Bluetooth Headset

[ztirffritz]

I bought another Bluetooth headset from Woot and it won't work with my Macbook either. It also won't work with my wife's iPhone. What gives? Is there some special sauce that only works with Apple products?

[chas_m]

User error, most likely. Sorry.

I've used a wide variety of BT headsets with Macbooks and my iPhone. All work fine if you follow the directions for pairing first (you didn't mention it).

If you're talking about stereo headPHONES rather than those in-ear headsets, stereo support for those requires either a dongle or Leopard, which of course is not yet out.

[ztirffritz]

Pairing is a pretty simple process. I did it with a MotoRAZR that I bought for my wife. The phone was a piece of crap, but it was easy to get it to sync. It should be that simple. Turn on Bluetooth on the computer. Select what type of device you're attempting to sync. The computer goes into detection mode. Power on the device and wait for detection...only it never happens. The MacBook detected the iPhone just fine, but announced that there was nothing that it could do with it. Neither the iPhone nor the MacBook saw the earpiece which is made by LG. It very well may be user error, as I've tried two different earpieces and neither has worked...but I'm fairly savvy and I am an IT Manager for a fairly large company so I doubt it.

[chas_m]

Maybe just bad luck then. One of my pieces was a Scala one (found it right away) and the other was a test of some friends' piece, I don't know the brand (fits right into the ear, no strap required -- didn't like the feel tho).

I doubt this will help, but I did find that turning the BT headset on first seemed to help the computer find it faster.

[Article Accelerator]

- Check your Bluetooth pane settings in System Preferences--make sure Bluetooth power is on and discoverability is enabled
- Power on the external device and put it into pairing mode
- Initiate discovery and pairing from the Macbook using the "Set Up New Device" button in the Devices tab of the Bluetooth pane of System Preferences.

[ztirffritz]

[quote Article Accelerator]- Check your Bluetooth pane settings in System Preferences--make sure Bluetooth power is on and discoverability is enabled
- Power on the external device and put it into pairing mode
- Initiate discovery and pairing from the Macbook using the "Set Up New Device" button in the Devices tab of the Bluetooth pane of System Preferences.
There's only a single button on the headset, so it is either on or off. Everything else you stated is what I did.

[Article Accelerator]

Hmm...most BT headsets have a pairing mode.

[macphanatic]

The headset should have a pairing mode. It may be accessible by holding the button in until a light flashes, it beeps or some other signal. Does the manual say anything about pairing mode? I have yet to have a bluetooth device that has had it.

[ztirffritz]

I'm not too proud to eat crow...you were all right. I was wrong. I looked up the headset and found that there was a pairing mode, though it wasn't very intuitive. It was something like hold the power button for 3 seconds, release for 1 second then hold for 5 seconds. I would've figured that out eventually...NOT.