[turk.o]

hey y'all, i just got my new Motorola A630 http://www.motorola.com/mdirect/hell.../default.shtml (replaced my old SE T610, which i loved!). I was surprised to see it not mentioned on these forums even a single time. wow. so far this phone has been absolutely awesome, exactly what i was hoping for (though i wish i could have gotten the colors that they get in europe, i guess it was too dark for us americans).

anyway, considering you can get it for free with a t-mobile contract through amazon, i don't understand why more people aren't using it. the biggest complaint i have seen about it is that its not a good smartphone or pda, but duh! its not supposed to be. given its very small size, barely bigger than my SET610 and much, much smaller than the Sidekick II, it has an amazing array of features, the most useful for me being the totally integrated AIM chat and brilliantly revealed full QWERTY keyboard. it is the perfect phone for someone who needs a small, very functional phone, that can also handle light text messaging, AIM, and POP email as well as limited internet access (and the speakerphone rocks). so, i do have a point besides saying how great this phone is:

does anyone know of anywhere to find out on how to use it through bluetooth as a modem for using my earthlink dial-up account to connect my powerbook to the internet? i did this with my T610 with no problem, and it was great to be able to check my email while on the train or on the freeway. But i can't find an instructions or modem scripts or anyone who has tried this in OS X. btw, no, it doesn't sync with iSync, but i never used that feature once on my T610, so it doesn't affect me at all (not the appointment making type), and it DOES work in terms of transferring files over bluetooth and my Macs. Any info towards this avenue would be much appreciated. more OS X users need to get this phone, and get a little OS X user base set up.

ok,

t.o

[turk.o]

Hooray! I figured out how to make it work today. OS X comes with eight Motorola modem scripts (computer/library/modem scripts) and of course, the eigth one i tried worked!!

so, for all future macnn readers who search for 'a630' looking for this info and find this, the correct modem script is 'Motorola iR TimePort (7089)'

it is sooo easy to use this phone as a bluetooth modem with your already existing dial-up service! here is how: turn bluetooth on on your mac, from the bluetooth menu, select 'set up bluetooth device'. then select 'mobile phone' and click find. then on the phone go to 'settings/connection/bluetooth link/setup/find me'. your phone should become available in the bluetooth setup window on the mac, click select. then follow instructions for pairing. it will ask how you want to use this phone, select 'to connect to the internet' and then it gives two options, you want the first, the one that DOESN'T say GPRS. in the next dialog, you enter your dial-up user name, password, and phone number, and it asks you to select a modem script, select 'Motorola iR TimePort (7089)' and then click OK, it will tell you that you are done, and then you can quit the bluetooth setup assistant. next go to the internet connect app and open it. click on the bluetooth pane, and all the info that you just entered should be there, if not, re-enter it, and then click connect. your cell phone screen will show the number dialing and when connected will tell you the data rate (sadly, the best to expect is 9.6kbps) and now you are in business! (you only have to do the set up one time, in the future your computer will remember the settings).

while not a super fast connection, it is easily fast enough to download the emails from several accounts, use iChat, or browse webpages if you can muster some serious patience (PithHelmet will save you some time), this is also a good way to use RSS readers as RSS feeds are small in size and load quickly. the advantage to this is that you don't pay any extra data fees on your cell phone, but don't forget that you do get charged airtime minutes. as most cell phones have free long distance these days you can even use your same local access number no matter where you are traveling. and if you don't already have a dial-up account some googling can probably help you find one somewhere (especially easy since you don't need a local access number).

good luck!

ps: I've had this phone for two weeks now, and i absolutely love it. it is very feature rich and digging through the menus really pays off. the motorola phonebook (which people often disparage) is easily the best i've ever used, including better than my T610. most people just don't access its features and thus think it is limited where it is not. YOU CAN have multiple numbers for one entry and you can also use categories to divide up your phone book however you want.