wahlau's online hut

after playing around with the k800i I've acquired, i must say i am pretty sold. it looks slick and nice, has a great digical camera (Cybershot dude, don play play), plays radio with RDS, nice themes (got myself tux and christmas themes) and best of all, i can synchronize well with my Ubuntu!

The process is not really difficult. Search around for k800i, evolution, bluetooth, ubuntu and you will find this as search result. Fotakis made a pretty good how-to there that enabled me to get it done within 5 minutes. yes, 5 minutes. basically it is as following (for my own reference in future):

1. first install all the needed packages (if not already installed)

wahlau@mycomp:~ $ sudo apt-get install bluetooth bluez-pin bluez-utils multisync libmultisync* evolution-plugins

2. start bluetooth service (if not already started)

wahlau@mycomp:~ $ sudo /etc/init.d/bluetooth start

3. scan for devices

wahlau@mycomp:~ $ hcitool scan
Scanning ...
         00:11:22:33:AA:BB       ExamplePhone

you should get some devices if you have more than your phone's bluetooth on. If you cannot find it, make sure bluetooth on the phone is turned on, and visibility is set to on.

4. start multisync (Application>Accessories>Multisync)

here you should configure as mentioned in fotakis's instruction. i will not repeat them ;)

5. to actually being able to synchronize, you need to set the options in the Evolution2 plugin

until you select which calendar, addressbook and tasks you wish to synchronize, you will get nothing synchronized (it makes sense, right? :P) besides this, you can also look around other options in the plugin to customize. I personally did nothing.

6. now click on "Sync". if this does not work, try "ReSync". If you wish to have automatic synchronization, select the check box next to your k800i Multisync entry.

7. time to get organized :) start your evolution now!

besides Multisync, i actually got Wammu working with the provided USB cable. So far SMS and Contacts can be viewed on wammu, but no calendar. Will update when i get the time to test out Wammu over bluetooth. Using bluetooth is actually pretty simple. All the while i thought it does not work, because Wammu can't detect my phone via bluetooth. It turned out the search function is not really needed if you have the information ready! The steps are:

1. start wammu, and go Wammu>Settings

2. under Device, write the bluetooth hardware address you obtained from "hcitool scan". under Connection, select "blueat" and under Model, just put "auto". when done click OK.

3. now go to the second menu "Phone" and select "Connect". It will take a short while until it connects. Synchronize time does not work, however.

4. now you can start downloading the calls, contacts and sms. I have even tried writing sms to my colleague who taught me the setting part (which then reminded me not to rely on Wizard like stuffs if they do not work) and the SMS worked :D

so far i have got the most important things working for me. Ideas are there, but i am satisfied with what it can do for me. I somehow wished one function which i can now still live without - the ability for the handphone to list down important events/calendar items at the main screen. I've saw that in MS smartphones and the newer Series 60 phones, and i must say that is a great option. I wonder if anyone from Sony Ericssion will read this, and add it to the upcoming firmware :)

SE phones are now appealing to me, since it works great under linux and of course windows. I have even found links for Mac OS X stuffs, which means it is a pretty all rounder phone in terms of synchronization. This is a selling point to me, at least. Wonder if the N70 can be as simple as this... so that might make me still long for a series 60 phone :D

update:
if you need reviews and opinions from others, check out the following online reviews:
1. mobile-review - http://www.mobile-review.com/review/sonyericsson-wilma-2-en.shtml
2. mobique - http://www.mobique.com/sonyericsson/k800i/
3. gsmareana - http://www.gsmarena.com/sony_ericsson_k800-review-93.php
4. mobile-phones-uk - http://www.mobile-phones-uk.org.uk/sony-ericsson-k800i.htm <-- lots of real user comments