Blackberry versus Windows Mobile Phone

[kander001]

I am in the process of changing from an old PPC to combine my cell phone and PDA. I don't want to carry the big brick PDA phone so I'm looking at a Blackberry or Windows mobile. I've played with the Blackberry and it seems to work well for the email but I'm concerned of being too tied to my email. Email is best handled at the computer where you can process it effectively. When I've gotten email on the blackberry I find that now I don't know what to do with it becasue I can't put it in it's proper place. Am I missing something here. There sure are a lot of Blackberry users I see out there...

Any comments would be great.

Thanks,
Kevin

 

[moises]

Blackberry experience

I have had a Blackberry for a short time.
It is very convenient for sending and receiving email.

But . . .

When I am at work, or when I use PCAnywhere at home to connect to my computer at work, I am using the GTD Outlook Add-In. With the add-in I can easily create NAs from emails. I cannot do this with my Blackberry.

I can however, send an email and then manually create a NA. But this is much less elegant than using the add-in with my desktop at work.

 

[billjw]

I use a Palm but ...

I'll be looking at a Treo 650/700 in January 06.

My thoughts on the Blackberry came down to document editing. Apparently, in a Blackberry, you can't. I don't do a lot of this type of thing but I do have the opportunity to do so.

I'd be a little frustrated having a doc on my Blackberry requiring a few tweaks and not being able to do it.

That did it for me. I am sure it's on RIMs to do list and probably very soon.

Regards

BJW

 

[jrdouce]

Blackberry v. Treo

I have used a Palm for years and still generally like it. My current job requires me to carry a Blackberry and I'm not too keen on it. The Blackberry is great for email, but week as a phone and weak as a PDA. I still carry phone, PDA and Blackberry (when I have to). My belt resembles Batman's (I'd rather my car did). I'm very interested in the Treo, it has the Palm PDA to which I'm accustomed, it is a real phone, and the keyboard should make it the equal to Blackberry for email (although I like the Graffiti, I've been using it for 8 years).

just my thoughts

 

[TesTeq]

Graffiti2 may disappoint you.

(although I like the Graffiti, I've been using it for 8 years).

Graffiti2 may disappoint you. It is a real step backwards in comparison to the original Graffiti. Once upon a time I was a happy Palm V user but after upgrading to Tungsten E I am not so happy anymore. Some characters are now two-stroke (i k t) and it is painful for me since I am making more errors. The situation is even worse in Polish version.

 

[rwlyonsjr]

Blackberry Can Edit Files

New Memeber here, but I thought that I would chime in with a little insight. The blackberry does have the ability to edit "Office" files, but you must have a third party software package in order to do it. I have used a blackberry for some time, and the older the unit the more they leave to be desired. The newer blackberry units are great.
In regards to their performance as a phone, I think that depends a lot on your carrier. My experience with the three carriers that I have tried has been that the blackberry has better signal quality than any of the other phones.
In regards to uding the Blackberry with GTD, you must have version 3.8 or higher of the blackberry software, otherwise you do not have the ability to have categories in your to-do list.
This is a great forum, and I look forward to more post!

Robert

 

[moises]

Realistic assessment of Blackberry

Yes, Blackberry can edit files through third party software. I tested this for a day. The fact was that the Word document and Excel file that I used to edit in Documents to Go for the Palm were just too big to use with my Blackberry. It was just too painfully slow to be workable.

I like my Blackberry but one must realistically assess it against its Palm rivals. The Blackberry works fine for a calendar and NA list. The keyboard and trackwheel are superb. But it does not have anywhere near the RAM to handle anything other than the simplest Word and Excel files.

If you want to refer to Word and Excel files frequently, get a Palm. I do fine without them. I use my Blackberry to send myself emails at work if I want to make changes to files at work. Then at work I copy and paste from the email to the Word and Excel files.

 

[andersons]

Graffiti2 may disappoint you. It is a real step backwards in comparison to the original Graffiti. Once upon a time I was a happy Palm V user but after upgrading to Tungsten E I am not so happy anymore. Some characters are now two-stroke (i k t) and it is painful for me since I am making more errors. The situation is even worse in Polish version.

Are you still in the learning curve phase with Graffiti2 or does recognition seem bad even after the learning phase? :-(

 

[TesTeq]

Graffiti2 two-stroke problems.

Are you still in the learning curve phase with Graffiti2 or does recognition seem bad even after the learning phase? :-(

I was satisfied with the speed and accuracy of my Graffiti1 writing. After switching to Graffiti2 I have problems with the two-stroke characters (i k t) all the time - I have to use "backspace" too often. It significantly slows me down.

Besides there is an auto-fill feature in Contacts application which seems to have problems with these two-stroke characters. For example if I have already in my database one contact from "Akme Corp." and one contact from "Alarm Systems" and I try to add the second contact from "Akme Corp." the auto-fill does not wait to see if after "Al" I want to input stroke "

 

[andersons]

I was satisfied with the speed and accuracy of my Graffiti1 writing. After switching to Graffiti2 I have problems with the two-stroke characters (i k t) all the time - I have to use "backspace" too often. It significantly slows me down.

. . .the auto-fill does not wait to see if after "Al" I want to input stroke "

 

[TesTeq]

Graffiti1 legal problems! Ridiculous!

Thanks for the clear detail. I don't know why Palm would rather process 2 strokes for some characters. ??? That would considerably complicate the recognition algorithm! It seems like the timing between strokes would have to be specifically constrained in order for it to work. And that would be either too slow for users, or too hard to do, or both. What were they thinking?

I have now heard many complaints about Graffiti2 and Tungstens. And that's a bit depressing for me to hear, because I need a PDA with better writing recognition! Ugh. Maybe the thumb keyboard next time. . .

As far as I know the switch to Graffiti2 was forced by legal problems - one-stroke characters were patented by another company! Ridiculous!

 

[ceehjay]

I don't know why Palm would rather process 2 strokes for some characters. ??? That would considerably complicate the recognition algorithm! It seems like the timing between strokes would have to be specifically constrained in order for it to work. And that would be either too slow for users, or too hard to do, or both. What were they thinking?

Someone else just beat me to the punch. Xerox was ruled to be the patent owner, so Palm dropped it and moved to Graffiti2.

Yes, it does make it more difficult. If you make the next letter too fast, you sometimes get a letter you don't want. If you are too slow in doing the double-stroke figure, you get a letter you don't want. I have learned to slow down just a bit if the next letter I want would also be the second stroke for the first letter. I'm also fast on the teeny on-screen keyboard, so if I'm making a long note, I often go the little keyboard.

Carolyn

ETA: Just Googled it -- see the story here http://www.out-law.com/page-3239.

 

[billjw]

Editing Docs on a Blackberry

Thanks to those who corrected me in being able to edit Word & Excel Docs on the Blackberry. My mistake, but I'll go back to the salesperson who told me and tell them they are underselling the product.

Now, to my question. What s/w options are there to download to the BB so I can edit docs? Are they any good/comparable with Docs To Go?

Thanks again

Bill

 

[andersons]

As far as I know the switch to Graffiti2 was forced by legal problems - one-stroke characters were patented by another company! Ridiculous!

Ugh, yes, that is ridiculous for Palm users. Maybe Palm was shortsighted not to get some sort of licensing agreement.

Someone else just beat me to the punch. Xerox was ruled to be the patent owner, so Palm dropped it and moved to Graffiti2.

Yes, it does make it more difficult. If you make the next letter too fast, you sometimes get a letter you don't want. If you are too slow in doing the double-stroke figure, you get a letter you don't want. I have learned to slow down just a bit if the next letter I want would also be the second stroke for the first letter. I'm also fast on the teeny on-screen keyboard, so if I'm making a long note, I often go the little keyboard.

Frustrating! That's exactly what I would expect. We have done a bunch of handwriting research in our lab: handwriting recognition is hard. (In fact, such a pain that we don't do it any more.) Constraining letters to one stroke would make it much easier. With some characters having two strokes, the algorithm will have to use relative timing information between strokes. That in turn forces the user to discover the timing heuristic and then conform to it. Which is exactly what you have been forced to do. Conforming to relative timing constraints is a pain; ask any musician.