Got a new 2005 TL, love the car and the sound system. The salesman does the hoopla on the HFL - - - - It looks like it may be too good to be true?

Currently with Verizon, which only offers Moto V710 and even Moto told the "only" phone they make that works correctly with the 2005 TL is the V500/525 via AT&T wireless.....and the V80, but has no major carriers in the U.S.A. (Apparently there are some changes between the 2004 & 2005 TL HFL?)

I have not been able to get a response from Nokia or SonyEricson.

Having read all these posts in the forum. It looks to me that BlueTooth and HFL is not ready for "PrimeTime"?

I really do not know that much about all this techno stuff.......but it would be very nice to have the following.

1. Recognize the phone when you get in the car
2. Have "name" and "number", battery, signal strenght, roaming, displayed in the MID
3. Address book loaded into the TL automatically
4. Crystal clear BlueTooth connection with the TL

When I call all the major service providers - they don't know anything about it! Very frustrating.

Ok, I know Verizon carries only the V710.

AT&T is suppose to carry V500/V525, but it's not on their web site, and not in the stores, they never heard of it?

And I can not find the Nokia's or SE anywhere?

I just think I will give up on this project.

 

Yea, I know how that goes and who knows when they will introduce another BT phone. I have service with Verizon also and have the V710. I had no problems pairing the phone with my TL.
1) It does recognize the phone (provided you have BT on).
2) Unfortnately, this one hasn't been resolved yet and are still working on upgraded firmware.
3) You gotta enter phonebook manually.
4) I have had no problems with clarity nor have I dropped a call.

As far as I know, most of the Motorola units do not show signal and battery strength. Check out this thread Bluetooth Compatability to get more info. You can do a search on the phones you mentioned to come up and see what probs are associated with them. Here's a thread on the V500 I hope this helps you out a little.

 

I have an '04 with the Motorola V710. I was able to pair the phone without issue.
The v710's firmware is still being worked on for MID indicators, etc but as far as calling functionality, it works very well for me -- even though you have to enter phonebook manually.

I'ver heard of '05 owners with similar comments so I don't think there are major (if any) differences beween the '04 to '05 versions of HFL.

 

I have a 05 and a 6230 Nokia phone, I live in the woods in NW Louisiana and my phone works great through the car

 

SE T637 here, through AT&T (now Cingular):

1. Phone has never failed to be recognized.
2. "Name" isn't part of the technical spec for the Bluetooth HandsFree profile, so you won't see that with any Bluetooth phone. Number, battery, signal strength, and roaming all work fine.
3. Unfortunately, the address book isn't part of the HF profile either, so you won't see that with any Bluetooth phone.
4. In my opinion, the clarity is pretty good, with a few caveats: you can't have the sunroof open or the windshield defroster on or the fan on high, but...otherwise, I'm happy.

At the time I bought my phone from AT&T (few months ago), you could sign up for service and buy the phone on the website and it'd be delivered to your door, activated and ready to go. It's a slick phone. I like it.

 

The name will never show up... and your address book wont transfer - bluetooth is only in its primitive form as of yet. You have to enter them manually no matter what phone you use.

ALL sony ericsson phones work 100% properly with the TL (at least that is what I have read).... I have the T637 and it works properly. My only problem is that its not a flip phone and I want a flip phone.

Check out www.handsfreelink.com and www.phonescoop.com

handsfreelink.com has a list of compatible phones (we also have a sticky thread on the forum here with a list of phones and the features that do and don't work) -

phonescoop.com generally has all the phones that are available...you can use their search feature to select a phone with bluetooth, then cross reference it agains the list on a-tl or handsfreelink.com

as far as the V80 - you can purchase that from ebay or places like www.myworldphone.com and then insert a T-mobile sim card into it.

I say t-mobile and not att/cingular because you cannot take advantage of the entire att/cingular network with the V80 - but with t-mobile you can take advantage of the full network (due to the frequencies they each use)


https://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=89299 that is the sticky thread with compatible phones.

 

If you use your phone in the car, don't give up. I'm with ATTW/Cingular and have both Nokia 6310i(old) and 6230(new). Both have bluetooth and both work great; as far as Nokia's go with HFL.
They pair without fail, voice quality through the car speakers is fine, good safety factor. I think everyone except Verison has a variety of bluetooth phones. Not sure how far you want to get into it but you could just purchase an unlocked bluetooth phone for around $200. This will take a little more reasearch and knowledge. People on this forum and howardsforum.com generally will know more about what to recommend than the average salesclerk in the retail stores.

 

In further response to your questions:

1. Recognize the phone when you get in the car
2. Have "name" and "number", battery, signal strenght, roaming, displayed in the MID
3. Address book loaded into the TL automatically
4. Crystal clear BlueTooth connection with the TL

1. The car recognizes the v710 just fine.
2. The number displays. Signal strength & battery strength do not with the phone they're shipping now.
3. You have to enter the address book via voice, since the HFL will be listening for your voice commands, e.g. call Home.
4. The HFL connection in the car is excellent.

My biggest gripe with Veizon is the fact that they have disabled most of the bluetooth functionality that would simplify such things as offloading pictures, entering MP3 music files onto the phone, etc. Howver, Verizon has much better coverage in my area, so I am sticking with them.

 

HoustonPerson,

FWIW, Cingular/ATTW carry the Motorola V551 (bluetooth) flip phone in their Houston and southeast Texas stores.

 

If you're in Houston, Cingular is a very good candidate although I have been there on numerous occassions and I have T-Mobile nad worked awesome. As someone said earlier, the T637 is a great phone. If you want a novelty phone, Cingular is coming out with the Sony Ericsson S710a (should be the 15th, but I have also heard the 12th) of January. Sony Ericsson displays everything on the MID and has great quality.

edit: Nokia and Motorola phones display the least amount of information on the MID but are also awesome phones.

 

We have been useing the V710 phone for a couple weeks now and It works fine, just make sure that it is the second generation unit. it is doing all that it should do.

 

After buying my TL, I tried phones from Nokia and Motorola (including the V-710) using Verizon service. Most would pair but none displayed all available features like signal & battery strength.
I changed to Cingular and ordered a Sony Ericsson T-637 and have no more phone problems, everything works. Cingular's Coverage is better since combining with AT&T. The SE T-637 is a great little phone and is free (last time I looked at cingular's website) with a new contract.

 

I've had a Siemens S56 for about a year now and it has worked virtually without any problems. All data displays (Caller ID, Signal, Battery). I had a few occasions where the phone didn't link right away, but that is it.

So there are phones out there that do work. Problem is my phone is now discontinued. I switched from Verizon to AT&T (now Cingular) because they didn't offer a Bluetooth phone.

I think the problems that folks are having are due to a couple of reasons:

1. Cell phone vendors and cellular providers don't test their phones with all Bluetooth systems, so things get overlooked and things don't work as expected.

2. Cellular providers "tweek" their Bluetooth phones to disable certain features to "encourage" use of billable activities. (file downloads ,etc.) In the process the screw up other Bluetooth functions.

3. Specifications are always subject to interpretation and sometimes this causes differences and problems.

I think the only way to improve this situation is to make sure we complain and let the vendors know that we aren't satisfied with what they are giving us.

 

1.) Mobile phone companies and service providers do extensive testing on their phones they sell. They have other things to test other than bluetooth but they do test that in the process. You have it reversed actually. Companies like JCI that handle the Acura HandsfreeLink do a lot of testing and that is why their certified phone list is so short. Overall there are regulations to follow and contracts to be carried out so that is why some mobile companies' phones will not display everything. i.e. nokia.

2.) Mobile providers do not tweak their phones. It is a contract between provider and company to offer phones to the company. i.e. shortcoming of the Motorola V710 that has problems with bluetooth file transfer. Billable features such as GPRS, EDGE, SMS, MMS etc need to be charged per use. It is not a free service because not all people use them. It is called capitalism.

3.) Specifications are also regulated by FCC standards. They are not open to interpretation. What you see is what you get but in the process read the fine print. i.e. camera that says its a megapixel camera might only offer VGA quality in certain picture resolution sizes. The only thing open to interpretation is what you think of the phone when you get it. Everything else is standard.

You can complain all you want. Customer service won't care one bit. They will just tell you "Ok, we'll pass that along." Do a little research and get in contact with the engineers and testers of companies. Takes a little time but they are just as accessible as anyone else. BTW, cell phone refers to analong "cellular" phones...it's just a pet peeve. GSM is digital, hence referring to them as mobile phones.