Note: This post is a draft. It will be modified with more content and details as Eric & I find time to enhance this post.
Cingular’s iTunes phone? Ha… its $149 with a 2 year agreement. I’ve been with Cingular 10 months and already can’t stand them. My Nokia 6230 was free after rebates with a 1 year agreement. The ROKR has a 512MB memory card, yet is software-restricted to 100 audio tracks. As of this writing, I have a 2GB memory card in my 6230 with 270 songs. Although the user interface on the 6230 isn’t elegent with this many tracks, it serves its purpose for me quite well. Well, except one thing: The Nokia 6230 does not have a standard 3.5mm stereo line-out jack. Well, we fixed that by modifing the HS-23 nokia stereo headset. (All pictures available here)
[PICTURE]
First, we started by prying off the “Nokia” emblem from the case. After we found out it used small screws to take the rest apart, we went to Fry’s Electronics and bought a headphone extension cord to reuse the plug & jack from, some heat-shrink, and a small screwdriver. Then we got the unit completely apart.
The first thing we did was attempt to hook an oscilloscope up to the IC in that chip to try and decode the signal Nokia uses to identify this as a stereo headset. You see, without this signal present, the phone will only recognize an attached headset enhancement as a mono headset — not something I want when listening to high-quality mp3’s in my car or home stereo.
[SCOPE CAPTURES?]
After looking at the very fast burst of communications that takes place immediately when the headset is connected, we determined that the efforts and equipment that would be involved in attempting to “decode” and/or replicate this signal are beyond spending $19.95 to buy the AD-15 Nokia Audio Adapter to get stereo output in a standard format.
So, Eric proceeded to remove the existing wires from the PCB going to the headphones, cut off the female end of the extension cable, and solder a short dongle in their place. Put some heatshrink tubing on that, snap the case back together, and we have a very professionally completed mod. If you didn’t tell someone what we did, and that person was not familiar with the HS-23, they would never know we touched it.
All I can say is that I’m very impressed with the sound quality that comes out of this phone. I now use my phone as an mp3 player in my car every time I drive. Best of all, since the HS-23 has a built in microphone, it converted my car stereo into a hands-free talk kit! When I get an incoming call, the phone automatically pauses the mp3 player and rings the phone. I then press the “Nokia” emblem on the HS-23 to answer a call (also activates voice dialing if I prefer). During the call, as long as I don’t hold my hand on the microphone, there is no feedback and the call is perfectly clear; even with the microphone sitting on the center console while driving on bumpy roads. When the call is terminated (by the other party hanging up or pressing the “Nokia” emblem again), the music automatically resumes where it left off. I must say, this is a life-saver for those of us who drive a stick.
A day after your post /. had an article about how Apple Sabotaged the ROKR.
I think the ROKR was a waste of a product. Crappy phone with limited digital music playback. Big Whoop.
The only advantage an iPod would have is the common integration into a [car] stereo and simple management.
As soon as the next firmware update is available I’m probably going to buy the AIC-100i. It allows full integration into the Prius audio system.
I noticed that … probably should have posted a link to this write-up on /. Oh well.
As long as Nokia keeps producing unlockable phones with powerful capabilities such as the Nokia 6230, it doesn’t matter to me… as long as they’re offered in the US Markets and not feature-crippled by the US service providers.
So far that I’ve seen, nearly every cell phone in the US market is severely restricted in some, cheap, stupid way. Wheteher it be too slow of a processor to make full use of its functions, not enough memory, or lack of connectivity (i.e. no infrared, restricted/no bluetooth, no data cable). It seems that the majority of phone providers are simply interested in locking in their customers who are otherwise completely clueless that the $200 phone they bought has had half of its features restricted.
I thought I heard that the ROKR won’t even let you set an iTunes song as your ringtone. Gotta love Marketing and the mass of stupid people who fall for it all the time. “Big Whoop”.
$369.99 for the AIC-100i??? What kind of electronics are in that thing to justify the high price? Or is it a result of lack of competition for such a full-featured device?
Whats to stop us from building our own?
The _list_ price is $369 but the creater of the device sells them during group buys for a little under $200.
Nothing is stopping us from making our own execpt time and knowledge.
All we would have to do is interface the AVLan in the Prius to the interface on the iPod.