Geeky gadget review ahead. In December 2002 I switched from Sprint to T-Mobile and when I did I got the Motorolla 332 because it was one of their less expensive offerings but not the bottom of the line. Little did I know that while the phone functioned well in most repsects it is basically treated as a throw away. It has a “known issue”: the battery is not replaceable and does not last long so the whole phone needs to be replaced. I got a replacement phone in March and in the past week this second phone started to show the signs of battery failure. Stupid. According to this article by Jay Wrolstad:

Mobile phones typically are used for just 18 months before being replaced. That means that by 2005, about 130 million handsets – with a collective weight of some 65,000 tons – will be discarded annually in the United States alone.

Some of the toxic chemicals that will enter the waste stream: arsenic, beryllium, cadmium, copper, lead, nickel and zinc.

Rather than replace this one I paid for a new one. I convinced the folks at T-Mobile to give me a similar deal on a new phone that they would to a new customer and bought the Sony Ericsson t68i. It’s a highly rated phone and I’m hoping it will last for at least a year, hopefully far more. I’ve only had the phone for 3 days but thought I’d write about it’s bluetooth goodness and how it functions in relation to a bluetooth enabled Powerbook. For a geek this is pretty neat stuff I tell ya and it’s also a nifty distraction from my life’s current difficulties ;-).

Bluetooth is a relatively new wireless technology which has been embraced by Apple in it’s OS X operating system as well as new hardware such as the 12" Powerbook. Essentially it is a way for devices such as mobile phones to talk to other devices such as computers. It has a limited range of 10-20 feet and and the transfer of data is fairly slow (700 kbps) but it does work. The first step is pairing the computer and phone together. This was a bit confusing for me but it’s not too bad. After the pairing I opened iSync. The t68i icon showed up in the iSync window and I clicked the “Sync Now” button. One minute later all of my address book entries and iCal events were stored in the t68i. Sweet. As long as bluetooth is turned on the devices will see each other and syncing is as easy as pushing a button.

The next neat t68i/Powerbook/bluetooth trick also involves the OS X address book. I opened the address book and clicked the bluetooth button in the upper left corner. When a call comes in to the phone a window pops up on the computer and tells me i’ve got a call and who’s calling. From this dialog I can answer the phone, send the call to voicemail, or reply to it with an SMS text message (which will only work with someone who has an SMS enabled phone). Neat. I can also click on any contact in my address book and dial them from the computer or send them a SMS text message.

It’s also fairly easy to send files from the computer to the phone via Bluetooth File Exchange which is a free program included with the latest version of OS X. What kind of files? New ringtones such as the theme to Indiana Jones, new background images for the phone’s display (currently a picture of my cute dog Talula), sceensavers, and themes. Basically you can alter the sounds and appearance of the phone… fairly trivial but kinda fun. You can also add pictures of people in your address book so that when they call you see their image and their name.

I have not tried this yet but it is also possible to use the phone as a modem so I can, in theory, check my email while I’m driving down the highway. “You see officer, I didn’t realize I was driving the wrong way because I was reading my email…”

Finally, on the Mac you can use the shareware program Salling Clicker or freeware program Romeo to turn the t68i into a remote control for various programs such as iTunes, Quicktime Player, or DVD player… How cool is that?

The reception on the phone is pretty good in my area. It’s definitely as good or better than the Motorolla 332. With a 3-5 bar signal it sounds as good as a landline. The battery is supposed to last 10+ days while on standby or 7+ hours of talk time. A vast improvement over the 332. I haven’t had it long enough to verify this though from what I’ve read in online reviews those estimates are accurate.

Conclusion: so far so good.