I really wanted to be able to carry just 1 device … a cell phone / PDA. I’d been waiting for the Treo 650 to hit AT & T Wireless … but then Cingular bought them and I received a brochure with the Siemens SX66 … a Windows Mobile 2003 SE device. And I really liked it. For quite some time I had been a little dissatisfied with the changes (or lack of changes) Palm had been making to the OS … they always seemed to play catchup. So I bought the SX66.
My desire was to get a Bluetooth headset to use with it. But the SX66 (and in fact, all the XDA devices that have been rebadged for Cingular and other companies) have Bluetooth issues. Static, Short range, etc. And I tried both a Motorola HS820 and and HS850. Eventually I gave up on BT. Also, Microsoft Voice Command would not work over a BT headset so that took away a lot of the advantage anyway.
But I eventually found an article about the Jabra A210. This allows non-BT phones to use BT by connecting to the headset jack. Tried this, hoping. And finally, I have a solution that works. No static, better range, but there is SOME echo on HS850 … so I use an HS820, despite the better battery life of the 850. AND, since the sound goes through the headset jack, Voice Command MOSTLY works. Based on what I read on pdaPhoneHome.com, “Bluetooth audio quality is 8kHz 8bit. Voice Command works best with 16kHz 16 bit audio. Digit dialing is inherently more complex than contact dialing, and will generally not work well over a bluetooth headset connection.” Yep, this is my experience as well. I can get it to work with “Call Name”, but not “Dial 123-1234″. For the most part, it’s fine.
What have I learned? Read a little more before jumping on the bandwagon. I mean, I assumed a lot would work and it didn’t. I had to try 2 BT headsets, a retractable wired headset (not easy to find), the BT adapter before I finally settled on a solution.
Another thing is that Siemens has only updated the firmware once since the release. There have been more homecooked releases on the pdaPhoneHome.com site, but HP or Palm would keep the firmware up-to-date … or at least more up-to-date than a 2nd-tier (IMHO) provider like Siemens.
