Travel Technology - I'm a doof...can someone explain blackberry for me?

I amthinkingo f the Blackberry offer from UAL if it means I can give up my cell phones - I was thinking of switching from Cingular who I hate anyway,and it looks like I'd wind up paying about the same - even if I had to buy another blackberry for mr. squeakr.

But what I;ve read says they suck as your main pohones. Can anyone shed any light - - I assume I'd have to use an earpiece?

I kmow I should keep up w/ this stuff but i'm lazy :)

thanks

The new 7100 series (r,t,v) is much more phone-like in form factor and useability.

No, you can hold it up to your head. The form factor takes some getting used to though. Most heavy users I know use a headset. No comment on RF performance though.

I amthinkingo f the Blackberry offer from UAL if it means I can give up my cell phones - I was thinking of switching from Cingular who I hate anyway,and it looks like I'd wind up paying about the same - even if I had to buy another blackberry for mr. squeakr.

But what I;ve read says they suck as your main pohones. Can anyone shed any light - - I assume I'd have to use an earpiece?

I kmow I should keep up w/ this stuff but i'm lazy :)

thanks

The older models (I had one) required the use of the earpiece. All of the newer models don't (I have one now). They take getting used to and I do agree that I find the call quality to be inferior to that of my dedicated cell. My BB is through T-Mobile and my cell through Verizon. The two don't even compare (Verizon wins every day of the week and twice on Sunday).

The above being said, my BB is GSM based (which works everywhere) and the data services on the BB make carrying it worthwhile. While in London about a year ago not only was I able to make/receive calls, but email was correctly finding it's way to me within minutes (despite roaming from network to network as I was).

The title of this post caused me to remember an 'incident' at work last month.

We have new executives moving in from out of townand we had too many exec's for the number of secretaries. The company brought back some of the older/retired secretaries to fill in until fulltime secs could be hired. Anyway... One morning the phone rang and an older secretary answered. All I could hear was her end of the conversation. It went as follows:

Sec: A blackberry? :confused:
pause
Sec: I don't know, I've always bought them by the pound.

Thought I was going to fall off my chair! :D

I love my Blackberry. Now, holding it to my ear to talk is truly like holding a frozen waffle to my ear. Ear piece helps. I'm not a big user of cell phones, but I live and die by email, and all of my email forwards to my Blackberry. You can set it to send a copy of all of your replies back to your main machine so you have a copy there. It's been wonderful to be able to handle emails and phone calls in the U.K. and in Australia. It was a real surprise to land at Gatwick and to just turn it on and have all of the emails come rolling in. Easy to type on. Synchronizes to Outlook for contacts, calendar, etc.

The 7290 has Bluetooth, so you can use your bluetooth earpiece. Much nicer.

If I purchase the BB from one country, and then travel to another country and roam, when I retreive e-mail via BB, how does it work? Do I pay roaming charges to receive e-mails too?

I had a Blackberry when I was an executive at Qwest. Basically, this is how you use them:

1. Grind up Blackberry.
2. Put remains in a pipe.
3. Smoke.

You'll feel an overwhelming urge to email constantly about what, until you performed step 3, would have been extremely pointless to worry about even moments before. You'll feel this Nirvana-like state of Total Information Awareness. However, realize that widespread use of "Blackberry" can cause systematic paralysis and loss of (social) life.

Needless to say, I kicked the habit. The first step is to admit you have a problem. ;)

Timothy

You will, however, have stronger thumbs.

If I purchase the BB from one country, and then travel to another country and roam, when I retreive e-mail via BB, how does it work? Do I pay roaming charges to receive e-mails too?

Yes, the emails are counted as GPRS roaming (at least with TMobile). This means that you are billed a roaming charge based on the amount of data transferred, measured in kilobytes. I havent found it to be very expensive, the messages I get, while frequent, arent typically large excepting attachments with dont transfer with my set up.

I had a Blackberry when I was an executive at Qwest. Basically, this is how you use them:

1. Grind up Blackberry.
2. Put remains in a pipe.
3. Smoke.

You'll feel an overwhelming urge to email constantly about what, until you performed step 3, would have been extremely pointless to worry about even moments before. You'll feel this Nirvana-like state of Total Information Awareness. However, realize that widespread use of "Blackberry" can cause systematic paralysis and loss of (social) life.

Needless to say, I kicked the habit. The first step is to admit you have a problem. ;)

Timothy

You will, however, have stronger thumbs.

This was my experience as well. I trialed one for 2 months about 4 years ago. I concluded that I didn't need to be that connected to my email. I can see where they'd be a boon to somebody who is regularly away from access to their email via computer, but other than that, its just a way to invite work that much more into your life.

BTW, does smoking it in a pipe yield tongue bite like some Virginia blends? :)

This was my experience as well. I trialed one for 2 months about 4 years ago. I concluded that I didn't need to be that connected to my email. I can see where they'd be a boon to somebody who is regularly away from access to their email via computer, but other than that, its just a way to invite work that much more into your life.

BTW, does smoking it in a pipe yield tongue bite like some Virginia blends? :)


This would be the half empty version. Half full version is that I have to deal with the emails anyway, and in some cases time is important in dealing with them. The BB lets me not worry about getting them when they are important to answer promptly so I dont have to worry about being out of the office. Also, it lets me work on the emails anywhere (train, airport lounge, etc) without having to carry a computer. YMMV, obviously.

Seriously, though, I know the argument. But what I dislike about Blackberries is an extension of what I hate about email.

People are afraid to make decisions or to subtend them, so email becomes this crutch. The Blackberry--the always on, immediate response making machine--disrupts the business process. Organizations no longer self-heal--they're now dependent on this immediate feedback/approval loop.

The only guy who carries a Blackberry in my organization is my Operations manager, and only because it was the same price as a pager with all the other mobile crap we buy and he needs a discrete outage announcement tool.

Timothy

I used to love email. Really.

Seriously, though, I know the argument. But what I dislike about Blackberries is an extension of what I hate about email.

People are afraid to make decisions or to subtend them, so email becomes this crutch. The Blackberry--the always on, immediate response making machine--disrupts the business process. Organizations no longer self-heal--they're now dependent on this immediate feedback/approval loop.

The only guy who carries a Blackberry in my organization is my Operations manager, and only because it was the same price as a pager with all the other mobile crap we buy and he needs a discrete outage announcement tool.

Timothy

I used to love email. Really.


I see your point but it depends on how you use them. I spent an enjoyable lunch last year, sitting outside with a friend at a very good restaurant in LA having mojitas while a collegue sent EIGHT emails (he was at his desk) in response to an email he received about a crisis. As each one duly came to my BB it was clear to me that something was fishy about the crisis. If it really was a crisis it would have to be dealt with in another format when we got more information. The eighth email was an apology to everyone on the mailing list since as it turned out the "crisis" had actually happened a year before and it was totally unimportant and no one had even known about it.

The BB provided good entertainment (I would read all of the messages to my friend as they came in- we are in the same biz) as we had our drinks and coffee after lunch. You have to know when not to answer as well as when to answer.

This would be the half empty version. Half full version is that I have to deal with the emails anyway, and in some cases time is important in dealing with them. The BB lets me not worry about getting them when they are important to answer promptly so I dont have to worry about being out of the office. Also, it lets me work on the emails anywhere (train, airport lounge, etc) without having to carry a computer. YMMV, obviously.

Time mgmt experts recommend and I agree (when I'm disciplined enough to practice it) that actually scheduling time to read and respond to your email & phone calls versus reading/answering each when it arrives is more productive. Yes, I know there are corner cases where this is not true. If your method of working makes you more efficient that's great, however most people do not do as well in an interrupt-driven environment.

If I purchase the BB from one country, and then travel to another country and roam, when I retreive e-mail via BB, how does it work? Do I pay roaming charges to receive e-mails too?

You pay for GPRS roaming, which is 1.5 cents per kilobyte on T-Mobile. I had 47 days of roaming over the period 10/4 to 12/20 and the average charge was $5.86 per day. My current rate is running below this as I have filtered out some of the Spam/Newsletters/unimportant mail that were just taking up space on the blackberry. This also includes charges for WAP usage, but that's probably only ~15%. The worst single day charge was $37.22 for 2.481MB of data.

The roaming works beautifully, by the way. Just turn your blackberry on and it works. I've used mine in the UK, Germany, Switzerland, China, Singapore, Australia, and Canada with no problems. I can get emails faster on my blackberry while roaming than I can when my computer is connected to our corporate network.

Another benefit of the BlackBerry is that you can pounce on emails without the recipient knowing where you are.

Like your boss or spouse.

Consider the following hypothetical:

With BlackBerry:
Your boss thinks you are in the office, but you are really on the second tee with four hours of golf ahead of you. You get an urgent email from your boss asking you for one key piece of information ASAP. Using your BlackBerry, you dash off a quick message. Boss is happy, and none the wiser.

Without BlackBerry:
Your boss sends the urgent email and you don't reply. After an hour or so, your boss wonders what is going on and calls your desk. You don't answer. Boss calls your mobile, which rings in your golf bag, interrupting your fellow competitor's backswing. You rush over to the bag, miss the call, and have to call your boss back. You get drawn into a conversation because you can't tell him that you're on the tee. The boss hears wind noise on the phone and asks you where you are. Busted!

I'm guessing that it doesn't work in Japan (like my tri-band phone which otherwise works everywhere I go)?

I'm guessing that it doesn't work in Japan (like my tri-band phone which otherwise works everywhere I go)?

Correct.

I haven't used my AT&T/Cingular device outside of the US yet. In this country, I am on an "all you can eat" one price deal.

When roaming on a GSM network outside of U.S., are you charged for all emails received, or only those you open? What if I delete emails before they are opened (such as obvious spam or messages from someone that I can wait to respond to)? Am I charged for the downloaded bytes on these types of deleted messages?

My likely non-US usage in the near term, would be in the Netherlands, Turkey, and Mexico.

P.S. My company does not activate the unit for voice

You are charged the minute the email message hits your bberry without regard if you open it or not.

Dan

You are charged the minute the email message hits your bberry without regard if you open it or not.
You're only charged for as much of it actually gets delivered; which is only a couple of kb. The BlackBerry automatically requests more of the item as you read it. This is almost transparent.

Can you use a Blackberry as a modem for your laptop? I used to be able to do this with my old Nokia phone, a cable, and a 3com cell card. I miss those days.

Can you use a Blackberry as a modem for your laptop? I used to be able to do this with my old Nokia phone, a cable, and a 3com cell card. I miss those days.

Dont think so.

Actually you can use your bberry as a modem....check out www.howardforums.com for more info.

Dan

Actually you can use your bberry as a modem....check out www.howardforums.com for more info.

Dan

I stand partially corrected. It is possible on some versions of the Blackberry with some workarounds.

Actually you can use your bberry as a modem....check out www.howardforums.com for more info.

Thanks for the link, Dan. Will check this out.

You're only charged for as much of it actually gets delivered; which is only a couple of kb. The BlackBerry automatically requests more of the item as you read it. This is almost transparent.

That was my presumption. I certainly don't have an issue with paying for a 3KB message "heading". I do want to minimize my costs if someone in my company is sending me a 700K spreadsheet, with last month's P/L's for our office in Northern South Dakota. That can wait until I return to my office.

It is easy to identify spammers, so those too can be deleted with little cost involved.

Thanks

That was my presumption. I certainly don't have an issue with paying for a 3KB message "heading". I do want to minimize my costs if someone in my company is sending me a 700K spreadsheet, with last month's P/L's for our office in Northern South Dakota. That can wait until I return to my office.

There are several options:

- Auto More will download the whole message.
- If you uncheck auto more you will only see the first couple of KB of a message.
Once you open the message you will see at the end how many more KB there are to download/read.
In the menu you will find a "more" and "more all" option.
"More" will download the next installment. "More All" will download the whole message.

It works well for me.

Thanks for the tip on Auto More.

Actually you can use your bberry as a modem....check out www.howardforums.com for more info.

Dan

First of all not all devices will do this, secondly not all operators will let you do this. Then of course there is the speed which to say the least sucks...

The 7290 has Bluetooth, so you can use your bluetooth earpiece. Much nicer.


I really wish they would somehow offer this one to us from the UA promotion. I would buy it now, but won't buy one without Bluetooth.

So, a point that we haven't yet covered here is email integration.

for the most part a blackberry works well with pop3, and IMAP accounts, just setup your current accounts through a slick new web interface and your done.

Historically, in order to gain real time access to microsoft exchange aco****s one had one of two choices. Setup the blackbery enterprise server software at a 3,000$ expense plus 80-100$ a year per user. that was a bit expensive for some corps, so the other option was to setup another desktop computer and leave it on all the time, and have it do the routing and forwarding to your blackberry. Problem was, if that computer was turned off, or crashed then it stopped working.

Now, blackberry has added another solution, for exchange based companies that have the outlook web access turned on. Again, this is something that has to be enabled and setup, but many do it. If you have OWA enabled, then BLACKBERRY offers and option where BLACKBERRY will ping your OWA and route it to your blackberry. This only happens every 15 minutes or so, so it is not real time.

Palm Treos offer a slightly better option for exhange in that an actual Exchange client is on the device, which makes easier access to exchange based systems.

but, for just email, sbc mail, yahoo, heck email pop enabled gmail a blackberry is going to be fine.

True exchange integration takes a bit of work.

unless, of course this has changed a lot in the past few months? ScottC, do you know?

I do want to minimize my costs if someone in my company is sending me a 700K spreadsheet, with last month's P/L's for our office in Northern South Dakota. That can wait until I return to my office.
I have a BlackBerry on the Web Client interface - if someone emails me a Word doc or an Excel sheet or a textual PDF, I can browse it on the BB. I get the impression that the server decodes the structure of the document and shuffles a much reduced form to the handheld.

It's really very clever indeed.

I've been using a Blackberry for a few months and while I found it useful, it didn't seem to be addictive; until I had to spend a month in Namibia where GPRS roaming doesn't work that is :( I missed my Blackberry.

The cool thing about the Blackberry for me is that I can reply to emails on the bus, either going to work or on the way home (useful as I sometimes have to deal with people 6 hours ahead of me). On a couple of occasions, it's even lead managment to assume I'm in the office when I've been stuck in traffic.

In the UK, the web client interface works flawlessly with Hotmail, AOL, POP3 (including secure) and IMAP so I get all my personal and business email on one device. The only downside is that the "from" email address of the device can be set to one address only!

I've been using a Blackberry for a few months and while I found it useful, it didn't seem to be addictive; until I had to spend a month in Namibia where GPRS roaming doesn't work that is :( I missed my Blackberry.

The cool thing about the Blackberry for me is that I can reply to emails on the bus, either going to work or on the way home (useful as I sometimes have to deal with people 6 hours ahead of me). On a couple of occasions, it's even lead managment to assume I'm in the office when I've been stuck in traffic.

In the UK, the web client interface works flawlessly with Hotmail, AOL, POP3 (including secure) and IMAP so I get all my personal and business email on one device. The only downside is that the "from" email address of the device can be set to one address only!

Go to the first forum on www.blackberryforums.com and check out the information on "pocketday" for the Blackberry, it includes a utility to let you change the from: in each email.

Oh, I totally agree Scott the speed at which it can be done is almost a waste IMHO.

I also agree that only certain bberrys can actually be used as modems.

Dan

How's the RF on a 7100 as compared to, say a Treo 650, Nokia 6230, or a Moto v400?

The howardforums people are giving me mixed signals on this.

I cannot speak for the 7100 but the 7230 seems to handle RF well.

Dan

I spent an enjoyable lunch last year, sitting outside with a friend at a very good restaurant in LA having mojitas...

Any chance you could reveal the name of this place?? :p

How's the RF on a 7100 as compared to, say a Treo 650, Nokia 6230, or a Moto v400?

The howardforums people are giving me mixed signals on this.

7100 was worse than the 7230. 7230 was without a doubt one of the best phones RF-wise I've ever had.

Any chance you could reveal the name of this place?? :p

But since you are a fellow Flyertalker, if you look at Ciudad (445 S. Figueroa Street) you might find what you seek. ;)

Great food I thought as well.

It's my favorite restaurant in Downtown LA. Run by Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Fenniger ("The Two Hot Tamales") of TV, book, and Border Grill fame.

7100 was worse than the 7230. 7230 was without a doubt one of the best phones RF-wise I've ever had.

Our T-Mobile rep brought in a 7100 to play with and I was unable to get used to the new text entry. A few of my co-workers got the 7100s and I have not heard lots of good things yet. I really like my 7230 which has a nice screen and easy to enter text with. Now that I have upgraded my 7230 with BBerry 4.0 it is even better.

Dan

Regarding the addictiveness of the BB, I know that some people call them CrackBerries.

Hmmm... maybe a need a new FT handle...

I've got the Cingular 7280. Had it for over a year and it replaced a 957 that I had for a couple years. I have the all you can eat plan on Cingular. US coverage is good -- better with the AT&T merger. Been in Canada a lot and the device works like a champ on the Rogers network. One caution -- roaming charges up there are awful. The email expense isn't bad, but the voice cost is murder. I had an issue the other day in Toronto where the device came up in data mode, but Rogers didn't recognize it. I was having withdrawals for most of the morning -- then it got recognized and the email came pouring in.

The older Blackberries have an awful form factor for taking calls directly from the device. If I know I have a long call or I'm driving, I always use the earbud. The next one I get will likely be Bluetooth. Call quality is good, but I'm comparing against my company-issued Nextel phone...

I travel a lot these days and the BB is a life-saver. The real value of these devices is to road warriors or people who spend a lot of time away from their desktop. In addition to the things recounted elsewhere, I have wireless calendaring enabled through the company's BES (Blackberry Enterprise Server) and that has saved me numerous times -- cancelled meetings, changed meeting locations, addition of a call-in number for conference calls. The company has talked about adding instant messaging functionality. I'm not too interested in that (yes, there is a such a thing as being too connected), but it would be nice when I absolutely, positively needed to reach someone who was at their desk, but on the phone. No way do I want IM running when I'm in a meeting or driving.

The other part that helps is not having to unlimber your laptop the second you get in the hotel room, just to find out what's been going on all day. The BB lets me keep an eye on issues and decide if I need to get out the laptop to respond to something later in the evening. The quick response stuff gets dispensed with during the day and you're left with only the big issues -- or, often, none at all.

My boss bought a 7100-series from T-mobile. He loves it, but he's never had one before. The form factor is more phone-like and he likes the way you type on it. Me? I've been thumb-typing since two-way pager days and I'm told that people who are thumb-typing proficient have trouble with the 7100-series.

As for email, I have three ways to send and receive email on the device -- 1) corporate email goes to and from the BES and replicates to my corporate email account; 2) there is a "web client" that allows you to send through blackberry.net; and 3) I can use Yahoo mail through the browser interface to send and receive any of my POP mail accounts.

I've had Palm PDAs in the past and the biggest knock on the BB is the lack of third party applications. Don't get me wrong, they are out there, but not in the numbers that you see for Palm PDAs. That's surprising because the BBs are everywhere, it seems -- just likely not to the saturation of Palm devices yet.

What I like about the BB is that it combines the functionality of the PDA, cell phone, and pager, and adds in email and real-time calendaring. You have one device to worry about instead of feeling like you need web gear to hold all the gizmos (for a period of time, I carried a two-way pager, a cell phone, and a PDA).