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Best Bluetooth Capable Cell Phone?
masonbrown asks: "I find myself confronted with a profound decision that could significantly affect the next couple of years of my life. As an excited owner of a new Aluminum Powerbook 15-inch, I'm shopping for a Bluetooth enabled cell phone. I've checked Apple's Bluetooth Compatible Device List as a reference, and had some great initial impressions of the Sony-Ericsson T-616/T-610 phone (direct link unavailable), until I read the Amazon reviews that said the display fades in sunlight and the buttons are impossible to maneuver with human fingers. Can Slashdot readers give some feedback on what Bluetooth phones you have, how well they work with iSync, and how happy you are with your phone?"
First of all... getting married or moving to a different country significantly affects your life. Getting a phone does not.
:-) I also think the screen on the s55 is better than the one on the SE610, especially outdoors.
I'm quite happy with my siemens s55. iSync finds it without any problems, and I can sync contacts, address-book and tasks to and from iCal. Haven't been able to get my iBook connected to my ISP via bluetooth, though. Of course, just because I'm not able to do it doesn't mean it's not possible
I've carefully considered which phone to choose when
last upgrading. The balance between the 6310i and the
T610 was as follows:
Features they've both got:
- triband GSM
- bluetooth, gprs, wap
- good sound quality
- well organized menus
- nice shape
- no fiddly moving parts
- addressbook
- calendar
Features the 6310i is better at than the T610:
- reception
- power connector
Features the T610 is better at than the 6310i
- *will* sync with iSync, as opposed to the 6310i which will not
- higher resolution color screen
- built in toy-camera
- very much nicer ring
- smaller without getting unusable
Now, given that I live in Europe and we generally get good
reception *anyway*, I didn't really care about the reception
quality. I *do* care about the iSync compatibility though. As I carry my phone practically everywhere, that means I have my calendar with me at all times. I cannot get over how extremely useful this is. Oh, and dialling from the full
addressbook in my iBook has it's advantages as well. Nowadays I just keep the numbers of people that I actually
tend to call in my phone, making dialling from the phonebook quite a bit quicker.
If Nokia were to come out with a worthy successor to the 6310i that had roughly the same format but with a higher
resolution screen and SyncML capability... that phone would
absolutely rock and be my first choice. Unfortunately, the
T610 currently beats the 6310i on features... and it attracts more attention from women as well. (Actually, almost all other owners of T610's I've seen are women...).
Can anyone recommend good software to use with Linux and this phone? Something like Gnokii would be great, I used it with my old Nokia 6210 and found it very useful.
*The nGage is interesting mostly because it's the cheapest Symbian-enabled phone on the market and it's got built-in audio capabilities (FM radio, MP3 playback) and official iSync support. You don't have to be a gaming addict to use it. It'll have that coolness factor for a year or so, and then it'll be very uncool for two years more until it breaks... You'll need to buy a SD-card reader because beaming dozens of MP3 files over Bluetooth is a pain.*
actually you wont need. first it uses mmc card, and second it comes with an usb cable(that intrestingly enough you can't use with the pcsuite). otherwise it's just like the other s60 phones(except, way much more memory for the applications to run in, this is something that is not usually said anywhere tho, so you can have opera, wirelessirc, and some game running at the same time without running out). i traded to ngage from 3650 because of the memory and headphones jack(for playing those mp3's), also it's better for playing around with the emulators than what 3650 is(the camera i didn't use all that much, and it's crap. i didn't have any issues with 3650's nifty pad though). bluetooth works the same on both for me(no issues).
6600 is very nice but expensive and still buggy(and some programs are just dependant on the things that are spesific to 6.1 symbian phones and wont run on 6600).
if the symbian ui feels awkward there's some programs out there to use as alternative main menu(quicklaunchers of sorts). though, the ui is one the best ui's for small multi use devices out there imho(hardest thing maybe is to get used to multitasking and switching between programs that are running).
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
What you should look into is getting a European version of a GSM phone. Reason is that the FCC limits the power wattage from the radio on the phone. Europe's limit is much higher.
hmm... for fun I enjoy launching DDoS attacks against 127.87.42.5