If you have a Blackberry and a Mac .. read this ..

[Michael Martin]

http://www.pocketmac.net/

RIM has somehow paid the liscence fee so that this is now a free piece of SW (Previously $30).

Now you have a very cool way to sync your BB with your Mac.

Enjoy!

[Terry Johnson]

Thanks for the info! I've been thinking about getting a BB for several weeks now and was just about to post a new topic about the ease or difficulty of syncing them with Macs. This has made my decision a lot easier.

[John Goodman]

OK, I've got a dumb question. What do blackberrys do that's so different? I've not kept up with it and have never bothered to look at the devices.
John

[Chris Waldrip]

OK, I've got a dumb question. What do blackberrys do that's so different? I've not kept up with it and have never bothered to look at the devices.

The most significant difference is for corporate users. My blackberry sends and receives email using my work email address and the mail server at my office. It also stays in sync with the contacts, and calendar stored on my office server. We use Microsoft Exchange, so the contacts and calendar events I add, remove, or edit in Entourage syncs with the server. Then my Blackberry syncs with the server. I can accept a meeting request on the road on my Blackberry, and it'll be in Entourage when I get to the office.

All without requiring me to physically connect my Blackberry to my Mac (or PC).

For non-corporate users things aren't quite as poetic. Most cell phone companies offer an email account, but you'll still have to syncronize your Blackberry with your Mac. But it's still a nice handheld even with that limitation (which is the same as most other PDAs and phones).

[John Goodman]

So, unless I'm a slave to a company calendar and customers, the little paper note pad and pencil I always have handy will do just fine, right?

[Martha Shannon]

excuse me from jumping in, but I am a gadget fanatic (okay, so I don't have an iPod, but that's another forum) and I absolutely LOVE the blackberry (but the slender model 7100i) but don't have one of my own. Everyone in my corporate office has one and I just haven't justified forking out $150 yet. I like the fact that it combines my cell and pda, why carry two things when you can carry just one. I used to use the paper and pencil, but the fact that I can have my calendar on my computer and in my purse synched and up to date, I just love it!
Okay, I'll go back into my little hole now

[Chris Waldrip]

So, unless I'm a slave to a company calendar and customers, the little paper note pad and pencil I always have handy will do just fine, right?

Yeah. It can still be handy for non-corporate users. But business users get the most out of them.

[Terry Johnson]

Currently, you can get a refurbished 7290 from Cingular for $69.

What I like about them is that they seem to be the best implementation of cellphone and PDA on the market. Even if you don't use it for email, you'll love it for the ease of text messaging -- the BB gives you a full QWERTY keyboard to use. I need to replace my cellphone anyway, and I'm attracted to the possibility of being able to carry one device instead of cellphone and Palm. Plus, text messaging on my current cellphone is painful (have to hit one key three or four times to get some letters).

On the down side, it is harder to dial in numbers when you just want to call someone that isn't in your phone book -- there's no simple numeric keypad like on a regular cellphone.

[Lawrence Sharp]

I just saw this when researching it for a client.  I am now interested in the possibility of getting a BB for personal use. But, I would want the 7105 (or whatever it is) for the size.  Anybody able to offer any insight to it's useability or pros and cons? I've got the Treo for work (posting from I85 in NC right now), but it's keyboard is difficullt to use. I love the sidekick, but it is large for a personal phone if you don't wear slacks all the time.
-Lawrence

[Chris Waldrip]

I'm not a real fan of the slimline BB's. The keyboards use double-letters (AB on one key CD on the next, etc).

I'm more interested in the 8700c...

[John Goodman]

Just noticed an article in today's Honolulu Advertiser about the Supreme Court turning down hearing a dispute over patent infringement between RIM and some other three-letter outfit. Apparently there is a major concern that this will be the end of the Blackberry brand, or whatever it is.
John

[Chris Waldrip]

This has been an ongoing battle between RIM and NTP here in the US. They had a settlement for something close to $450M, and NTP renigged on the agreement at the last minute back in July.

At worse RIM will simply pay whatever NTP asks, and move on.

There's another court case that RIM has instigated that basically asks the courts to force NTP to agree to the $450M they previously agreed to.

[Terry Johnson]

This is a patent infringement case, and I think it involves about 8 patents. The company suing BB is one of those "submarine" litigation firms that basically does nothing but invest in patents of dubious validity and then wait for someone with deep enough pockets to utilize the technology covered; then they surface and file huge lawsuits. BB has asked the USPTO to review and invalidate the patents at issue, since there appears to be ample evidence of prior art, and the USPTO has already issued two preliminary determinations on all eight patents that they are indeed invalid and will be revoked. Now the question becomes how quickly the USPTO will move to revoke the patents, and if that will happen before a major court decision has to be made. Some of the recent motions made in the court cases have involved requests for stays until the USPTO takes final action towards invalidating the patents, but the courts have not been very receptive to these arguments so far.

[Terry Johnson]

I was looking at an 8700c model at Cingular last night, and I have to say that I am very impressed with the quality of the screen. It also features a speakerphone and the ability to use polyphonic/mp3 ringtones. It is slightly smaller than the previous models. I believe the battery life is the same as prior models for talk time, but seems to be almost double (16 days vs. 9 days) for standby time. But it's a lot more expensive -- around $350 vs. $250 or so for a new 7290 or $69 for a refurbished 7290.

How is availability of 3rd party software for BB's? For example, is there a good database application like File for Palm?

[Chris Waldrip]

I believe that most applications are written in either javascript or C. And there are plenty out there. As the typical customer is a corporate employee though, I tend to see the best stuff as pay-to-play software (still about $10-$50). That's because corporate employees can usually just expense it and their company will pay for it.

Check out...
PDATopSoft
Handango
http://www.rimroad.com/