Using BitPim with my cell phone
I bought a new cell phone after deliberating for a month on which one to buy from Verizon Wireless. I finally decided that the The LG VX8600 suit my fancy. It’s the flip version of the Chocolate and is ultra-slim, has bluetooth, can hold up to 2GB of mp3s, pictures, games and videos. I wanted to sync Address Book, iCal, and various media to my new cellphone via USB or Bluetooth.
My research into how compatible the LG VX8600 was with my MacBook Pro was a bumpy road indeed. I had two different Verizon representatives tell me the phone could not communicate with a Mac via Bluetooth, LG announced that they would no longer support OS X.
I managed to find a fledgling beta of an Application called BitPim. BitPim is an ugly looking application for Windows, Linux, and OS X that allows communication between a computer and CDMA cell phone. I can browse and edit most of the features of the phone, including the “PhoneBook, Calendar, WallPapers, RingTones (functionality varies by phone) and the Filesystem.” BitPim has great potential though.
I check BitPim’s phone list for compatibility and the VX8600 made the cut! So, naturally I downloaded the newest version v0.9.13 that came in a .dmg called bitpim0_9_13_TIGER_PPC.dmg. This worried me, since I am running OS X on an Intel Mac, not PowerPC. The icon for BitPim is a pretty pink flower. The program crashed a lot. I think BitPim is having some problems making Mac installations lately. So, I had this moment of horror thinking I may have to wait it out for another release of BitPim for a fix.
Appleology.com has a wonderful Step by Step Tutorial about how to establish a connection between a bluetooth phone and BitPim. Follow these instructions and read the comments on this site for guidance.
Appleology.com also has a build of BitPim v0.9.11 which is the stablest version on my 2 GHz MacBook Pro Core Duo. It looks nicer too.
I have been using BitPim for a few days now and discovered a few things about connecting my new LG phone to my MacBook Pro.
BitPim always wants to convert MP3s to a lower bitrate and sampling rate. But there is no batch convert and it is a daunting process to convert each MP3 individually, click three buttons, wait in between them, and then have a message window pop up saying my MP3 may be too big for my 2GB MicroSD card in my phone?!?
In BitPim, if I choose the Filesystem instead of My Music, I can actually browse the files on my phone while it is connected. I can even transfer files into those folders, including MP3s. BitPim doesn’t attempt to convert here.
So, to bypass the conversion process I do it in another program outside of BitPim because I want to cram as many songs into my phone as possible and since I am transferring over Bluetooth, which is dreadfully slow, smaller files will transfer faster. And when I mean slow, I mean at least a hour and a half for an album encoded at 128 kbps. Bluetooth connectivity seems spotty on my MacBook Pro. I notice placing the phone a few feet away from the computer works best.
To transfer files to the MicroSD card in my phone faster, I can buy an SD adapter and USB SD Card Reader. I had a reader, but those damn things are so small that I loose them. So I am stuck with the bluetooth to transfer, which is ok when syncing my calendar, contacts, and even ringers. But when sending 2GB worth of MP3s… now that’s an overnight job.
So, I open up iTunes and make a playlist of all the MP3s I want on my phone and I select all of them, Ctrl+Click and Select Convert Selection to MP3 from the menu. Now, what iTunes does is make duplicate files of the MP3s at a lower kpbs setting (you must set this in iTunes Preferences under the Advanced Tab). It also makes new MP3s, in the respective directories of my iTunes library.
This is a complete mess, so I think I will try to find a different Batch MP3 converter to make things faster and more efficient. Hopefully I will be able to save all converted MP3s to a single folder.