Driving around while seemingly talking to an imaginary friend in the front seat is no longer strange, and in California, it's the law. But "hands-free" can still be painful for the other half of the conversation, and the ear you choose to clip a gadget onto. The Aura Mobile BT from Spracht is a Bluetooth conference phone that works just as well in the car as it does in your hotel room-turned-office. On a three-hour trek through northern California driving 80 mph in a noisy car, we tested whether it's worth the $129.99 price tag.

Few places are more materialistic than Las Vegas, with its grandiose hotels and stacks of cash. But at last week's CTIA (Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association) convention-which showcased several acres of upcoming cellphone and wireless technology-the focus was less on material goods than on what you can do with them. The exhibits boasted no gotta-get-it-now phone, but they did promise many ways to do more with the phone you already have. From file-sharing to postcard-making, the latest possibilities go far beyond mere talk.

It's a brave new wireless world, yet most portable-audio hounds are still tangled up in headphone cords. Soon, though, you'll have lots of wireless stereo headphones to choose from. The technology isn't brand new, but until recently it was too bulky and expensive to shove into the tiny, splurge-worthy gadgets we love. Expect to see three flavors of wireless earmuffs-Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and magnetic induction [see sidebar below]-rolling out between now and early next year.

1. Download a free program called FileZ from nosleep.net and install it on your Treo.

2. Download the patched BtManager.prc file from shadowmite.com and copy it to an SD card.

3. Remove the battery cover on your Treo and hit the reset button to do a soft reset.

4. Insert the SD card into the Treo and open FileZ. Navigate to the patched BtManager.prc file, choose “Copy” and select “Internal” as the destination.

5.

Dept.: Void Your Warranty
Tech: Treo dial-up
Cost: Free
Time: 10 minutes
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