A Blackberry question (or two) in relation to Verizon

[Paul@Pittsburgh]

After reading Michael Hyatt's interesting article on the Blackberry in his blog, I have been thinking about whether I can make some use of this tool or not. I do a fair bit of traveling and the ability to access my mail while making a quick pit stop at a gas station or while waiting at an airport (without having to fire up my laptop) is appealing.

So after reading Michael's blog I have been reading some reviews.

By serendipity I found in my car (stuffed between a seat) an envelope with an offer from Verizon (my cell phone service provider) on the Blackberry 7750 or 6750.

I am thinking about reducing my cell phone minutes (which I usually never use up) to allow for some of the costs to adding an unlimited data plan.

My questions to those that might know about these things...

1) Is the Verizon service also an Always On service where mail is automatically pushed to the device?

2) The device works only in the Nationally enhanced area - I do need to check how wide a coverage this really is.

3) The small print states that I would not be able to transmit attachments or graphics. I thought that the Blackberry could handle/view attachments. So does this mean that this feature is limited by Verizon? Does it mean that I can only receive attachments? Does it mean that this could be an error?

I realize these are questions quite specific to the Verizon service - but hopefully someone here has some experience. The other option I am considering is an independent service offered by T-mobile.

My final option is trying to get something that will enable my Ipaq to talk with my Verizon cell phone. (My laptop won't connect for some reason).

Thanks

Paul

 

[intrigueme@aol.com]

Blackberry Limitations

Hi Paul (nice to see you again)

I've had a company issued Blackberry for almost 2 years now, and it's through IM Cingular.

the range of coverage is nationwide. When I was on vacation in New Mexico last year - I was still able to receive e-mails that were routing through my company's Exchange Server in NYC. (Which was an interesting way to observe the effects of the blackout...)

It IS "always on!" If someone sends you something at 3:00 in the morning - it is automatically "pushed" from the e-mail server to your Blackberry. There are ways to manage this... There is a power button, so you CAN turn the damn thing off (lol) and there is also an "Antenna" button, so you can turn the WIRELESS part of the device off! Very handy for Airports, Cardiac Units, etc.... If you DO choose to use the rest of the device as your PDA, this means that you can be productive, even if you are not capable of receiving e-mails/phone messages for a period of time.

The Blackberry CAN handle attachments, graphics etc... (this is a FINE LINE I'm going to draw) I receive PDF's and other types of large Graphic files all the time, and no matter where I am I can FWD them from the Blackberry to the appropriate team members.

You CANNOT VIEW the files on the Blackberry though!

Also - one other important point... you can set up the Blackberry a variety of ways... you can use it to automatically "push" e-mail to you from your current e-mail box; or you can set it up so that it only receives messages sent to it's pager address - which is a unique & seperate addreess assigned to it when you purchase the Blackberry.

Now that I've said all of that.....

I've had mine for almost two years. After two years, my MAIN Productivity TOOL is STILL my Palm m515. The Palm is simply a more elegant, user friendly, more powerful device than the Blackberry. The Blackberry PIM software is really worse than the first version of the Palm OS from 1987.
There are a TON of things that I can do on my Palm that I can NOT DO on the Blackberry, and I don't want to give up that functionality. So, I am resigning myself to carrying two "wood blocks" now

Hope that you find what works BEST for you!