IOGear GBU421 Bluetooth 2.0 USB Micro Adapter

• IOGEAR Bluetooth 2.0 USB Micro Adapter offers Bluetooth connectivity at a fraction of the size of normal Bluetooth USB adapters
• This Bluetooth Class 2 adapter is also compatible with both Mac and PC computers, and offers a wireless range of 30 feet (10 meter)

Beware before installing with Vista:
The product works (eventually) and is low priced and is tiny. But, before you install it, please consider the following. Customer care by Iogear is horrendous. The first hurdle is bad instructions. Step 1 for Vista says you MUST insert the device. Then step 8 says DO NOT insert the device. 8 is correct, by the way. Still, the included ver. 5 drivers do not work with Vista. When you contact the vendor for help, they'll tell you where the ver. 6 drivers reside. They're marked 221 thru 321 so you think they don't work with the 421, but they do. Oh, you need the revised instructions, too. By the way, the included disc says nothing about the software version. You have to watch for it after launching setup. So, get ver. 6 drivers or later, get the latest instructions, and don't plug in until the drivers are fully installed in Vista. I asked if the drivers were necessary since Vista wants to provide its own, and tech support said yes, you need to install them. I tried tech support's live chat. They pointed me to newer instructions that said to wait before connecting, but they said nothing about the ver. 5 drivers and Vista incompatibility. After wasting 2 hours installing and uninstalling, I emailed to tech support. I wrote at midnight and when I got up bright and early, I had a URL for the proper drivers and instructions. The final installation was flawless and the device works fine.

Excellent micro sized bluetooth adapter:
I got this adapter to use with my new Acer Aspire ONE netbook (one of its few shortcoming being the lack of built-in bluetooth). WOW, is this device tiny! It fits very snugly into a free usb port -- it won't fall or slip out easily, and you can't even see any of the metal from the usb plug -- its just a tiny blue wart on the side of your machine. You'll hardly know its there! The seems to be little chance you could snag anything on it or break it off like with a larger dongle. The blue LED is easily visible but not excessively bright like on some dongles and devices. It also shuts off when not in use. Seems to be very power efficient, you can just leave it inserted all the time. Range seems fine, comparable to larger bluetooth dongles. Includes excellent Widcomm bluetooth stack software (using with XP) and supports A2DP for my bluetooth headphones. I highly recommend this product for anyone who wants to add unobtrusive bluetooth support to a notebook or netbook.

didn't do what I needed:
The pros: -wonderfully small and sleek package. You really can leave it plugged into a USB slot when you put your laptop away. -excellent phone support. The cons: -the supplied drivers do not support wireless ActiveSync with my Palm Treo 700wx. -the software also does not quite work with BlueTunes, which is freeware that allows you to control your computer with a Wii remote. I say "not quite" because it works right after you install the software, but after you restart the system it won't work again unless you reinstall. -the device is so small that those with large or weak fingers may not be able to remove it from the USB slot. Also, the width is such that if you have closely-spaced USB slots, it won't allow you to plug anything into an adjacent slot.

Does the job nicely!:
Works exactly as expected. I was hoping for a bit more range, but it's really not bad at all. I can't use my bluetooth headset to Skype upstairs with out some breakup, but anywhere downstairs it will "talk" with my 1st floor laptop just fine. Data transfers that are not time sensitive may work even better. Barely sticks out so it's great for just leaving it in there. Works perfectly with my old Dell and my new Wind, and has no issues at all with XP. My "super tech" friend had to have one right away after seeing mine!

Awesome and so simple to use:
Long story short, the most difficult thing about installing this product is getting it out of the blister pack in the first place. The provided instructions (you can actually download or read the manual on the web while you're waiting for the Bluetooth dongle to arrive) are very clear, the install is a snap....but you've read other reviews and know that already. Here's the true beauty of this tiny piece of hardware. It links to practically everything! Because it is not only Bluetooth 2.0 compliant but also backward compatible to Bluetooth 1.1 and also supports stereo audio you won't have any issues connecting to a Bluetooth mouse or stereo headset. Within minutes of the install I had the little (and I mean tiny) GBU421 linked to my Motorola cell phone (audio and dialing from the laptop, no need to ever get the phone out of pocket or purse), a PDA, Garmin GPS Mobile10, Bluetooth headset and a mouse. The crazy thing is IOGear has managed to make this thing work with all the above simultaneously. Anyone considering a 'look alike' Bluetooth dongle featured by some eBay and other sellers, don't bother. Either they aren't 2.0 or aren't backward compatible (you lose the use of most Bluetooth mice) won't handle stereo audio and sometimes all the above. Very impressive IOGear...and did I mention it's really tiny? Cheers