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So I switch back to T-Mobile, after seeing that through Amazon, you can get the phone for -$150.

The phone itself is pretty nice, but it’s a little annoying to not have dedicated send and end buttons. I’ve already called two people on accident because of the push clicking center joystick thingy. It has been a whole year now that I’ve had a flip phone from Verizon, so I’m still forgetting to set the keyguard on this phone before I throw it in my pocket.

Anyways, one of the big features that I haven’t played in a cell phone yet was Bluetooth. I’m again impressed by the compatibility between Apple’s OS X and Bluetooth. I quickly paired the Powerbook and the phone, then set it up to sync contacts, my calendar, and then looked into using it as a GPRS modem of sorts.

The first page I found was appropriately titled How To Use Your GSM Cell Phone as a Bluetooth Modem on Mac OS X and it explained just that. After reading the page and then going out and visiting this page full of scripts, I was ready to set up the phone as a modem. Also note that Mr. Barkman maintains a page full of GPRS information for many carriers worldwide.

I setup a new location profile in my Powerbook for the T-Mobile GPRS network and switched off my Airport Express card to test it at my house. The speeds were decent, even though I don’t get fully signal strength on my phone from my home. I tested it out a bit by syncing my IMAP mailboxes and it was certianly acceptable. This will be a much easier way to get online when I’m traveling — completely wirelessly :)