What can you do with a Bluetooth- and WAP-enabled cell phone?

July 1, 2004 6:39 AM

I just got a new cell phone, a Nokia 6820. It's awesome! It has Bluetooth and it can do WAP! Cool! So, um, what the hell can I actually do with Bluetooth and WAP?

I'm pretty clueless about the whole cell phone thing. The process of selecting a new plan and phone was more painful than it should have been.

I just came off a very basic plan with a clunky old phone the size of my shoe. The potential of both WAP and Bluetooth sounds like it might come in handy but I know better than to believe the cool Flash demos I see on AT&T's website. I may even be using the wrong terminology with WAP. AT&T calls it mMode.

I'd really like to be able to email (or transfer somehow) pictures right to my Blogger-based blog but so far Blogger doesn't allow email attachments. I've checked out some of the add-ons (HelloBot or something like that) but they seem to be a bit too much of a hassle.

Are there any actually useful mobile websites out there? I have no use for sports scores and I don't see why I would ever need a weather forecast via my cell phone.

What good is Bluetooth? Do I need to go by a BMW in order to use it? Will a Bluetooth USB thingy be useful?

I'm suspecting these bells and whistles are mostly marketing gimmicks but I'm curious to know how people actually use them in their daily lives. Googling just gets me more Flash demos that tell me Bluetooth will make my nails salon-perfect and get me laid on a regular basis.

posted by bondcliff to technology (11 comments total)

You can use it as a remote control for your computer.
posted by the fire you left me at 6:53 AM on July 1, 2004

This one guy Matt Haughey did a pretty useful overview of this exact issue.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 7:08 AM on July 1, 2004

toothing?
posted by the cuban at 7:40 AM on July 1, 2004

Matt Haughey, is there anything he can't do?

TFYLM, interesting, but why and/or how?
posted by bondcliff at 7:40 AM on July 1, 2004

Here's one why for you: If you use your computer as the brains of your home stereo, as I do, you can change songs, shuffle mode, volume, etc. without having to pull out the keyboard. This would be huge for me. Alas, no bluetooth phone.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 8:17 AM on July 1, 2004

The only function I've found for the Bluetooth option on my phone is that it allows me to treat the phone as a modem. I can be anywhere with cel reception and get dialup (or GPRS, which is pretty much just dialup without the weird tones).

Ostensibly you can use it to sync the calendar and todo list functions of your phone to a desktop, but that seems like the most useless thing in the world to me. I already have a Palm and a RIM device which do this.

I've played with the remote control options, but the good ones seem to cost more money than they are worth, and really, how many more remote controls do you need in the house?

WAP is almost completely useless, but there's apparently a mobile version of Froogle which allows you to check the internet prices of things before you buy them. Practically speaking, though, WAP is so unreliable and the browser so bad that you won't use this.
posted by majick at 8:45 AM on July 1, 2004

both yahoo and google have wap sections of their websites, but since my phone is 4 years old, I haven't been able to use either one yet.
posted by Hackworth at 9:49 AM on July 1, 2004

Browse to http://webcab.de/wwmm.wml with your WAP phone, and you can read, reply and compose your POP3 email.

Lovely.

Also, ebay.com has a WAP site. Give me a second...
posted by armoured-ant at 10:08 AM on July 1, 2004

eBay - wap.ebay.com (US site only - no UK portal yet)
Google HTML>WML converter - google.com:80/wml?hl=en&wmlmode=url
WAP MSN Messenger Interface - start.e-messenger.net/wap
posted by armoured-ant at 10:37 AM on July 1, 2004

If you have a mac and a usb dongle, you can use iSync to synchronize your address book and calendar between your phone and your computer and you can use Address Book to send and receive SMSs (unless you're American because everyone knows that Americans hate text messaging). You can also use Salling Clicker to act as a remote for iTunes, PowerPoint and Keynote, and a bunch of other apps. You can also use your phone to get your laptop online, if you've got a portable.

If you don't have a mac, uh, I guess you could buy a wireless handsfree earpiece, or these headphones. I've never really seen anything Bluetooth for Windows, but I haven't really looked. You may not have noticed but I have a mac. Did I mention my mac? mac.
posted by revgeorge at 10:55 AM on July 1, 2004

blue tooth headsets a re a great idea, but the range leaves alot to be desired and the battery life on the headset is less than 2 hours, so in the end, they suck.
posted by Fupped Duck at 11:20 AM on July 1, 2004