Bell Mobility and Bluetooth - Finally, yet crippled.
Posted: Thursday, August 25, 2005 1:18 AM
by
Barry Gervin
Filed under: Southern Ontario
Bell Mobility has finally released a bluetooth phone that isn't a blackberry. I have a bluetooth pocket pc, laptop, headset, and now LG 325 phone.
But like so many other cell carriers, has turned off/disabled (or convinced the manufacturer to) the OBEX bluetooth profile that allows you to exchange objects like contacts. I was looking forward to doing wireless syncing of contacts, or maybe taking pictures off of the device.
Instead, if you want to do that kind of stuff, you have to go through the network and mail yourself a photo - a pay Bell a gob of $$ in the process. When one pays $250 for a phone, particularly a bluetooth phone, one should expect to use typical bluetooth functionality.
There is a dial up networking profile so you can use your phone as a modem. This would be useful if Bell gave some instructions on using it. Looks like I have to actually dial up an ISP - no you can't tap into your phone as an ISP I guess. Strange.
I've also used the bluetooth headset profile and that works OK - I think I need to get a new headset though - it was a bit choppy. I'll have to play more with it before I decide.
This phone also has a GPS in it. You'd think you could connect to it with a bluetooth profile too - think again. The co-ordinates are only available directly to Bell (or to you though a service you pay for, like the finder services or Map Point Location Services).