I’m returning my headset to Amazon for a replacement already! I contacted Logitech support, and basically they said return it because it sounds defective. I suppose that’s a good thing (i.e. that they aren’t messing me around).

This will be my first return to Amazon. I’m very impressed with their service for purchases, so we’ll see how things go with a return 🙂

First slight problem – part of their process is to print out a label that you use on your return package, so that you don’t have to pay postage. On their page where it is generated, it looks great. Of course they forgot that the default setting is to not print background or borders, so it doesn’t look as good when printed. They should have generated the entire thing as an image and done it exactly as they wanted… Oh well.

My headset got here today, Amazon don’t mess around!

On first appearances – totally cool 🙂 It is a big big/bulky when you put it on (sticks out from your ear a bit, and waggles when you flick your head around), but it sits nicely, and feels quite comfortable, so it’s ok, and like I mentioned, I don’t need it to be ultra-sleek anyway. The case that it comes with is really cool – doubling as a charging cradle and travel protection case. I plugged it in and got it charging while having a quick look at the manual. Nothing too interesting, basically one button handles everything, it’s just a matter of how long you hold it down.

Pairing the headset with my phone (Nokia 6230) was extremely easy – just put the headset in discoverable mode (turn off, then hold down the magic button until the light flashes blue + red), then tell my phone to search for available enhancements (via the Bluetooth menu). A pairing code is required, but that’s just ‘0000’, as the manual states. Enter that and you’re off.

Then I started noticing some problems… browsing around with the headset connected, I’d get the volume indicator come up randomly, repeatedly. Turns out that the headset was disconnecting and reconnecting every couple of seconds.

I thought I’d give it a go with my iPAQ (H5500). Very similar process, equally simple. Headset into discoverable, then on the iPAQ you go to the Bluetooth Manager, make a new connection, select ‘Headset’ as the type. You need to search for it, then enter the pairing code (0000) and you’re connected. I chose not to bother with a secure/encrypted connection, since it’s just audio.

2 seconds later, I hear the tone on the headset that says it’s disconnecting, then another 2 seconds and it connects again. Same problem as with my phone – repeated disconnect/reconnect.

Since I was still at work at this stage, I decided I’d leave it until I got home to have a proper look at things.

When I got home, I had the chance to also try connecting to my PC. Now of the 3 different connections I have available, I at least expected my PC to work. I’m connecting a LOGITECH headset, to my computer, via the LOGITECH Bluetooth Hub. Guess what – same problem. I can pair it perfectly, and it thinks it’s connected, but then it just disconnects and reconnects again and again.

I’ve emailed Logitech tech support, but from my experience, they’re not very good. Amazon are going to have a return on their hands in the near future I think. Fingers crossed that the Logitech people just send me a new one or something, because I definitely think it’s something wrong with the headset. 3 attempted connections; 3 of the same faulty connection problems; sounds like a firmware problem to me!

I had to do it.

I’ve just ordered a Logitech Bluetooth Headset from Amazon.com, which I should be able to use with:

1. My PC (diNovo Bluetooth hub) – Should be great with Skype!
2. My Mobile/Cell Phone – For normal calls, and for listening to the radio/mp3s (radio doesn’t work without a headset for some reason)
3. My iPAQ H5550 – For listening to mp3s mainly, since it doesn’t operate as a phone, although I suppose I could use it for PocketSkype as well

I looked at a Jabra EasySpeak (250), but decided on the Logitech headset (despite it’s size), based largely on all the comments and user reviews around the place saying that the audio quality on the Jabra isn’t that great, and that it is excellent on the Logitech one. I’m not really expecting to use it much for my mobile phone anyway, so being invisible isn’t of great concern to me at this point 🙂

1. It’s not officially supported by T-Mobile, so don’t bother calling support, they’ll tell you to go buy one of their handsets.
2. Go to the online T-Mobile Configurator and follow the steps to configure details.
3. Once you’ve had the details sent to your phone, make sure you activate them or nothing will change!

Why T-Mobile support couldn’t have told me to try their impressive online tool is beyond me, but they didn’t even mention it. Oh well, thank goodness for the Internets!

In my efforts to find a bluetooth headset (which I really wasn’t expecting to be such and arduous task), I also tried (I think it was this model) a Motorola HS850. I didn’t think I was asking that much of the headset – it just needed to be compatible with these uses:

1. Pair with my Nokia 6230 (for normal handsfree cell-phone operation)
2. Pair with my Logitech diNovo hub on my Windows XP desktop (for use with Skype)
3. Pair with the built-in bluetooth on my 12″ iBook (again, mainly for Skype)
4. Pair with my HP iPAQ H5550 (for listening to music, and potentially for Skype as well)

Turns out that this is a tough ask, and the HS850 failed on the last three of those requirements! It paired up with the 6230 without a problem, but all of the others proved to be too much for it. Admittedly I didn’t give it too much work, because I thought it felt like a flimsy little piece of junk, but still – it didn’t work straight away 🙂

I took it back to the T-Mobile store the next day and exchanged it for the Jabra FreeSpeak 250

So my speakers were crackling and hissing for the last couple days, and I was getting annoying, playing around thinking it was feedback from my microphone or something. Turns out it was feedback, but not from that.

Note to readers: Don’t put your WAP on your speakers/subwoofer – it will most likely cause constant crackling or hissing in your speakers 🙂

The WirelessDevNet is a pretty cool website, and has channels on a bunch of interesting topics, in particular Bluetooth and Location Based Services.

They offer an RSS Feed, but it appears to be for the entire site, and isn’t available per channel. Pity, but still good.

Obviously, it is targetted more towards developers, so if you’re into that sort of thing, then this site might be for you. It contains a lot of articles written locally, as well as pulling in and referencing articles and tutorials from other locations, so it’s a decent ‘landing pad’ for wireless development.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I got a new phone before I left Australia, the Nokia 6230. I got it because it had Bluetooth, took video and photos, and was tri-band (so it would work in Australia and the US). Unfortunately, because I am on a pre-paid T-Mobile, I don’t have access to data or multimedia messaging, so it limits the cool things that I can do with my phone, but it still rocks, and is way ahead of most of the handsets available here, which was a bit of a surprise.

Some of the cool things that I like being able to do with my phone;

1. Take a photo and then Bluetooth it to my iPAQ for editing, saving etc
2. Dial a number on my phone, directly from my iPAQ
3. Synch the Contacts (phone numbers etc) from Outlook on my PC, across to my phone – I always have every number I know about on hand now
4. Use the loudspeaker/speakerphone – it’s surprisingly useful
5. Take photos to use for my wallpaper!
6. Play mp3s – can’t help it on that one, had to add it 🙂

So basically, I think it was a great purchase. Being stuck on T-Mobile (because they are the only ones I can find here that will allow me to bring my own handset, and use their SIM), and paying a fair bit for my calls sucks, but it’s bearable to keep using the phone, ’cause it’s so much better than the other stuff around here (and I paid for it outright man, I’m not going to retire it already!).

If you’re looking for a nice-sized, sturdy, full-featured phone for use in Asia, Australia or America, then the Nokia 6230 is your man 🙂

When I came over here, I brought my Netgear DG824M, because I figured that it’d be useful, at the very least as a WAP, hooked off whatever I got sorted out with here, if not as my main DSL modem for my connection here. Instead, it turns out that I got cable, and it didn’t work as a WAP for that, because I couldn’t get it to not act as a DHCP server, and have the cable modem do that part of things, and it didn’t like to play otherwise. So – long story short, I bought a new modem!

Having had a good experience with Netgear products so far, I stuck with them for my new modem, and hunted down a WGR614, which I bought from EBuyer.com. Once I get my rebate, it will have been a $35 router – not bad for something that would probably cost $200 in Australia 🙂

Since I previously had difficulty getting WEP to work with my XP machine, and had been running with it turned off (only using MAC-based restrictions), I figured it would be worth a shot to see if I could get it going using this modem. For some reason, it works! I still don’t know why, but when I turned WEP on, entered the generated key on my PC, laptop and iPAQ, everything Just Worked™.

I thought I was doing really well, had my wireless connection to the ‘net via PC, laptop and iPAQ, when I noticed that I was having problems with my PC – every 5 minutes or so, I would lose my connection to the WAP, then it would reconnect. This wouldn’t have been the end of the world (although it was annoying), but half the time my PC would pick up the connection to the other, un-secured network that’s around here, and connect to that instead. Then there was also the obvious problem of if I was doing a download or upload or gaming or something, a connection that consistently drops out every 5 minutes isn’t much use.

I checked Netgear’s support site for the modem, and downloaded the firmware update for it, which I hoped would fix the problem. I applied the update (no need to re-enter any configuration on the modem BTW, it retained all settings), but the problem persisted.

Just in case, I did a Windows Update to see if it would pick up anything. What do you know, there was an update there for Netgear, under the ‘Driver Updates’ section (not listed in ‘Critical Updates and Service Packs’). I installed it, and hey presto, my connection is clean as now. Haven’t had it drop out now in over 12 hours (which is only how long it’s been installed, so it’s never dropped off since installation).

This makes me happy – it means that now I can actually run WEP, which makes me feel better about having wireless, especially knowing there’s another network within range. I have a solid connection, which my iPAQ, PC and laptop can all share, which is relatively secure, and pretty darned fast. I haven’t bothered optimising the position of my WAP, because it has perfect range into my bedroom and onto my balcony, so there’s no need, and hopefully having it under my desk will reduce the overflow into the street and around the place.

Yay Netgear, yay wireless!

Ignoring the fact that Verizon are clearly evil (as shown by their service, and the amount of sneaky rubbish installed by their software), maybe they are contributing to a greater good, without even realising it.

I have moved to America now, and in the area that I live, there are only 2 ISPs, Verizon and Road Runner. Verizon’s DSL service is cheaper, so a lot of people are going for that. Road Runner’s Cable service is better, so I went for that. Either way, I tried out Verizon Online DSL, and part of their sales process is to attempt to upsell customers to buy a router so that they can have as many computers as they want online… a wireless router… which is always sold without WEP or MAC-based security configured, because it causes too many support calls! I talked with the technician who installed my Road Runner service and she said basically the same thing, that people are allowed to install a wireless router on their home connection, but that they certainly wouldn’t assist with configuring any security measures, or provide them with security enabled by default.

At first, this just sounds like the usual cop-out of large corporations (HI TELSTRA!), but if you look again, you realise that if this upsell process is effective, and people get the wireless router and use it, then they are providing something to the public; free broadband wireless access to the Internet. There are no bandwidth restrictions (to speak of) on any of these accounts. They are always-on, and not charged by download, upload, connect-time, nothing. It’s a flat charge per month no matter what you do with your account.

I’m not condoning that people should run around looking for open access points to use, but my point is this; if ISPs are providing these facilities (in particular un-metered, un-secured, wireless access to their connection), then there has to be some level of acceptance of the fact that people are going to be using the service without direct authorisation.

The reason that I thought of all of this, is that before I got my connection installed here, I turned on my iPAQ and checked for wireless networks – it immediately picked up 2, one of which was unsecured. Just for a laugh, I let it have a go at connecting, and bingo, I had a nice, fast connection to the Internet, care of a friendly (read: clueless) neighbour. If I thought that I was costing them anything, I would have gotten off immediately, but with everything here being flat-rate, and me only checking a few emails and doing some quick browsing, I didn’t feel too bad.

What’s the general vibe from other people out there about this sort of thing?