Bluetooth compatibility question

[Sazerac]

Hi everyone!

First post here. I just bought an Android tablet (first ever experience with Android), and I have a few questions. I'm trying not to seem like a total n00b, so I'll try to keep my questions in the proper forums (hopefully) and do some Googling beforehand in case some things are common issues.

Before I ask the questions, I should mention that the tablet I have is an Envizen Digital V700B and it's running ICS (4.0.4). Seeing as this is a cheap no-name tablet, I have yet to find any information on it whatsoever on the internet, so hopefully someone here will be able to help me.

So here's today's question: I'm looking to connect my tablet to my phone via bluetooth to use the internet without having to be in a Wifi area, but AFAIK, my tablet doesn't have bluetooth. I know it's not bluetooth enabled, but I've read that some tablets have a bluetooth chip inside which can be "activated" with a ROM (IIRC). If this is true, how can I tell if my tablet has what it needs?

Otherwise, my tablet has a standard USB port, so I imagine I could use a bluetooth dongle, but finding information on this online seems hard. Many people have asked the question, but there doesn't seem to be a definite answer out there (at least, not that I could find). From what I've read, I'm sure some people have been able to bluetooth dongles, but I don't know if the tablet needs drivers or something else to be able to use one.

TIA everyone, and I hope I'll be able somehow get mobile internet on this thing since I'm often on the move. Then eventually I'll have to buy a good quality one

- Saz

 

[Sazerac]

I'm getting curious as to why I haven't gotten any replies yet. Is it because there isn't an answer to my question, or that the answer is just to obvious and I haven't found it. I would appreciate at least some kind of an answer letting me know if the lack of replies is because no answer exists, or that no one wants to give it to me.

TIA.

 

[J515OP]

Hi Saz, welcome to the forum. You mentioned that you want to connect to your tablet to your phone by bluetooth but then say the phone doesn't have bluetooth. What kind of phone do you have? If it doesn't have bluetooth then the tablet can't connect to it even if the tablet does have bluetooth. Both devices must have bluetooth for a connection.

If the ultimate goal is to get connected to the internet on the tablet there are a couple of ways you can do that. If your phone supports it you can use your phone as a mobile hotspot. This will turn your phone into a wifi router that you can connect your tablet to via wifi to access teh internet through your phones data connection. If your phone doesn't have a hotspot feature you can get a device like the mifi which is a wifi hotspot that connects to the cellular data network and allows you to connect any device with wifi to it.

JP

 

[Sazerac]

Hi JP, thanks for the quick reply and for the welcome to the forum.

I guess I should proofread my posts before I post What I meant is that my TABLET doesn't have bluetooth. My phone is a Blackberry Bold 9700 which has bluetooth. After a brief search on Google, it seems my phone can't act as a hotspot.

I'm not familiar with Mifi, but if I understand the concept, I would need to pay for a separate data plan than the one on my cell phone, is this right?

 

[Sazerac]

After a bit more research, I'm not sure what's going on with Mifi in Canada (can't find much info), but I know now that it's basically like having a second cell phone contract which I'm not ready to pay for at this point. I've been looking a bit more into USB tethering using PDAnet for Blackberry. It seems that it should work, but a lot of different posts on different forums seem to have difficulty getting this set up. Anyone here have any experience with PDAnet for Blackberry?

With any luck, I should be changing my cell phone soon. And, if all goes well with my new tablet, I'll hopefully try to aim for an Android based phone (I've never been much of an Apple guy, and Blackberry doesn't have a superphone available with my provider, so it's either Android or Windows.. each choice).

But to get back to my original question, should a bluetooth dongle work to tether wirelessly? (I have one on order from DX, but it will be a couple of weeks probably before I can try it out). If not, is there a way I can find out if my tablet has a bluetooth capable chipset which can be "enabled"?

Thanks!