Well, I made an impulsive move and got myself a cool little phone from AT&T Wireless. The Sony Ericsson T616 [review] is such a neat little gadget, that I overlooked the admittedly small coverage area for AT&T (with the hope that it will continue to expand – after all, it’s AT&T) so that I could have a fun new toy.
This phone paired up with my Powerbook with no hassle at all, and within minutes I was uploading ring tones and pictures from the Mac. I’ve had a great time discovering the neat things that Mac OS X lets you do with a Bluetooth phone – it synced up all my phone numbers, and lets me download a photo that pops up when certain people call. I can click on a phone number in my Mac’s address book, and the mobile phone will call it. When the mobile receives a call, a box pops up on my Mac telling me who’s calling, and giving me options to answer, send to voice mail, or send a text message. Way cool.
It’s small enough that it fits nicely in my pocket without weighing me down, like the fat old Motorola I’ve been carrying on my belt. The sound is great – but the GSM network signal is not very good here at home. I’ll have to spend some time trying it out over the next month – AT&T graciously allows returns within 30 days.
And it sounds like an old ringing phone when it rings. I miss that sound – if only the landline phones in my house still sounded like that, I might not be as annoyed by telemarketer calls.
The down side? There don’t seem to be any telephone numbers left in the 703 area code, so like my Nextel phone, I’m stuck with the unpopular and bizarre 571 area code. I don’t have enough memory in my brain to remember any new phone numbers, especially when they have a new area code…
