[rag on a muffin]

i hate the phones that verizon uses. they have to use the most out of date crap. there are no phones that are compatible with bluetooth sold there, despite the petition (sign verizon wireless people who want bluetooth). and the thought crossed my mind that they did not see this. i sent them a formal letter in snail mail and suggested the motorola v600 although it was already released. i think they took some very strong consideration of this petition and which phone i chose, now there are rumors the motorola v710 will be distributed by verizon. i guess my snail mail message got the point across.(they respect snail mail more because it takes more effort than email)

[His Dudeness]

I think Verizon Wireless carries some of the Sony Ericsson phones for their GSM system. I think all of the Sony Ericsson phones are bluetooth enabled.

[rag on a muffin]

they carry no sony ericsson to my knowledge. i asked the reps and they said no, and had no idea when they would

[rag on a muffin]

*update*

i found another source. so verizon is most likely going to release it.

[His Dudeness]

I know I read where Verizon, ATT, and T-Mobile all had GSM services, which used the Sony Ericsson phone...

[TheMosco]

Originally posted by His Dudeness:
I know I read where Verizon, ATT, and T-Mobile all had GSM services, which used the Sony Ericsson phone...

Verizon and Sprint use CDMA. ATT, Cingular, and T-mobile use GSM.

710 should be out sometime this summer. Nokia has a CDMA clamshell I believe that has bt that should be out later in the year.

Verizon will be offering a phone that allows people to use GSM over seas but CDMA in the states, so maybe that it what you are thinking about.

[His Dudeness]

Gotta love those standards for cellular in the states, huh?

[rag on a muffin]

Originally posted by TheMosco:
710 should be out sometime this summer.

summer, cool ill be looking forward to this. any idea on the price? finally they are using a good phone.

[kman42]

Well you can try the forum below. Most of the people posting there seem like teens or at least total asshats. At any rate, there is some info that the phone will be out around the end of May/early June. It will probably be fairly expensive (~$350-400).

http://www.phonescoop.com/phones/phone.php?p=475

Here's a hint. I chose t-mobile because I wanted a bluetooth phone (the t610). In the end, it hasn't really been worth it for me as my address book doesn't change so often that syncing my phone is all that important and it wasn't really any easier than a usb cable. I don't spend so much time on my phone that I need a headset and while the SE Clicker app was nifty, I only really used it a handful of times. My point is simply that while I think every phone should have bluetooth, if you are paying hundreds of dollars for the feature, you should think carefully about it. Also, t-mobile is the worst carrier ever and definitely not worth the hassle. I'm switching to Verizon and was seriously considering the v710, but for the price it is going to start out at I think I'll go with the vx6000. Other people have very different needs than I do so YMMV, but I just wanted to throw out my story.

kman

[KP*]

There's a rumor that the v710 will be released either May 21 or July 21. I check most often on http://www.howardforums.com for my phone gossip. Don't know how accurate either date is, but it seems like it might be coming soon. I'll definitely be getting one. I'm really happy with my phone service since I switched to Verizon, but I miss my easy internet access via Bluetooth.

[wschultz]

any updates on new verizon phones coming out?

[-Q-]

Originally posted by kman42:
Also, t-mobile is the worst carrier ever and definitely not worth the hassle.

kman

And just to add to confusion, I have to completely disagree with this. I always get a great signal here in Atlanta and I've never head a problem using my phone, even when travelling internationally. I've only had to speak to the T-mobile people a few times, but each time they've been courteous and helpful.

I think Sprint has to be the worst carrier ever.

And back on topic, the latest news I keep reading is that it'll be closer to the end of the year for the BT phones...

[SpinCycle]

this site will tell you what carriers have GSM networks in the US.

http://www.gsmworld.com/roaming/gsminfo/cou_us.shtml

Verizon isn't, and probably will never be a GSM provider unless something drastic happens.

[starman]

Too little, too late.

[KP*]

The v710 is still not out. The latest gossip has it at sometime this week, or maybe mid-June. There's a wide range of rumors about this release.

<--- waiting not-so-patiently

[Link]

Standards? GSM was only "implemented" because everyone else uses it. The next gen GSM will be based on CDMA, and CDMA has been known to have a better system

To be honest it all depends on where you live, and the phones verizon uses btw, aren't as high tech because sony and other companies have been focusing on GSM phones

[Diggory Laycock]

Please note - A phone having bluetooth does not necessarily mean it will work with iSync.

Phones need more than BT to work with iSync.

Just wanted to make that clear before someone gets very disappointed.

[starman]

Originally posted by Diggory Laycock:
Please note - A phone having bluetooth does not necessarily mean it will work with iSync.

Phones need more than BT to work with iSync.

Just wanted to make that clear before someone gets very disappointed.

Very true, but I'm sure Apple would write support for it ASAP.

Mike

[-Q-]

Originally posted by starman:
Very true, but I'm sure Apple would write support for it ASAP.

Mike

Exactly. Or if it's from an established model line (like the Sony Ericsson 6XX series), it's pretty easy to hack the application to provide support as the phone most likely hasn't changed dramatically from version to version. I have a SE 630 and had to add a line of text to the Address Book to get SIM messaging and caller ID to work, but once I did that, it was flawless.

[Talk2Angus]

Sony Ericsson, new samsung and new nokia

[Diggory Laycock]

Originally posted by -Q-:
Exactly. Or if it's from an established model line (like the Sony Ericsson 6XX series), it's pretty easy to hack the application to provide support as the phone most likely hasn't changed dramatically from version to version. I have a SE 630 and had to add a line of text to the Address Book to get SIM messaging and caller ID to work, but once I did that, it was flawless.

It's not quite that easy - There are two different systems in play here:

SMS, CallerID and Dialling are all part of the AT command set for Mobile Phones - all mobile phones (AFAIK) support these standards (even if just to a very basic level - e.g. "ATD 5551234" will dial 5551234, "ATH" will hang-up)

iSync uses the IRDA IrMC protocol (level 4) to connect locally to handsets and exchange Contact and Calendar entries - this is important, the phone must support level 4.

I used to have a Nokia 6310. It was one of the first phones with bluetooth available - but it only supported IrMC at level 3. What that means id that you can get all the contacts in/out of the phone via bluetooth (e.g. get me contact at index 14) - but the phone doesn't keep a log of changes that were made to that contact, and the phone does not attach a GUID (Global Unique IDentifier) to that contact. That means that there can be no true synchronisation between the phone and another device - because neither device knows who changed what when, and contacts get lost if their name changes!

<phew> - sorry about that brain-dump - but I've been interested in this for a while...


So - to boil that down - the phone has to support IrMC level 4 to work with iSync. I would hope that new bluetooth Motorola phones would because they are on the board of IrMC and helped define the standard - but you never know...