I last fully charged up the battery early yesterday morning. I was in my car several times yesterday; the BT link is instantly made. I also spoke on the phone several times for short periods (1-2 minutes). The battery life indicator on the phone, which scores from 0 (empty) to 6 (full), is still at 6.

The night before last, I had a problem with 1/4 of the backlight being on continuously, whichc completely discharged the battery. I was going to take the phone back, but the problem appears to have righted itself spontaneously. I'll observe for another week before deciding whether to trade the phone for another V710.

 

The V710 can display the battery life and signal strength. Those are optional, according to the Bluetooth specifications. The requirement only requires that the Hands Free system must display "service" and "call".

The V710 is definitely capable of displaying battery life and signal strenth, it just hasn't been implemented (yet). There's no guarantees that the RAZR will be any better.

This information is sent to the HFL system as part of the +CIND command. The V710 (and the RAZR) need to respond with the "battchg" and "signal" values. This is part of the GSM 07.07 specification (See Section 8.9), which the Bluetooth specification derives some of its requirements from. Since the V710 doesn't support it yet, I wouldn't place any bets on the RAZR right now.

This shouldn't be a hard thing for Motorola to implement. If I had access to the firmware, I'd probably be able to hack this myself in a short period of time.

It's time for the V710 owners to rise up, unite, and announce their dismay to Motorola (this shouldn't be a Verizon thingy) ... and I can't think of anyone more qualified than BJ to rally us together to fight for the cause ...

 

Here's a thought ... Did Motorola focus more on selling their little heavily-advertised Bluetooth headsets (which don't require signal strength or battery level indicators), so the support of those extra indicators have been ignored for now?

Hmmmm.

 

FYI on v710 pricing / availability:

Verizon (direct) is the same as RadioShack ($519 "unsubsidized", $349 w/ one-year and $319 w/ two-year extension). Verizon, however, will offer a $100 "New Every Two" discount (on top of the $70 rebate).

It will be available on 8/11, although they're asking people to call on 8/12 so they don't get an overflow of calls.

I wish more data came through - I'm used to the SonyEricsson working flawlessly (although the AT&T GSM service is crap).

It's going to be a difficult decision whether to stay with VZW or move my "unlocked" SonyEricsson T616 over to T-Mobile...

 

I accept the challenge and will see what I can do to get us to a rally. Perhaps we can camp out in front of a Motorola engineering facility

BJ

 

Earlier, someone brought up call waiting. What does the HFT do when you get a 2nd call while you are talking to someone?


BJ, I'm in, just let me know when/where.

Hey Motorola... :sqntfawk:

 

Hey neuron, I need your advice (or anyone else who has thoughts on this). I just picked up a Sony Ericsson 637 phone for $79 after renewing my contract with AT&T here in LA. Here's my question..

What makes the 710 worth all that money when compared to the 637. Especially since this one shows the battery life and signal strength? I just want to be sure I'm not missing some other compelling benefits to the Motorola.

 

I'm in, as long as Curtis brings the ice cream truck...
Andy W.

 

I think for many of us the issue was that we wanted to stick with Verizon. Until the release of the v710, Verizon did not have any bluetooth phone that would work with the TL.

There are many great features about this phone. If you really want to know all about it, I suggest you check out Howard Forums. Inside the Verizon sub-forum there is now a temporary sub-forum set up just to discuss this particular phone.

Take care.
Andy W.

 

May I ask a dumb question?

I am currently w/AT&T (have been waiting for the V710 to swtich).

As a NEW Verizon customer, what should my phone cost me for 1. one year 2. two year plan?

And then I get a $70 rebate ON TOP of that number?

And can someone explain the "new every two" thing? Do you pay extra for this??


THANKS!!

 

From what I've seen in this thread, it looks like $349 with 1 year contract and $319 with 2 year contract. On top of that toss in a $70 rebate, so net cost is $279 and $249, respectively.

The NE2 is a complimentary serivce you get withall plans costing over a certain amount (I think it's $39.99/month, but I'm not sure). Basically, every 2 years you get a $100 credit towards the price of a new phone.

 

I don't know about you guys, but the NE2 program probably won't matter much to me. The V710 has pretty much everything I'll need, with the exception of the camera. It sure would be nice if it didn't have a camera and became a bit smaller.

 

Jazz,

I do NOT think the BT HFL speciifcation needs to change in order to display a NAME for caller ID. If you created a name/number entry in the TL phonebook, when a call comes in the phone will send the number to the TL. Then, the TL should map the incoming number to a name as stored in the TL phonebook.

That is how caller ID works on my mobile phone. If a recognized number calls me, it looks up the name as I entered it into the phonebook. This is a software issue. The software in the TL should be able to associate phone book entries with phone numbers transmitted from the phone. As is does not do this, we will need a software upgrade in the TL.

 

From what I've been reading all over these message boards, it appears that software upgrades are necessary with phones/TL alike. That being said, how likely is it that Acura will upgrade the software to better implement HFL and will we, as TL faithful, be able to get an upgrade (or are they going to make fixes to the '05 TL and leave us '04's hanging)?

Although I'm not concerned as much with what shows on the MID (battery/signal strength indicators), I do believe, as the previous post suggests, that the name of those people calling should be displayed if TL recognizes a number as one inputted into the TL's phonebook. To me, that would be vital.

Where I'm at right now is that since moving my office to the next suite over (70 feet), I no longer have a signal (T-Mobile) while seated in my office. This is a major hassle as friends/families want to bypass my secretery to get to me directly. I am considering V710 with Verizon or seeing if another phone with T-Mobile will get better reception (Moto V600, Nokia 6600 or SE T610). Any feedback on this would help too. Thanks.

Mtalio

 

I have the Sony Ericsson with Cingular and absolutely love it!!! I have had samsung, sanyo and motorola phones.... and I have to say this phone is the best phone that I have every had!

I picked up the T637 from Samsclub (only 1 year contract) for $49 after the $50 mail in rebate... I left sprintpcs so that I could get this phone (I tried the Sony Ericsson T608 .... that was a joke!). The coverage with Cingular GSM is much better in my area.

If I already had Verizon and had to stay with them I would probably get the V710 for bluetooth reasons.... I also like the fact that I can see my signal strength and battery level on my TL display while the phone is my pocket... which I don't believe this feature works for the V710... at least not yet.

I have reviewed the 710 before I got this one and don't get me wrong it is a pretty sweat phone but for $300-$400, I think I will stick with my T637. just my .02 .....

 

The big deal is that this is the first phone offered by Verizon that has the Bluetooth HFL profile. I don't think you're missing anything specific. That SE 637 phone is a nice phone. It's just not offered by Verizon.

I've stuck with VZW because their coverage is the best in my area--important in my line or work--, and across the country (in my experience).

 

Mtalio, no one knows if Acura is going to change its implementation of HFL. What is clear is that other phones give more information to be visible in the MID. Therefore, in this case, Motorola would need to upgrade its BT HFL profile to be "more compatible" with the TL.

 

Thanks, Neuron. Rep points for you.

I was at RS today in Dulles, VA on unrelated business. They were sold out of the v710 but are getting more in at the end of the week.

Moderators, since there will likely be a very large volume of posts regarding the v710, etc. over the next several weeks/months, can you make it a "sticky" in this subforum or elsewhere?

 

Sorry; I see that "bluetooth bluetooth bluetooth" is already a sticky. Would you consider an additional sticky for the v710?

 

yano_jl and Mtalio -

I'm sorry to disappoint you, but this is a larger issue than you suspect. Here's a few things to keep in mind:

First, if anybody wants to get the text from a phone number stored in the cell phone's Contact List, the Bluetooth HFL Specification has to be changed. There are no standardized commands in the current Bluetooth HFL Specification to support transferring text from the phone to the HFL for an incoming call. The Specification only supports sending a string of digits.

Second: Remember that there is no mechanism on the 04TL to type a name associated with a HFL-entered phone number. So, where's the MID going to get the characters from?

Thus, here's a proposal:

I'll agree that if the Acura wanted to further integrate the Navi phonebook with the HFL, what you suggested would be partially possible. However, this isn't a simple implementation. Let me throw out some thoughts ...

If I was Acura, I sure wouldn't bother transferring the data from the Navi over to the smaller MID display. The Navi could display the caller's name better than the limited MID, anyways. So, we'll scrap the MID for displaying the caller's name and just use the Navi.

OK, so there's not a display problem anymore.

But there are a few other problems that I can think of, and here they are:

1) As far as I've found, the Navi to HFL is a simple one-way function, and very limited for that one function: The Navi will send an simple "AT Dxxx-xxx-xxxx" (dial "xxx-xxx-xxxx") command out to the HFL when you issued the "Send" command from a displayed Navi address with phone number. Basically, it's a fire-and-forget interface. The Navi doesn't care if the HFL gets it or not.

2) So, what you are suggesting will require a whole new layer of functionality that allows the Navi to accept and interpret data from the HFL system. This is not minor.

3) That aside, let's say that the Navi gets modified to interpret data from the HFL system. Now, you have to issue a command that basically says: Search for this phone number in all your records. Well, you could search the numbers in the current driver's Personal Address Book (remember - there's two Personal Address Books!). Oh, and Driver #2 has her Personal Address Book password protected - What do you do for that? Hmmm ...

4) OK, you can probably search through the current driver's Navi Personal Address book pretty fast. However, if it doesn't match, do you want to the HFL to search the rest of the Navi database? That will only cover businesses, but that's better than nothing.

5) Searching the Navi database by phone number is possible, but it sometimes takes a long time - longer than you would want to wait for to see the display come up. When I've searched this way in the past on the Navi, it's occasionally been long enough that you might miss a call (I've seen it take 10 seconds or so). You can try this yourself - Set the Navi to search for a destination based upon the phone number. It does seem to work faster if your recent searches are close by.

OK! We may now be able to put a name instead of a number up on a display in the TL! But it sure wasn't an "All you gotta do is ..." solution. And, I probably haven't covered all the possible pitfalls of implementing this feature.

 

The idea of having everything displayed on the Navigation display sounds awesome, but...

If all this stuff is output to the Navi, what happens to the ppl with non-Navi?

Unless Acura decides to make all vehicles standard with Navi, I don't think HFL implementaion through Navi is going to happen.

 

Glad to hear that you are happy with this one, I will have to check it out. Think I will cease my contract with Verizon, " Customer Care " just doesn't seem to care. I am willing to pay $319 for this dam phone and even sign a new two year contract ( I have 7 months more on current one ). Hakem says, no can do but will give me the OPPORTUNITY to buy it RETAIL for $519. I guess I'll give them the opportunity to get another customer. Dam phone doesn't even give you all the features they make you wait forever for a bluetooth phone, then they want to hold you up too? Hakem just isn't worth his Paki call center dinero, ain't making it pal.

George in NY :fingerfawk:

 

daikon38 - This would just end up being another "feature bullet" to sell a Navi system. like the Voice Recognition command system. No Navi, no text Caller ID display - sorry!

I honestly don't think that HFL implementation through the Navi is going to happen, either. At least, not for a while. It would be a lot of work for just this one feature. I think that it would be a lot more important for Johnson Controls (The company that makes the HFL in the TL) to focus all their efforts on improving the Voice Recognition capabilities of the system. If Alpine / Acura can get 90%+ speaker-independant recognition, there's no reason that the HFL can't with the same microphione system.

I just wanted to provide an example of how Text Caller ID could be implemented with the known limitations of the current HFL Specification, and what's available in the TL.

Keep in mind that this is "Rev. 1.0" of this of this technology blend in an automobile. I still think it's pretty awesome for a first release!

There is a planned update to the Bluetooth HFP Specification (Version 2.0) that is currently in development. There was a seperate branch called PAP (Phone Access Profile) that is getting merged into HFP Specification 2.0. HFP Specification 2.0 is backwards-compatible with Version 1.0 phones, so your cool, new phone will work fine once it gets implemented.

 

First off, Jazzy you are 'da man! and I really enjoy your posts (such as this). Points given!

Understood. But I do NOT see this as a problem. I only want the phone to send the string of digits anyway. When the HFL gets the digits, it should look them up in the TL phonebook. If a match is found, it could display the found entry (name) in addition to the sent digits (number).

I did not know this. I actually am bound to NEXTEL, so I have no BT phone, and therefore haven't set up any personal addresses/phone numbers in the TL. I was under the impression that you could type in a name when you add a phonebook entry into the TL. This may be our disconnect.

Even better!

Agreed. My hope here is that the hardware com layer between navi and HFL is already present. Therefore, code could be written to make the link between navi phonebook data and digits received by the HFL.

This leads right into your next points...

Yes.

I like your idea of the system recognizing which driver is at the wheel (key Fob). But again, this is a software issue.

I would expect the process to be asynchronous. Meaning, ONLY the number would display while the system does the lookup in the background. If (when) a number/name is found, the display would include the name as part of the info on the screen.

It never is....

 

GotJazz - Yeah, I completely understand your position on this. I just wanted to bring that point up about differences in Navi vs. Non-Navi cars.

I think it would be much wiser for Acura to "allow" (turn an eye to) ppl to "hack" into the system and configure/program electronics. Not only will this save cost on Acura's part, it'll also increase the consumer interest in the car as well. It'll be yet another method of customizing the car to personal preference, as we've seen is so popular with cellphones and car modification already. If Acura allowed for this, then it'll be more likely we'd see Navi integration with HFL and better compatibility with cellphones whether old or new, as programmers would likely create patches/upgrades to the software and distribute it via the internet (of course, with an "at your own risk" disclaimer).

All Acura would have to do is have the consumer acknowledge that Acura does not endorse these patches, and does not recommend to using them. On top of that, Acura just needs to say that the user acknowledges that they are proceeding to "hack" at their own risk. As long as the safety components are completely isolated from the audio/navi/hfl electronics, then there's no harm in allowing the consumer hack into the system, as they will never touch the safety mechanisms.

What do you ppl think? Would that or would that not be a wise choice on Acura's part to allow for user "hack-ability"?

 

Great post above Gotjazz! I hit you with some points, too.

I traded in my phone with the faulty backlight; the new phone works perfectly (made sure before I left the store this time ).

 

So does verizon have any plans for other bluetooth phones? I don't need the camera and the extra stuff, just a bluetooth phone.

 

There's supposed to be another near the end of the year. I forget which one it is, unfortunately. I agree with you in not needing the extra stuff. I don't care about whether I can sync my contacts with my PowerBook, taking pix or videos, or anything else. I bought the V710, giving up my beloved StarTAC, exclusively for HFL. I'm using it daily and loving it.

 

neuronbob - Glad that your new V710 is working OK! I have experienced a few odd glitches in operation. Frustratingly, they have been random - so I have only seen each of these problems once so far:

(1) Keypad lights were stuck "On" and the phone was frozen. Pulled the battery - problem went away.

(2) Hit the "RECENT" button to get the latest phone call listing, and the whole phone went dark. Well, it was still slightly on - the phone display was empty, but had a light grey tone that occured because there was some backlighting. Pulled the battery - problem went away.

I've read on Howard Forums that the Verizon-released phones will have software Rev H (8700_01.30.8H). Hope the Blewtooth support and bugs are better ...

 

I was told I need to go to Verizon directly in order to get the early upgrade so I'll be waiting for the phone to hit Verizon stores in a couple of weeks. As żGotJazz? says, hopefully the delay was due to them wanting to incorperate a few improvments/bug fixes.

From what I am reading here it looks like we will need to enter our contacts in three places now? 1) the phone, 2) the Nav (if you want the address in there), and 3) the HLF (I assume that is the screen where Trip Information and such is posted). Yick! It also sounds like only the number and a recorded name are stored in the HLF address book. If that's the case I wonder how hard it would be to have the car play back the recording of who is calling when the phone rings. It could say "Incoming call from (insert name recording)".

I'm happy that something has come out. I really want the bluetooth so I don't have to fumble with my headset everytime I get a call in the car. I swear it is more dangerous to use the headset than to just pick up the phone. NJ now has the hands free law in place so this will come in handy.

-Greg

 

Associating a display (text) name with the TL's voice indexed phone book offers a simple solution to the contact issue. Showing the information in the NAVI adds value there also.

For sure Motorola needs to publish the signal and batter strength. Not a show stopper, as the system is functional, but it is just a cool feature to have... especially when Acura did the hard part. Tweaking the phone to emit a little bit more data can't be that difficult.

But I do have one of those possible pitfalls; the lack of wife detector. Say I'm rollin' with the wife and my girlfriend calls ?

 

Sorry for not being up on the phone thing, But what is CDMA vs GSM? And why do I want one over the other? If this helps I live in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Also, is there a battery limitation on the V710? I would like to have ample battery life if I get a BT phone, I've been waiting since January to get a BT phone. I currently have Sprint which does sell the T608, but I perfer clam-shell phone.

Also, I will wait futher if there is a phone on the horizon that's do all phone: good battery life, fully TL compatible and on phone or camera please.

Thanks!

Mike Smeezy

 

What is CDMA?

What is GSM?

I haven't had my phone long enough to comment on battery life.

HTH.

 

Well, Greg, if it makes you feel any better (not likely, though), you will have to enter the three contacts with any BT phone, not just the V710. However, you can get by with one less, if you want to sacrifice some functionality. You can store the phone number in the Personal Addresses section of the Navi, and navigate through the various Navi screens to get to the "Send" icon on the Navi display. It may actually be quicker than using the Voice Recognition capability of the HFL, which totally sux. I think the I'm going to call the TL "HFL Voice Recognition" the "HFL Voice Encryption" system from now on.
Goodie - I'm a little confused. How does the text get entered? I sure couldn't find any "simple solutions" to this problem. About the easiest implementation I could find was what I described above, and that was far from simple.

 

Eh? I like the voice recognition system. Press "talk", say "call home", system verifies request, press "talk", say "call", that's it. Takes about 10-15 seconds and I don't have to touch the navi screen. Works well for me.

 

If the NAVI would display all HFL entered phone numbers the solution gets pretty simple; just implement Edit and Dial features to a new "HFL Directory" on the NAVI.

The Edit feature would allow the operator to input the text to be associated with each HFL entry. This text would be displayed when a incoming caller id # matches the HFL phone number.

The Dial function would address Greg's "HFL Voice Encryption" concerns.

Someday there might be a XML specification that would allow Bluetooth devices to share phone book data. Until then, it is a bummer that phone numbers and names would need to be entered into both systems.

Funny thing, Acura provides us with caller id and voice dialing and all we can do is wish for more. In my line of work it can be expected that for every feature you deliver there will three request for enhancements from the users. I think the Bluetooth phone integration is a good example.

 

The new phone discount at Verizon works like this, every 10 months you are eligible for a new phone price if you resign another contract with them. I think if you sign a two year contract, you are eligible for the same price after 22 months, but i'm not sure about this as I always go with a 1 year contract.

Also, has anyone in Florida seen the 710 at Radio Shack yet? If so, what city etc? Thanks

 

Per a Verizon Wireless Corporate rep today, they'll be coming out with a bluetooth phone without a camera in a few months.

Greg

 

I wish the BT phone without camera had come out first. Don't really need the cam, but hey, I am loving finally being totally hands free in the car.

 

Sure is nice! But, I find that I'm using my minutes up faster now ...