[waffffffle]

I'm in the market for a new cell phone and I walk into the store with the list of phones on this page and the guy there shows me the Sony Ericsson T616 (I think). I was wondering if anyone has this phone and could tell me how well it works with iSync. I really want a phone that works well with iSync because I do not like Palm devices much and I would prefer to just carry the phone.

I am also very used to Nokia phones. i have had 3 different Nokia phones in the past 5 years and I have grown very accustomed to them. Would I be happy with the Sony Ericsson?

Thanks.

[Disgruntled Head of C-3PO]

the t616 and t68i work perfectly with iSync. The only thing it doesn't send is all day events in iCal and the pictures from address book although you can send them manually.

It is an incredible phone and has better battery life then ANY Nokia.

[k2director]

From what I understand, neither phone accepts the address portion of your contacts from your Mac's Address Book. For most people, that's not a big deal, but I've found it handy (my SE P800 transfers over addresses too).

[CatOne]

Originally posted by waffffffle:
I'm in the market for a new cell phone and I walk into the store with the list of phones on this page and the guy there shows me the Sony Ericsson T616 (I think). I was wondering if anyone has this phone and could tell me how well it works with iSync. I really want a phone that works well with iSync because I do not like Palm devices much and I would prefer to just carry the phone.

I am also very used to Nokia phones. i have had 3 different Nokia phones in the past 5 years and I have grown very accustomed to them. Would I be happy with the Sony Ericsson?

Thanks.

It works great with iSync. Pair the phone and the computer, and you're good to go.

One word of advice -- turn off bluetooth on the phone when you're not using it (i.e. synching). It sucks a bit of battery life. The phone is very pretty.

Note it's a GSM phone, and GSM coverage is a lot less than TDMA. So long as you're in/near major cities, you'll probably be okay (just don't go to Haight street in SF.. no coverage ;-)

Battery life is great as was noted above. I probably use 3 hours of talk time/week and leave it on 16 hours a day, and charge it every 8 days or so.

[waffffffle]

That doesn't sound good about the address book and calendar issues. Has anyone else experienced these problems?

[Disgruntled Head of C-3PO]

Originally posted by waffffffle:
That doesn't sound good about the address book and calendar issues. Has anyone else experienced these problems?

They are not problems, they are known limitations and no big deal.

[OpenStep]

I have a T616 and I sync it with my 17" PowerBook with onboard bluetooth. Works perfectly, even to copy pictures off the built in camera I just use the bluetooth file transfer app that comes with Mac OS X.

[Eug]

Originally posted by Disgruntled Head of C-3PO:
They are not problems, they are known limitations and no big deal.

Still, it's unfortunate that the limitation exists. My most important events for the Calendar are often all day events.

[Disgruntled Head of C-3PO]

Originally posted by Eug:
Still, it's unfortunate that the limitation exists. My most important events for the Calendar are often all day events.

Ya well unless you want to pay $1000 for a cellphone like the p800 you have to live with it. Considering you have a laptop and a palm how often are you really going to need to look up any events on your phone. Me, never.

[Eug]

Originally posted by Disgruntled Head of C-3PO:
Ya well unless you want to pay $1000 for a cellphone like the p800 you have to live with it. Considering you have a laptop and a palm how often are you really going to need to look up any events on your phone. Me, never.

I wanted to stop using my Palm/Visor, and I don't always want to carry around my iPod.

Oh well, maybe I'll just change the way I do all day events.

[k2director]

For the record, the Sony P800 is more like $550-$650, unlocked, via plenty of reliable mail order houses. The new P900 is more like $750.

[waffffffle]

I got the T610 with service through T-Mobile. I've had many small Nokia phones using T-Mobile in the past and usually the service is good enough for me but occasionally it sucks. The best provider around here is Verizon but they don't even offer any bluetooth phones.

I'm going to need some time to get used to the phone, but it is pretty cool. It has been taking me a while to sort out all of the discrepancies between my address book on my Mac and on my phone (I first transferred all my numbers from my old Nokia to the new phone using the SIM card). There are a few things I miss about the Nokia interface but I will have to get used to this. Also, I miss the ability to use nicknames for people on my phone since in my address book on my Mac I don't use nicknames.

I was wondering if anyone knows if it is possible to make a Mac OS X aqua theme for this phone. That would we pretty awesome, I think.

Does anyone have any tricks to share about this phone? Thanks for all the help.

[Cellery]

Originally posted by waffffffle:


I was wondering if anyone knows if it is possible to make a Mac OS X aqua theme for this phone. That would we pretty awesome, I think.

I got some OS X themes for my T616 from here. The Panther ones look especially slick.

Even more themes

[Socially Awkward Solo]

Originally posted by k2director:
For the record, the Sony P800 is more like $550-$650, unlocked, via plenty of reliable mail order houses. The new P900 is more like $750.

I was talking Canadian which he and I both are.

It is at least $900 CAN for the p800 and $1200 for the P900.

[Socially Awkward Solo]

Originally posted by waffffffle:


Does anyone have any tricks to share about this phone? Thanks for all the help.

Yes, when in the main screen you can change the action for when you hit the left key on the joystick in the shortcuts menu. I have it so when I hit left it creates a new text message.

[SOLIDAge]

have fun with your T610 its awesome
use the BT functionality with a Powerbook for internet connection ANYWHERE, its awesome! eheh anyway, enjoy the phone

check out www.myt610.net for picture, themess and everything T610

[waffffffle]

Thanks. I am now having all sorts of trouble syncing contacts. Some are coming in right:

Firstname Lastname

while some are showing up as:

. Firstname Lastname

and some are coming up as:

Lastname, Firstname



Yet they all show up right in my addressbook on my Mac. Does anyone know how I can make it consistent (and get rid of those periods before a bunch of them).

Thanks.

[Disgruntled Head of C-3PO]

Only the companies should have .. before them.

[waffffffle]

Those are people, not companies.

[Disgruntled Head of C-3PO]

Originally posted by waffffffle:
Those are people, not companies.

The only thing I can suggest is make sure you clean the up 100% in your Mac's address book, then reset all devices in iSync and tell it to use your Mac as the source.. That should do it.

[waffffffle]

I've tried that before. The address book is definitely cleaned up on my Mac. However I keep having to clean it up after a couple of syncs because the phone swaps the first and last name on a few of the addresses.

[craigthomas]

If anyone is using Entourage with the 610 or 616, I highly recommend MobileSync. It works better than iSync.

Another cool tip if you want to get a quick photo on your phone: take the picture, then open "Utilities > Bluetooth File Exchange". Then simply Get the photo from the Pictures folder in your phone. Very fast way to get a image on the mac without using connecting a usb cable to the Mac.

[Eug Wanker]

Anyone using the T610/T616 as a bridge for syncing the calendar/address book between a Mac and a PC?

I may buy the T610.

[MacBook]

I have seen MobileSync for Entourage but I need the same thing for Palm desktop. Is there any way to synchronize the T610 and Palm desktop?

Originally posted by craigthomas:
If anyone is using Entourage with the 610 or 616, I highly recommend MobileSync. It works better than iSync.

Another cool tip if you want to get a quick photo on your phone: take the picture, then open "Utilities > Bluetooth File Exchange". Then simply Get the photo from the Pictures folder in your phone. Very fast way to get a image on the mac without using connecting a usb cable to the Mac.

[TheMosco]

Just to let you know, Cingular sells the T637 for 250 unlocked(I believe) without a contract.

Its basically the same as the T616 except the housing has been updated, better Reception, and the screen can actually be viewed in the sunlight.

[wschultz]

ATT finally started selling the T637 in Minneapolis. I picked one up on Wednesday for 240$ (with tax/1 year contract). It's slick looking and operating.
Synced right up to my ibook with BT

[Talk2Angus]

I have a samsung e700 and im very happy!!!!!
I only heard bad things about sony\erricson down here in south africa!
i believe u either stick with sony or erricson all the combined models are crap!

[dmcnickle]

I hope this is not too stupid of a question. How do you use the phone for internet connection ANYWHERE? Don't you need a local service provider?

I want to get a BT phone for this purpose but am confused about exactly how to use it for internet. I have Cox cable at home.

Thanks for the help

Originally posted by SOLIDAge:
have fun with your T610 its awesome
use the BT functionality with a Powerbook for internet connection ANYWHERE, its awesome! eheh anyway, enjoy the phone

check out www.myt610.net for picture, themess and everything T610

[Eug Wanker]

Originally posted by dmcnickle:
I hope this is not too stupid of a question. How do you use the phone for internet connection ANYWHERE? Don't you need a local service provider?

I want to get a BT phone for this purpose but am confused about exactly how to use it for internet. I have Cox cable at home.

Thanks for the help

You would be using GPRS from your wireless provider. It has nothing to do with your home cable broadband.

[druber]

I surf on my iBook via GPRS (T616) under Cingular's MEdia Works package (yeah, give that marketing intern a raise). It does work most of the time, but it's definitely no replacement for a home ISP.

This just based on my experience, of course, but my phone tends to go wacky when I'm dialed in for a while (6 minutes to an hour +). The iBook shows that I'm connected, the phone shows that I'm connected, but Safari can't find a server. When the connection is lost like that, the only way to connect again is to shut the phone off first. Except that hitting the power button usually leaves it stalled with a white screen, so I end up yanking the battery. Sometimes the phone will hang up, play its start-up sound, then shut off. And sometimes there's just no dice.

Speed is roughly comparable to 56k. Great for checking email, sending is okay as long as you don't have attachments (they take forever to completely send through Mail, like a couple minutes spent at 100% sent). Grabbing RSS feeds is a breeze. But you'll have to be very patient to do any real browsing, between the slow link, spotty connection and rather possessed phone. Just so's you know...

[-Q-]

I just set up my laptop to use the T-mobile GPRS system for internet in emergencies. Some great info can be found here:

http://homepage.mac.com/jrc/contrib/tzones/

(Modem Scripts) http://www.taniwha.org.uk/

Took me about five minutes to set up.