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 Blue Fang v1.2
Review
by Mike Featherstone
25/8/2004
Blue
Fang is a little freeware 'Preference Panel' utility that I came across
recently while checking for new releases of PalmOS
software. As you might guess from the name, it's
Bluetooth related and is therefore only useful if you have a Bluetooth
enabled PalmOS device. In it's
original guise (v1.0), this was an application that inserted a Bluetooth
icon into the Command Bar so that your Bluetooth settings could be managed
with a single stylus stroke and tap and the status of your Bluetooth radio
could be checked with just a stroke. It still provides those functions in
its updated form, but now offers just a little bit more besides.
I've
had a Tungsten T3 for a few months now and as a result, I've equipped my laptop
with a Bluetooth dongle to facilitate wireless HotSync and web
browsing/email transfer. Thus I use Bluetooth, but only for very specific
functions and for a small period of time each week. At all other times, I
run my device with the Bluetooth radio disabled to conserve the battery.
With the T3, of course, the radio status is easily configured and confirmed
via the Status Bar at the bottom of the display so in its original form,
Blue Fang would have offered me very little.
 Using my
PDA in this way means that when I want to perform any of the operations I
have configured for Bluetooth, I need to remember to switch the radio on
first and, more importantly, switch it off afterwards. HotSync actually
works quite well in this respect. As part of the OS, it seems quite
intelligent and actually looks at the type of connection it is configured
for prior to running. When that uses Bluetooth, it checks the state of the
radio before attempting to communicate with the PC and if it detects that
Bluetooth is disabled, it offers you a dialog box that lets you switch it
on before continuing. All very civilised and
easily manageable, in my opinion. Switching the radio off is still a manual
process, though, and while it is one I rarely forget (I use a 'skinned' DIA
which has a very clear red 'Bluetooth on' indication), it is one I
regularly find a nuisance to have to remember.
The
other applications I use via Bluetooth, WebPro
and VersaMail are different. For whatever reason,
they cannot (or do not) look into the connection settings to see what type
of connection they are configured for and so, more often than not, when
using these applications my attempts to connect to my computer fail because
the Bluetooth radio is switched off. This is more annoying than having to
remember to switch the radio off after a HotSync, but not annoying enough
to provoke me into spending money on a 'work around' application. I know
many people swear by BtToggle as a must have
utility and I have tried it. It works, but it doesn't offer enough of an
advantage to convince me to pay money to automate something that I am
perfectly capable of doing myself.
The
new version of Blue Fang, therefore, is just what I have been looking for.
Firstly,
it's Freeware so none of the arguments above apply. I'm sorry if this
attitude offends anyone, but in a case where (for me) the issue is one of
convenience rather than need, a sales pitch of 'You can do the job
yourself…but you don't need to' is much more compelling than 'You
can do the job yourself or you can pay to have it done for you'.
Secondly,
with the introduction of v1.2, this utility has been extended such that a
set of simple rules may be defined to govern the switching of the Bluetooth
function on your device. The rules are application based and allow you to
specify a Bluetooth radio state for each application's Launch and Close
events.
The
available states are:
- Bluetooth radio On
- Bluetooth radio Off
- leave the Bluetooth
settings as they are
- reset the Bluetooth radio
to the state it was in prior to running the application (applicable
to application Close only)
To
meet my requirements, I've configured Blue Fang to switch the Bluetooth
radio On when HotSync is selected and, more importantly, to switch it off
again when I select another application. I've used the same criteria for WebPro. VersaMail is slightly
different as in order to send mail, I first have to write it and I don't
need Bluetooth On to write mail. For this application, therefore, I've left
it such that I still need to manually switch Bluetooth on but Blue Fang
will ensure it is switched off again when I close the application.
This
just about covers my needs and while it doesn't have quite the same level
of finesse as would be the case is I used BtToggle,
it's plain and simple approach emulates what I
have been doing manually, and emulates it with 100% reliability (which I
haven't yet been able to reach).
One
final point - in the accompanying documentation, it states that there is a
'known issue' when configuring the HotSync application in Blue Fang.
Apparently, Blue Fang is bypassed if HotSync is commanded from the cradle
button and the Blue Fang Bluetooth settings are ignored as a result. In my
opinion, this is exactly the way it should work, as a cradle HotSync
operation doesn't need Bluetooth enabled. It's not a 'known issue' it's a
feature!
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