More on bluetooth, mobile phones, and iBooks:

Although the D-Link bluetooth/USB adapter remains vapourware, there's an alternative available from Mitsumi, the WIF-0402C. This is a USB/Bluetooth adapter, and I've seen multiple reports that it works fine with MacOS X 10.1.5 and the Apple bluetooth drivers. The sole distributor in the UK is Flint electronics, who sell them for £75 +VAT (and delivery at £6.00). They don't have an online shopping system at their website, but the email enquiry form will get a prompt response and they're happy to take credit card orders.

I haven't bought one; the reason is that I already have a serial data cable for my Ericsson T39m. So I bought myself a Keyspan high-speed USB to serial adapter.USA-19QW. This beast is reported to work with Linux using the usb-serial driver, and with Keyspan's own drivers for MacOS X 10.1.3+ it works fine. The serial device shows up as /dev/tty.KeyUSA19QW11.1, and Network setup is happy to talk to the T39m over it and configure it as an internet connection device.

(Now to try out the pilot-link tools, which can be coerced into building on MacOS X by changing a single line, and see if I can get my iBook to talk to my Palm m505 over a serial connection -- allowing me to write scripted Palm backup sessions. More on this when I get some results ...)

(Thanks to Dr Quentin Stafford-Fraser for the tip.)