Man, What Happened?!

[xizor24]

I remember when bluetooth phones were first being introduced along with bluetooth PDA's... do you remember the promises and marketing that were hurled in the direction of our wallets.

We were supposed to be able to dial from our PDA's, use our phones as a means to check e-mail on our PDA's, etc. I've yet to find a phone with bluetooth that isn't restricted by the provider to work only with headsets.

I love my PDA, I love having my e-mail on my PDA, but syncing once, in the morning before work and again at night to send/recieve new e-mail really defeats the purpose of having e-mail in your pocket. I know there are PDA/Phones out there but they seem to recieve nothing but bad to mediocre reviews with the exception of the Palm Treo 650 which I'd like to add that you can't write on the screen, just type away on an incredibly small thumb pad.

I carry a blackberry with me as well so that I can recieve "instant" e-mails, but man do I dislike the blackberry OS and it's degenerate thumb wheel. And forget ever trying to use a blackberry as a PDA, it's just not a great way to go about things I don't think.

But, hey this is just my rant and I offer it in good spirit. What are your guys' feelings on this whole issue? Do you know of a great way to check or have e-mail delivered wirelessly to your PDA anywhere you are, and not just from a WiFi hotspot? Chime in!

[Jon Westfall]

My T-Mobile h6315 can act as pretty much a bluetooth anything, and so could my i-mate smartphone. The simple fact is that US providers don't really think their users would use the advanced features of Bluetooth, and see many BT profiles as ways of getting premium content onto phones that users wouldn't have to pay providers for.

If you want a BT device that can do more, you'll probably have to look outside the US phone market.

[emuelle1]

My friend is able to connect to the internet from his Dell x50v through his Nokia 6620 over BT. I've been looking in to this for a while. I came across the Motorola v551, which has BT, but I was told that it won't connect to the Pocket PC. I was told that the Nokia 6620 and 6230 will, but I'm currently hampered by my wife who doesn't feel that "it's the right time" to upgrade our cell phones.

[surur]

Change networks man. In Europe everything works as advertised. They just charge us exorbitant amounts for bandwidth, making things less than useful :(

Surur

[emuelle1]

A column was posted within the last couple of weeks comparing U.S. Cellular providers with Soviet ministries. I find that to be an accurate assumption.

[GSmith]

In the US, both Cingular and T-Mobile offer unlimited data for $20 per month. Cingular has EDGE (5K-15Kbytes per second) and T-Mobile has GPRS (2K-6Kbytes per second). Cingular is a little confused with their plans, as they will likely suggest that for use with a laptop that you will have to get the $40 plan. But they sell the $20 plan with the SX66, and it's not clear to me (or the Cingular CS rep I spoke with) how they tell the difference between SX66 (a Pocket PC Phone Edition), a Loox 720 through a bluetooth phone, or a laptop through a bluetooth phone. I have been using the Cingular plan for a few months. I have transferred over 2.5GBytes of total traffic over their EDGE network; downloading podcasts, of course!

Verizon I believe has come out with plans that are less than $40, but I'm not totally sure of any restrictions.

T-Mobile has been the lead in this. They have had their plan for several years at $20, while Cingular and Verizon were at the $80 level about a year ago.

Greg Smith
Author, FeederReader - Pocket PC *direct* RSS text, audio, video, podcast
www.FeederReader.com - Download on the Road

[Don't Panic!]

No trouble here with t-mobile and their bluetooth phones. I've had a Sony-Ericcson t68 and a t610 from them so far and they work great.

The best dailing software I used was called mPhone (http://www.mobem.com/products/mphone26/mp26features.php), no not those guys..

[Jon Westfall]

In the US, both Cingular and T-Mobile offer unlimited data for $20 per month. Cingular has EDGE (5K-15Kbytes per second) and T-Mobile has GPRS (2K-6Kbytes per second). Cingular is a little confused with their plans, as they will likely suggest that for use with a laptop that you will have to get the $40 plan. But they sell the $20 plan with the SX66, and it's not clear to me (or the Cingular CS rep I spoke with) how they tell the difference between SX66 (a Pocket PC Phone Edition), a Loox 720 through a bluetooth phone, or a laptop through a bluetooth phone. I have been using the Cingular plan for a few months. I have transferred over 2.5GBytes of total traffic over their EDGE network; downloading podcasts, of course!

Verizon I believe has come out with plans that are less than $40, but I'm not totally sure of any restrictions.

T-Mobile has been the lead in this. They have had their plan for several years at $20, while Cingular and Verizon were at the $80 level about a year ago.

Greg Smith
Author, FeederReader - Pocket PC *direct* RSS text, audio, video, podcast
www.FeederReader.com - Download on the Road

T-Mobile started it's unlimited data plan in July of 2003, which was one of the main reasons I got into PPC's so heavily!

[GSmith]

T-Mobile started it's unlimited data plan in July of 2003, which was one of the main reasons I got into PPC's so heavily!

And before that they (at least when they were PowerTel and I think also as VoiceStream) offered CSD (9600 bits per second) that were charged as normal airtime. I've been with T-Mobile for about 10 years (really: PowerTel -> VoiceStream -> T-Mobile in my area).

It's been a great ride for data users on the GSM network in my area. Although from every indication I've gotten from local reps, there is not a lot of queries for data. Go figure.