Nokia 3650- How good in the real World?

**cafn8** · 10-12-2003, 08:05 AM

I know at least a few on this board have posted about the Nokia 3650 phone. I figure that with the types of people that come to a site discussing computers in cars, there have to be at least a few others using it. I'm considering getting this phone. With the exception of its size, it really looks like a great device.

Here's the problem: I've been lurking a bit over at Nokia3650.net on the forums, and I'm getting second thoughts. It seems as though there are some problems with connecting to a PC with Bluetooth. Most importantly, I've read some things about being required to dismiss an alert or two in order to connect which could be a problem. It might not be anything major. After all, the people who have success with it aren't going to post complaints on a message board

I hope that anyone with some experience setting up and using this phone could answer a few questions.

1- Is setting up a Bluetooth connection with a PC really as difficult as people make it out to be?

2- Can a connection be made from the phone's end without any input to the PC (ie. no keyboard, mouse or monitor)?

3- Has anybody used Bemused to control an MP3 player in a car? How stable is it? How easy to use?

4- How easy/ reliable is it as a Bluetooth modem?

This looks like a great device on paper, but I'm wondering if it is all it's cracked up to be in the real world. So if anyone has one of these and uses the more advanced features, please be brutally honest and share your experiences. How good is it?

Thanks.

**churnopol** · 10-12-2003, 11:30 AM

I'm the biggest 3650 freak on the net. People have trouble connecting cuz they buy the cheap $15 bluetooth dongles. They would have trouble connecting with any device. I use it in my carputer alot. Let me quickly answer your questions

1. no its very easy when you get a good quality dongle.
2. Yes, you can setup your pc to automatically accept a connection from your phone. From then on you can use your phone to connect.
3. Yes bemused is a great app. It's not just for mp3s. You can use it to open any file.

On 3650.net i stopped helping noobs cuz there are too many buying worse than generic dongles, they honestly cant read/search. The nokia 3650 is the best phone on earth.
If you decide to join the 3650.net forums, dnt forget to recommend churnopol

**churnopol** · 10-12-2003, 11:31 AM

also, if you get a bluetooth headset and have a great dongle with updated widcomm drivers, you can listen to music through your bluetooth headset and talk on the phone at the same time

**Taytay** · 10-12-2003, 11:56 AM

I have a 3650, and love it, but right now I am dealing with the dismisal of a dialog every time my phone connects to my computer. I bought a belkin bluetooth connector, thinking this was "high-end" enough. Churnopol, I'm very curious what you mean by "good quality dongle," and "latest widcomm drivers" as I would love to get a more autmated bluetooth setup going here at home (so then of course I could transfer that setup to the car

) I have read a number of people claiming that some of the later Widcomm drivers actually are detremental to the 3650 bluetooth setup.

I have used the modem on the phone to make voice dials and pickups using the standard AT commands, and of course I issued them over bluetooth, which is cool enough in and of itself. It even supports coller-id AT commands, so I could easily envision (and this is still my plan of course) writing an ap to assist me in the car (touch-screen friendly and all that). I haven't succeeded, and actually don't think it's possible, in connecting my phone to another modem and then using the internet connection that provides. The other nice thing about it is that it has echo-cancellation built in, so that if you take the mic/speaker jack and split it using a mini-jack y-splitter, you can plug one end into a microphone, and the other end into an FM-modulator and have a poor-man's car speaker-phone. Many other phones get confused when you do this, and continually send the speaker output back through the mic, getting you all sorts of awful feedback. So although I haven't made use of the past few features I just mentioned, they're there for the taking

Not to mention how easy it is to write software for it (hence the proliferation of so many third-party apps). It's the perfect "hackable" phone IMHO.
I look forward to churnopol telling me how it could be even better

Cheers,

Taylor

**cafn8** · 10-12-2003, 12:10 PM

Cool man, thanks for the reply. I guess this means I'm going to have to spend some money now.

Originally Posted by churnopol

I'm the biggest 3650 freak on the net. People have trouble connecting cuz they buy the cheap $15 bluetooth dongles. They would have trouble connecting with any device. I use it in my carputer alot. Let me quickly answer your questions

1. no its very easy when you get a good quality dongle.

What dongle do you use/recommend?

2. Yes, you can setup your pc to automatically accept a connection from your phone. From then on you can use your phone to connect.

So you really could have a computer with no visible screens, buttons or input devices?

3. Yes bemused is a great app. It's not just for mp3s. You can use it to open any file.

Do you mean any media files, or can you actually start programs with it?

On 3650.net i stopped helping noobs cuz there are too many buying worse than generic dongles, they honestly cant read/search.

You're right, I think I did see about two dozen people asking basically the same question.

Originally Posted by Taytay

Not to mention how easy it is to write software for it (hence the proliferation of so many third-party apps). It's the perfect "hackable" phone IMHO.

This is exactly what is attracting me to this phone. If it had a better text input method I'd probably even dump my Palm in favor of it. We'll see how it works out.

**Taytay** · 10-12-2003, 12:21 PM

By the way, I don't know how useful this is, but when I got my phone there was a deal at "Ultimate Electronics" (http://www.ultimateelectronics.com) that gave you the phone for free after the rebates. But of course, as all rebates go, the first $150 came in fine, but the next $150 I'm still waiting on. But I guess I'm just pointing out that there are probably similar deals with different companies if you look hard enough. Also, if you are planning on using the internet connection it has (and although it's not fast, it could be cool for a little hacky car-computer app), you will definitely want to consider going with a company that has unlimited internet access for a flat rate (I do believe T-mobile does thism, and began doing this about a week after I bought my phone

).

You've probably considered all of the above, but thought it might be helpful..

Cheers,

Taylor

**churnopol** · 10-12-2003, 01:12 PM

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...818879-7774560
Belkin Components F8T001 Bluetooth USB Adaptor
I use this one for my car. It has a 100meter range! Most have 30meters. The latest drivers is widcomms 1.3.2.7 (fixes original bugs and adds more devices). I also use one of the cheap brands i bought off ebay for my desktop - worst buy ever.

So you really could have a computer with no visible screens, buttons or input devices?

No you will need to open bemused each time you start the computer and change the com ports. But i guess with a little windows configuring, you can load bemused and winamp on startup. Bemused cannot close apps, it only opens files. So if you open a wav file with bemused, wmp might repeat it forever. Bemused is like Explorer on you phone. You see a directory listing off "all files" *.* or just multimedia files (user chooses). There is also a bemused for linux. It's hard to use at first but you get used to it.

Send files to your phone is easy. Rightclick on any file - send to - my bluetooth places - 'my phone'. Sending files to your computer is even easier.

Also look at the other hardware fetures. Comes with a 16 meg mmc card, it can read all cards upto 128megs, and only one type of 256 meg. I have a few cards with enitre films (Freaky Friday, 8 Mile, Old School). Bluetooth headsets are awesome if you can save up the $$$ - $100.

**churnopol** · 10-12-2003, 01:18 PM

You can setup bemused to not run winamp, i use it for QCD player.

TayTay
I havent had any troubles with my belkin BT dongle. My house and carputer is setup on a bluetooth network. Bluetooth network adapters are fairly priced, and are easier than Wifi to setup.

**cafn8** · 10-12-2003, 01:37 PM

Originally Posted by Taytay

By the way, I don't know how useful this is, but when I got my phone there was a deal at "Ultimate Electronics" (http://www.ultimateelectronics.com) that gave you the phone for free after the rebates. But of course, as all rebates go, the first $150 came in fine, but the next $150 I'm still waiting on. But I guess I'm just pointing out that there are probably similar deals with different companies if you look hard enough. Also, if you are planning on using the internet connection it has (and although it's not fast, it could be cool for a little hacky car-computer app), you will definitely want to consider going with a company that has unlimited internet access for a flat rate (I do believe T-mobile does thism, and began doing this about a week after I bought my phone ).

You've probably considered all of the above, but thought it might be helpful..

Cheers,

Taylor

I have considered those issues and the all-you-can-eat data would be very nice. My current phone is a Handspring VisorPhone/ Visor Prism combo which is ready for retirement. The problem is that I already have T-Mobile (actually I should say they have me.) In the past couple of months I've been going through customer service he11 with them after I stopped being able to connect to the internet.

So I'm more than ready to dump T-Mofo and pick up a 3650 from AT&T for $50 with a contract. The problem is that the last time I checked there was no affordable unlimited data from AT&T. I'll probably give T-Mofo a chance to match the price of the phone to keep an existing customer (never can hurt to ask.) then I'll decide what to do.

Sorry, didn't mean to go off topic, but that's my plan since I can't afford the $300 full price right now.

**cafn8** · 10-12-2003, 01:45 PM

By the way, I ran across a kind of remote desktop for the 3650 (to view and control a PC's desktop from the phone via Bluetooth), but forgot where I saw it.

(D'oh!) Has anyone seen or used anything like this?