Help me control the stereo with a phone.
February 22, 2007 7:54 PM   Subscribe

What's the cheapest mobile phone available in Australia which speaks 802.11b or 802.11g?
posted by pompomtom to Technology (15 answers total)
 
Unless you already have a prepackaged application running on your stereo that means you need 802.11, why not use bluetooth instead? You'll be left with a lot more choice in phones, and probably better battery life too.
posted by fvw at 8:14 PM on February 22, 2007


Response by poster: The components in question are an xbox running xbmc, and a PC running Amarok. Both of these can be controlled with TCP/IP, and neither of them can use bluetooth.
posted by pompomtom at 8:29 PM on February 22, 2007


What do you want to do with the wi-fi? That is, do you want a phone that has wi-fi and a web-browser, so you can surf the web, or do you want one that can be used as a VOIP phone? Or just anything at all that can do wi-fi?

As a starting point you can get a Nokia E61 (which does 802.11b, VOIP and has a web browser) for $600 with no contract.
posted by markr at 8:30 PM on February 22, 2007


There's a pre-order for the N95 here, no price though. Expansys is definately the place I'd look for this if I couldn't find it in a 3 store. I checked 3's website, and Optus's with no luck. Mind you, the range of phones on those websites is usually much smaller than what's glued to the walls in the store.

Have you thought about just picking up a cheap PDA?
posted by krisjohn at 8:32 PM on February 22, 2007


Response by poster: (also, I already know the wifi covers the entirety of the back yard, outside of the shed)
...

What do you want to do with the wi-fi? That is, do you want a phone that has wi-fi and a web-browser, so you can surf the web

to the extent that "the web" means "the webservers in my house on my LAN", then yep, bang on.
posted by pompomtom at 8:34 PM on February 22, 2007


Any phone you pick do a search on staticice.com.au to find the best price on the web at the moment.

May I ask how you are going to control XMBC and Amarok? I run both, but haven't look at controlling them externally.
posted by markr at 8:35 PM on February 22, 2007


Response by poster: Have you thought about just picking up a cheap PDA?

Hmmm... no I hadn't, but I expect that could fit the bill nicely. Looks like the search space just got bigger....
posted by pompomtom at 8:37 PM on February 22, 2007


Maybe a WiFi PDA or a Nokia internet tablet would be better suited to the task than a telephone. I'm not sure why something you can talk into and listen to would be all that good at controlling XBMC or Amarok, even if it did have a crappy phone browser.
posted by revgeorge at 8:39 PM on February 22, 2007


May I ask how you are going to control XMBC and Amarok?

Googles...
Turns on XBMC http server...
Connects with phone over wi-fi...
Giggles like school girl...

Sweet.
posted by markr at 8:47 PM on February 22, 2007


Response by poster: [OT]

markr

For XBMC, somewhere in the settings (under 'servers', perhaps) is an option to turn on the http server. You can either use the stock one, which is adequate, or drop in the Ajax replacement (google for "XBMC Ajax liquidice" and you should be able to find it), which is really quite funky and feature-rich, but may choke on vast playlists.

For Amarok, there are a couple of web plugins. I haven't actually got this set up at this stage. At present, if I want the PC to play something I'm using VNC (or just killing Amarok and using mpg321 half the time...)

email me if you want any more details... when I get home I can give you better directions on the XBMC side.
posted by pompomtom at 8:50 PM on February 22, 2007


Response by poster: "I'm not sure why something you can talk into and listen to would be all that good at controlling XBMC"

The 'why' of it is that if I'm in the back yard, I'm quite likely to already have the phone on me. At present, I can control the thing fine if I drag around a laptop. Also, I'm looking for a new phone anyway.
posted by pompomtom at 8:57 PM on February 22, 2007


Thanks pompomtom, I've got the stock http server running, I'll give the Ajax one a whirl in a sec. For the record, the stock one sort of works on my Nokia E61, you need to zoom out to see it all no the screen at once, and it gives you errors as it goes, but I could add to the play list and start and stop things.
posted by markr at 9:02 PM on February 22, 2007


I know it doesn't satisfy your 'cheap' criteria, but if you're the kind of technical minded person that runs XBMC, then I think you would probably love having a windows-mobile phone...

Personally, I'd recommend the o2 atom or, even better, the hp rw6828, which is just an atom with a silver case branded by HP... I have one and I use it for listening to music, surfing the web over wifi, watching movies (which I rip/compress from my DVD's in under an hour using handbrake for the mac) and playing lots of interesting games (like the port of UFO, texas hold 'em)... I also have a set of bluetooth wireless headphones that make it much easier to listen to music / watch movies on the train!

If you get it on a contract, it costs about $10 a month than one of those other fancy phones, but it does SO much more and there is HEAPS of PocketPC software you can get...
posted by ranglin at 10:27 PM on February 22, 2007


Nokia e61 is about $400 US.
posted by bigmusic at 10:38 PM on February 22, 2007


Have you looked at the HTC Wizard series of phones? (they are called something different by every carrier). Not as sleek as the e61, but another option.
posted by Lazlo Hollyfeld at 6:33 AM on February 23, 2007


« Older How many digits of pi did you have to memorize?   |   Where do I find a mother-of-pearl inlay ring? Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.