Scarlett

I just received my RX 330 on Monday and absolutely LOVE it!!! I got as much as I could - NAV system, DVD entertainment center, and premium package. I would like to use the bluetooth system, however I am with verizon wireless and have been told by the delaer to stay away from the Motorola V10. I noticed that there is another bluetooth enabled system through verizon which is Blackberry 7250 (atleast through my work I can get this). Does anyone know if it would work with all the features? I used a friends phone in my car last night with the bluetooth system and absolutely loved it. I WANT it for my cell phone now too!!! Thank you!

thelarry

I'm getting ready to pick-up my '05 RX330 and have the same problem. I'm currently on Sprint, and have been waiting for my new car to switch to verizon, and get a bluetooth phone. Everything I've read (on many different sites) is that there is NO WAY a Verizon phone or Sprint will work with the system (although the letstalk.lexus site lists a Sprint phone). I spoke at a Radio Shack with a guy who seemed pretty knowledgable. He said that Verizon and Sprint phones are only enabled for hands free, not the text transfer (which makes most of the cool functions work). I'm really feeling like switching to T-mobile, or maybe Cigular just so I can use all of the Bluetooth functions. I know I'll be compromising service, etc. just for these cool parts, but I really want to have all of this versatility.

Anything you've heard that could help would be appreciated.

winsalem

this is just my $.02...your mileage may vary...

the RX330 phone storage system is not very flexible. you can enter a phone number manually to dial (as long as the car is not moving), but you can't store it permanently. unless i'm nuts, every stored number in the RX must be uploaded from a phone. similarly, you can't edit a stored number either. all you can do is delete it, edit it in your phone, and then send it again. so if you have a LOT of phone numbers you want to store in your RX, you may want to do a lot of research on which phone to pick.

i've been using a Nokia 6230 (Cingular) since november via bluetooth with my '05 330. this phone was a compromise situation. the nokia does not upload the entire phonebook at once, as do some phones (like sony ericsson). however, in my opinion the ericsson phones use a very clumsy and unintuitive interface compared to nokia; i use my cellphone more outside the car than inside, so i opted for the nokia interface. so altho' i must individually send each phone record to the RX (a royal pain in the butt), i'm glad i don't hafta deal with an ericsson.

[this decision was made last november; things may have changed since then, there may be many more phones out there which now allow you to load the entire phonebook. also, ericsson may have improved their interface.]

connectivity: when you get your bluetooth phone, make sure you have a return policy. cingular gave me two weeks to return the nokia (it was $150 and that's after a $50 rebate). every time you get in and start the car, the phone must synch with the car. sometimes it works on the first try, sometimes it does not. eventually my nokia always synchs up to the RX, but this is not a perfect arrangement and you should be aware of same.

i trust that lexus will eventually improve the phone system; at present, it is elementary and crude. it does work, so that's something at least.

and if anybody out there has figured out how to manually load, store, and/or edit a phone record in the RX, please please let me know. i'm a programmer, and sometimes i overlook simple stuff as i try to manipulate equipment.

jazzsax

Verizon supposedly released new firmware out for the v710 today. I haven't flashed mine, but it does seem to have a possibility that it will work better with my RX330. The two main features I need are the ability to upload the phonebook and have it ring when a call comes in.

Hopefully we can get more info soon. I might be able to run down there tomorrow.

jayskinner

I have a Sprint Treo 650 and the Bluetooth works fine. I also transferred my phone book to the car with no problem. The cool thing is that Sprint has SprintPCS Voice Command. Now I just touch the steering wheel control, touch the first 1-touch button which is programmed to dial a * , then the SprintPCS Voice Command answers with "Ready." I say "call so and so on the mobile phone," the system says "call so and so on the mobile phone, correct." I say yes, and Voila, so and so's cell phone rings. Almost complete hands-free with voice dialing!!

frebay

anyone know how call-waiting works for bluetooth? i can't figure out how to transfer calls.

thelarry

Jazzsax...

Did you have any luck with the V710 upgrade? I'm still trying to decide what to do. Also...I went to Let's Talk for Lexus a few times over the past few days, and the RX isn't even listed anymore. Anyone know what's up?

jazzsax

No, I haven't, though a co-worker (who lives in another state) had it done Wednesday. He has a BMW though so no real help on whether or not it works better with the Lexus. One thing he mentioned was that he didn't see any way to push out the phone book so I'm a little worried about that. He didn't see an obvious menu command on the phone to send the book or entry out. But he just did a quick look for this, so I'm not saying it won't work.

And iSync (on the Mac) doesn't work any better, but that was sort of expected.

HowardForums is saying they pulled the release back, so I suppose I'm not even going to try to go down there until they say they have it in (again).

thelarry

Thanks for the quick reply. I've seen numerous posts saying that they are going to come out with an update/fix for the v710, but so many of these posts are so old that I feel like Verizon/Motorola are really just full of it...

Keep us all posted!

asolare

After all this, I'm sorry to report the grim result. The positives are the new firmware will allow you to see the signal strength and analog/digital indicator on the touch screen in the car and will also let you hear the v710 ring when a call is received while in the vehicle. The GIGANTIC negative, however, is the v710, even after flashing, cannot upload it's phonebook to the car, not in its entirety and not even one number at a time. This is absolutely unacceptable and both Lexus and Verizon deserve a great deal of criticism for this. For those who want to blame Verizon alone I wish to point out that this new flash does make it possible to upload a v710 phonebook into a BMW and I believe into the Mercedes system as well. It is therefore obvious that the particular way Lexus chose to implement bluetooth shares part of the blame.

I believe the ability to one-touch dial the phone while the car is in motion is a critical safety feature and Lexus is responsible for failing miserably in providing that feature to any of its customers who subscribe to the nation's largest wireless provider, Verizon. It's quite ironic that the Lexus legal brain trust has made it necessary for the drivers of its cars with navigation systems, every time they start their vehicles, to read an obnoxious warning about how unsafe it is to look at the navigation screen while driving and then forces them to press a button to clear that warning, but they totally ignore the infinitely greater danger of being forced to place calls by attempting to dial one's cellphone while driving rather than being able to push one pre-programmed button.

billy44bo

that last part aboutEveryone should cut it and email it to Lexus and they might get an ideal what we the owners actually want our cars to be able to do with Bluetooth. Because what we have now is as it was back in the days of DOS 1.0 a 20 MB HD and 64k of RAM that IBM said that was all any one would ever need on a pc.

jayskinner

Transfering your phone book and one-touch dialing are two separate issues. Even if you could transfer the phone book, you still have to program the 1-touch buttons, and you only have so many of those. But my point is that you muddle the issue of not being able to transfer your phone book by mentioning 1-touch in the closing paragraph.

jazzsax

Well I'm now confused on the one-touch dialing comment. What exactly was that supposed to mean?

jayskinner

Go re-read the post from asolare. The V710 won't transfer phone numbers from the phone's phone book to the car's phone book. That's the issue.

Once you have numbers in the car, regardless of how they got there, you can program 3 sets of 6 1-touch buttons. Lexus didn't fail miserably in offering 1-touch dialing. It's there, it works like a champ, and you have to spend a few minutes programming each button.

For asolare, what they failed at was the ability to transfer numbers from the phone's phonebook to the car's phonebook with just a couple of button pushes. 1-touch has nothing to do with it.

asolare

Thanks jayskinner, that's exactly my point.