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Nokia 6600, Bluetooth, Mac OS X, Quicktime 3GPP and Flash?

I picked up a Nokia 6600 [1] this weekend from T-Mobile [2] and so far it is a really great phone, quite a step up from my old Kyocera. I also picked up a Nokia 3595 [3] for my fiance and it is a great little phone too. The 6600 [1] will set you back about $299 from Amazon – which is $100 bucks cheaper than picking it up in a T-Mobile store or even their own website where they are charging $399 for it – yikes! The 3595 [3] is free right now from T-Mobile if you purchase it online from T-Mobile or $50 at their stores.

I had been looking to get a good Bluetooth phone for sometime now to utilize the Bluetooth capabilities of my 15″ Apple Powerboook and I am so pleased with the functionality it provides. I was going to wait to get my hands on a Motorola MPx [4] which looks very compelling and would be perfect for me – but I needed something now – I’m sure I might pick one up once they are out. Anyway, back to the 6600 – I am using Apples iSync and Address book – it took just a few minute to get the phone paired up with my laptop and the phone with all my contact information – including thumbnails and images of each contact. iSync has supported the 6600 since the last release of version 1.4 – no hacks required or modified 3650 profiles – built in native support. It was just as easy to send SMS messages through the phone right from the address book, a cool feature. I like that I can quickly send files back and forth between the phone and laptop as well. So far I have used this feature to send installers to the phone, like the Opera Web Browser for Series 60 phones, and some ringtones, and .wav files to do a little customization.

Using Apples Quicktime Pro it only takes a second or two to output 3GP video and audio files [5] that play back on the built in Realmedia player. I have never been a fan of Real – but it works pretty well thanks to how easy Apples Quicktime Pro handles the exporting options. Quicktime Pro even allows you to export AMR-NB audio files that are great for making small speech based ring tones. I have found the quality is better with regular .wav files for music and other items, but for speech the AMR-NB is great. The Nokia 6600 also supports AMR-WB (wideband) but it doesn’t look like Apple has included support for that yet with their 3GP export options (Although I haven’t installed Quicktime 6.5.1 yet – I’m still at 6.5 so I’ll have to test this again shortly).
I found several other cool utilities for the Mac OS X that enhance the functionality and usefulness of using a Bluetooth phone with a Bluetooth capable Mac running OS X:

  • BluePhonemenu [6] – adds some cool caller ID and phone info to menubar
  • Sailing Clicker [7] – adds cool remote control of apps from your phone to your computer
  • Romeo [8] – Similar to Sailing Clicker – but different, supports plugins and Applescript – very cool. 🙂
  • I’m sure theres more out there, but I’ve only had the phone for a day so far. I’m really pleased that now I’ll be able to use the phone for data connections on my lpatop via GPRS when I’m away from the office and not near a WiFi hotspot. I’m not sure how I did without this before!

    So far I have only two complaints:

  • Spotty coverage in my house – everywhere else is good except for inside my house – grrr…although to be fair even my CDMA based Kyocera phone from Verizon had a hard time in my house.
  • No Macromedia Flash Player for Series 60 yet. I have been following this for sometime and its been demoed and talked about publicly, as far back as January and February of last year – but nothing official as of yet. Oddly enough in the Mobile and Devices [9] section of Macroemdias site, the image shown with the Flash Player logo superimposed is a series 60 Nokia 3650! – harumphh!

    I do have hopes now that Flashcast has been talked about more lately and with Juha Christensen [10] at the wheel as President of Mobile and Devices division of Macromedia, and the success of Flash on the NTT DoCoMo 505i phones running Flash, that we will be seeing something sooner rather than later for the Series 60 phones as well as other interesting mobile devices. All I know is I can’t wait for it to be available. Thoughts?

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