1. LionAR10's Avatar
    I've had iPods for a while now, starting back about 5 years ago. Sure they've gotten flashier but they all did the same job: load up a bunch of MP3s and play them on the go. No problem. I didn't use them often, but when I wanted them they worked fine. Until recently ... when I bought an iPod Touch. The simplicity of "just play some MP3s" suddenly turned a lot more complex. I stopped using it.

    And then one day I got my Curve ... and found that it had a microSD slot, a simple to use MP3 player, and a regular headset jack. I dropped in a 2GB card I had lying around and tried to use it as a real MP3 player. It didn't do so bad and the nice thing was that it was with me all the time already. I added in an 8GB shdc card and then I had the same amount of real storage as my iPod Touch with a simple interface.

    In a quest to play with every feature of my new phone I even dug out an old pair of Jabra 620s bluetooth headphones. Huh, they worked nicely, unlike my old Palm 650 and 755p which required extra software and heavy CPU to make the stereo bluetooth go. Neat trick.

    But the real magic came while I was on the road in Austin. I stopped by a Fry's (there's none near me, so I make sure I buy some gadget from Fry's when I can) and picked up an Altec Lansing Bluetooth Soundblade.

    *CANT SHOW PICTURES I GUESS YOU DO THE WORK I ALREADY DID*
    Altec Lansing iMT525

    I was in a hotel room, kind of a crappy one, and I really wanted to listen to a few tunes so what the heck, let's give this Bluetooth thing a real shot. It worked great. I set it on the table across the room, played music on it right from the Curve, and it sounded good. The controls on top of the speakers worked right too. Cool! When I got home, I put the speakers in my bedroom ... and wow, now I can listen to music before I go to bed and not get up to shut off the sound.

    It then kind of occurred to me that with 8GB of MP3s on the device I carry everywhere and this Bluetooth Stereo Audio thing I could really make my MP3s travel around the house and on the road well!

    I dropped a cheap USB BT adapter (15 bucks) in my desktop at the office. It took a while of fiddling, but in the end, Bluesoleil *CANT POST URLS IN THIS REVIEW USE GOOGLE* did what I wanted it to do: play the MP3s on my phone wirelessly through my computer's speakers! I quickly added the same config to my Vista Media Center in my living room. Now I can walk into my bedroom, office, or living room; select the BT device to connect to on my Curve, and play MP3s without every touching my desk, speakers, or home theater system. No plugging stuff in, messing with cables, having my phone tethered down to where I'm playing the music ... nope, with a quick change on the phone, music comes out whatever room I want it to.

    I even bought for $30 off eBay a miniture Bluetooth A2DP receiver for my truck:
    *AGAIN CANT SHOW PICTURES GOOD LUCK SEARCHING*
    *CANT POST URLS IN THIS REVIEW USE EBAY SEARCH*

    And when I get in my truck, point the bluetooth at this and there, music in my truck sans wires. (Note the LCD on this thing does nothing of interest, might as well get the $20 one with no LCD.)

    I can't believe how cool this is, with the exception of the SoundBlade everything was cheap and worked out of the box ... sure as I've used it more the MP3 player software kinda blows up every once in a while but how cool is it to have your music kinda "follow you around" throughout the day? I don't mean to beat on the "iPhone vs Blackberry" thing, but my understanding is that the iPhone doesn't have A2DP ... and my BlackBerry wanders though the day just connecting to different sets of speakers without getting terribly far outside my pocket. I never expected this out of my phone. Thanks RIM, this is awesome.
    02-02-09 10:00 PM
  2. Iceman's Avatar
    Nice story and welcome to crackberry...enjoy the addiction!
    02-02-09 10:04 PM
  3. JBB89's Avatar
    I love having wireless everywhere. much cleaner looking on the desk. Bluetooth speakers in my house connect my blackberry (and iPod touch.....haha) to anywhere I want! it truely is amazing to have a device that makes life that much more convenient.
    02-02-09 10:04 PM
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