Bluetooth (In)Compatible

I have never been a big Bluetooth headset user. I try not to use my cell phone in my car (what with talking on a handheld cell phone while driving illegal where I live). If I had a headset, I figure it might give me a false sense of feeling safe to take and make calls in the car willy-nilly, when studies show that talking on the phone is just as distracting as holding it.

But since I tried out two Plantronics headsets in the past month for Yahoo! Tech, I learned something about my Palm Treo 700p. It has an on-again-off-again relationship with many Bluetooth headsets. With both the headset to the Plantronics Calisto Pro and the Voyager 855, the connection worked at first but then it didn't. I reset the connections a few times, but then the Treo just stopped recognizing either.

A look at some Treo forums found this is not an unusual scenario. Palm issued a Bluetooth patch early in the year to deal with Bluetooth connectivity problems. Not surprisingly, the most up-to-date Bluetooth capability list for the Treo 700p lists the Plantronics Voyager 510 as incompatible, so it makes sense that the headsets I tested did not work well with it.

There are 13 compatible Bluetooth headsets on the list, including five Jabra models. (The Treo-compatible Jabra BT-150 is pictured.) If I make the Bluetooth plunge, I'll try one of those—and check the forums before I buy one. Has anyone learned the hard way that not all Bluetooth headsets work well with your phone, even when they are on the compatibility lists?

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