I have been using my Kyocera 7135 Smartphone with Palm integration and I love the phone.

But I am curious if an always-on email device might not be fun to try out.

Do you recommend the Sidekick, or the Blackberry, or ... ?

I would prefer something that is unlimited, easy to set up without a monkeying with a server, and that works overseas -- all of which suggests T-mobile.

What is your advice? Thanks!

Blackberry does not work in many countries. Look at your wireless provider and find out what they cover - I've begun to see tiny eudora on cell-phones - with that, any email system is a good system . Now waiting for tiny-pine :0

Currently only the new Blackberries offer always on AND tri-band service. Even the new color Sidekick is only GSM1900.

However, receiving always-on Blackberry email isn't very reliable on foreign networks and GPRS roaming charges are very high.

Tiny Eudora and tiny Pine would still not be an always on system. Devices like the Blackberry and Hiptop offer PUSH-GPRS email, email clients in a phone have been around for ages but still rely on PULL instead of PUSH. Once you've played with a PUSH device you'll never want to go back...

The Sidekick doesn't work overseas either, at least not in the one device, not that I know of. There may be an overseas version, but the US version only works on the US GSM frequency. That said, you should be able to pop the SIM card from the Sidekick into another phone to at least have access overseas.

The Sidekick is a nice device for data (the color version is nice but not so cheap compared to others anymore; the grayscale version can be had free after rebate on Amazon with new activation), but it's really clunky as a phone. If you are heavily dependent upon phone features you're really going to want a more traditional phone in addition to the Sidekick (or instead of it). Biggest lacking feature IMHO is a persistent reminder for missed calls and new voice mails/emails/other messages (it beeps once when you get a message and that's it). It's cumbersome to put up to your ear as a phone but works okay with hands-free device (it includes an earbud type).

Despite promises and announcements the Hiptop is still only available in the US for GSM1900.

what about for similar features, always on, but mostly in the USA? Is the Blackberry still the best way to go? And which network?

Thanks very much, this is most interesting. I have never had an always-on email distraction device and am looking forward to getting one.

Our Blackberry required us to run yet-another server tomitigate between the standard SMTP Daemon and the Blackberry server, which does the push for ya - Not an elegant thing no ? After that too, the delay is quite noticable - Might as well as set tiny-eudora to poll every 5 minutes

Then you are running a weird system... The original Blackberry gateway for Exchange pushes them in seconds, just like on the new POP based GSM/GPRS devices.

I've been lurking on this site for a while and I have learned a great deal.

We are an enterprise customer of Verizon and we were given a few Samsung PDA's including server software to test their verison of Blackberry.

We provide a cell phone and a Blackberry, using Mobiltex, for those who need them.

The Verizon version of Blackberry uses GPRS. I tested it thoughout the Bay Area and it was markedly inferior to Mobiltex. The push feature was hit or miss. For example, I couldn't get a reliable signal at home. The Mobiltex is rock solid all over the US.

The Samsung device worked fine as a phone and allowed much easier on the road sync with Outlook when I could get a connection. But the phone was just not as comfortable as a simple cell phone. And the lack of a keyboard made the Samsung impractical for sending email.

We passed on the device. The changeover would have been quite costly. We look forward to the day when we can provide a single device for all our wireless needs, but at least Verizon's GPRS system, at the moment isn't it.

I forget to mention that my wife uses a Treo with Sprint service and Treo's push email. It runs on her machine at home, not connected to a server. The push is reliable. Of course, she has to put up with Sprint. She likes it enough that she's talking about upgrading to the new Treo when it's released this year. I hope Amazon provides a good deal as they did with her 300.

She can even surf the web with the thing.

As for the Sidekick, a friend of my daughter has one. I stoled it from her for a spin. It's a neat device, but T Mobile probably made a mistake when they promoted it as a kid's toy. I can't imagine anyone in a business meeting pulling one out.

Another timely post in a very timely thread at a time when a fool (yes, I am that fool) and his money are about to be parted yet again.....

Are the reliability issues you've seen when roaming with Blackberry related to the reliability of GPRS when roaming or the Blackberry software itself? Also, do the reliability issues involve delays or a simple failure to deliver that important message at all?

Thanks in advance and regards,
I

I would definitely check out Goodlink at www.good.com.

Basically works like a Blackberry, but their software is cheaper, and you probably can get the software for free, if you try hard enough. They're really trying to build their customer base. Right now, you can use their software (which for the most part I like better than Blackberry's) on the G100 device and the RIM. Soon they're offering the Treo 600, and apparently some Dell PocketPC devices also.

We've been using them since October--let me know if you have any questions.

thanks. Do they work standalone? I don't think they do -- they require a server to be running along with Exchange and I don't use Exchange or want to run my own server.

The Blackberry itself is very reliable, it's roaming GPRS connections that are very unreliable. Also, you need to make sure you have a correct roaming list on your sim as not all the roaming partners will have GPRS access.