Impossible to pair with bluetooth devices without PIN

Device: Iconia B1-A71 tablet

OS: Android 4.1.2

Installed the Acer OS upgrade: YES

This tablet is absolutely unable to pair with any PIN-less bluetooth devices, such as a Verbatim 96676 Bluetooth Laser Mouse to mention one. The problem is that Android requests a PIN code in order to pair with device, but there a small catch: Most bluetooth accesories have NO PIN. The Request PIN dialog does not allow an empty PIN. That is, any bluetooth accesory is completely useless, and this is an Android 4.1 and 4.2 issue.

This issue was first reported here on February 2012 and there is no solution yet, except to try an incredibly unstable app with a japanese GUI. I tried everything with that app without success, the mouse was never paired.

So now I have to return the mouse, or return the tablet. Or both.

Imagine how frustrating is to buy these devices and be absolutely unable the use them together because the guy who designed the pairing process forgot that most bluetooth devices need no PIN to pair.

And NO ONE at Acer will ever bother to release a 25 KB patch to fix that dialog, simply because the tablet was released 10 months ago and is now obsolete, even if I bought it last week and it was the newer model they had in stock. Great. Thanks Acer, and thanks Android developers. A perfect combination for customer annoyance guaranteed.

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billsey

Have tried '0000' as the PIN?

inuya5ha

Yes, I tried 0, 00, 000, 0000, 123, 1234, 12345, 123456, the mouse model numer, the serial number... none worked. The mouse paired OK with Windows XP by disabling the passkey option only.

The most disappointing thing is that a simple APK application could fix this, if a japanese guy who wrote a 62 KB APK made it work for some certain bluetooth devices, why Acer, a multi-billion company cannot make an app for this and release it as a courtesy for their users?

Am I the only person who had this crazy idea of using a bluetooth mouse or keyboard with his Acer tablet?

Sharanji

hi..

You may try using the app "Smart Bluetooth Widget Free" MDR TOOLS, Inc. from Google play store, This app would allow you to pair Bluetooth device without requiring a pairing code Download Smart Bluetooth

inuya5ha

Thanks Sharanji, but the app says that the devices must be paired first and it points me to the same Bluetooth Devices panel where a PIN is requested. Even if it worked, that app is a time-limited trial...

Any more ideas? And try to exclude paid apps, because I pressume Acer won't pay the app for me. How about providing the urgently needed Android 4.4 update to all Iconia B1 users?