Category: tech

I went shopping for a decent cordless phone. But happily I ended up with a great deal more!

Until recently I was not aware that some cordless phones offer Bluetooth connectivity. That means you can answer a call on your cordless phone no matter whether it’s coming in on your landline or your cellular line. This isn’t a common feature, but I have discovered it’s well worth looking for.

After a little shopping around I found a handful of phones that offered this feature. Most of these phones included answering systems, DECT 6.0 technology and came with two or three additional handsets. I read reviews and researched cordless phones with Bluetooth made by Panasonic, V-Tech and AT&T. The units from V-Tech received the highest marks for quality, ease of use and reliability. I have owned their products in the past so I was already familiar with their reputation.

After some deliberation I ordered the VTech DS6321 model with three handsets.

I unboxed the set, read through the quick start and installed the batteries. My initial impression was very favorable. The handsets have a nice feel. The answering system is digital, which is pretty common nowadays, and the sound quality of incoming messages is very good. Optional ringtones can be selected for each of the handsets and an intercom feature means an end to the cross-house screaming sessions. The system is expandable up to 12 handsets.

The 6321 will “pair” two cell phones. It took about 10 minutes to set it all up and go through the pairing process (a one-time event) with both of our phones. The clarity is very good, better than using my cell phone directly. Range for the Bluetooth is about 30 feet, which I find quite acceptable. Now whenever we’re home we just sit our cell phones on the counter near the base unit of our new cordless phone set. After a few seconds it will connect so that any cell calls can be answered using one of the VTech handsets. You can also add two Bluetooth headsets into the mix, but I haven’t tried that yet.

I’ve been using the new VTech for about a month now and we love it. Be aware that you will want to adjust your cell’s voice mail feature to coordinate with the answering machine. But it’s a simple matter of setting the preferred number of rings. It’s also worth mentioning that a landline is not required!

My wife and I each have cell phones and both are paired with the cordless phone now. When a cell call comes in we just pick up the closest phone- I actually prefer talking on the cordless now!

I recently ordered a new LG600G cell phone and was quite happy with it. Until I snapped a photo and tried to send it.

Turned out I could no longer send or receive emails as I had done with my old Tracfone. Of course my minutes were still deducted as if I had sent a message! Calls to technical support were pretty frustrating and ended with a promised update that might take “up to 72 hours to arrive.” Not surprisingly it never arrived.

Get an LG 600G phone for $19.99 and receive double minutes for life!

After digging into the problem a little more I discovered that my phone was on T-Mobile network. That explained why I wasn’t receiving any emails- my old Tracfone was on the Cingular network and used an ATT.net domain. When I sent a message to [email protected] it arrived almost instantly.

A little more research and I came across this blog post about sending mail through an SMS gateway use 36245. That spells “email” for you non-texters like me. I tried it and still couldn’t send- but when I tried 500 outbound email worked. Fortunately that lengthy and arcane procedure is not necessary for this phone. The LG has an Email Gateway setting in the menu. Here’s how to navigate to that setting:
Menu > Messages > Message Settings > Text Message > Email Gateway

Whew.
Once I entered 500 here my phone was able to send email text messages. MMS messages still don’t work but hopefully this information will help other frustrated Tracfone owners!