Oh how I wish the US spec model had built in Bluetooth.  I use BT on an almost dailiy basis and I hate using a dongle/card.  It’s just not fair!  :evil:

I have the same feeling. It simply doesn’t make a lot of sense not to include Bluetooth despite the fact that many other Sony products sold in the US have Bluetooth abilities. It seems shortsighted of Sony considering it really doesn’t cost much to add it to the system. I suspect they also removed it for pricing issues and for FCC issues.

The pricing issue is to keep the TR price competitive with other systems while the FCC issues has to do with getting the Bluetooth abilities of the TR certified for use in the US (which is strict for some reason).

I use my dongle kind of often as well and needing a dongle is a bit annoying at times. I’d like to see Sony release a low profile Bluetooth PC card that has the same slim antenna that the their Wireless 802.11G PC Card adapter has. That way, it won’t be so noticeable and you can still easily pack the unit.

I’ll second that. I use my TR when commuting on the train or when I’m out on the town and I need to hit work or the web for some reason. I connect to the Net via my trusty SE T610 through Bluetooth. I also sync my Clie using BT. It can’t cost that much to put BT in the US TRs. The BT chipset itself is about $5 in parts, IIRC the chipset Sony is using has a blanket approval by the FCC and there wouldn’t be signficant R&D costs because the chip is in the Japanese and the Euro versions of the machine.

While we’re complaining, I want to see a TR with the Japanese 802.11b/a/g WiFI chipset too! I’d hate to think that Intel’s marketing money was standing in the way of better wireless.