Overcoming some of my issues with the Jam

Michael Gartenberg | February 16, 2005, 12:10 PM

The biggest issue I have with the Jam is that it just isn't a great phone. Dialing with the screen makes for smudges and scratches and is nasty to do without looking at it (which means not good for the car) As phone, it might meet your needs if you're limited phone user but the fact that I need to make it jump through hoops just to get it to work in my car is too much of deal breaker. Fortunately, you don't need to use it as a phone. Unlike most other PocketPC phones that disable using the device connected to another Bluetooth phone (granted, most folks won't want to do this) I discovered the Jam has no such limitation. I got it working with a nice little Bluetooth phone just fine and now use the phone for voice. I now have the best of both worlds. A small, ubiquitous full functioned PDA and Wireless device that itself is amazingly tiny and a small ubiquitous phone that sits quietly in my pocket barely taking up any room that the JAM connects to when it needs the Internet. The result? for almost no added weight I get far the better functionality of a dedicated phone and all the features that the PocketPC OS offers. For the times when I only want one device for some reason, I can easily drop the SIM into the JAM. Not as elegant as a Treo and it's still not a one handed solution for things like web browsing or email access but it does work.

If you want to try this set up, drop me a line and I'll tell you how to get it all working. Geeks only need apply. Of course if you in the market for one of these in the first place, you're pretty geeky to begin with.