Belkin and Kodak trot out cameraphone-friendly Bluetooth adapter

While there's certainly no shortage of ways to get your photos off your cameraphone and onto your PC, Belkin and Kodak seem to think they've got a better way of doing things, with the pair now rolling out a new Bluetooth adapter / software combo that promises to make things even easier. The key to that, it seems, is Kodak's Picture Upload Technology software, which will apparently automatically pull images off your phone whenever you walk within range of the adapter. Unfortunately, it seems that only XP or Vista users will be able to take advantage of the software, but if that's not a deal-breaker for you, you should be able to get your hands on the bundle now for $50.

[Flashpoint @ Dec 5th 2007 12:31PM]

$50 is $15 too much. In China these things are dirt cheap (lower than $20 in fact). We are paying for name recognition.

Its a good piece of equipment though.

[JerkyChew @ Dec 5th 2007 1:16PM]

Nah, it's a good price. As Apple taught us, it's the software stupid. If the software is easy to use and they market it correctly it could be a huge seller. People ask me all the time for an easy way to get cameraphone pics on their computers, and now I can tell them to buy this device. I'm just leery of how it's going to interface with every freaking camera out there - Is there an industry standard for cameraphone storage & transfer?

[DonatoM3 @ Dec 5th 2007 1:15PM]

You're also paying for the software.

[Jeff @ Dec 5th 2007 6:06PM]

You're actually almost *only* paying for the software. I bought this exact same bluetooth adapter at CompUSA for $15 - only difference is that it came with a driver and that's it.

[T-Bone @ Dec 5th 2007 12:45PM]

I have an old Belkin unit that looks just like that one. I plugged it into the USB port on my photoprinter and sent a picture from my phone to it and it printed the picture. The last thing I want is for that to happen automatically. I don't need or want to print every single picture I took during the day automatically. It is a waste of paper and very expensive ink.

[andy @ Dec 5th 2007 12:50PM]

Point out my stupidity if you must, but how easy will it be for a person to walk around with a laptop and take pics off of nearby phones?

[Giant Squid @ Dec 5th 2007 12:54PM]

^
|
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Stupid

[chainofcommand02 @ Dec 5th 2007 12:59PM]

The phone would most likely have to be paired via Bluetooth before the pictures could be transferred. No pairing, no photo transfer, no worries.

[andy @ Dec 5th 2007 1:00PM]

Thanks, I was waiting for that. What I *REALLY* meant was, could someone tell me why this won't be a problem :)

[Andrew @ Dec 5th 2007 1:01PM]

That's the first thing that popped into my mind too.

[az @ Dec 5th 2007 1:17PM]

It's just that all I hear about these days regarding Bluetooth is how it is the easiest to circumvent (securitywise) and I would imagine if someone figured out a hack for this software, walking down a downtown street and ripping everyone's pics could be a blast. (not that I would do it)

[chainofcommand02 @ Dec 5th 2007 1:34PM]

You wouldn't even need to hack this software, you could just run around town with a laptop and just guessing or brute forcing or whatever ne'er-do-wells use these days to crack BT PINs.

[Captain Obvious @ Dec 5th 2007 2:25PM]

Heh! That pooped into my mind, too.

[elbow @ Dec 5th 2007 12:54PM]

Seems like a company is kinda dooming a product to failure when it endows it with a name that's essentially abbreviated "kaput"

[Natedog @ Dec 5th 2007 12:59PM]

Haha, nice catch. Maybe if they just squeezed the word "Automatic" in there...

[redspear @ Dec 7th 2007 8:05PM]

"Unfortunately, it seems that only XP or Vista users will be able to take advantage of the software,"

I must ask why is it that engadget will never say "Unfortunately, it seems that only Mac users will be able to take advantage of the software,". Seems to me the majority of the computers in the world are Windows based and that with X11 and a UNIX based platform if a program is popular enough it will eventually end up working with WINE. However if it is Mac only it will never run on linux or Windows.

[kastonie @ Dec 5th 2007 1:18PM]

you beat me to it, i was about to say almost the same thing.
Unfortunately, maybe for Donald Melanson....fortunately for most of the world...

[4honor @ Dec 5th 2007 1:24PM]

I didn't think it was too hard to pair up my pc to phone via bluetooth... After it pairs, you just right click the bt icon and select receive file, set phone to send that's it...

However, the hardest part was to get the bluetooth software working on pc and pairing the two devices. If this $50 thing can make it no hassle, it should be good.

[Joshua Walters @ Dec 5th 2007 1:30PM]

Meh

Bluetooth dongle. Its a fancy bluetooth dongle.

Im sure that someone could write an app that works with most dongles to do the same thing.

I dont care if my pictures are automatically pulled off. In fact, that could get annoying. I take pictures for reference, show them to someone, then delete them alot of times.

Theres no reason for them to get put on my hard drive whenever I walk into my home or office. If I want them at home, Ill use the send to PC button and have it connect to my bluetooth dongle. If I want them at work, Ill use my card reader.

[srw985 @ Dec 5th 2007 2:57PM]

or the inevitable will happen and the belkin app will hit the torrents

[Joshua Walters @ Dec 5th 2007 5:27PM]

Is it just an app for a dongle?

If thats the case, then it will be there within an hour of release, Im sure.

If its a FW for the dongle, thats a different story.

[tmasman @ Dec 5th 2007 2:41PM]

I know my mom uses her camera phone all the time & the only way she has/knows to get the pics off is to "email" them via Sprint's website... (Sends an email with a link to view a slideshow on Sprint's site, then you have to grab each pic individually...

She'd LOVE it if her pics just showed up on her computer when she walked within range. I also know my mother-in-law would benefit from sich a device if it worked with her Kodak camera... That thing can take forever to transfer the files off!!!

Me? I like control. I'd never use something like this for myself. But less tech savvy people could definitely use more automated tech.

[szamot @ Dec 5th 2007 3:22PM]

That is just about the stupidest thing I heard today and it is not even 1:30 yet. So basically the mega pixels are going up, the storage is going up, but the download speed is coming down. On an average 10 MP camera how long would it take to pull one image down with with BT or how about 8 GB from a CF card. It is kind of like buying a Ferrari but strapping a donkey to the front of it. Idiots.

[Peter Harris @ Dec 5th 2007 3:34PM]

This is a new idea? Nokia PC Suite does this exact thing + more for free, using any Bluetooth adapter.

http://www.nokia.com/betalabs/nseriespcsuite

[siddharth s @ Dec 5th 2007 5:05PM]

Well, Bluetooth 2.0 is only vulnerable to the man in the middle attack, that too, only when someone is eaves dropping when you FIRST pair the two devices. After that, each time your power up/down, you are NOT vulnerable. It is recommended that you pair sensitive devices in a private place.

Bluetooth 2.1 goes even furthur and strengthens the initial pairing process. Its called Simple Secure Pairing.

The earlier bluetooth vulnerabilities were due to very poor software implementations, not due to the Bluetooth protocol itself. Imagine if your browser kept SSL session keys in a very public area. SSL itself is not badly designed but the vender who made such a browser made chose a poor design.

Coming back, there is a Bluetooth "profile" which allows this kind of image transfers. While I've not looked at the product in question, this image transfer profile was designed for cameras and picture portraits (i.e. wave the camera at your digital photo frame and the picture shows up).

Check out the BIP and BPP profile introduction at http://www.bluetooth.com/Bluetooth/Learn/Works/Profiles_Overview.htm