With your cell phone. This tutorial will offer a few short friendly tips to help spice up your cell phone usage. Nothing revolutionary, but there are a few cool ideas of things you can do.

Today's tutorial is on how to create, purchase, and/or install ringtones onto your phone. Party on.

Oftentimes I think to myself: self, my PDA can do almost everything under the sun, short of doing my laundry. But there's one thing that I really wish it could do - change the channel. Okay okay, so I really don't care if my PDA can be a remote control, but there may be some of you out there who disagree with me. If you are not anti-remote control on the PDA, check this software out.

We welcome TV Remote Controller, a piece of software you can add to your Pocket PC. Third party developers have thought of everything under the sun. Cnet even rated this software 5 stars out of 5. Not too shabby!

While I'm in the whole bluetooth education mode, here is a PC Mag article on their favorite iPhone-compatible bluetooth headsets, complete with listings and linkage. Check them out.

Here are the upcoming AT&T phones. I will have some posts for the other carriers coming soon, and will update this list as I get more info.

LG CU575 trax - July
Moto RAZR2 V9 - July/August
Moto RAZR V3xx pink chrome - July
Moto RAZR V3xx red chrome - August
Moto RIZR Z9 (rumored) - unknown
Samsung A117 GoPhone - unknown
Samsung A517 - August
Nokia 6085 - July

Using wireless headsets aren't the only things you can do with Bluetooth. There's several "profiles" that can be utilized with the technology. With the knowledge of these profiles, you can discover all sorts of stuff you can do to make life better (disclaimer: unless you have Verizon). However, not every bluetooth phone has all these profiles. For example, some Samsung phones can use the earpiece, but can't transfer files.

1. Transfer files. Forget paying 25 cents to send a multimedia message to another phone right next to you. Instead, use the bluetooth link. Most bluetooth-capable phones, but not all, have a file transfer profile. You can transfer pictures, unlocked ringtones, and even address book entries. PDAs with the file transfer profile can transfer attachments, documents, and other large files. If your computer has bluetooth capability, you can easily transfer stuff to and from your phone as well.

2. Print stuff. Either from your phone or your computer, there are printers out there that can print off your favorite pictures or documents.

3. Keyboard. Tired of the tiny keys on your PDA? Some PDAs will have a bluetooth profile that enables you to use a wireless keyboard instead of trying to smash your fingers on the small buttons.

4. Use your phone as a modem. Crazy as it seems, once you add a full internet tethering package onto your phone account, you can take advantage of the bluetooth link to get internet on your laptop from your phone. This is great if you're travelling a lot for business and don't want to shell out the extra cash for a wireless PC card.

5. Listen to music through wireless speakers. 'Nuff said.

6. Use a GPS Navigation System. Most high-end phones and PDAs enable you to connect a bluetooth GPS receiver to your phone, thus allowing you to have an inexpensive car navigation system.

7. There's plenty of other things that bluetooth can do. Check out this wiki article which shows in detail all of the profiles that are out there.

I love Bluetooth devices. The technology is wonderful to have around, especially while driving. It frees both of your hands up to actually steer and/or shift gears, saves your neck from getting sore due to holding your phone to your head. Yet it has taken a while to catch on, which is a shame. Granted, in the state of Washington, Bluetooth is about to catch on REAL quick (see recent post on the ban on handheld devices in cars).

I figure now is as good a time as any to provide a tutorial on how bluetooth works, how to hook it up to your phone, and how to choose the right headset for you. This is a good starter for you. Once you find a bluetooth that works well for you, you'll be hooked.

The bluetooth technology can do other stuff as well, which I will cover in a later post.