Uhm, so I never paid it much attention, so I never learned much about it. But I need to replace my old, old Palm III, and be looking at the Palm Tungsten T2.

It's "Bluetooth Capable".

So, what does that mean? It's.. wireless something, as far as I can gather. What does it do?

Me, Blue-toothless.

Means you can sync with your PC wirelessly if you've got a Bluetooth dongle for it. And if you've got Bluetooth on your mobile phone then you can get internet without plugging them into each other.

That's about it really for the main features [edit]Okay, doesn't sound too cool but trust me, it's quite neat [/edit]

And if you've got a bluetooth mobile phone, you should just be able to press "dial" on your palm pilot contact and it will dial the number on your cell phone.

The wireless syncing and wireless data are the two features really. It should even be possible to use your PC to give internet acess to the palm pilot through a bluetooth dongle.

The first thing you need is a USB bluetooth dongle, preferable one which supports the headset profile if you really want to have fun.

Matthew

I use bluetooth to access the internet all the time on my Ipaq. The dongle was only $40. I haven't plugged it via USB since.

A more general answer would be:

Bluetooth is a wireless data transmission method designed to operate up to ranges of about 30 metres. It's relatively low speed (I think it goes up to 1.4Mbits/sec, correct me if I'm wrong) and it's designed to form small networks of devices that communicate between themselves. So your Palm Pilot, mobile phone, handsfree car kit, laptop, camera and whatever else can all talk together without wires, and without a great deal of driver installation, proprietary interfaces or tearing of hair. It's not designed to replace WiFi, (F|A)M Radio, ethernet, or a phone line.

It has a reasonable amount of encryption and authentication, so it's quite difficult for someone else to either snoop or impost on 'your' network, but this is not really highly secure. This has caused some security mavens to bag it, and I've seen someone ringing Bluetooth's death knells this month, but these criticisms seem to me to miss the point of the standard - a cheap, easy, small wireless network. I don't think anyone's going to find interlopers making unseen calls on their mobile phone... just don't transmit any State secrets on it.

That's my prediction, anyway. Hope this helps,

Paul

P.S. Why, of all the 'multimedia' products that Sony released, have they only implemented Bluetooth on one video camera - surely the thing that least needs it? No digital cameras, no memory stick MP3 players, which surely are much more likely to find Bluetooth connectivity useful. If there's one thing that is going to kill Bluetooth, it's manufacturers making hamfisted, botched uses of it. Grrrrrrrr... *mutters to self* I must not fly into an insane rage, I must not fly into an insane rage, I must not...

I've got that BT Sony video camera, and can attest that the implementation is truly pathetic. The only BT device it will talk to is a BT 56k modem which will only connect to an online pay photo service by Sony so you can post the puny 1 megapixel images from your whopping 8MB Memory Stick. At least the modem was a PCMCIA card that works with generic drivers in most any Win machine. I've never seen such overengineered mediocrity.

-Zeke

Thanks for the replies, guys.. Since none of Nextel's phones (phone required by work) support Bluetooth, the point's kinda moot then..

Me.

The new Acura TL is very clever in its use of Bluetooth. The car pretends to be a fancy headset for your cel phone. So, once you sit down in the car, *foomp*, you're now making calls using the handsfree microphone and whatnot built into the machine. Very clever. Very slick.

Now the question is whether you can wedge an empeg in there...

I knew I could convert you to the bluetooth cult. You could always just add the bluetooth to the car instead of buying the car for the bluetooth.

Matthew

Do any other car stereos come with built-in Bluetooth support? As far as I can tell, the new Acura TL is unique in that regard. Of course, my current phone (the Nokia 5100) doesn't support Bluetooth, but by next year I anticipate there will be several quad-band GSM phones with Bluetooth support.

(And, by then, there may be still other cars vying to replace my flaking BMW. Toyota is rumored to have a brand new IS300 and Supra for the 2005 model year. Those could be strong competitors to the new Acura offerings.)

Quad band GSM? What's the extra one? I think all of mine have only been tri-band and only worked in certain places in the US.

Possibly AT&T's 850MHz service?

Ahh okay. I've never seen any phones here that support that band. It's been 900, 1800 and 1900 only really.

Yeah, 850MHz GSM (which is to say, GSM retrofitted over existing TDMA cel towers which were, themselves, retrofitted over existing AMPS towers) is where AT&T and Cingular are converging in the U.S. GSM-850 is also apparently being widely deployed in Central and South America. Today, you can buy a number of dual-band GSM-850/1900 phones that won't work in Europe, and a handful of GSM-850/1800/1900 tri-band phones that don't have the original GSM-900 band that's most widely available in Europe.

Quad band RF chipsets have been sampling from a number of vendors, with the most likely first product out the gate to be the Handspring Treo 600. (Quoth Handspring's web site: We expect that plans from Cingular Wireless and T-Mobile will be available with Treo 600 within the next few weeks. We also expect to have service from AT&T Wireless available soon.) That's a nice toy, although it's 168 grams heavy and has no Bluetooth.

Probably the most curious of new quad-band phones is the recently announced Samsung SCH-A790, which has two bands of CDMA for the U.S. and two bands of GSM for Europe/Asia.

by next year I anticipate there will be several quad-band GSM phones with Bluetooth support.

I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for Nokia. They've spent the last few years doing (in the UK) Bluetooth-enabled phones and tri-band phones, but never both in the same phone.

Gits.

Do any other car stereos come with built-in Bluetooth support? As far as I can tell, the new Acura TL is unique in that regard. Of course, my current phone (the Nokia 5100) doesn't support Bluetooth, but by next year I anticipate there will be several quad-band GSM phones with Bluetooth support.

I'm fairly sure there are a couple other car companies that are jumping on the bandwagon. I beleive your beloved BMW offers it as an option in europe, and I'm fairly sure others are hitting the showroom floor any day now, I just can't remember which ones.

Nokia, Ericsson and Parrot make car kits though which should all interface perfectly with the empeg, which is more than I can say for the Acura TL.

Matthew

but never both in the same phone.

err, what about this one?
AUS site
USA site

Except of course for the Nokia 6310i, which I have, which does triband and bluetooth... .

Paul

And the N-Gage, which I currently have.

But I think Roger's point was that neither are currently available in the UK.

yeah 6310i which is very available in the Uk i have one and mate has two one for work and one for him

Can even get it free with some contracts

A no unneeded junk musical ring tones, cameras, colour screens etc its a phone a thing lost in many phones.

OK, I stand corrected. The 6310i (which is fairly new) does indeed have triband and bluetooth and is available in the UK. Unfortunately, not to move the goalposts or anything, I like the colour screen on my 6100.

Anyway, I'm skint right now, so I'll have to wait to get another new phone.

Yes - that's something that really pi$$es me off. My contract gives me a free upgrade every year - which is nice.

I had a 5110, then a 6110 then a 6210i - all good phones that have decent functionality for a businessman (ie good battery life, infra red, decent reception etc) without the nonsense (polyphonic shite-tones, full colour battery-draining screen etc.)

Then this year they give me a 3510i and tried to tell me it was an upgrade because it has features I didn't have previously (glowing lights down the side, ringtones, picture messaging etc) even though I have gone from a tri band to only dual (so I'm stuffed when I go see some clients) have lost bluetooth and infra red capability and its a piece of shte that doesn't even fit my existing dock etc!

And they wouldn't listen to my fairly reasonable suggestion that the 6310i is the obvious upgrade from the 6210i.

Gits! (to steal a phrase)

i fear for the futre of mortal phones

When getting the 6310 they were bending over backwards to sell me some all singing dancing piece off poo

They really did not grasp the simple concept that if i want to take pictuires i would use shock horror a camera. that arguement failed so they went on to demonstrate the musical ring tones at which point i tryed to give them the idea that they make you sound like a prat everytime your phone rings. Eventually i managed to get the Nokia but more and more phones have got all this stuff on them that i have no need for nor do i wish.

And as for video phone mobiles i would pay to not have this feature

i want a nice minamlist but quality phone I was given a cheap nasty phone as a loan phone once and the thing had a bloody dancing duck on it every time you switched it on.

i want a nice minamlist but quality phone

Same here. Carspam Spamhouse keep ringing me up, asking whether I want to "upgrade" my 8890, but nobody actually makes a nicer phone than that -- none of the Ali G crap they offer constitutes an "upgrade" in my books. (I played with an 8910 in a shop in HK airport, and it's really flimsy; the display one was actually broken.)

I'm dreading the day when it packs in.

Peter

The 6310i (which is fairly new)

Not really, it has been out for about 18 months and there are rumours that Orange are soon to stop supplying it on their contracts.

I probably need to get a decent car kit soon. I was going to get the one designed for the 6210/6310 etc (because it has existed for years, with regular new phones that fit it). For some reason though, Orange don't seem to have a replacement for the 6310 that fits the same car kit.

they went on to demonstrate the musical ring tones at which point i tryed to give them the idea that they make you sound like a prat everytime your phone rings

I'd tend to agree with you, but I saw and heard the coolest thing the other day. (I may be easy to impress.)

A guy was in my office and his cell phone rang. It was one of those polyphonic ringers, but instead of playing some annoying pop music (like most of the people around me), it produced a crystal clear imitation of an old-time telephone bell ringer.

Of course, I haven't heard a bell ringer in years, as they've all been phased out by our robot-parrot sounding phones. It took me a minute to make the connect even after I saw him pull the phone out of his pocket and answer it. And it wasn't as harsh as bells can often be, either. Someone had put a lot of time into recording a nice sounding bell.

So, my point is that you don't have to be a prat every time your phone rings. You can just as easily put some mellifluous sound on there that actually indicates a notification instead of that you accidentally turned on your pocket transistor radio.

An old-style telephone ring? How wonderful! I must have one!

Actually, no, I don't have to have one, but it is a very cool idea. Nice to know that someone had the patience and care to make something of true quality - and to say that about a mobile phone ring is completely unheard of.

At the risk of starting a "ringtones" thread, I'd love to have the ability to have different recorded (e.g. MP3) samples for a few individuals in my phone list. My brother's would be the ghastly scream out of "The House Of Teeth" (Dyall: How sweet, the children are awake...) and my mum would receive the Peter Sellers Mad Long Talking Record, best heard on "Lost Horizons". Dad would probably get the sound of Eccles driving a wall at speed heard in "The Hastings Flyer".

(Yes indeed, Goon Shows. I loved the sound effects. From fourth to eighth series the sound effects often made the show - after that the BBC started cutting the effects budget on Milligan - in one late GS the cast had to do the effect of wolves howling... but I digress.)

What I want out of a phone is:

1) Long battery life - at least four days without charging.
2) Universal coverage - works anywhere I might happen to go.
3) Nice clear monochrome screen.
4) Personalised voice dial commands and ring samples (only about ten of each necessary).
5) Wireless connectivity to car kit and computer.

Things that would be nice:

1) A decent selection of games.
2) An FM radio.
3) An MP3 player with a decent (>128MB) amount of memory.

Things I don't want in a mobile phone are:

1) Colour screen.
2) Camera.
3) Annoying monophonic ring tones.
4) And the inverse of all of the wants and needs (e.g. wire-only connectivity).

So why can't I get a phone like that?

Have fun,

Paul

P.S. What's the N-Gage like? Is it as Penny Arcade says, and Nokia have found a way to package suck?

Carspam Spamhouse keep ringing me up, asking whether I want to "upgrade" my 8890, but nobody actually makes a nicer phone than that

I gave my 8890 to my father - if yours ever packs in I'm sure he'll be happy to swap it for some other random handset. I'd have to say that its replacement - the 6100 - is a head and shoulders better phone, but obviously without any of the class of the 8890.

Rob

Having wired connectivity is still useful even if tou have IR & Bluetooth. I didn't think I'd need it since I've got IR and Bluetooth but it's still sometimes nice to have a nice reliable connection without having to faff with it.
A decent selection of games isn't that majorly important if you've got Java support in the phone. You can then pick the applications you want. It's also good if you want to run anything else that isn't provided by the phone manufacturer.

1) Colour screen

Why is everyone knocking colour screens? I can understand it not being a factor in a buying decision, but why the antipathy?

My 6100 comes with a nice colour screen (the colours are a little washed out in daylight, but not too bad). It's just as clear, if not clearer, than the monochrome screen that was in my 8310, and it doesn't appear to sacrifice battery life for it -- I regularly get 4-5 (sometimes 6) days out of the phone before it needs recharging.

I know what you mean. Though I don't care particulary for the camera in my Nokia 7650, I do like it's colour screen. It's just a nice addition. I don't think I would ever buy a phone that has a monochrome screen again.

I have found no phone with a colour screen with battery life even 2/3 of my 6210i. I have also never found one with a clear, sharp screen - and I have been through the entire Nokia and Ericsson ranges.

I see no need for pictures, games or anything like that - I just want to see the number I'm calling, and for it to be a phone.

You wouldn't think I am generally seen as a 'gadget boy' or early adopter of technology, would you? I just need it to have some functionality I need.

My old Ericsson T39m had a greenish screen which was mostly readable but pretty small. My new Nokia 5100 has a larger color screen that I run almost entirely with black text on a white background. It's easier to read my calendar entries and to select and dial numbers while in a bouncy car. Battery life for the two phones is about the same.

I turned off the silly color wallpaper and I deleted the Java games. I need all that extra memory for contacts and calendar entries.

My concern with current cel phones is the general shoddy construction. Back in the old days, when cel phones were heavier, they were tanks. Drop 'em. Smash 'em. They were built to last. Most new phones have squeaky plastic cases. My aforementioned Ericsson fell three feet to a concrete sidewalk and it nuked the microphone. After that, I could only talk using a headset. Grumble. If it worked in the U.S., I'd probably want a Nokia 8910i. If you put comparable guts into a Vertu body and didn't charge thousands of dollars for it, that would also be attractive.

That is another one of the reasons I like the nokia 5110, 6110, 6210 style. They are so much more robust than the competition. I have seen one killed by dropping into a vat of diesel, and one of my kids managed some good damage with a bradawl, but basically they are tough as old boots.

The N-Gage:

the screen is pretty good, certainly better than my 3560, and it has some nice built in features, BTH, tri band, radio, MP3 and the game engine, but it lasted less than a day before being packed up and put in my desk.

Pros:
- The game engine is pretty good, I got Tomb Raider with mine and it is certainly playable, if you are the type of person who normally carries a gamebay or similar this could be great for you.
- built in BTH, so you can connect to stuff, only I don't have any other BTH stuff so it is not much use to me. If this was a phone I was using I would get a BTH headset as you look a moron using it without a headset (see cons)
- the built in MP3 player and radio could be good, only I have a Karma, so I don't need another MP3 player.
- Build appears good, keys have reasonable feedback, and it feels reasonably solid, but I only used it for a few hours so I don't know how it would hold up long term.

Cons:
- No keyguard - I looked everywhere, I even read the manual, but I still cannot find it.
- You look like a moron when you make calls on it without using a headset, due to the earpiece and mic locations you need to hold it with the thin edge of the phone aginst your head, check this out for a more accurate idea.
- The games are on MMC size cards, and you have to turn off the phone and remove the battery to change games.
- Only one MMC slot, not a big deal, only the MP3 player has no memory of its own, so it needs MMC memory, so you have the choice of music or game.
- The voice recorder also needs MMC memory to store stuff.

Conclusion:
I am not a game player, I only use my PS2 for watching DVDs, so why would I want to carry a portable gaming device round with me, just give me a smaller phone, and this one can stay in my desk.