05-10-2009 by Tons.

Pairing your smartphone and laptop

First, you’ll need to pair your Windows Mobile phone with your laptop. Pairing creates a software bond between the phone and the laptop so they can recognize each other automatically in the future. Because Bluetooth software on laptops varies, the following steps are general purpose—the exact steps you follow may differ slightly. On my laptop running Windows Vista, the Bluetooth software is most easily accessed via the small, blue Bluetooth icon in the system tray, but it can also be accessed by clicking Start > All Programs > Bluetooth.

After you’ve accessed Bluetooth, pair your Windows Mobile phone with your laptop:

• Turn on Bluetooth on your smartphone by accessing the Wireless Manager. On a Windows Mobile Standard phone, press the power button and click Wireless Manager on the menu. On a Windows Mobile Professional phone, click Comm Manager in the Settings panel. (The names of the programs are different in Windows Mobile Standard and Windows Mobile Professional phones.)

• When Bluetooth is turned on, you should see the Bluetooth logo appear somewhere at the top of the Home screen—this tells you that Bluetooth is active. Next, you’ll need to dig into the Bluetooth settings to find a setting called Make Device Visible. Turning on this setting allows your laptop to see your smartphone.

• Right-click the Bluetooth icon on your laptop, and look for an option that says Add a Bluetooth Device (or something similar). The Add Bluetooth Device Wizard opens.

  Follow the instructions in the wizard (the software scans for any nearby Bluetooth devices and displays what it finds).

• Select the device you want to pair with. If you see multiple devices, make sure you select the right device—typically it is the make or model of the smartphone. In this example, I want to pair with my Samsung Blackjack II, which is also known as the SGH-i616. After you select the smartphone you want to pair with, click Next.

  

• The next step involves security. To prevent just anyone from accessing your smartphone over Bluetooth, you’ll set up a passkey. A passkey is a short series of numbers that you only need to enter once. You can choose your own passkey, but it’s generally easiest to let the software select a random passkey. Click Choose a passkey for me, and then click Next.

  

• When the passkey is generated, the laptop attempts to connect to the smartphone. On your phone, an on-screen prompt appears that asks you if you want to allow a Bluetooth connection from your laptop. Click Accept, and enter the passkey when prompted. This process has to be completed within a short period of time (usually less than 60 seconds) or it will time out and have to be redone.

• After the passkey is entered on the phone, the process continues automatically on the laptop, and your phone and laptop should inform you that a successful pairing has been completed. The pairing process should not have to be repeated unless the pairing is deleted for some reason.

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07-20-2008 by Tons.

Looking for a place to park in San Francisco, California is a hassle and a huge gas-waster, but thanks to a system developed by Streetline, finding an empty spot on the street will no longer require luck.According to the New York Times, over 6,000 parking spots across the city are being converted into smart spots with the help of wireless street sensors that determine if a parking space is occupied or vacant.

Drivers can access SFPark’s up-to-date information via their cell phone, but to keep everyone safe on the road, the city also plans to install battery-operated street signs that display the number of empty spots available in nearby streets.

Apparently, these 4-inch-by- 4-inch plastic sensors not only determine when vehicles are parked, but also when they depart, and a when a new one replaces it, which has city officials thinking of ways drivers could feed the parking meter without returning to their car.

The New York Times says the sensors will also be used to relay congestion information to city planners, but in the future, they may be used to monitor air quality and deploy noise sensors when the sound of a car crash or gun shot is detected.

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