Blackberry

Does anyone have one? Are they cool?

[Bob_Trotta]

I'm thinking of getting a Blackberry PDA? What are people's thoughts and experiences? Good, bad indifferent?

Bob Trotta

[pmkpmk]

Ask Paris Hilton [tabloidcolumn.com]. She has one. I doubt though that she's too happy with it right now :-)

[cfcoder]

Actually she has a Sidekick. BlackBerry's are great. Quite a robust enterprise solution.

[reddevil]

I have also heard many comments about the Blackberry being solid. I also heard it was Americanised, whatever that means?

Does anybody have one, or have held one, or know of anybody who has one?

[The_Hat]

I work for a pretty large communications company and most/all of the high up market managers, consultants, administrators etc. have one. To me they just look like another way enabling you to work 24/7. Good thing/bad thing? Depends on where you are and were you want to go I suppose.

[reddevil]

The_Hat,

Are you in USA?

[The_Hat]

reddevil,
yes i am in the USA

[reddevil]

I suppose this would be a silly question then - but do you have any idea why non-American people would describe a Blackberry as an Americanized item? the only thing I can think of is if the dictionary has americanized words, but that would be easy to change, right?

I am looking for the cheapest Blackberry that has a qwerty keyboard and is capable of e-mail function.

[The_Hat]

Well the only thing I could think of would be (an these are just possibilities, I have no idea about blackberries)maybe that it is all set up (permanently) for $dollars, and all American type measurements. maybe they are set up for American voltage/amperage.

Pretty hard for me (an American) to think how non-American might interpret something as prosaic as a PDA. I did check out the flash product demos on blackberry.com, pretty neat.

[reddevil]

Thanks.

I will be vacationing/holidaying in the UK next week and will check out some of the malls/shops there - if they sell them that is?

have a good day/cheers

[christopher w]

I have a Blackberry and I love it. Great phone, great email system, great for IM, etc.

Not sure why someone would describe it as Americanized, especially when the company that makes them (RIM) is Canadian and doesn't even have an office in the US (but they do have one in the UK)...

[reddevil]

Wow, sounds great, just what I am looking for.

Any idea how much the lowset price Blackberry would be with a qwerty keyboard? I am going to the UK next week and will look around but thought it might be cheaper to buy in the US?

[christopher w]

You know what - buy one on ebay - don't buy from the dealer (like I did) - it will save you a lot...

[bakedjake]

I have a 7290 (GSM quad band worldphone). I absolutely love it.

100% perfect synchronization with my Outlook. Get a bluetooth headset for it - well worth the $100 for the rechargable Motorola.

[Kirby]

I didnt like the push email. The Treo equipped with snapper allows me to pull any of my pop3 accounts. Any hope of blackberry changing this in the near future?

[bakedjake]

push

That's the #1 reason they're so popular.

That said, I think you're confusing the technology with functionality. I have 10 email addresses being pushed to my BB.

[christopher w]

Yeah - the "push" is the "key" to BlackBerry.

What don't you like about this feature?

[Tempufugit]

Perhaps the Americanisation could be that it is "Made in Canada - eh?"

We do speak Approximately the same language!

By the way - they are extremely popular here in Canada and most of my business associates have them, they have almost become a corporate standard here. Yesterday it was having a company laptop - today it is a company Blackberry.

TsF

[jimbeetle]

I've been using a Blackberry for about 8 months or so. I ditched the phone service because even with an earbud and mike the quality was really, really poor, and without them I felt I was talking into a ping pong paddle.

The biggest drawback is the signal strength. Whenever I have a meeting inside a halfway well-built Manhattan office building or hotel I find I have to be somewhere near a window to send or receive.

It suits my purposes for now, maybe in the next year or two when I feel I've gotten my investment back from this I'll investigate other PDAs.

[swoop]

I like the Outlook calendar and contacts synchronization of my Blackberry. The email is OK, but it is difficult to type on the keyboard and all outgoing mail is plain text (no bold, italic, etc.)

The web browser is clumsy.

I wish the thing had a stylus option, like a PDA. You have to click click click to get anything done.

A couple of years ago they were known informally as "crackberries," dut to their addictiveness to the early adopters, but nobody says that anymore.

[christopher w]

jimbeetle - what service provider did you have with the blackberry?

Also - I agree - for web browsing it is not up to par...

[reddevil]

Can anybody tell me if the Blackberry bleeps when it receives an e-mail message (similar to a SMS message)? I would hate to have to "log on" everytime I wanted to check if I had an e-mail.

Currently I have a Nokia 6820 and that does not have the bleep for e-mails (as far as I know).

[christopher w]

reddevil - it notifies you (either through a sort of ring/beep or vibrate or both) each time you get an email or an Instant Message, etc

[jimbeetle]

service provider

T-mobile. I didn't want the phone service and it was the only one at the time that offered data only in my area.

Though poor reception is not at all limited to that service. Used scanner-enabled BBs for one trade show and updates we sent to units weren't downloaded unless exhibitors happened to walk out of the hotel expo area. That was a different provider, Verizon if I correctly remember, so seems like big-city, big-building reception problem affects the technology itself.

[Kirby]

Yeah - the "push" is the "key" to BlackBerry.
What don't you like about this feature?

Because Im dependent on the server. With the pop3 and snapper on my Treo, I can retrieve 10+ accounts as well when Im travelling and I dont have to worry about equipment failure. I set it to auto retrieve as frequently as every 5 minutes, or I can manually check with the push of a button.

I havent checked lately, so maybe RIM has or is adding pop3 capability. That would be good.

[Bob_Trotta]

Thanks for all the feed back guys. After ordering a Mini-mac on reccommendation here, I think I'll have a crack at the Blackberry now.

(I'm such a sucker for gadgets!)

Bob Trotta

[reddevil]

Bob,

Watch our for RSI, apparently this is the latest injury to thumbs for gadget monsters like you!?

[Essex_boy]

I bought one at the weekend and cant put it down. These really are amazing - that coming from someone who hates mobile phones!

Best feature is the ability to have it auto switch off and on during the weekend and week, silly I know but great.