Using your Palm TX to make phone calls!
There are many in the Palm Community who wish Palm would make a newer version of the Palm TX with phone capability. Well, it may surprise the uninitiated to know that you can actually use the Palm TX to make calls. The key to this depends on your definition of what it means to make calls. Here is my definition and description: I take out my palm, go through my contacts, do a couple of clicks, hear the phone ringing on my ear piece and I start talking when someone answers. You can do this and you don’t even need to touch a keypad on the Palm or cell phone. When your are done all you need to do is click the “end” button on your ear piece and you are done. The best thing about this is you can take all the notes you want, schedule appointments & tasks, and not even have to worry about any conflict with phone functionality. How is this done?
This is all done through the magic of Bluetooth. The following image is one possible version of your Palm TX phone hands free kit. You would just need to substitute the phone with your Bluetooth enabled, Palm TX compatible phone. (I use a Nokia 6822)
I keep my phone in a holster and the ear piece is either in my ear or dangling appropriately in my shirt pocket or jacket. Once you have set up the Bluetooth connections the way you want, you won’t even need to take the phone out of your holster. You would just use the TX to handle initiating the call. The bonus is that this also works with sending SMS with the built in software you already have on your TX. I didn’t even need to download any drivers for my set up. I did not mind that I was using a wired ear piece. I circumnavigate the problem of pairing 2 Bluetooth devices with a wireless ear piece. It allows me to answer and end calls with a push of a button on the ear piece itself.
Ask yourself, “Do I really want to hold something like the TX to my ear?”, “Do I already use a wired ear piece?”, and “Aren’t I supposed to use an ear piece in the car anyways?” If your answers are no, yes, and yes you’ll find this is a natural expansion of your Palm TX to make calls (which you are actually doing) and send text messages. Use the Bluetooth connect options in Contacts to initiate the calls. It is truly hands free when using the Palm because only the phone (which you don’t interact with) is the wired device.
July 3rd, 2007 at 11:48 am
Love this technique and am very interested in using it. Does anyone have an actual, up to date list of compatible phones. From things on the Palm site it seems that not all bluetooth phones are actually compatible, and the list they have seems kind of outdated. Any information?