• Bluetooth Phones Part 2

    Text Messaging

    Text messaging is another popular use for cell phones. It's a way of sending a simple, short message without disrupting whatever the other person is doing at the moment. You don't have to drop everything to answer the phone, but if you have a follow-up question or thought, the other party can receive and respond to it right away.

    A Bluetooth cell phone with text messaging may be able to store the messaging session and then upload the results to your computer when it comes in range. This can serve as useful way of refreshing your memory about past conversations without taking up precious space on the cell phone itself.

    Web Surfing

    With a little toggle that functions as a mouse, you can surf the wireless web. A Bluetooth cell phone will enable you to exchange bookmarks with another device. (But remember, most bookmarks for a desktop computer won't lead to sites that are useable on your cell phone.) And if you download MP3s, movies, ring tones, or whatever else, your Bluetooth-enabled desktop, laptop, or PDA can sync up automatically the next time you're in range.

    Camera

    Many cell phones now come with a camera, and a lot of these cameras can even take videos. The quality isn't the greatest, but the function can still be quite useful. With some cell phones, users complain that it takes a while to delete old pictures. That's something to consider if you plan to take a lot of pictures and only keep the good ones. A Bluetooth enabled cell phone will make it quite easy to upload these pictures and videos to your desktop or laptop computer. Then you can clear them out of your cell phone's memory to make room for more.

    Display

    Look for a phone with a 65,536 color display (16-bit color resolution). Unless smallness is very important to you, you'll probably also want the screen to be wide enough to display a complete phone number without forcing you to scroll. If you want a tiny phone, though, you should still be able to get a 4,000 color display.

    Memory

    Cell phones can come with as little as 32 MB to as much as 128 MB of memory. If you plan to use your phone for memory intensive purposes such as storing photos or videos, go for something with a lot of memory. If your main use will be for emails and text messaging, less memory shouldn't be a problem. Some phones come with an expandable memory slot to allow you to change your mind later. Of course, by the time you change your mind, there may be so many new, exciting features out there that you just buy a whole new phone.

    Battery Life

    Look for a cell phone that can give you at least 6 hours of talk time and 8 days of standby. Some phones also offer user-changeable battery packs so that you can bring along a spare and extend your talk time away from the charger.

    USB Connectivity

    A USB connection may not seem like something you want to bother with. After all, it's a Bluetooth phone, so it can communicate wirelessly. That's true. A Bluetooth phone can communicate wirelessly with anything it's been paired with. If you want to access a non-Bluetooth computer, you'll have to find another way to make the connection. And even if the computer is Bluetooth-enabled, you may not want to go through the pairing process simply for a one time upload or download. The USB connection can be very handy in either of these situations. At the least, it may save you time. At most, it will allow a connection that wouldn't have been possible via Bluetooth.

    Extras

    Remember that many Bluetooth cell phones will also come with a Bluetooth headset. Also, many will come with a car adapter so that you can recharge the phone while you're on the road.

    You can expect a Bluetooth cell phone to cost anywhere from $150 to $449.