I want to buy a PDA and I'm mainly interested in Sony CLIA N70 and
Palm Tungsten. I want to find out if each one of those can cooperate
with my Nokia 7210 mobile phone to let me access POP mail and browse
the internet. They say that Bluetooth/GPRS devices are supported, but
I'd like explicit reference or other convincing technical
documentation supporting that one or both can do this. I don't want to
spend a fortune buying a PDA that does not work with my phone, so I
want to make sure in advance. If you come across some similar PDA
device that also has the capacity to work with my Nokia 7210, please
do provide a reference.

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Request for Question Clarification by seizer-ga on 20 Nov 2002 09:57 PST

Are you sure you're using a Nokia 7210? As far as I know, these phones
do not have BlueTooth connectivity. Certainly the Nokia specification
page makes no mention of it: http://www.nokia.com/phones/7210/

---

Clarification of Question by nmor-ga on 20 Nov 2002 14:20 PST

I am using a 7210 for sure. So you're saying that unless I have
Bluetooth it won't work? I though GPRS was an alternative to
Bluetooth. Would it work this way? If you can affirm that it wouldn't,
I could accept that as an answer just as well.

Hi there nmor!

Thanks for your clarification. I see where you're going wrong, and I
hope I can help you out a bit here.

As wengland-ga notes below, BlueTooth is a short range wireless
communication protocol, whereas GPRS is something the networks use to
communicate. Or in simpler terms, BlueTooth is a way for devices to
talk to one another - for instance, a mobile telephone could use a
BlueTooth headset with no wires; whereas GPRS is a way for your phone
to actually send data to your provider. So in short: no, I'm afraid
that GPRS is a different thing entirely, and cannot be used as an
alternative to BlueTooth.

In your case, I take it that you were hoping you could use Bluetooth
to hook up your PDA to the 7210 - but as I previously noted, the 7210
definitely does not support Bluetooth. It does support connections via
infra red, and via an actual cable, but both of these methods are not
as elegant, and I cannot find any PDAs which support this. To confirm
this, visit:

http://www.nokia.com/nokia/0,5184,847,00.html

Check the last bullet point in the section marked "Phone features". It
reads: "Connectivity options: IR and cable"

But enough negativity! Let me see if I can help you a little as well.

1) The first suggestion is to purchase another mobile phone, or trade
in your current one. Not ideal, admittedly, but at least you'll know
it works. You can view the list of phones which work with the Tungsten
here:

http://www.palm.com/support/bluetooth/bluetooth_compatibility.html

Unfortunately, I couldn't find a comparable list for the Clie.

2) The second suggestion is to use a Java midlet directly from your
7210 to access email. Midlets are small programs which you can run on
your phone, and there are several available which let you read POP3
and IMAP email there and then. There are four free email midlets
located here:

http://midlet.org/jsp/category.jsp?parentLevel=223

There's also a mini-webbrowser here:

http://midlet.org/jsp/midlet.jsp;jsessionid=93xi6v7b41?midletId=116

Yet again, you may find this a less than perfect solution, but if you
do find that these midlets meet your needs, then you won't need to
purchase a PDA at all!

3) If neither of these solutions satisfy, you could look at PDAs not
currently on your wish list. The Compaq Pocket PC 3900 has infra red
and according to the discussion group linked to below, will support
your 7210. Please forgive the huge link!

http://groups.google.co.uk/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&threadm=sDYEBkaheGx9EARG%40wood2.org.uk&rnum=6&prev=/groups%3Fhl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8%26safe%3Doff%26q%3D7210%2Bconnectivity%26spell%3D1

I hope that helps you along in the decision making process. If
anything in this answer is unclear, or needs further explanation, then
please do not hesitate to request clarification before rating this
answer.

Good luck,

--seizer-ga

Search strategy:

7210 bluetooth
7210 connectivity
nokia tungsten compatibility
nokia clie compatibility
java pop3 nokia

Thanks for the answer. It sure helped me undestand my options. The
midlet thing looks like a good solution where none was hoped for.

Just FYI - Bluetooth is a short range RF commnication protocol, so
that your phone can send signals to, say, a wireless headset.  GPRS is
a packet-radio protocol designed to send data over radio waves for
long(er) distance communication, like cellular and PCS and GSM band
phones.

Bluetooth Information:
http://www.bluetooth.com/

All about GPRS on Mobile networks:
http://www.mobilegprs.com/default.asp