The first issue that you’ll encounter is that Cingular (along with Sprint) has manually disabled BT DUN on the Treo 650. However, they very recently release a firmware upgrade that does unlock the feature. WARNING : This firmware upgrade is for Cingular only and it will destroy any data or apps you have on the phone so be sure to backup first. Once I installed the new firmware, sure enough the dial-up networking feature appeared:

The next issue I encountered was with my USB bluetooth adapter. D-Link’s installer is not quick enough and its impossible to avoid the Windows XP driver from taking over the device and the XP driver is uncapable of properly managing DUN. So you need to delete the Windows hardware and manually select the D-Link driver.

Once you have the bluetooth device sorted out you must pair the phone with the laptop. If all is successful you should then be able to right-click on your bluetooth icon in the system tray, choose ‘Quick Connect’, then ‘Dial-up Networking’, and finally your device.

The hardest part of all was finding the correct settings for Cingular as there are many people out there reporting many different settings that didn’t work for me. I finally landed on the following beautiful settings through trial and error and it works flawlessly for me:

Username: WAP@CINGULARGPRS.COM
Password: CINGULAR1
Phone Number: *99***1#

Some folks have also mentioned that you must set an initialization command string but mine seems to work without it.

When connected I’m getting about 100kbps downstream and 30kbps upstream via the Cingular EDGE GPRS. Not too bad! Just make sure you have paid for the unlimited data plan or else you’ll be getting a hefty bill next month.

Well, now it looks like it might actually be for real as engadget now has videos of the phone running the Windows OS.

I want they! I want they!

Setup wasn’t easy but eventually worked. Basically the driver that comes on the CD doesn’t work on the SMT 5600 but I later found a handy driver locator on the Think Outside website. Once I had the correct driver the keyboard setup was a breeze. The keyboard automatically recoginizes the phone every time I unfold it. Typing is a breeze on the large keys. I even discovered that you can emulate pressing the left and right phone soft keys by pressing Left-Function + Left Space and Right-Function + Right Space respectively.

I love this product. Beautiful design. Perfect function.

To sync via bluetooth:

1. Download the new version of ActiveSync (There is no need to first uninstall your old version. It recognizes the old version and upgrades it.)

2. Setup the bluetooth connection with ActiveSync (taken from new Active Sync help docs)

3. Make sure ActiveSync is running on your PC and from your phone select “Connect via Bluetooth”.

Voila!

Pros:
The Opera browser is fast. In fact it makes IE look ridiculous. Of course you are limited by the slow speed of data transfer but the page renders way faster. Also, once it is rendered you can scroll from top to bottom of a long page about 10 times faster than with IE. I also like the way Opera highlights links as you scroll. Its much more obvious than IE and I feel that I have greater control in selecting links to follow.

Cons:
Unfortunately Opera did not add a “remember my password” feature for previously visited sites. In fact, they don’t even offer the option to remember the password on sites that are simply protected by .htpasswd which IE does. Also, I found that Bookmarks simply didn’t work. I saved several bookmarks but the next time I opened Opera they were gone. The back button didn’t seem to work consistently and there is no way to edit the URL of the page you are currently on. For instance, if you are currently on http://www.yahoo.com and want to go to http://movies.yahoo.com it would be nice to be able to simply click ‘Go’ -> ‘URL’ and have your current URL prefilled for quick editing as IE does.

Unfortunately my advice is, don’t waste your time installing Opera.

Once you’ve dropped the new file onto the phone simply click Start, 9, 1, 4 (Home Screen) and select the Home Screen Layout you defined in the title tag.

The level of customization that comes with Windows Mobile 2003 is unlike anything I’ve experienced with a cell phone thus far. I even edited the standard homescreen from AT&T. I replaced the “mMode” links to URLs I actually care about (Google, raleighlist movie listings, Google news, and a personal links page).

The only disappointment so far is that synchronizing contacts, email, and calendar via Bluetooth is nearly impossible. Microsoft ActiveSync does not support Bluetooth syncing but I was able to get it to work. You have to jump through a bunch of hoops to make ActiveSync use a Serial Cable for syncing and set the COM port of the serial cable to match the COM port for Bluetooth syncing on the phone. Once you are connected it works beautifully but as soon as you walk out of range the link is severed and it is difficult to get it connected again. I’ve given up and use the USB cable only for sync and moving files.

UPDATE ON BLUETOOTH SYNCING : New version of ActiveSync solves the problem!

Here is what raleighlist.org Chapel Hill movie listings looks like in the phone browser:

Everything else I like/dislike about the SMT-5600:
* MSN Messanger is nice and fast
* The camera takes darn good pictures in the daytime
* The camera takes lousy pictures in the low light
* Windows Media 10 plays video and music as smooth as a PC
* I just bought a 512 MB miniSD for lots of storage
* Photo caller ID is handy
* Voice Dialing is much more accurate than the Samsung I used to have
* Camcorder takes pretty darn good videos for such a tiny device
* Sound quality when making calls is good
* Battery life is great
* Get the unlimited data for $25. The other plans are too small.
* Cell phone can be tethered to a laptop for a mobile internet connection
* No car charger is currently available
* Can receive and dial (voice dial) wirelessly with Bluetooth headset
* Some apps don’t have a quit option in the menu and they have to be killed in the Task Manager