okay, i've swallowed my pride and am asking all namsters what they would do if you were in my place. i have a palm treo 700p which worked well with my bmw m3 hands free kit. when i bought the mini, i told the ma that bluetooth was important to me and that i knew they had an "approved list" of 6 or so outdated phones. so the ma finds someone at the dealership who has a treo 650 and he says no worries! so i pull the trigger on the $1200 oem bluetooth (i have nav).
i can pair the treo to the mini, but the calls always drop. i've tried everything...and yes, i've seen that others on nam have had issues with the treo. if any of you treo folk are working well, please let me know! so i'm wondering what my options are? i'm figuring the dealer isn't going to do a thing. my options as i see them could be: get a blackberry (they seem to have less bluetooth issues), but of course, the ones that are available now aren't on "the list." or get a headset/earpiece and not use my $1200 option . anything else you could recommend would be greatly appreciated.

 

http://wireless4mini.com/phones.html

 

i'm familiar with "the list." i have verizon, which doesn't even sell the blackberry 7130 anymore! i need a smartphone for tech manuals, contacts, schedule etc......this leaves me with no options on "the list." any help?

 

Have you seen the Bluetooth Compatibility Sticky?

Just a quick note on the Treos- after a certain number of address book syncs, the car's bluetooth module gets corrupted. This seems to be with the Palm OS phones for certain, others with Windows Mobile report that things are working fine for them (so far )

 

thanks, at least the blackberry option looks more promising. i remember seeing the sticky somewhere, but wasn't sure if the bluetooth in the r53 and the r56 are the same so i stuck with just searching the 1st gen forums. anyone else?

 

Crud- I came over by RSS and completely missed that this thread is in 1st Gen... Sorry!

I don't think they're the same...

 

well i broke down and got a blackberry pearl.....but honestly, it's one billionith as user friendly as the palm. at this point i don't even care if it pairs....i can't do it! so i'm updating my treo 700p to a 755p and will roll the dice with the bluetooth. if it doesn't pair, i'll probably get a nice bluetooth headset, which i may well have wound up doing later anyway. at this point though, i would advise you treo owners NOT TO GET THE OEM BLUETOOTH! please benefit from my misfortune!!!

 

I have the expensive OEM bluetooth and a 700p. Make sure you have the latest firmware update on the 700p. Remember there were 2 different firmware updates for the verizon 700p (one was recalled by palm). Not all of the features work with the 700p. Never have been able to get the address book to work. Phone numbers only appear on incoming calls (no names). No outgoing calls display with the nav. Good luck.

 

Yeah, I had to dump my Treo 700wx as it wouldn't pair at all. Anyone know anything about the new 755 and its compatability?

 

I know that you like your treo but have you thought about a Motorola Razr? I had a blackberry that didn't work with my BMW's bluetooth, so I bought a Razr and have never had a problem with it dropping calls. I use the same phone with my New Mini's bluetooth and it hasn't dropped a call yet.

I know its a pain to have two phones, but if you're like me, I have to have two phones anyway, one for work and 1 for personal, I use my blackberry for email and calls that aren't in the car. Its better than using an earpiece, I hate those things.

Good Luck

 

FWIW, I'm using a Parrot 3200LS (color screen) kit in my 2006 MCS w/Nav&h/k. My iPhone works with it 100% - the address book syncs without issue, I can even voice tag contacts and push photos from my Mac (or a PC) to the kit to also have photo callerID and custom wallpaper. So far, the phone has connected and sync'd 100% of the time and audio quality of the kit is quite good.

I will also highly recommend Parrot in general. I live in Austin where they have a local tech support office. They have been incredible about ensuring a good customer experience.

 

I have a Blackberry 8703 and it works great with the bluetooth in the Mini.

On an amusing side note, as I was walking through the local BMW dealership, my BB kept asking me if I wanted to pair with the cars in the showroom I was passing by.

 

I have a Motorola Razr which has worked fine since I got it in June.... absolutely no problems until about a month ago. Now, I can pair it and make a call...or more, but as soon as I turn off the motor, it's lost the pairing again. Is that the "corruption" mentioned above? I don't know whether to talk to MINI or the phone company. Any input is much appreciated!!

 

The corruption isn't known to happen with the RAZR, and as far as I know is limited to the newer bluetooth system in the R56. My post above was before I noticed I was in the 1st gen forums.

Personally, my first test would be to see if I could get it to work correctly with a different phone.

 

thanks for the responses....but i've found out that i have to have a treo. 8 years of contacts, scheduling, texts, software, qwerty keyboard is just not able to be switched out that easily. i returned the blackberry and am back to using my treo. i'm just hoping that when the treo 800 comes out, it will have improved bluetooth.....though i have to admit i'm pessimistic. i got a jawbone bluetooth which pairs flawlessly with the treo and has noise cancellation, which should help when the top is down! http://www.jawbone.com/?gclid=CMKqge...FQEpxwodAxK9Yg

and that's all i got for now. meanwhile i think i'll call the parrot folks to see what their treo pairing is like, and wether it's an easy switch from the oem unit. thanks again,
tim