REVIEW COMMENTS: Qubit PDA Sound System Review

Darren · Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2004 4:43 pm Post subject:

Not a problem, just wanted to alert all to this useful feature. ALl we need to do no is clarify the supply situation, I have emailed my contact at Qubit and am awaiting a response.
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Darren Griffin

Montmorency · Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2004 2:04 pm Post subject: Too many wires

OK this should probably go into a "wish list" somewhere - but at the risk provoking much anger here goes:

Here we are doing our utmost to get rid of the wires in our portable environment - so we buy a bluetooth GPS and connect it to our bluetooth enabled PDA. Great.

But then we can't hear the PDA in the car - so what do we do? we connect some more cables and an amp and more power cables and and and... Arrrrgh!!!!

But hold on - isn't that a bluetooth enabled amplifier already installed and connected to the ICE to mute the radio and have the sound comming out of the speakers for our handsfree mobile 'phone set-up?

Yeah, yeah, I know (suspect) that most PDA bluetooth implementaions don't support a Headset or Handsfree Bluetooth profile - but why not? Lets loose some more wires!
And while we are about it why not keep the PDA powered though an inductive coupling and get rid of the power cable... OK, OK, I'm rambling - but how about it PDA manufactures?

With appologies if this topic has been posted elsewhere on the fora (forums?) already.

Chris. Confused

swing · Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2004 3:14 pm Post subject:

Maybe it's just me and I'm missing something obvious, but I can't see how much this costs (in the review - neither the manufacturer nor the UK distributor seem to have updated their websites to even mention this new product)

Steve

swing · Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2004 3:18 pm Post subject:

Also be interested to see a comparison between it and this...

http://www.seidio-europe.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=BD-SMGF1

Darren · Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2004 3:23 pm Post subject:

Cessquill · Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2004 3:34 pm Post subject:

Like the look of it, but was also interested in the price. Went to UK distributor - not on their site. Went to QuBit, product only listed once on their site in the Downloads Area (not products). Hmm.

Agree that there should be a bluetooth amp/speaker, but then that would come in handy anyhow. Or some clever profile to let the PDA interact with an existing bluetooth headset/car kit.

It's a shame that the iPaq can connect to a desktop PC and transfer no end of data, but nobody's figured out a way of piping sound down the serial cable (be it direct, or via some method of encoding)...
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What's going on? Where am I?

kartracer · Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2004 3:04 am Post subject: Re: Too many wires

kartracer · Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2004 12:29 pm Post subject:

Out of curiosity I just tried this in the car with the Parrot Driveblue and it worked just fine. This is not much use to me though, as it would prevent me receiving calls on the phone.

Kam

Darren · Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2004 1:05 pm Post subject:

I have just received an email from Thomas at Qubit. Following the comments raised in the review they will be supplying a speaker with a longer lead and in addition they will include the 3.5mm to 2.5mm headphone lead for those users whose PDA's have a 2.5mm socket at no extra cost :D

They have also spoken with Nemesis about the reseller confusion. Nemesis should have stock of these units next week.
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Darren Griffin

Montmorency · Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2004 4:11 pm Post subject:

Hamish · Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2004 6:01 pm Post subject:

Partly on my recommendation, my boss recently bought an iPAQ 5550 and TomTom2. Suffering as he does from tinnitus(sp?), he cannot hear the measly voice commands from the iPAQ (he had heard my iPAQ 3950 before the purchase, and had been very satisfied, and neither of us imagined a new model a year later would have poorer features).

Anyway, my point is that clever old HP/Compaq have put the headphone socket on the 5550 on the bottom of the unit - which of course is nestling safely in the cradle through which the power and GPS receiver signals are passing, attached to the dashboard.

D'oh!
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Hamish Walker

kartracer · Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2004 6:15 pm Post subject:

Darren · Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2004 6:31 pm Post subject:

What cradle are you using? Certainly the Brodit cradles permit access to the headphone socket on 55xx series units when 'docled'.
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Darren Griffin

Cessquill · Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2004 10:42 am Post subject:

kartracer - now that is cool. Like you say, since the headset can only pair with one simultaneous device, it's largely redundany - unless you fancy wearing two bluetooth headsets! It's a start though.

The iPaq can handle more than one bluetooth device at a time - With my old mobile I used to run TomTom with a BT-GPS and Running Voice phone software with my Bluetooth T68. Both worked fine with no loss in quality either side.
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What's going on? Where am I?

Hamish · Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2004 3:12 pm Post subject:

Hi Darren,

TomTom have changed the contents of the iPAQ version of the kit shown in your review.

Now, the power cable and the lead from the GPS aerial/receiver both plug into the cradle, in which the iPAQ sits on top of built-in connections sticking up inside it - a much better design as there are no cables hanging dangerously directly out the base of the PDA.

But, of course, it makes the headphone socket inaccessible...
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Hamish Walker

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