I'm entering this on my PDA via Bluetooth on a T608

Well, I'm finally happy. Okay, that's a stretch of things, but yesterday I cam home to find a new Sony Ericsson T608 bluetooth phone on my desk. After half a year of conspiracy, the phone was released a couple of weeks ago. But you had to call a special number to order them. And they shipped it to Utah instead of Virginia, so even though I technically had it as of Christmas Eve, I finally got to play with it yesterday.

You may remember that the promise of this phone way back in May was the whole reason I broke down and bought a PDA instead of waiting for a PDA phone. It was all part of the Internet anywhere I want it solution-use the phone as a modem for my PDA via bluetooth-but no cords are required. I figured it would be cheaper and more flexible to have two separate pieces instead of being tied down to one expensive piece of equipment with lower specs than a PDA bought for much cheaper. But the phone never came... until now.

The cool thing is, I got the phone for $220, and supposedly there's a $100 rebate. That was way cheaper than I expected. I didn't ask for it activated, because I wanted to test out the reception. It's no good to have a bluetooth phone if I've got no reception. Surprisingly, though, it has better reception than my Sanyo 4900. Now the only big problem is battery life. The phones were sitting in a warehouse for half a year, and because of that, the batteries got all screwed up. Supposedly, it will gradually regain it's former strength. But even if it doesn't I think a new battery's only like $40.

So anyway, I decided today that I would activate it. I'd heard reports that you might lose Sprint's unlimited vision (Internet access) when you swapped your phone, but I didn't. It's a fantastic deal, by the way. $10/month to surf the web as much as I want, with almost as fast as DSL speeds. Theoretically, I could use it as my only connection to the Internet, but it's just a little too slow for me. Plus I need a more permanent connection. So I'll just use this when I'm on the road. Like today. When I had to get my car in to be serviced. I'm connected to the internet, doing business, instead of wasting my time staring off into space.

So yeah, it's awesome. I've already sent all sorts of pictures and stuff to the phone, for picture ID. I want bluetooth in my car now so I can use my console as one giant speakerphone without ever taking the phone out of my pocket. I've already done this with my laptop--I can just click on an icon while my phone is charging on the otherside of the room, and then it connects to my phone via bluetooth, and I can make calls directly from my laptop, using the laptop's mic and speakers. And, of course, now I can connect to the internet on my PDA and check my mail or do some research whenever I want.

I'm sure the novelty will wear off after a while, but I tell you, I'm loving it. This is one of those toys that actually has some very good real-life and productive applications to it.

Posted January 04, 2004 (01:13 PM) | Comments (1)