What's the deal with XP and bluetooth?

[Nomen]

I picked up a cheap bluetooth speaker recently (Memorex MW212 Bluetooth speaker) for $20. Details can be found here: http://support.memorex.com/category/121/0/10/Home-Audio/Models%3A-MW-xxxx/MW212/

My intention is to use it with a Windoze 7 netbook (which I still have to buy a bluetooth dongle for) but for now, just to test it, I thought I'd try a more accessible XP system.

I have an AIRcable Host XR2 USB Bluetooth Dongle (a long-range bluetooth adapter about the size of a deck of cards). After connecting the dongle, Under Device Manager I have Generic Bluetooth radio and Microsoft Bluetooth Enumerator, and a Bluetooth icon in the tray, which (after pairing with the Memorex speaker) that it sees the MW212 - with passkey enabled.

If I bring up the Memorex MW212 Properties:

General tab:

Type of device: Headset (audio device)

Address: (bunch of hex values)

Last connected: (a few minutes ago)

Connection: Passkey enabled)

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Services tab:

(flashlight is searching for a few seconds)

This Bluetooth device offers the following services. To use a service, select the check box.

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Except there is nothing that appears in the window below the above instructions. What do I need, or what am I missing, to give XP the ability to actually use these speakers beyond simply being able to pair with them?

Does XP have the same problem with bluetooth devices that Win-98 did with USB thumb drives before Maxim Decim USB thingy?

Does XP (and every other version of windoze) require device-specific drivers for common classes of bluetooth devices (such as speakers) ? Or would win-7 have some special, magical ability to play audio through these speakers (but XP doesn't) ?

Would any of this be a function of the bluetooth stack - and maybe fishing around for a different stack would enable XP to use these speakers?

[Guest]

Are you unable to select the device in the "Control Panel" --> "Sounds and Audio Devices" --> Audio tab?

[Nomen]

I clicked on the speaker in the tray and brought up the audio control panel (or what-ever it is) and looked to see if there was another available audio device - and there didn't seem to be. But I think there's supposed to be a service in the bluetooth device properties for me to select, except the service list was empty.

[Nomen]

I must admit that given the number of cheap (but acoustically acceptible) bluetooth speaker systems that I'm seeing turn up in discount electronic stores, I am somewhat surprised that Windows bluetooth connectivity for these devices isin't more of a well known issue - at least to the crowd reading this forum.

Both XP and Win-7, out-of-the-box, doesn't have the ability to send audio to bluetooth speakers. Seaching the web turns up a few moderately detailed thread as to why that is. Windows XP / Vists / 7 apparently do not support (or have no awareness of the bluetooth "Advanced Audio Distribution Profile" otherwise known as A2DP.

Bluetooth has always seemed to be a funny animal in the world of PC communications technology. Having the hardware (bluetooth radio) is not enough. The stack is, apparently, not a commodity the way that, say, the TCP/IP stack is. Microsoft apparently didn't want to pay to have Windows have full bluetooth device operability out-of-the-box.

So the short story is that I downloaded something called the Toshiba Bluetooth stack, for which multiple versions can be found here:

http://www.support.toshiba.com/support/viewContentDetail?contentId=3461138

I don't recall which one I downloaded onto a PC with Windows 7 (I'll check that later today) but after it was installed, I was able to play music (all sounds, including system sounds) through the Memorex MW212 speakers using the Aircable XR2 bluetooth radio.

I will try the same thing on an XP system later today.