phones posts

Filed under: Wireless, Bluetooth, Leopard

Leopard, Bluetooth and my new Pantech Breeze

by Erica Sadun (RSS feed) on Aug 26th, 2008

It may be a personal preference, but I try not to use or abuse phones that can't survive a 3-foot drop onto concrete. That's why last week I ordered myself a sweet little Pantech Breeze.

It offers one killer feature that I refuse to live without: a dedicated speakerphone button. I have this on my beloved Kyocera Slider and I demanded it on any new phone that I would buy. The Breeze brings that to the table along with a video camera and full Bluetooth support. After rebates, the phone cost about $70 and works perfectly with my iPhone SIM.

So after unboxing my new toy, I enabled Bluetooth on the phone and opened Leopard's Bluetooth File Exchange.

BFE isn't some super-spiffy CoverFlow all-dancing all-singing phone interface. It's a simple little utility program (with the emphasis on "utility") that allows you to browse your BT connected devices and use its drag-and-drop interface to transfer data to and from the unit.

Leopard recognized my phone without incident and opened the browsing window shown here. It took just a few clicks to offload my latest pictures from the phone and drag them into iPhoto. Going the other direction, I threw a few mp3 files into my Download > Audio folder and they instantly appeared onboard, ready to play.

Obviously the Pantech Breeze isn't the iPhone (even as I end up tapping its screen and wondering why it's not responding) but in some ways, it should have been. Why does Leopard offer this fantastic Bluetooth interaction between phone and Macintosh for an also-ran third party phone, while balking at any iPhone interactions? This is the interaction that should have been on my iPhone, using functionality already built into Leopard. I wonder why it wasn't baked into the flagship Apple product of the century.

Tags: bluetooth, leopard, pantech, Phones, wireless

Filed under: Hardware, OS, Software, Cool tools, Productivity

Salling Clicker v3.5 brings new Front Row controls, device support and much more

by David Chartier (RSS feed) on May 11th, 2007

One of the major things I miss about switching away from a Windows Mobile or even Sony Ericsson mobile phone is Salling Clicker - just about the best darn software I've ever seen for controlling your Mac with a mobile phone or PDA. Clicker offers a wide array of customizable controls with which you can enable your device to control everything from iTunes to Keynote, and even do things like pause music when a call comes in or lock your display if you walk too far away from your Mac. While I cross my fingers that Salling Software can create a BlackBerry client sooner than later, the rest of you can enjoy today's v3.5 update which ushers in a slew of new features and wider support for yet more devices.

At the top of the feature list is support for Front Row, potentially eliminating the need to pack an Apple Remote when venturing out. Other new features include: improved iTunes functionality with quick access to current playlists and more browsing options, support for Windows Mobile 6 and Symbian 9.x devices, much easier Wi-Fi connections for Symbian and WinMo devices, improved Keynote and PowerPoint functionality and much more (I should also note that Salling Clicker for Windows now supports Vista as well).

Check out the main product page of Salling Clicker for Mac if you're new to the possibilities of this excellent software, or take a look at the v3.5 press release to get a look at what's new for you seasoned clickers. A demo is of course available, while a license costs a mere $23.95.

Tags: clicker, control, front row, FrontRow, mac, mobile phone, mobile phones, MobilePhone, MobilePhones, pda, pdas, phones, salling clicker, SallingClicker, vista

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Hardware, Rumors, iTunes

Rumor: Apple iPhone to come in two models, one with Wi-Fi

by David Chartier (RSS feed) on Oct 17th, 2006

Another day, another analyst claiming to have obtained über-exclusive details on the much-rumored iPhone. This time around it's Prudential Equities, and they claim Apple has not one, but two iPhones planned for an early 2007 release (gee, when could that be). One will be a smart phone with keyboard, video and (duh) music capabilities, while the other will be a straight-up iTunes phone. Oh, and 'one' will have Wi-Fi - though PE leaves us hanging in suspense as to which model could sport such a sought-after mobile phone feature.

I call foul here, primarily because I'm willing to bet information about the iPhone is under lock and key, and leaks are punishable most likely by being drawn & quartered (not to mention that any two-bit analyst can claim anything they want these days - hooray for the Dvorak method). However, one good point I can agree with from this IBS article is that Apple is being very cautious with this product, because mobile phones aren't iPods or personal computers, and there are a lot of new factors and features Apple needs to learn how to juggle in a device like this (let's not forget the most battery-hungry of them all: Wi-Fi). That being the case, I don't think Apple is going to offer multiple models - this is too new a market for them, and these devices are complicated enough without them trying to take on the very heated smart phone industry - for now.

Ultimately, we'll see whether Prudential Equities is bluffing soon enough - January 8th is fast approaching.

[via digg]

Tags: iphone, phone, phones, rumor, rumors, smart, smart phone, SmartPhone, wi-fi, wireless

Filed under: Hardware, iTS, Hacks, iTunes

1000 song hack for iTunes phones?

by David Chartier (RSS feed) on Apr 25th, 2006

For those out there who find the 100 song cap (amongst other things) on iTunes phone a deal breaker, Engadget Mobile might have found your saving grace. A forum at MotoModders has the details and simple steps you can take to run a simple hack on any iTunes phone (except the v3i) to raise the song cap to 1000. Unfortunately, there's one catch: the little app you have to run is Windows-based, so you'll need a PC or Boot Camp to actually do this (sorry, Parallels doesn't support USB devices - yet).

Obviously this is a hack, so don't blame us or MotoModders if something goes wrong. However, if you do try this, please post your thoughts and let us know if it really works.

Tags: 100, 1000, cap, hack, iTunes, limit, Motorola, phone, phones, song, songs

Tip of the Day

Reply in the Mail.app with a specific quote.
Select the text you want quoted and then hit the reply button.
Only your selected text will copied to the reply email.

Learn More

TUAW flickr Pool

www.flickr.com

Featured Galleries

TUAW bloggers (30 days)

#	Blogger	Posts	Cmts
1	Steven Sande	52	4
2	Dave Caolo	36	1
3	Mel Martin	32	0
4	Mike Schramm	32	0
5	TJ Luoma	24	32
6	Michael Rose	18	17
7	Joachim Bean	18	2
8	Victor Agreda, Jr.	17	7
9	Erica Sadun	17	2
10	Josh Carr	14	23
11	Sang Tang	11	1
12	David Winograd	11	17
13	Ken Ray	11	2
14	Brett Terpstra	9	8
15	Tim Wasson	5	1
16	Megan Lavey	5	9
17	Chris Ullrich	4	1
18	John Burke	4	3
19	Kent Pribbernow	4	0
20	Aron Trimble	3	2

More Apple Analysis

AAPL on BloggingStocks The Apple category feed from BloggingStocks.com
AAPL Quote, News & Summary The AAPL financials page from AOL Money and Finance
iPhone analysis from BloggingStocks iPhone tag feed from BloggingStocks
Macintosh news and reviews on Download Squad The Macintosh category feed from Download Squad

The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)