GSM

Sony Ericsson HBH-65

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I have had the SE HBH-10, the HBH-30, and now the HBH-65. Pretty much all three generations of SE’s bluetooth headsets. I have also had the Motorola gen 1 headset. The first couple of generations of the SE’s needed work. So far this new headset seems ok.

I made several calls with it paired to my SE T610. All were loud and mostly clear. Miguel said that he heard background hum when I called, but he could hear me clearly. Everyone else had no complaints about it.

making calls was easy. When the phone was paired to the headset it just switched over to the headset when dialing a call.

Recieving calls has been a bit trickier. I am still working on getting the headset to answer the call without having to transfer the call from the phone to the headset.

The headset fits nice in my ear. It is really small. I thought it would be bigger, but I am not upset by it being so small. I just hope I don’t break it like I did my motorola.

I am going to try and use it allot in the next 2 days while I am in Kingston. Hopefully I will iron out all the kinks with it.

The Treoless Day

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I went the day without my Treo. I mean I didn’t use it as my cell phone, and I didn’t carry it around wherever I went. Here is what I realized.

The all in one device is a great idea. I found myself walking around with my Pocket PC fishing in my pockets for my cell phone when I wanted to make a call. Not everyone I know fit into my T610. I walked around with the Pocket PC since I keep my To Do list on that or my Treo. So I saved weight by only carrying a light cell phone, but ended up with my bigger Pocket PC in hand most of the time when I left my office.

This is a well known conclusion. A combined device is better if you DO carry around a phone and an organizer. I thought I would save on some weight by using the T610. For part of the day I was right, but for the rest of the day I was not.

The other point is that the screen on my iPaq 1945 Pocket PC is 10x better than my Treo. I would use that if the device wasn’t so dam big. yes I know that is the smallest pocket PC out there, but it is still big compared to my Treo. A Treo with bluetooth and a better screen would be nice. Please?

Tomorrow I will go back to my Treo. Actually as I sit on the train now, I ponder swapping my SIM card back into the Treo.

The only advantage the T610 has over the Treo is the fact it has bluetooth so I can use a wireless head set, and that the camera is better. it takes smaller photo’s, but they are clearer. Man can you tell the difference.

The Treo is Off

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I did the unthinkable. I turned off my Treo today. I took the SIM card out of it and placed it in my Sony Ericsson T610. I am doing this for the day. Why you mask ask? Or you may not give a crap. I am wearing shorts today, and pocket space is limited. Carrying my Treo, & wallet it fells like I am carrying rocks. I have my new blackberry. It is big, but clipped to my belt. So for now I don’t need this huge phone. I still love it, and need it. I will leave it on my desk and use it as a palm when needed. But I want to keep my cell on me during the day. I can do that easier with the T610. This is the weight dilemma that I have always had. It is a bigger issue in the summer time when I have no jacket.

What I really need is the Blackberry software on my Treo so I don’t need this new big Blackberry I have. But this big blackberry is great. it has a nice wide keyboard, and direct connect. I am in technology heaven, but I now have too many devices. each one is great, but only does some of the things I need:( I need the pocket knife of smart phones, but it hasn’t been made yet. Come on PalmOne, make me a better Treo. I will buy it!

Lifeline

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I talk allot about communication gadgets, etc. I won’t lie, I like them. I think they are cool. I also find them invaluable. Yesterday reaffirmed that for me. I was lost without my cell phone when the confiscated it yesterday. In order to check in with work I had to call our 800# to our call center and get some one to patch me through to Kai. I missed the call about a site being down at noon, not that I would have been able to do anything. I at least could have given out vital info if someone needed it.

It is good to a point that I can stay connected with one communication device like that. It is bad that when it is taken away it is like I don’t know what to do. I can tell you I was bored for a while. I did other things, but you almost get addicted to being able to stay so connected.

Note to self for next jury duty, get a non camera phone and use that. Gus has my old T-68i and he is in India, so I didn’t have a phone I could pop my SIM in that the court officers wouldn’t take.

Ring Tones And More

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When I got my Sony Ericsson T610 I realized I had a ring tone or two on my old T68i. What to do? I paid for those tones, and I sure wanted to keep them. Turns out it was a snap to move them. I tried IR to beam the tones to my new phone. That didn’t really work. I figured it out via Bluetooth. I paired both phones with each other and just sent the tones. Took like 3 minutes total. The tones work fine on my new phone because it is also a Sony Ericsson.

I also got the new phone to pair with my Powerbook (talked about that in detail before) and now my HP iPaq 1945. The iPaq took some time. I had to figure out the dial up networking settings on it, but now I got it. I can browse the internet on my iPaq using the GPRS of the phone anywhere I have a signal. I was trying it out from my desk at work when the phone was in my bag. I also was able to connect to the phone when it was charging in my bedroom and I was on my couch. Nice!

My next mission is to get this setup to work with my Win XP PC. I think my problems are related to the Xircom card I am using. Their are no new drivers for it, since Xircom got bought up by intel. I am looking for another PCMCIA bluetooth card or maybe a USB one.

Bluetooth, Powerbook, And A T610 = Awesome

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I have had a new Sony Ericsson T610 for a little over a week now. Actually I am on my second one. The first one’s camera stopped working on day 2, so T-Mobile gave me a new one. So far this one seems fine.

This phone is nice, but the best feature is the bluetooth. I can sync with my Powerbook while the phone is in my bag. No more entering contact information into the phone. I know I could have (and have) done this on other phones, but the sync software on the pc and the usb or ir methods sucked. This is a breeze. Setup on the powerbook was easy too. I also got GPRS dial up to work. Now I can use my T610 as a modem anywhere I get good signal while using my Powerbook. I was just checking my mail on the rail road. The phone was still in my bag. Now that is technology that works.

The only kink is that the GPRS is slow, and on the train the signal is sometimes spotty. When I get good signal the connection rocks.

Bluetooth Gear

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I talk allot about the technology gear that I use. To me recently, the holey grail of technology gadgets is wireless interaction between devices. Ussually that means Wifi. Wifi is out there and it works great, when it works. For me the big thing is getting good Bluetooth devices that work well together. I have been trying for this goal for over 2 years.

I had a good setup with my T68i and my motorola bluetooth headset about a year or so ago. The problem was that I broke the headset one day when I dropped my backpack. The T68i, with headset and my Powerbook made an unbeatable combination. Now I have a T610, a different powerbook, and I plan on getting another bluetooth headset. Hopefully everything will work as advertised and I will have a complete portable wireless setup. Is it a pipe dream? Maybe, but I am going to try to get it to work.

As I mentioned earlier today the next step for this solution is to get GPRS to work on my Powerbook via the T610 over bluetooth. If I get it to work, I may even suck it up and buy a new PCMCIA Bluetooth card for my thinkpad. I have a Xircom Realport2 Bluetooth card, but it doesn’t have resident XP drivers, and I am finding it doesn’t work 100% correctly. The cards have come down in price so I will see how much they are.

This blog entry was written while listening to Bent from the album “Beneath These Fireworks” by Matt Nathanson

Sony Ericsson T610

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My new T-Mobile phone is a new Sony Ericsson T610. It is supposed to be the upgrade to the T68i that I had. I actually still have the T68, but I am never happy with the signal strength I get on it. T-Mobile discounted the phone by %50 with a mail in rebate so I took it. I will wait till they offer the Motorola V600 and the price comes down.

So far my reviews of this phone are limited. The screen is nice. It is bright and crisp. The buttons are small and annoying like the T68i, but I can deal with that. I only used it for 2 minutes on the phone so I am not sure about voice quality or volume.

Bluetooth looks good on it. I was able to setup and pair the phone with my Powerbook in 2 minutes. I don’t know how that will work with my Thinkpad. I like that the new bluetooth devices don’t need you to specify that you want to make them discoverable. That is good for setup, but bad for security. Also nice is the fact that I don’t have a big bright blue light that is always on when bluetooth is on. My T68i did that. It was really annoying. All I have is an icon on the top of the phone screen telling me I have bluetooth on. That is all I need.

iSync with bluetooth was easy also. I dumped my entire phone book to the phone in 3 minutes. I didn’t even take out the Sony Ericsson software for the PC since I can do that all on my Mac with no special software. Have I mentioned I love my Powerbook?

Downloading or uploading pictures was a snap also. Just told my Powerbook to browse folders on bluetooth devices and up came my phones memory. I downloaded the two photos I took yesterday.

What I was unable to do was setup my powerbook to use the T610 as a GPRS modem via bluetooth. I found a few sites on the internet that explain how to do it. I downloaded some modem scripts, but have still not been able to get it to work. I only worked on it for like 15 minutes last night before I needed to get to bed. I had an early train to catch today.

I got bluetooth GPRS to work on my old Powerbook and my T68i using AT&T Wireless last year. I should be able to get it working with the T610. I just need to work on it. Kind of pissed that I couldn’t get it working before my trip. I could be using it right now on the train. Instead I get to clear my head and update my blog!

This blog entry was written while listening to Angry from the album “Mad Season” by Matchbox Twenty

I Got Rid Of Verizon Wireless

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Finally after months of waiting and/or plain old laziness I have gotten rid of my Verizon Wireless account. I have had 2 wireless accounts for years. I have had T-Mobile (Voicestream) and Verizon Wireless since September 2001. I have been using my T-Mobile phone exclusively since December 1. I am always concerned about good reception and didn’t want to get rid of my Verizon account without being comfortable that T-Mobile worked everywhere I needed it to. I haven’t needed to use my Verizon phone since December so it is a good sign that I can get rid of the extra expense. Since by now it was almost the same price to leave the account active and let the contract run out vs. canceling it and paying the termination fee, I just canceled the account so I don’t have the recurring payment.

What I did was port my old verizon number over to T-Mobile. I setup a family share plan so I can have my 2 numbers. I am truly a tech geek because of my reasoning for this. I want my PalmOne Treo 600 for my primary phone. I love that phone. But I want a bluetooth phone that I can use as a wireless modem for my laptop, and I also want some other bluetooth accessories such as the wireless headset. With a family plan I can share minutes between two phones. The price between this new plan and the plan I had was only like $10. To me it was worth the charge to have the flexibility to play around with the second phone.

Today is a good test of the new phone also. I am off to Kingston. it is north of NYC and phone signal isn’t always that good everywhere.

Hot Chocolate Or A Frapachino

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My throat hurts today so I am debating if I want hot chocolate or a starbucks frapichino? The frap will wake me up from my drug induced sleep from last night, but the hot chocolate will ease my throat a bit. I will have to hit starbucks and find out.

Its funny, I hit the starbucks in Union Square. There are two of them, but I always goto the same one. That place is like a starbucks commercial. There is always one or two people with the laptops (one always a big powerbook) on the T-Mobile Wifi, sipping some concoction of coffee. I always find it amusing. I can’t believe that the majority of starbucks across the country people do that, but they are making there money back at the one by my office.

I will admit I have never done the coffee house wifi experience. Actually don’t think I have ever used a hot spot anywhere. I have used high speed internet at hotels, and at Laptop Lane in airports but never a wifi hotspot. Maybe I am not as big a geek as everyone thinks I am:)