth (or vice
versa)? Or do I have to fiddle with configuration screens for many
seconds? If I go from one Wi-Fi hotspot to another, how
straightforward is the procedure to 1) identify the hotspot and 2)
sign on to it?

Ideally what I'd like to do is the following:

* Sit down at a restaurant, bookstore, or other public place.
* Pull out the UX50 and jump to the Netfront Web browser.
* Look for a Wi-Fi hotspot.
a) If one exists, surf away.
b) If one does not exist, switch to Bluetooth and use my
Bluetooth-enabled phone [1] to surf away.

[1] For purposes of the discussion, the specifics of the Bluetooth
phone aren't important as I don't own one at the moment. It could be a
Siemens C56, Sony Ericsson T610/T616, or whatever else is the latest
and greatest. The data network could be GPRS or (preferably) some CDMA
variant.

--
Read my Deep Thoughts @ PERTH ----> *
17:34:03 up 1 day, 12:12, 16 users, load average: 3.56, 2.66, 2.33
153 processes: 144 sleeping, 6 running, 3 zombie, 0 stopped
CPU states: 9.5% user 5.9% system 84.3% nice 0.0% iowait 0.0% idle

Archived from group: alt>cellular>bluetooth

Tony Clark · Joined: 25 Jul 2007 Posts: 48

I tired to research information specific to the UX50 but I guess since it's
not officially out here in the US, Sony hasn't released any English
information at this time.

Generally speaking, when using WiFi, you have a "sniffer" application that
will search for access points. So while sitting in the coffee shop you would
snif for a hotspot. Upon finding one you would follow the normal login
proceedures for that hotspot. Some hotspots offer free service but many
require a service contract. Some service contracts are monthly and some can
be for a single 24 hour period. If you move from one location to another you
may have to reinitiate the sniffing proceedure and login again.

Bluetooth is somewhat different. I am not aware of any Bluetooth hotspots
yet, but there may be some out there. Most people will use Bluetooth in
conjuction with a BT enabled phone. I have not used a Sony but I have played
with a Palm device and the setup was quick and easy. Once you configure your
device for the specific phone you have then it's pretty easy to pair the
phone with the PDA and initiate what amounts to a dial-up connection. You
may have to configure the applications, like the web browser, to use the
type of connection that is available which means you may have to switch from
Bluetooth to WiFi occasionally. This is usually a menu selection and is not
all that hard to change.

I know this is not specific information but I hope it gives you a flavor of
what it will take to use the PDA for web surfing..

Cheers
TC

"Yeechang Lee" wrote in message@pobox.com...
> [Crossposted to alt.cellular.bluetooth and two Palm OS-oriented
newsgroups.]
>
> I'm thinking hard about getting the soon-to-be-released-in-the-US Sony
> Clié UX50 Palm OS organizer with built-in Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
>
> I'd love to hear from Japanese UX50 owners on how easy it is to switch
> between networks, whether between different Wi-Fi hotspots or between
> Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. How transparent is the process? That is, will the
> Clié automatically look for Wi-Fi first, then Bluetooth (or vice
> versa)? Or do I have to fiddle with configuration screens for many
> seconds? If I go from one Wi-Fi hotspot to another, how
> straightforward is the procedure to 1) identify the hotspot and 2)
> sign on to it?
>
> Ideally what I'd like to do is the following:
>
> * Sit down at a restaurant, bookstore, or other public place.
> * Pull out the UX50 and jump to the Netfront Web browser.
> * Look for a Wi-Fi hotspot.
> a) If one exists, surf away.
> b) If one does not exist, switch to Bluetooth and use my
> Bluetooth-enabled phone [1] to surf away.
>
> [1] For purposes of the discussion, the specifics of the Bluetooth
> phone aren't important as I don't own one at the moment. It could be a
> Siemens C56, Sony Ericsson T610/T616, or whatever else is the latest
> and greatest. The data network could be GPRS or (preferably) some CDMA
> variant.
>
> --
> Read my Deep Thoughts @ PERTH ----> *
> 17:34:03 up 1 day, 12:12, 16 users, load average: 3.56, 2.66, 2.33
> 153 processes: 144 sleeping, 6 running, 3 zombie, 0 stopped
> CPU states: 9.5% user 5.9% system 84.3% nice 0.0% iowait 0.0%
idle