Bluetooth Headset or Handsfree profile

[Maksim Yevmenkin]

Loren,

[...]

>>>Both my cellphone and bt headset support both handsfree and headset so I
>>>have a lot of combinations I can play with.
>>
>>well, are you aware that most bluetooth headsets are "dumb"? i.e. the 
>>headset can only be paired with one host and, after paired, will only 
>>accept connections from the paired host. what it means is that once 
>>paired with the cellphone, the headset can only be used with the 
>>cellphone. it is only possible to, say, transfer the call between the 
>>headset and the cellphone only. it is *not* possible to transfer the 
>>call to another audio gateway.
> 
> Actually my motorola headset can remember up to eight paired devices,
> but it will only try to connect to the most recently paired device, the
> other 7 devices much start the connection themselves.  I have
> sucessfully paired my headset with my computer and cellphone both, with
> the cellphone paired last so my headset will connect to it by default.
> But, with my cellphone bt turned off, I was able to make linux access
> the headset profile and play audio through it.

this is great. i'm glad that at least some manufacturers think "out of 
the box" :)

>>it would have been so nice if cellphones could also use bluetooth to 
>>connect to audio gateways. this way - as soon as i walk in the room with 
>>bluetooth audio gateway (such as asterix/skype/etc.) i could switch my 
>>phone to use it instead of gsm. now all my calls go via voip and not 
>>coming out of my minutes. i also wish headsets could "remember" more 
>>then one paired host.
> 
> Actually, on windows I have successfully connected to the audio gateway
> on my computer and heard the call through my speakers, though I had no
> microphone to talk back with.  I can connect to the headset/handfree
> profile on my phone with either the computer or the motorola headset in
> the middle of a call and get the audio routed automatically to my
> computer/headset.

well, it somewhat different scenario. your _phone_ is still connected to 
the gsm network and can route audio to either headset or windows pc. its 
  great that your phone can do that.

what i had in mind is that you have voip hardware/software running on 
the pc. so, you can make a voip calls from your pc, just like regular 
phone. the scenario i tried to describe is that the cellphone becomes a 
headset-like device, i.e. using bluetooth it connects to the pc and 
using headset-like protocol request a call (from pc via voip).

now bluetooth headset could either be connected to the cellphone or you 
could just connect it directly to the pc, i.e.


<--> IP <--> [voip pc] <-- bt --> [cellphone] <-- bt --> [headset]
                  ^
                  |
                  +-------- bt --> [another headset]

so, the cellphone is acting like proxy giving access to your phone book, 
voice commands etc. but making all the calls via voip pc and not gsm.

> Now as far as using voip, I don't know if my cellphone could do that.

the phone does hot have to support voip.

thanks,
max