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Practical Cell Phones to Complement Mac OS X?
Silas asks: "It's about time to trade up my Samsung A500 (a robust flip-phone that has served me well) to a new cell phone, and I'm looking for recommendations. I'd like something pretty no-nonsense that does the basics very well (sound quality, intuitive button placement and UI, compact physical design -- no camera, and no annoying ringtones) but I'm also ready to start connecting my phone to other parts of my life. In particular, I'd like to find something compatible with iSync on Mac OS X Tiger for addressbook and calendar stuff, and I wouldn't mind trying out the bluetooth madness for proximity login/keychain auth, etc. I've also had the ability to connect my Powerbook to the net through the phone with Sprint PCS's Vision program and a USB cable from The Shack, and preserving that capability would be nice, but is less important in a world of hotspots, and I'm fine with switching carriers. Any help is much appreciated, even if it's just brand/category generalizations."
You can stop your search now. You have asked the impossible.
From my experience, Motorola phones are built better, last longer, and make more sense. I have a Sony phone now that syncs up with my powerbook, which is nice, but lots of times the buttons don't work at all. I haven't had this phone for a year yet, and I've been nicer to it than my previous phones, and it's still falling apart. My next phone is going to be a Motorola.
best college pickem site ever: pickem.terrbear.org
I've had good luck with the bluetooth syncing using the SE T616 (mine) and my wifes T637 with both of our Powerbooks. I'd like to get a RAZR, but price is a little much right now. Our T6xxs came from ATT Wireless (now Cingular).
Brian
I'd start with the supported feature list of Salling Clicker: http://homepage.mac.com/jonassalling/Shareware/Cli cker/
You don't have to use Salling Clicker, there are alternatives, but I'm not familiar with their web sites.
I have an A630 and while it (like other Mot phones) requirs the USB sync cable to sync (available cheap on eBay), I believe that you can use it as a modem via bluetooth (certainly with the USB cable).
http://www.naildrivin5.com/davec
Here.
If you reply, do so only to what I explicitly wrote. If I didn't write it, don't assume or infer it.
http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/isync/devices .html
List of phones "officially" supported by iSync, though there's a bunch more you can get working by hacking the MetaClasses.plist property file in iSync.app.
Erik http://yakko.cs.wmich.edu/~rattles
It's damn irritating.
This is the way to go. You can do crazy stuff with this software, like control all your apps, and even write your own scripts. I actually paid for it and there's precious little software I do buy.
If you have a Motorola phone, almost all of them work fine with bluetooth under Tiger 10.4.1. I couldn't get my Razr or V551 to work with 10.4 out of the box but after I upgraded to the latest patch iSync works beautifully with either Bluetooth or USB cable. However, 10.3 and earlier do require USB as you mentioned.
That being said, to the original poster I'd recommend a Razr or a V551, I have had good luck with both, depends on how much money you want to spend (or not spend - v551 are a lot less expensive).
The is one resource for information on Bluetooth compatability and that is the list of qualified products on the Bluetooth.org qualification program site. (It's a bitch to find via links though.) One search and then a click on the "details" will tell you exactly which profiles that device is qualified for. If you have multiple devices, just check that they match up wrt profiles and you are good to go.
Why they don't advertice that list to help consumers is beyond me. (Probably because it's a lot of work to figure out.) BTW you should look for devices which support the Sync profile. Some devices (eg Nokia) implement their own sync system on top of serial port profile instead, that works too but it's not as "clean" and requires special PC software.
On topics of phones I'd ignore the ringtones part, just don't use annoying ringtones. (Mine is always set to silent.) Personally I like Sony-Ericsson phones, but that's just me. (They tend to work well with Bluetooth as well.)
Many newer phones support Java MIDP (J2ME) which might be fun if you like programming and want to add a little to your own phone.
First Apple-related Slashdot post in days to not make reference to the x86 switch in the blurb.
It's a nice simple phone. It has a crappy camera in it, too, if you want to take awful photos. However, it syncs up with my wife's Powerbook just fine. No bluetooth, but that's sort of beyond the realm of a solid, simple phone.
This Sprint phone will do half of what you want: you can connect to the internet via SprintVision with ease (its not the quickest connection, but will do in a pinch) via Bluetooth. The downside is that the geniuses at LG/Sprint (each blames the other) have disabled OBEX support so as of yet you cannot sync addressbooks, etc.
It syncs with iSync.
the one issues is that once I added my computer to the phone as a blue tooth device, it stopped automatically connectig to my motorola bluetooth headset.
syncs my calendar and contacts via bluetooth with my Powerbook (iSync).
I also use the GPRS connections via bluetooth for network access when I'm away from a wifi hot spot. Nice phone.
I've been using a Nokia 3650 and I've been happy. It's a slightly older phone so it should be reasonably priced. If you're not intending to use data services with a palm, try a 6600. HTH. Clicker is awesome - be sure to get a compatible phone.
I just had the same dilemma as you and I had vowed not a enter a single number by hand.
I got the sony erricson k700i (unlocked) via a ebay powerseller and I synced wireless (bluetooth) all my contacts and calendars via isync. The phone can also be used as a remote control for the mac.
Its awesome. MyLife is much better now.
-S
We have 9 motorola cell phones right now. They all have the same "battery charger" connector at the bottom of the phone, and in all 9 cases the phone has broken at this point. (Models are mostly c550 and i600.)
:)
The clip is short, with a long handle. Lots of leverage, and very easy to tweak this connector and break the solder of the "in-phone" portion.
I have external battery chargers and extra batteries, which is a rather expensive workaround.
If you get ANY phone, I recommend checking for a nice, solid A/C port.
I have a RAZR and Tiger. Syncs via bluetooth and USB flawlessly. Not sure you can use it as modem for the internet, although I know this feature is available for windows, so it's possible. It's worth it.
I've had great experiences with the two Ericsson phones I've used with my my Mac: a T68i and z600. I really can't go on enough about my z600. It's small, but tough and sturdy (have you seen the 'buttons' on the Razr!?). It works flawlessly with iSync, Salling Clicker, the web, and OS X's Bluetooth File Exchange. It's gonna take a lot for me to give up this one.
As someone mentioned earlier, no matter which phone you end up getting, make sure it's on the Clicker compatability list. Clicker kicks ass.
m.m.
I used a Sony Ericsson t610 for a while, and it synched up great with OSX. The problem with the phone was that reception was miserable and the screen was completely useless outdoors.
I've since moved on to a Nokia 7610. The reception on this phone is amazingly good, as is the screen quality. Unfortunately, despite Apple's claims, I have not been able to get it to work with iSync (although I did automate importing all of my address book using this method).
With LG products I believe you can use BitPim to synchronize with iSync. At the very least it is a nice cross-platform app for managing the data on your LG phone.
I have to agree with Motorola. I just got two new phones, one for me and one for my wife. I had basically the same criteria as you. We got a Motorola V180 and a Motorola C650. The V180 is a simple flip phone, and the C650 is a non-folding camera phone. I chose them because the V180 works with iSync and they both have a standard mini USB connector on them. I guessed that because they were similar enough that the C650 would sync as well, and it did. It looks like the V180 has been replaced by the V188. It has 14.5 days of standby, the C650 only has 9 days. I let my wife have the V180 and I took the C650. I wish I had got a V180 as well. The joystick is touchy on the C650 and having to lock the keypad is a hassle, and I never use the camera. But they both do sync to my iBook, with the cheap mini USB cable that came with my card reader. Try to find a cheap cable to talk to some other phone.
Why can't everything run on OSX?
Well as long as it's got an Intel processor in it you should be OK.
Don't forget the supersize battery pack and the travel charger.
My very basic motorola v180 series phone is very poorly designed. It has two volume buttons on the side that always get pushed in my pocket and there is no key lock (flip phone). I have to keep it on silent just so I don't beep randomly all the time. It synchs just fine with iSynch over a mini usb cable, but is has a really, really poorly designed interface. Avoid it.
I love my unbranded t637, works with cingular and T-Mobile just fine, and syncs via bluetooth with my Macs.
Used it for gprs data successfully, but you better have time on your hands for loading webpages. Does pop just fine though.
I'd look for a model that supports EDGE if you're planning on using it for data, the speed increase is supposed to be marked.
Ocean is land, covered with water.
I have the Sony Ericsson T637 and am pretty happy with it. I currently use it with Cingular.
I use iSync to synchronize calendar and contact information via Bluetooth. I have an old Sawtooth G4 PowerMac so I bought a Bluetooth USB adapter, which works just fine.
For Macintosh
I'd recommend the Sony Z600 which has a nice reduced feature set, (though a pointless camera)... except for the fact that is is a piece of crap and might as well be built from cardboard.
Buy Motorola.. it is the only way.
When I lost my old, very out of date Nokia, I splurged and actually paid for a new phone for once and got the T637. If you need a camera phone, the camera part of it is practically worthless.
I got it because it was the cheapest Bluetooth phone I could find that wasn't a Motorola. It works great. Bluetooth syncing is great and using it with Salling Clicker is geekily awesome. It always freaks people out to see me using it as a remote for my PowerBook.
Amazon has the RAZR on special. $100 after a $150 mail in rebate. Cingular only. I got mine last week and Tiger recognized it right off.
I have a Sony Ericsson T637 and it works like a charm over Bluetooth.
Plus, with Sailing Clicker, I can actually control iTunes from my bed with the Mac on the other side of the room. It also allows me to use the phone as a wireless presentation controller - that always starts conversations at conferences.
Overall, I am happy with the phone.
-.
I'm stuck with Verizon, who doesn't offer a reasonable bluetooth phone. Is there a good, solid, bluetooth/CDMA/OSX-friendly phone I could get on eBay or something?
I don't need a PDA. Just a phone that can talk to my powerbook and share contacts.
They all sync perfectly.
Easy to use them to connect your Mac via BT.
Lots of models.
Sturdy.
Better UI than Nokia IMHO.
Life is too short for a cell phone!
Sig Hansen?
Yep, I also was very upset at the design of the Motorola phone I had. We were using a Nokia 8260--awesome little phone that is rugged, looong talk time and has a great interface. We got a good deal on a Motorola V60 flip phone($20) to renew our contract, and hated so many things about it that we switched back over to the Nokia and still use it.
Commence list of horrible things on the Motorola V60:
* Number one worst thing about that phone was the "battery meter". I put that in quotes because it did anything but indicate anything about the status of charge left in the battery. It is a very tiny picture of a battery with only three little bars in it. I wanted to see how long the standby time would go, so I kept an eye on it as a couple days of time went by with no charging, and it still read full! While still reading full, my wife got a call from her dad and talked for about an hour and a half, at which point the call ended because our phone was dead and had shut itself off. I had found in the menu a more detailed battery readout with 6 blocks of resolution, but a friend of mine who also had a V60 said that it will only fill 2, 4, or 6 blocks, so it's just a deceiving representation of the 3-block display on the main screen. Even fresh off an overnight charge it still never got the 4+ hours of talk time our Nokia 8260 had.
* As mentioned above, the volume buttons on the outside of the phone are always active, so they easily get bumped, which makes your phone beep.
* Pushing those volume buttons is how you change the ring volume, including switching it to vibrate or silent. You just step through the volume levels like this: 6 5 4 3 2 1 vibrate nothing. The decent volume to be able to hear it ring is all the way up on 6. So to switch to silent, you have to start pushing the volume down, which emits a BEEP each time as it demonstrates the volume associated with each level.
* If I have the phone in my pocket on vibrate, the volume buttons can easily get bumped, changing that setting to either ring audibly(Gee, now why would you have wanted it on SILENT?) or to get bumped down to no ring at all, so you miss calls.
* Phone book issues. On the Nokia, from the main screen, you can just start hitting the down or up arrows, and it jumps to scrolling through your phone book--very handy. Also, on the Nokia, you can scroll through those as fast as you can hit the button. On the Motorola, it has an annoying delay so that if you are hitting the down button fast, it is only receiving about one out of three of those. You have to [press] *wait* [press] *wait* ad nauseam. And let me tell ya, that gets old quick.
* Text messaging. Most messages consist of letters, spaces, and periods, right? The Nokia designers were smart enough to make all those available on the keypad when you are typing by making the 1 type a period. On the Mot, you have to go to the punctuation menu and then select to insert the period.
Most people I talk with who have tried both brands have experienced the same thing. They really preferred the Nokia interface over the Motorola one. Sorry Mot, but you fail it! I mean, how many annoying things can you fit in such a small package?
We may experience some slight turbulence and then...explode. -Capt. Mal Reynolds
Sony Ericsson T630 is a great phone for salling clicker and iSync.
:)
BTW, if you ask such thing again, please tell what kind of network you use. You know, GSM phones, Verizon etc.
I only know GSM (with EDGE,GPRS)/Symbian/J2ME World for instance.
BTW, it has a camera but you don't have to use it
I just picked up a v188. Seems like a pretty decent phone, had to do a little plist editing to get it to work with iSync, but since I did that it works great. Supposedly you can transfer ringtones and pictures with the USB cable also, but damned if I know what software I would need to do that. Any idea? Can't seem to find anything Mac or Windows that'll do it. But once I get that figured out, it'll be a great little phone.
||:|::
If I purchased a phone right now, the first thing I would look would be Bluetooth 2 compatibility which would also have Airport (802.1) compatibility.
You buy a phone in 2005. Go with the simplest thing with latest technology built in.
I have Nokia 7650 here, which was called "overkill" when it shipped but see, I can do marvelous things with Salling Clicker, iSync installs its own application now for top compatibility etc. Its a 2mb phone with Psiloc space doubler installed.
Oh, I hate camera (digital anything) too but companies now include it on everything they ship, just don't use it.
Also I see another post about Samsung people's firmware etc problems, stay away from Samsung. My fridge is even Samsung but "phone" thing is really different. Go with Sony, Nokia etc.
I have a Sony Ericsson T630 which works flawlessly with MacOS X. Full iSync compatibility for iCal and Address Book.
It has a nice Apple-style touch which looks pretty good next to my PowerBook G4.
Plus there is Romeo (no I'm not its author just a happy user) which is a nice OpenSource app that lets you do all sort of neat things with BlueTooth (remote control for iTunes, DVD, mouse mode, presentation sliding for both Powerpoint and Keynote, volume control, etc.), proximity reaction, caller ID (with a nice bezel and photo support!) and fully AppleScript'able to add support for whatever app you want.
Did I mention it is now GPL software? Althought it's not directly on the site, its sources can be obtained via CVS from SourceForge and it could surely use some help from experienced and skilled ObjC/Cococa coders.
I'd like to take the chance to ask, if anybody knows if it would be possible to use the computer as a sort of headset for the phone, talking with the built-in mic on the Powerbook and listening through its speakers, it'd be a very nice app for which I've googled around with no positive results.
Finally I'd like to comment that I've been trying to make an iPod-like interface for this software to use with the phone integrated menus, which would let you browse the genres/artists/albums database of iTunes. Anyone interested on it could help me giving it a go.
Regards,
Articulos para gente geek: Poleras, linux, libros y mas
i returned it and got a sony ericsson p910 and it is without a doubt the best phone i've ever had. isync support with address book (pictures too), calendar, to-do's, file sharing, etc.
aside from the pda aspects, cameraphone, vidphone, app support, memory stick duo, mp3/mp4 audio player, video player, etc... which may be too much feature-creep for you, i really appreciate the full qwerty keyboard for sms, the big screen, the (relative) simplicity of the ui, and the speakerphone, which make it a pleasure to use as a phone, first and foremost.
with salling clicker, i get itunes with album covers, iphoto picture browsing, email reading, and all that other fancy stuff.
ymmv, of course, but i love this phone.
Romeo http://www.irowan.com/romeo/ is a free alternative to Salling Clicker and while it may not be as polished, it's quite cool
http://nyamenation.org/
My V551 works well with tiger and isync9finally), two annoying problems.
Batterylife if you use it sucks. About 5 days without using it, about 2 if you make just a few. The battery meter is also not set right. 3 bars to 2 takes days. 2 bars to 0 takes 12-16 hours.
Second way to many features in a clunky interface.
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
had a 3650 for a few years, and while it is a mediocre phone, it seems great at everything else.
used to have an ipaq set up for autoconnect to tmobile gprs, so i could check email or whatever anywhere without having to dig out the phone. worked great as a failsafe web connection too. fired up isync the other day and it works perfectly, so it may be old but it keeps surprising me.
one thing, it has a really stupid dial pad, so you might want to try the 3660 or so, but s60 phones seem pretty solid from my pov.
love the bt on it.
The first rule of USENET is you do not talk about USENET.
If you live in Japan (like me) or Europe (like, um, other people) look at the Sony Ericsson 802se (v800 in Europe). Now that tiger has come out and it is fully supported (as opposed to hackably supported) I love it. But, if you live in my native America, where cell phones with DSL speed internet, >1 megapix cameras, j2me, etc can't be had at all, let alone for the >$100 that I paid for it.
I got one a few weeks ago and it's fantastic. The Palm OS is so much easier to deal with than the typical cellphone OS'es. Bluetooth is there, you can set the ring to whatever you want, and you can get one without a camera if you want to. It's more phone than you asked for, but as someone who appreciates a good OS, consider it.
Plus having an ssh and IMAP/SSL client that can get a STARTTLS connection on submission right on the first try is worth the expense.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
On any GSM provider (Cingular in the US; Rogers, Fido in Canada, any in Europe) the Treo650 is a marvelous companion to yer laptop.
Bluetooth hotsych (not with isync that I could find), Bluetooth Dialup GRPS connection. And VNC client for your laptop for the phone.
Just please do be careful if you're roaming and GPRSing, my provider and I are still arguing about the 6,000 bill I recieved after a month of using the phone in Italy.
I just got a Motorola V710 from Verizon. I think it's Verizon's only Bluetooth phone at the moment. There's a healthy dose of good and bad here. The good is that it's a very good phone--strong signal and sound quality, it works with iSync (USB only though), I use it as a wireless modem with my PowerBook and don't have to pay any special fees (it just counts against my minutes--not super fast but faster than dialup). The bad mostly comes from Verizon's crippling of the phone with firmware. It can do a lot of things, but they are things that Verizon charges for so they crippled them (uploading ringtones, downloading pictures, bluetooth file transfer). There are ways around most of that though.
I have an old Siemens S55, and a SonyEricsson K700i.
Both work with iSync and GPRS connection; with Panther, you have to start pairing from the cell phone for the K700i.
If I remember well, there could be some problem with all-day events from iCal.
K700 (and S700) have a free application from Salling Clicker to use them as mouse and controller for many apps (though less powerful than Salling Clicker).
In addition to that, there exists Romeo, a freeware alternative to Salling Clicker. Neither application runs with the S55.
I've tried quite a few phones. The key stumbling block at the moment is that iSync's phone support is very out of date - a large number of currently model phones are not supported.
The Nokia 6600 in theory works very well, though in practice the OS/firmware on it is horribly buggy and unreliable (mine has now died completely) - hopefully this will be fixed in later models like the 6630, 6680, 6681 and N70 - none of which are yet supported by iSync. In general, I'm not impressed with Symbian at all, nor by Nokia's UIs for it. Having said that, Sendo's X2 looks pretty cool.
My best experiences have been with Sony Ericssons, principally the T610 which has been utterly flawless - SE just seem to do bluetooth right (they did invent it!).
SE's K700i has more OS X compatibility features than any other phone that's officially supported, so I'd say that it's probably the best current choice, however, the new K750i has some really compelling features (like the first camera worth having) and it's hackable to work with iSync (I'm awaiting delivery).
Recently I've been subject to an exceedingly dumb Windows SPV C500 "SmartPhone" which is quite unbelievably bad. I don't even see how it could work well with Windows.
Motorolas typically suffer from incredibly bad UIs, so I'd steer clear from them on that basis.
I had a Sony-Ericson T616 that worked very nicely with OS X via Bluetooth. I could send SMS messages with Address book from my Powerbook, and when my phone started ringing, it would pop up a window letting me know who was calling. I could even tell the phone to answer the call, so I could connect while I went digging for my phone.
The problem I had with the T616 was that the buttons were always exposed, so I was constantly making accidental phone calls every time I leaned or brushed against something with the phone. also, the user interface wasn't all that intuitive. (Personally, I think the Samsung phones have the best interface and voice dialing capabilities -- pity they didn't have Bluetooth back when.)
I like the styling on the RAZR! It's very nicely engineered and has a good solid feel to it. Being of metal and glass, I've had this thing for two months now and it doesn't have a scratch on it -- unlike every other phone I ever had which would get scuffed up within the first three weeks. The sound quality and reception are excellent! I have yet to get a dropped or garbled call when in areas of known good reception. It seems to be getting good reception even when other people with different phones right next to me are not.
The RAZR has a surprisingly good battery life! With average use, I seem to be able to go a week between charges! The T616 wouldn't go more than a couple of days before needing a charge. Of course, I should point out that I pretty much had my T616 running with Bluetooth constantly to alert me to phone calls and Text Messages when they arrived. But more importantly: The RAZR can be charged via the USB terminal on your PowerBook! If the T616 could have been charged in that way, I probably would have stayed with it.
The biggest F that the RAZR gets -- and this makes me question the value of my purchase even after all this time -- is its shoddy Bluetooth implementation!
I honestly would have expected Motorola to make sure their "flagship" phone would be able to outperform anything else on the market. It doesn't work with OS X the way the Sony-Ericson T616 did. I've missed several calls because the RAZR cannot pair with Address Book and pop up alert windows like the T616 did. That's vitally important for me, because I could turn off ringers completely and allow the phone to alert me in noisy environments, or when I didn't want the phone making noise in silent areas when it was important to stay silent.
Now I have to admit, I don't know if I can blame the phone or OS X for this inability to pair together. I can use the Bluetooth File Exchange utility in OS X to easily pass files back and forth between the RAZR and OS X. So why can't it sync via iSync or pair with Address Book via Bluetooth? If they went lax on this because of the fact the Bluetooth drains the battery faster, my answer is, "Who cares? I can connect the USB cable and keep the phone charged if faced with extended periods of pairing!"
If I could clear that pairing issue, then the RAZR would be the perfect phone! If any of you Bluetooth/Cell Phone hackers out there can figure out a way around this glaring bug in the RAZR, I would dearly love to hear from you!
Whew! This water sure is cold!
Motorolas are quite incompatible with Macs. If you look at the iSync page, you'll notice it requires a USB cable. Bluetooth syncing isn't supported, for that matter I'm not sure if even modem connections are supported either. Not to mention syncing over USB is really buggy as well.
Heh- Read through the slashdot comments and find an answer!
iSync synchronized perfectly via Bluetooth. So there is no issue there.
But I still can't get the phone to pop up alerts and allow Address Book to send SMS messages.
Someone else also listed a website, Bluetooth Device Qualification Web Site which may hold a solution to my issues with application between the phone and OS X.
Let the learning continue!
Whew! This water sure is cold!
this has been my first move away from a simple phone. i love it. i can almost travel without a laptop. the sync works well. the phone is great with a good earbud. the beam function is great to send small things to others who also have a Treo. the ringtones suck. the camera sucks but the screen resolution is great. i can not imagine going back to a regular phone.
get rid of the cell phone entirely.
/ broadband/index.jsp) i've purchased the audiovox pc 5220 pcmcia card, which is compatible with the powerbook . i'm planning on using voice over ip and saying goodbye to phones that never quite have the exact functionality that i want anyway . EVDO 3g speeds are blazing fast, especially near the interstate here . for $79.99/month, you have wireless broadband "nationwide" (which remains to be seen) and you can use it as a phone as well.
if you live in a major cell market, go to verizon wireless business (http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/mobileoptions
If you are living in the "free" mobile world (outside USA) the by far best phone is the SonyEricsson K750i. It is small but packs everything you need; excellent color screen, superfast Java, an useful camera (2 mpix), bluetooth, ir, usb (cable included), mp3/aac-player (no wma allowed) with external buttons for play, pause, next, prev and sound, playlists, video, memory card (64 MB included, mine is 1 GB, stereo phones (included) and fantastic sound quality, almost a week standby time, animated backgrounds and tons of other features...
Listen up! Motorola is crap, Nokia has lost it and the Asian companies don't understand quality.
SonyEricsson rocks and the K750i is a masterpiece.
http://www.sonyericsson.com/k750/
I've been using a Sony Ericsson T610 (US, T-Mobile) with my powerbook since this spring and so far everything has worked very well. (Syncing contacts, dialup over bluetooth/gprs, etc.) Plus the T610 has a nice aluminum minimalist look that goes well with the powerbook if you care about such things. (It has also worked pretty well with my palm T2. I seem to have assembled an array of aluminum bluetooth devices without really noticing it.)
It does have a camera, but on the other hand it ships with a default ring tone of "old phone" or somesuch that sounds just like ... a regular old rotary telephone. Soothing in a sorta retro way.
The newer Sony-Ericsson line might work well too, but the 610 is starting to get pretty cheap on the used market and is a solid little phone. The only quibble I have with it is that (probably primarily due to the size of the phone itself) the reception isn't the best. Still servicable, but if you're used to a larger phone with a comparably larger antenna you might be irritated.
News for Geeks in Austin, TX
I just upgraded from the Sony T39M to the Motorola V550 and I love it. I purchased the USB lead and it works really well. Go to http://www.taniwha.org.uk/ to download the modem script for either GPRS or CDMA depending on your provider and you can then use the phone as a modem. As for ringtones? Go to iTunes, convert your favourite song to a 32Kb MP3 then upload to the audio folder on the phone (you'll need Bluetooth for that or a copy of VPC running W2K if you're going to use the software). Now your ringtone is something you like and because it's an MP3 of a REAL song you get something people won't necessarily want to kill you for. :D
The only thing it won't sync is the Tasklist in iCal but it will do the calendars themselves.
I strongly recommend you do not buy a Sony phone. Do not be duped by the marketing, like I was. Having used Nokias happily for years, but frustrated at the lack of support for my 6310i in iSync, I bought a Sony K700i. This was inspite of warnings from a friend who had made the same mistake and already swapped back to Nokia. I thought I knew better. After all it promised better battery life, bluetooth iSync, camera, colour etc etc.
In practise it is almost useless as a phone.
1. The joystick does not work. Sometimes not at all, othertimes it selects instead of moves. It's clearly a rubbish design.
2. The GUI is terrible. Really bad. It's easier for me to type numbers in full than look them up in the address book. What took 2 button presses on a Nokia takes, 3 or 4 on the Sony including having to use the infernal joystick. I invariably end up calling the wron number as it selects instead of scrolls.
3. The synch with iSync is extremely buggy. It often crashes and locks up the phone. It duplicates entries. Address Book entries which are Companies appear with a blank name on the phone. Great.
4. Battery life is about 3 days of moderate use. I got 7 days plus out of my 6310i.
5. Build. It just feels cheap plasticy, despite the fact it looks rather nice and metallic in the press shots. It has horrible hard plastic buttons.
6. Text messaging. I don't text anymore. It's just too depressing trying to navigate around to be able to send a text and select someone in the phonebook to send it too. Quicker to make a phone call.
As soon as I can upgrade I will go back to Nokia. Probably a 6230i. AFAIK it doesn't synch with iSync. I don't care it will at least function solidly as a phone.
FWIW, Motorola's (somewhat crippled, but still nice) V710 Bluetooth phone now syncs with macs quite nicely, if you make a small tweak to iSync's phone compatibility plist. Instructions for doing so are here. Keep in mind that Verizon has disabled the OBEX bluetooth profile, so you cannot, for example, dial your phone from Address Book like you would be able to do with most Bluetooth phones.
The SonyEricsson S710a is nice, full Tiger sync and works on the Edge network with Cingular as a reasonably fast bluetooth modem for my Powerbook, no crippled BT features. I wish it did not have a camera but just try to get a phone with those other features w/o a camera. I use it with BluePhone elite for proximity and CID links to the laptop. Quite sweet, I suffered for ages with Verizon's crappy phone selection to take advantage of their superior network but now that Cingular is getting it together networkwise it was time to switch. All the phone tech's I spoke to agree that SE is the most compatible with the Mac platform, and the build quality on the S710 is superb.
The difference between pr0n and er0tica is lighting- Gloria Leonard
Have had everything PDA and mobile phone over the years. The Sony Ericsson P910i absolutely is the best Phone/PDA on the market for use with Apple. Period. Bluetooth sync, flawless everything and an outstanding phone no.1 followed closely be being an excellent PDA no. 2.