Brief Hands-On Report--Apple Bluetooth Firmware Update 1.2 for Mac OS X 10.4.3 on Some Macs

Apple posted a Bluetooth Firmware Update 1.2 for some Macs running Mac OS X 10.4.3. It is available for direct download from this Apple Web page. For some reason, it appeared in the Software Update application for our Rev. A iMac G5 but not on our Rev. B 20" iMac G5 nor our Power Mac G5 Quad using a D-Link USB adapter.

Here is what Apple states about the update:

The Bluetooth Firmware Update 1.2 improves Bluetooth performance and reliability issues.

When the update package is downloaded, the Bluetooth Firmware Updater application will be launched. Follow the on screen directions to update your Bluetooth Firmware.

The Bluetooth Firmware Updater supports D-Link USB Adapters and Apple internal Bluetooth modules on the following CPUs:

iMac G4 (Gooseneck)
12" Titanium PowerBook
15" Titanium PowerBook
iMac G5
Mac Mini

We downloaded and installled the update on our Rev. A 20" iMac G5 with no problem.

As far as we recall there is no 12" Titanium PowerBook" as listed in Apple's Read Me file but we tried it on our original 867 MHz Aluminum 12" PowerBook G4 and got a dialog box with the alert: "This update is not needed on this computer." with the only option being a button which quit the installer. We got the same alert when we tried to update the Bluetooth firmware in our Rev. B 20" iMac G5.

The Apple Read Me file also states that update is for D-Link USB adapters. It doesn't state which model but we have DBT-120 units on our Power Mac G5 Quad and our Mac mini. Trying to run the update on them resulted in the same alert: "This update is not needed on this computer." We also got the alert when we plugged one of the D-Link USB adapters into our 450 MHz Power Mac G4 Cube and ran the update. [Dana Baggett & Bill Fox]