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Bluetooth and T-mobile or Verizon

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Audio and Electronics' started by Legrange, Jun 4, 2005.

  1. Legrange

    Legrange New Member

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    Hello all. I just got my new Prius!! I got the top model with the NAV, etc. Now I want to get a new Bluetooth phone. I've read everything here and at the Yahoo group site. I've gone to toyota.letstalk.com. I've gone to a lot of links from google searches. I still don't know which phone and service to get.

    What I've gleaned:
    1. It's not as simple as a phone, since different phones are offered by different services. It has to be a combination of the phone and service.
    2. I've heard from some people that a phone/service works "great" and then find that same person or someone else say "except for transferring the phone book" or "except the voice quality is poor so I can't really use the phone in the car."
    3. The letstalk people have a list of "tested" phones, but they all include service from Cingular, which is a company I really don't want to do business with. When I call them they say that there is no phone from any other service that has been tested to work with the Prius in San Jose, CA.
    4. The letstak folkz also said that there used to be a V300 phone, offered by T-mobile, that worked, but they have discontinued it. They think the new V330 will work, but haven't tested it yet.
    5. The people at the dealership said "any bluetooth phone will work."

    (Any feedback you have on these 5 points or other pertinent issues would be appreciated.)

    I would like to get a phone/service that is known to work without any issues. I imagine that most of the people that check this area looking for help with Bluetooth want the same thing. Can anyone tell me of any phone with either T-mobile or Verizon service that is completely functional with the Prius and has good sound quality for both me and my callers?

    BTW, I'd be willing to start and keep some kind of phone matrix for the site, if enough of you wanted to give feedback. I saw a start at such a table in the Yahoo group, but it didn't have enough information and so wasn't solid enough to really use. Do you think enough people would respond and make it valuable?

    Thank you in advance for any replies.
     
  2. tag

    tag Senior Member

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    For starters, most carriers offer a trial period. If you don't have any kind of plan at the present time, you can walk into a Verizon store, get a phone, and try it for (I believe) 15 days to see if it suits your needs (if not, return phone, cancel plan, get full refund).

    As far as the "phone/service works great, except for transferring the phone book" comment, I've probably posted that here, on HoFo, and elsewhere more than anyone on the planet. Frankly, if the V710 had PB transfer capability, then I'd be wanting for nothing. Even without that capability, I'm fine with the way the V710 works for several reasons:

    1) I always have a signal and don't get a bunch of dropped calls.

    2) The phone, itself, is remarkable in the sense that it does just about everything. In order to get more features, you'd have to go with a full-blown PDA/phone (e.g. Treo 650).

    3) The phone pairs with my Prius first time, every time. When I get an incoming call, the audio (if on) mutes, and the phone rings. It doesn't ring through the speakers but that's fine with me because at the louder settings, the ringtone is, well, pretty darn loud.

    4) I've never had a problem with the voice quality (nor has the person on the other end) when using the V710 in my car in the handsfree mode.......voices come through crystal clear and, apparently, mine (such as it is :) ) comes through clear on the other end.

    5) Nope, no phonebook transfer. But then I picked up a Sony T68i off ebay exclusively for entering contacts and transferring them to my car. That has worked out well for my purposes since the T68i has the ability (OBEX) to transfer the entire phonebook in one fell swoop (no one-entry-at-a-time-transfer deal). Sure, it's a bit inconvenient to maintain a duplicate set of numbers but then I've found I just don't have the need to add and/or delete entries all that often. So, once I entered all of my current contacts into the T68i and transferred them to the car, I was basically done.

    Finally, with respect to PB in general, I have come to the conclusion that it's not really as important as I once believed. After months of driving the car and making and receiving calls, I've discovered that the phonebook is nowhere near as useful as I first thought. The whole speed sensor thing (i.e. buttons greyed-out while in motion) renders the PB utterly useless most of the time, for one thing. For another, the car has 17 1-touch positions and I'm either using one of those to place calls OR I'm calling someone I've never called before and for whom I have no entry anywhere. Thus, I'm either using 1-touch or punching numbers. So, even if there were no such thing as the speed sensor (or I used a defeat), I wouldn't have a whole lot of use for the PB, regardless.

    Even more finally, I have my contacts listed in my V710 in such a fashion that they wouldn't transfer the way I would want them to transfer to the car anyway. I keep having to remind myself that car's phonebook is limited to 9 characters and duplicate entries (e.g. same name with multiple entries for cell, office, home) won't transfer. That makes the phonebook even less useful for my purposes.
     
  3. hdrygas

    hdrygas New Member

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    The Verizon phone is good but disabled. I would go for one that allows use of all features including the phone book transfer. I am dumping Verizon as soon as the contract runs out.
     
  4. harryg

    harryg New Member

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    I'm with you hdrygas, our contract is over and will probably go with
    cingular and the nokia 6230, from what I've read its quite good.
    Read most of the postings, it sure helps.

    Harry
     
  5. IsrAmeriPrius

    IsrAmeriPrius Progressive Member

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    If Bluetooth is your priority, GSM is the way to go. Unfortunately for me, our 25% corporate discount with Sprint is simply too good to give up.
     
  6. tag

    tag Senior Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hdrygas\";p=\"95824)</div>
    I've been trying to think of features the V710 doesn't allow for, other than phonebook transfer, and keep coming up empty. Which features are you referring to, hdrygas?
     
  7. delrey

    delrey Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tag\";p=\"95909)</div>
    I've been trying to think of features the V710 doesn't allow for, other than phonebook transfer, and keep coming up empty. Which features are you referring to, hdrygas?[/b][/quote]

    I think the other one that bugs some people is that neither the phone nor the car rings when a call comes in.
     
  8. tag

    tag Senior Member

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    delrey,

    My V710 rings when a call comes in. The latest software resolved a number of problems and that was one of them.

    I've followed developments with this phone rather closely, can't help but wonder how many V710 owners haven't and, thus, are complaining about issues that have been completely resolved. As far as I can determine, the PB transfer issue is the only one that has not been resolved.
     
  9. ceric

    ceric New Member

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    Well tag, how about not being able to transfer images and MP3. The former for photo ID, the latter for ring tone? Can you do that with V710? I can do that easily with V551 from Cingular. :lol:
     
  10. tag

    tag Senior Member

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    Transferring MP3s and images to my V710? Yes, I can do that and, in fact, have done so in a couple of different ways:

    1) I've inserted my transflash card into the card reader on my computer. I can transfer any file I want to the transflash card, particularly images and MP3s. My PC sees the transflash card as just another drive. After the image files and MP3s are on the transflash card, I simply shove the card into my V710 and then transfer them to the phone for use as IDs or ringtones. Alternatively, of course, I can listen to the MP3s without transferring them to the phone.

    2) I've used Mobile Phonetools to transfer files both directly to the phone's memory and to the transflash card....really a simple process. MPT gets kind of funky at times because it's pretty buggy software but, generally, it works.
     
  11. Wino

    Wino New Member

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    I had the Motorola 710 and it worked great with the Prius, except for transferring the whole phone book. However, I love having a palm phone, and when the Treo 650 came out for verizon last week I immediately bought it (palmone website) got the phone in 24 hours and it worked strait out the box regardless of what it says.

    The only feature that does not work with the prius is the single strength bars on the touch screen, but with Verizon who cares, there single is ALWAYS strong, and I live in the boonies. Works everywhere in Manhattan, in all the tunnels and up in the NW New Jersey mountains where no one else works.

    Cheers
    Wino
     
  12. Legrange

    Legrange New Member

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    Thanks for all the feedback. As I understand it, the V710 is the only Bluetooth option from Verizon. Tag, I appreciate your viewpoint, but I may elect to pass for now. I'm still looking for "everything" functioning right. But I'm a purist, I guess. :roll:

    Any experinece with T-mobile out there?
     
  13. Fungi

    Fungi New Member

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    If you have any interest in converged PDA/phone devices, I can tell you that I have Verizon's Audiovox XV6600 Pocket PC phone with Bluetooth capabilities. I have been able to achieve about 95% functionality with the Prius phone -- including phonebook transfer and dialing out. The only two missing pieces are the signal strength bars on the phone screen and the fact that the phone doesn't ring through the car's speakers (the phone itself does ring).

    It required a little tinkering and some tips I acquired from the pdaphonehome.com forums, but it finally works like a charm!
     
  14. n51222

    n51222 Junior Member

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    >My V710 rings when a call comes in. The latest software resolved a number of problems and that was one of them.<

    Which software version is that? I've been practically living with my tech guy at the U.S. Cellular store, trying to resolve V710 issues, including the lack of a ring in the Prius. We finally found version 8700_01.40.2P, and it does almost everything, except ring in the car.

    Kevin
     
  15. tag

    tag Senior Member

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    Kevin,

    My s/w version is 1.40.0R (Verizon). I'm not at all sure what the difference is between that version and your 1.40.2P U.S. Cellular version. However, in case it wasn't clear, the phone, itself, rings when a call comes in; it does not ring through the car's speakers. I'm not sure if that's what you meant but, if so, I doubt you'll be able to get your phone to ring through the speakers; various models of BT phones either do or don't ring through the car's speakers out of the box and I'm not aware of any workaround for the latter issue.

    Regardless, your V710 should ring when you get a call. If it doesn't, something's wrong with the phone (or a setting)......or perhaps it's an issue that U.S. Cellular's latest s/w version didn't address.
     
  16. n51222

    n51222 Junior Member

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    >the phone, itself, rings when a call comes in; it does not ring through the car's speakers<

    Ah, I understand now, thank you. I was expecting (hoping) to get the ring through the car's speakers.

    Thanks for your help.
     
  17. Graz

    Graz Member

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    I just got a Motorola V330 from T-Mobile for Father's Day. I loaded the software up on this computer, and it wouldn't read the cell phone memory. I I updated it and it now communicates completely with MS Outlook '03. I transferred items from my contact list and my calendar. However. it seems that there is only one contact at a time allowed to transfer to the Prius via Bluetooth. That is annoying. I haven't even tried to transfer my calendar yet. Also... It seems that I have to -re-associate my phone with the car every time I start it. Is that normal? Or should I just read the manual???

    ~John
     
  18. catsbox

    catsbox Member

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    I just got my Moto V330 with T-mobile. Can someone please give me directions on how to do the phonebook transfer from the phone to the Prius? Thanks.
     
  19. catsbox

    catsbox Member

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    I figured out how to use the funky button on the phone to transfer one contact at a time, but how do I transfer the whole phonebook at once?
     
  20. tag

    tag Senior Member

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    Single Contact Transfer:
    Select - main menu
    Toggle/Select - phone book
    Scroll/Select - contact
    Select - name to be transferred
    Select - phonebook menu
    Scroll/Select - send
    Scroll/Select - Bluetooth Hands Free


    All Contacts Transfer:
    Select - main menu
    Toggle/Select - phone book
    Select - phonebook menu
    Scroll/Select - send
    Scroll/Select - Bluetooth Hands Free


    http://toyota.letstalk.com/bluetooth/toyota/v330_bt.pdf