REAL-WORLD PDA / Bluetooth Compatibility
 

I was hoping to wait until my car arrives to replace my aging PDA cell phone, but the PDA had different plans. I've read various posts about people having issues with their phone not pairing, or pairing but not allowing certain features (mostly address book downloads). Then I've read other posts saying check out the MBUSA website about compatible phones. But others say that this list is not entirely accurate and may not be current. So, I'm seeking some real-world advice from PDA users.

I need a PDA - no way to get around that. From the MBUSA website, it appears that no PDA is 100% compatible with all W204 Bluetooth features. But since there are PDAs being sold that are not on that list, have any of you found any PDAs that will at least allow the address-book download - and hopefully most if not all other features? And as stated before, I'm aware of the MBUSA list - but cellphone technology and models change daily. I'm hoping to find out that maybe there is some new PDA out there that does it all (yes, I'll wake up from my dream state soon).

For the first time, I saw and used an iPhone this week. I'm in love with it, but it appears that there's no way to get the address book to download. Even the Apple Store sales people knew about this - but said that, should I get a BMW, the address book will fully download. AARRRGGGHHH. I've long said that the perfect car will be built when we can get MB and BMW to take their best technologies and put them together into one car (...but who would agree on what technology would be the best? Closing the can of worms now).

Thank you for any real-world advice you might be able to provide. Only about 45 days and counting until the C350 arrives!!!

I have a treo 750 cingular / att service......anyone know or tried if it's compatible???

Bluetooth calling wise, I've tried a few phones namely

Razr V3
Razr V9
RIZR
KRZR
Tmobile Dash and Wing

All works but requires you to use the phone's bluetooth settings menu to pair with the car. The car's UI does not work too well with many phones.

Phonebook however is the thing I haven't found out how to export yet.

The people at the apple store are correct.

You can get the MB to pair with the Iphone but address book is a no go. I have heard rumblings of an MB update from my dealer on a sync with the Iphone address book soon.

I have also used the Blackberry Curve and have the same problem.

As of now it appears all PDA's have some MB bluetooth limitations.

Also found that with the cars PCMCIA slot you can import your address book.

Not as easy as bluetooth through the phone but should work.

[QUOTE=pcb;2464956]Also found that with the cars PCMCIA slot you can import your address book.QUOTE]

Can you please elaborate on how to do that? Thanks.

Gater,

I am not sure how you do the hard disk address import. Was told that by dealer and read online but don't have step by steps.

However dealer should.

If I find out more I will hit you back.

I decided to do a little research. I found the following on www.brucegarrett.com/bruceblog (popped up in a Google search). I cannot test it out, as my car is not here yet, but maybe someone can verify this and see if we possibly have a solution!

The Mercedes Experience - vCards and Phone Books

According to the documentation, my new Mercedes c300 will read in vCards from a Bluetooth enabled cell phone. That's really handy, except my iPhone doesn't do vCards. That's just one of many common smart phone features Apple mysteriously decided to re-invent the telephone without. However, the Mac address book application does do vCards, and the Mercedes has a PCMCIA card reader slot in the dash, from which it can also import vCards (it can also be used to play MP3 files and update the Nav system maps). So I figured all I needed to do was export my address book entries from one of my Macs, onto a PCMCIA card, then put the card in the Mercedes and import them into the car's address book.

Back in the day, PCMCIA cards were how you expanded a laptop. Nowadays laptops come with just everything you'd want built-in, but I had on hand several old PCMCIA cards, including modems and Ethernet adapters, that I'd bought for laptops I'd previously owned. But I had no PCMCIA memory card. So I went looking for one online. They're not exactly hot selling items anymore. I saw very few and those had very little memory on them by today's standards. They also cost far more then the Compact Flash cards I use in my digital cameras. But lo and behold, there were PCMCIA Compact Flash card readers available for sale cheap. I could buy one of those, and pop one of my flash cards into it, and that had the extra added advantage that I already had a USB Compact Flash card reader.

I bought one from B&H Photo, who I've made a lot of online purchases from, for about ten bucks. It came in the mail today, and right away I put my plan to work. I connected my USB flash card reader to Akela, my Mac Powerbook, and exported a few selected entries from Akela's address book onto vCards onto one of my Compact Flash cards. Thanks to my .Mac account, all the address books on my Apple computers plus my iPhone sync with each other, so Akela had the same address book list that my iPhone did.

Then I put the flash card into the PCMCIA card reader and took it out to the Mercedes. You activate the Command-Nav system and bring up the Phone menu, and then work your way into the Phone's address book where you eventually find a menu item that's normally grayed out, for importing vCards from a memory card. Once I popped the PCMCIA card in the slot in the dashboard that menu item came to life and I clicked on it. A little timer icon came up, and pretty quickly I got a message saying the import process had completed successfully.

Well...not. Most of the address book entries were malformatted. Some wouldn't even come up when I clicked on them, but only displayed a “Function Not Available” message. I figured the Apple vCard format was different enough somehow from the standard, that the Mercedes software wasn't able to cope. So I went back and tried exporting the vCards again, but this time from the Palm Pilot software I still had installed on Akela.

Once again I selected a few entries in the address book...only the ones I figured I'd want to call while on the road. This would be mostly immediate friends and family. I figured once I had the process down, I could add entries later as needed. Once again I copied the exported vCards to my Compact Flash card via the USB card reader, then popped the flash card into the PCMCIA card reader and walked it back out to the car.

I did the import and was horrified to see that the damn Palm Pilot software had exported not just the address book entries I'd highlighted, but Everything in that address book. Every phone number and contact I'd ever acquired in the last fifteen years or so. The Mercedes phone book was a complete mess now, though at least the entries seemed to be properly formatted. But it was too much. And I discovered then, that there was no way to delete a bunch of records from it all at one time. I had to go through each individual entry and manually delete it.

After about the first thirty I got frustrated enough that I started looking around for a way to just blow away the whole address book and start over. I found a “Reset” command under the “System” menu and gave that a shot. It promptly warned me that I was about to erase all my data and I figured that since I'd only had the car a few days, I didn't have enough of my own data on it to worry about having to rebuild everything. It deleted everything, including all my radio presets and my Nav map customizations. But thankfully it didn't delete the Bluetooth setup with my iPhone, so I didn't have to go through that process again. And it didn't delete the Gracenote database entries it had found for the CDs I had in the changer.

I spent a couple minutes redoing my radio presets and my Nav map settings, and making sure my iPhone was still talking to the car. Then I went back inside and sat down with Akela and looked at the preference settings for the Apple address book application. My theory at that point was that maybe the photos I'd attached to some of the entries in my iPhone contact list were getting into the vCards and confusing the import software on the Mercedes. So I looked around for a setting that allowed me to specify which fields in the address book I wanted included in a vCard. There wasn't one of those, but there was a setting to choose between exporting a 3.0 vCard or a 2.1 vCard. I decided to give the older 2.1 format a try.

I redid the export, and walked the card back out to the Mercedes. It worked. The import went without a hitch, and all the phone entries were now correctly formatted.

That task finally finished, I flipped over to the Nav system to see if it got all the addresses. That was when I discovered that the car's phone book, and the Nav system address book, were two entirely different entities. I could import vCards into the phone book, but the Nav system required you to manually enter every destination you wanted to save, and it offered no way to link those to the phone book entries.

I suspect that's because the Nav book has its own database of city and street names that it uses to compute directions. Whenever you enter a destination into the Nav system, you go through a series of menus that drill you down to the street address. So for instance, to get to my workplace, The Space Telescope Science Institute, which is at 3700 San Martin Drive in Baltimore, first I select my state, “Maryland” from a pulldown menu that lists all the states in the U.S. Actually, Maryland comes helpfully pre-filled in the state field, I assume because the Nav system knows I'm in Maryland. Once I've selected my state, select “Baltimore”, again from a menu that lists all the named cities and towns in Maryland. When I've done that, I can go to another menu that lists all the named roadways in the city of Baltimore and select “San Martin Drive”. You'd think that having done that, I could simply enter the street address using the numeric keypad on the dashboard. Nope. The system gives me another menu, with all the valid numbers for that street. I can't enter 23 San Martin Drive, because there is no such address on San Martin Drive in Baltimore, Maryland. But theoretically I could have a vCard with that wrong address on it, or a misspelled street name, and the Nav system wouldn't know what to do with it.

But still, it would be nice to at least be able to link the phone number in the Phone book, with a physical destination in the Nav system, even if you had to enter that one in manually using the Nav system's built-in street maps. The software engineer in me doesn't much like the idea of having redundant information in a database. There should only be one contact list, that both the phone system and the Nav system use. I can accept not being able to import addresses from vCards into the Nav system, but at least I should be able to link a Nav system destination address with a name and phone number entry in the phone book.

But at least I got all my critical phone numbers copied over. I'll add the addresses into the Nav system as I need to. Hopefully Apple will add vCard functionality to its re-invention of the telephone and then all I'll have to do is sit in the car with my iPhone and send updated vCards to the Mercedes' phone book via the Bluetooth connection.

So if anyone wants to try this out, let us all know if it really works!

I believe there is a method for downloading phone book contents by taking the phone's sim card and installing it directly into the MM system.

I'm hoping so anyway, I've got a Treo 700wx (Sprint) and have been told that it probably doesn't work yet, but may soon.

I've found that the BlackBerry 8800 and iPhone work flawlessly. However, only the BlackBerry can send it's phonebook. I would never consider either of these a "PDA", but if you need a phone that also stores contacts, calendars, and notes, both are probably the best options out there right now (of course with their individual shortcomings).

Anyone try an HTC Tytn (Cingular 8525) ?

Palm 680?
 

Has anyone been able to connect a Palm phone with the MB bluetooth yet?
I've tried 62872 as the code between the car and the phone, but that didn't work.
does anyone have any ideas?
jp.

Moto Q and Blackberry Pearl
 

Have both of these up and running in my C300, I selected the entry's from the Q's contact list and imported flawlessly, once they were inserted into the MB phonebook I could access any of the entries regardless of which phone I have paired at the time, was painless and works quite well.

The only "PDA" Phone that has 100% functionality, including vcards is the MotoQ.

I personally, have a Blackberry Curve (8300) and it utilizes all features except vcard transfer. I get around that with the multimedia card.

I don't know why MB decided to leave this out cuz I am able to have dynamic vcard transfer in my Audi A4.

Search the forum. I have listed numerous way to get your address book from iPhone into the car.

Do you have the MM package?

If so, you can copy vcard to the memory card and copy to phonebook.

You can connect a laptop via bluetooth and transfer or put your sim card in a razor for instance and transfer.

As far as the MB website, forget it. I am using an iPhone and a Nextel phone and I can also direct connect through the stereo and MB said no Nextel phone would work. It does and works fine.

www.jetwaremobile.com

well worth the $13 bucks...

Sounds great - reality doesn't seem to bear this out though
 

I spent all day searching for a PCMCIA card - Circuit City, Radio Shack, Best Buy, Amazon.com ... seems to be "out of stock" everywhere I go. I did find one in Japan (literally - they'd have to ship it).

So - I got all excited by the above - cause all I want is my address book - so I figured I'd pair my laptop to the MB and send the vcard file that way - but the car absolutely refuses to "see" my macbook pro, my XP Windows machine, or my Macbook running Tiger. It only seems to find phones - not laptops.

I did confirm that its supposed to be able to do so - from the manual - but no instructions as to "how" to get this to work.

I called my service rep - but he doesn't seem to know either....

PCMCIA Cards are no longer available - anywhere
 

I have gone to all the above listed stores in both Miami, Fl and NYC (today). These cards appear to no longer be made. I do feel as though I've been scammed by Mercedes - the car is less than a week old and the features which sold me on the upgraded MM system simply do not work. I cannot bluetooth to it, I cannot get my phone contacts in it, and I cannot purchase a PCMCIA card for the car. This is plain silly.

Treo 680
 

I just bought a c300 the other day..Have had my palm treo 680 for over a year...bluetooth with c300 works great. able to send my contacts to the car, caller id works for those contacts as well as all numbers for that one contact. I have to do one contact at a time, but that's a limitation of my phone (or i don't know how to do it).

phone
 

isn't there a pcmiac card adapter that can fit a compact flash, micro flash, or secure digital card. Also I have a Krzr Motorola and it works but I always get compliants of a big echo when I talk to people. I don't get it on my end, but they hear an echo. Is this common or could it be my model of phone.

Blackberry vCard Transfer via Bluetooth to Mercedes MB Phone System
 

For Blackberry users: To transfer your Address book, connect it to the MB phone system (i got a C300 with Audio 20). Then set it up to receive vCards. On your Blackberry (e.g. 8100) go to Bluetooth setup and then to the properties of the MB phone system. In the menu you will have the option "Transfer Address Book".

With my configuration it worked perfectly. 300 Entries in 10 Seconds or so.
Kai.

my dealer seems to think that getting an additional bluetooth cradle (like the A204 820 06 35) will allow you to access the phone's address book (ala what my current BMW does) but did not have one in stock to demo ... anyone confirm or deny such functionality?

PCMCIA memory, bluetooth and PDAs (contacts list)
 

Sandisk makes a line of PCMCIA memory adapters. These things accept all sorts of very common memory devices (SD cards and the like). You can find these online all over the place for around $20-$30. Buy your SD (or other kinds of cards) oniine too, since places like Best Buy will charge you insane prices for them. Search these forums for more info on the PCMCIA card adapter is in other posts. There are specific recommendations for adapters galore in here.

I have a Verizon XV6800 aka an HTC Mogul. It runs Windows Mobile 6.1. Bluetooth syncs just fine, although call quality is often sketchy. Common complaints from others seem to center around the handsfree system "cutting me off" when there is other noise in the car (a high fan speed on Auto, for instance). Although the initial pairing took a few minutes (oddly, you have to put in your OWN pairing code in the COMAND system, one isn't automatically generated by either the phone or COMAND for this), my phone now pairs instantly without issue.

Lastly... contacts list transfer. My dealer originally told me that if my phone was capable of this sync transfer, it would happen automatically. He also said there were few phones that could do this. I resigned myself to the fact this wasn't possible since upon successful BT pairing, none of my contacts transferred. Turns out my dealer was a technoclod.

Earlier posts are correct, you need vCard format. In Windows Mobile, this option exists natively. In any event, you can do it, just not "automatically." Now, I didn't want all 350 or so of my contacts ending up in my car anyhow.... I don't need every client of mine to be part of my COMAND system. I found that with my phone paired with COMAND, I could use the Menu|Send Contact|Beam feature when displaying an individual contact record to push individual vCards (family, friends) to COMAND one by one. Sure, it took a few minutes to do this, but it's a one-time thing. No crazy exports of data between multiple pieces of software to memory cards necessary.

Hope that helps!

can you explain more
cause i put in my PCMCIA card
my SD card
and it doesn't seems to brighten the IMPORT from EXTERNAL blahblah
is dim and i can't select it
please help

I have a new 2011 C300 Luxury with the Audio 20, no nav. The dealer added my Verizon LG VX8360 contact list very quickly, too fast to notice the process. But I would like to add other individual telephone numbers using the keyboard. Is that possible without interfacing via the phone?