Ericsson T610 - any fun stuff?.

I've been given a brand new T610 by a friend who didn't want it (yes I was stunned too!). Is there any good stuff it can do? I could buy a Bluetooth dongle for my PC and access 'things' is that right?

Anything else?

Suck it up and buy one of these. Hook it up to your empeg, and you'll never be able to go back.

I've never found much practical use for my bluetooth pc card, but if you keep a phone book or appointments on your computer it would probably be invaluble.

Is the UI responsive on it? How is the RF performance? I had a t68i and finally replaced it because I couldn't deal with it because of those two factors. The siemens S56 cost half of what the T610 cost, so I'm trying it out first, and happy so far.

Matthew

Nice looking gadget. Woudl I need a headset too? Can't tell from the photo.

The UI isn't the fastest in the world - Nokias are still faster. Sound quality is good - far better than my Nokia 6100 which had constant static on the line. I'm still playing, so it'll be a few days before I can give a full review. I can't complain at the price though !

Even better: you can use a bluetooth enhanced PDA and have a pocketable internet platform.

I'm using the t610 (w/ tmobile), with a sharp sl-c700 and a small bluetooth<->serial dongle since the sharp doesn't have bluetooth. The dongle uses much less power than a CF/bluetooth card. It's real nice.

Of course, so far all I do with that high level of connectedness is send obnoxious IMs to my college buddies from the gym.

-brendan

whose bluetooth-serial dongle?

You wouldn't need a headset. I've owned two Jabras and lost one, and the other one is "somewhere around my desk". Get a cheap one and see if you use it. If you do, then start thinking about a good one. Fry's has one on sale for 30 or 40 after rebate today, so there are some really cheap ones out there.

The Parrot will hook up to your empeg's aux in and has a mute line that can trigger the empeg switching to aux and back.

My prepurchase/review thread is here.

Matthew

The aircable: http://www.aircable.net/

-brendan

Just got a firmware update. RF is crystal clear, UI is FAST.

Where do you have to go to get that done? I picked up a T610 last night and it seems to be running R1S001 which I know is not the latest.

Just take it to your local service centre. Almost any large phone shop should be one. They'll do it free it its under warranty.

OK. I picked mine up at a kiosk at the mall. I am reasonably sure they do not flash phones there. I guess I will have to find a real T-Mobile store.

I'm resuscitating this thread in the hopes that someone has a solution to my T616 sync dilemma (the T616 is the same as the T610 except designed for the US market.) My goal is to be able to have all of my calendar entries and tasks synced to my T616's calendar as easily as possible. Right now my sync process consists of this:

1. Lotus Notes (at work) contains my work appointments, tasks, etc.
2. A Notes agent (on the Notes server) looks for new calendar entries and tasks, and sends them to my home email account.
3. A filtering rule in my email program at home looks for these emails from work and calls a Perl script when they're received. The Perl script looks at the new message, plucks out the calendar info, and uses OLE to create new entries in MS Outlook.
4. Now when I manually sync my T616 with Outlook (via Bluetooth) , I get the new calendar entries or tasks.

This is, of course, a very long trip. My hope was to find some other way to get those entries into my cell phone. I can't add any Bluetooth, IR, or serial hardware to my work PC, so I'm limited to things I can accomplish from Notes. I know that on a lot of Nokia phones, you can create calendar entries using a special gateway on the web, and it will send a special SMS message to your phone which will add a calendar entry. I was hoping something like this might exist for the Sony Ericsson phones too. Even if I could just have my Outlook auto-sync when my phone is in range, that'd be easier than having to remember to manually sync every day. This would all be a lot easier if my office used Outlook and I could add a Bluetooth card, but I can't, so I'm looking for some neat hacks if anyone knows of them.

Any takers?

the T616 is the same as the T610 except designed for the US market.

You mean designed for the new GSM frequency AT&T is adopting instead of supporting one of the existing 3 frequencies that work fine.

You mean designed for the new GSM frequency AT&T is adopting instead of supporting one of the existing 3 frequencies that work fine.

Yeah, that's it.

Pretty much what all the carriers have done. Some have used CDMA and TDMA in addition to the GSM variants, but the theme is pretty much the same... Proprietary signal so you can lock customers in. I chose to be locked into AT&T since their coverage is far better than T-Mobile where I live.

I chose to be locked into AT&T since their coverage is far better than T-Mobile where I live.

T-Mobile signed roaming agreements with AT&T, at least here in Colorado. Only seems to be one way though, since my friends AT&T GSM phone wouldn't see TMobile towers. He has an older AT&T GSM phone, one that dosen't support the 850mHz signal, so looks like AT&T will be stuck supporting the normal GSM standard for a while, as well as their new one.

This won't help, but:

Cingular also uses GSM in some markets. In South Carolina, Cingular is entirely GSM. A close friend of mine uses the T616 on their network.

Or, he could get Logitech's new Bluetooth Cordless Desktop, which doubles as a full-blown wireless hub.

You mean designed for the new GSM frequency AT&T is adopting instead of supporting one of the existing 3 frequencies that work fine.

I'd differ with you on that one. 1900mhz doesn't work indoors. 900 and 1800 can't be used in the US, thus the need for a lower frequency.

Matthew

1900mhz doesn't work indoors.

I find that odd, since my T610 worked with 2 signal bars out of six, in a room underneath a server room full of Alphas, and designed to dampen wireless signals. Sprint, Verizon, and an AT&T (non GSM) phone all had no signal.