Blackberry....
Discussion
JamieBeeston said:
oggs said:
Whats the best deals going for these?? 
Your Employer
It all depends what you want if for Oggs.. In the same vein as a mobile, different carriers supply different tariffs with different benefits..
Do you want data only, voice and data, do you want an unlimited data plan etc etc..
How are you considering implementing the solution? Desktop blackberry software or go for BES or BES lite? Or do you just want one blackberry? in which case you need to look at the webclient style..
slinky
I recently put a BES in for my lot in work - they are now fanatical about the Blackberry devices. They are excellent email clients and rubbish phones, even the latest 8700 which I have is still poor as a phone and there's no car kit for them, so we're using a combination of Blackberry 7290's and 8700's and they also have a Nokia 6310i for the car. I'd recommend any of the BB's with a full QWERTY keyboard, I also have a 7200 that has a really odd predictive style input but it's a nightmare to use, so it stays in the spares cupboard
You can get the BES for next to nothing if you take on a load of handsets all at once. We're with Orange and we get 5mb / month / handset for I think £35+vat / handset. I'm a very heavy user and my record is 2.7 mb in a month, to hit 5mb you'd have to be giving it some. The BES is pretty clever, it converts any attachments (ie .doc, .pdf, .xls etc) to raw text, so attachments use up very little bandwidth compared to their native file formats. Baby BES will run up to 20 handsets whereas the full BES will run a massive amount. All it needs is sight of t'internet and your internal mail server.
I also considered pocket PC smartphones using the Microsoft offering for Exchange, but the beauty of the BB system is that it's a pretty closed setup that you can further lock down with policies via the BES. Knowing the sales people at our place, they'd have trashed a Windows smartphone within 10 minutes by downloading and installing who knows what. With the BB it's a non issue. They can't do anything to them. Also, with Orange on a business tarrif, you get the insurance thrown in, so if they loose / break / damage a device, I can have it replaced tomorrow FOC. All the config is stored at the BES, so once I provision the new handset all their settings are just as they were on the old device. You can even do this over the air, so I don't even need to see the new device to set it up for them.
I've used mine all over the world. The only place that caused me bother was the Maldives, but that was an Orange thing as they don't have a GPRS roaming agreement there. A guy I was chatting to there was on UK Voda, and his was working no problem. Work love it, having us all available whenever, and it's a lot easier to answer an email in your own time than put up with them calling you when you're on holiday
Hope this helps!
You can get the BES for next to nothing if you take on a load of handsets all at once. We're with Orange and we get 5mb / month / handset for I think £35+vat / handset. I'm a very heavy user and my record is 2.7 mb in a month, to hit 5mb you'd have to be giving it some. The BES is pretty clever, it converts any attachments (ie .doc, .pdf, .xls etc) to raw text, so attachments use up very little bandwidth compared to their native file formats. Baby BES will run up to 20 handsets whereas the full BES will run a massive amount. All it needs is sight of t'internet and your internal mail server.
I also considered pocket PC smartphones using the Microsoft offering for Exchange, but the beauty of the BB system is that it's a pretty closed setup that you can further lock down with policies via the BES. Knowing the sales people at our place, they'd have trashed a Windows smartphone within 10 minutes by downloading and installing who knows what. With the BB it's a non issue. They can't do anything to them. Also, with Orange on a business tarrif, you get the insurance thrown in, so if they loose / break / damage a device, I can have it replaced tomorrow FOC. All the config is stored at the BES, so once I provision the new handset all their settings are just as they were on the old device. You can even do this over the air, so I don't even need to see the new device to set it up for them.
I've used mine all over the world. The only place that caused me bother was the Maldives, but that was an Orange thing as they don't have a GPRS roaming agreement there. A guy I was chatting to there was on UK Voda, and his was working no problem. Work love it, having us all available whenever, and it's a lot easier to answer an email in your own time than put up with them calling you when you're on holiday
Hope this helps!
If the killer app for you is push email then the Crackberry isn't the only solution. I've been a Palm addict for quite some time and am now using a Treo 650 - this is a pretty good combo solution (it's good as a phone as well as a PDA).
With the Chatter Email software and a suitable IMAP mail server, it also does push email. I'm running my own IMAP server on Mac OS X server and it works an absolute treat. For me it does all the functionality of a Blackberry (I'm not running thousands of employees so the enterprise management stuff isn't a value-add to me).
Obviously not everyone is going to run their own IMAP server but you can get free IMAP accounts from the likes of Fastmail, etc. Your ISP may also support IMAP in which case you're set, all you need is the Treo and the Chatter software.
The Treo also has the full keyboard, IMO essential for an email phone. I've tried the Blackberry variants with two letters per key, and they drive me mental. Just as bad as predictive T9 text input, I suppose you get used to it but it wasn't for me.
With the Chatter Email software and a suitable IMAP mail server, it also does push email. I'm running my own IMAP server on Mac OS X server and it works an absolute treat. For me it does all the functionality of a Blackberry (I'm not running thousands of employees so the enterprise management stuff isn't a value-add to me).
Obviously not everyone is going to run their own IMAP server but you can get free IMAP accounts from the likes of Fastmail, etc. Your ISP may also support IMAP in which case you're set, all you need is the Treo and the Chatter software.
The Treo also has the full keyboard, IMO essential for an email phone. I've tried the Blackberry variants with two letters per key, and they drive me mental. Just as bad as predictive T9 text input, I suppose you get used to it but it wasn't for me.
I use my 8700c (Cingular) all over the world except Japan. It's great as a phone, good signal pick up, works perfectly with my Motorola H700 bluetooth head set and the new email attachment handling features are excellent. It also has an excellent speaker phone. It's not as tactile as my 7280 but the enhanced utility adds real value. I also occasionally use it via bluetooth with a Showmate device plugged into a host's projector to drive powerpoint presentations direct off my BB. Now that gets people's interest!
Totally agree with Cyberface that two letter per key txt entry for email is a pain. I tried it and found I couldn't get used to it after a full QWERTY set up. Samsung's bringing out a new flip-phone in Oct that runs the full Blackberry suite of email applications but they've adopted the two-letter per key approach. Cool-looking phone though with a stellar screen.
Totally agree with Cyberface that two letter per key txt entry for email is a pain. I tried it and found I couldn't get used to it after a full QWERTY set up. Samsung's bringing out a new flip-phone in Oct that runs the full Blackberry suite of email applications but they've adopted the two-letter per key approach. Cool-looking phone though with a stellar screen.
PJLarge said:
I also considered pocket PC smartphones using the Microsoft offering for Exchange, but the beauty of the BB system is that it's a pretty closed setup that you can further lock down with policies via the BES. Knowing the sales people at our place, they'd have trashed a Windows smartphone within 10 minutes by downloading and installing who knows what.
Erm, or you could lock the smartphone and control security using Exchange policies?
We have both and I much prefer the smartphone. As has been said, Blackberry's are terrible phones whereas the smartphones aren't (we use the 3g Imate).
The email support is also much better (when dealing with meetings, synching contacts etc). There's also no additional licensing costs to worry about.
D
this thing about BB's being terrible phones...OK they're a bit clunky if everyone around you is clutching LG chocos, D&G Razrs etc but are there problems with reception, dropped calls etc? If so I haven't had them on any of the 3 BBs I've had. People often say they are duff phone's but I use mine for business calls - mostly international - and if I had any problems on call quality it would be in the bin pronto.
_deejay_ said:
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Erm, or you could lock the smartphone and control security using Exchange policies?
We have both and I much prefer the smartphone. As has been said, Blackberry's are terrible phones whereas the smartphones aren't (we use the 3g Imate).
The email support is also much better (when dealing with meetings, synching contacts etc). There's also no additional licensing costs to worry about.
D
Erm, or you could lock the smartphone and control security using Exchange policies?
We have both and I much prefer the smartphone. As has been said, Blackberry's are terrible phones whereas the smartphones aren't (we use the 3g Imate).
The email support is also much better (when dealing with meetings, synching contacts etc). There's also no additional licensing costs to worry about.
D
Different strokes for different folks I guess. You are correct on what you're saying about the MS platform, but as an all round setup for users of all levels of IT literacy the Blackberry worked out a far better solution for us. Sometimes less features work out less confusing for the end user
Out of interest, I used to work with a guy who had an XDA and he was forever having to reboot it. Are the new Win Mobile 2005 platforms now more robust?
hut49 said:
this thing about BB's being terrible phones...OK they're a bit clunky if everyone around you is clutching LG chocos, D&G Razrs etc but are there problems with reception, dropped calls etc? If so I haven't had them on any of the 3 BBs I've had. People often say they are duff phone's but I use mine for business calls - mostly international - and if I had any problems on call quality it would be in the bin pronto.
Call quality is good - the 8700 especially so. It has a speakerphone now too. The main issue is the phonebook is a little clunky to live with. It works, but it's not got the simplicity of a Nokia. The main killer using them as phones was the fact that there is no handsfree car kit available unless you want to use something like a Parrott bluetooth kit, but you have no cradle and because there's no connector other than the USB charging is a pain.
Another reason for going for seperate mobile and BB devices was a usability one. If you're on a call on the BB, that's it - you can't use any other features until you end the call. Having a seperate phone and BB, they can type an email whilst on their phone or check the calendar etc. In all, the entire sales team at our place find them invaluable.
Stability wise, they're improving but are still pretty ropey.
Mine's never crashed (in about 6 months) but other complain about IE hanging when viewing some web pages.
The main issues appears to be that it's difficult to switch between apps, so people assume they've crashed when a single app hangs.
Mine's never crashed (in about 6 months) but other complain about IE hanging when viewing some web pages.
The main issues appears to be that it's difficult to switch between apps, so people assume they've crashed when a single app hangs.
Clarkson in todays Times said:
Last week a man in the Top Gear audience gave me some wire. It didn’t appear to be the best present I’d ever received until he explained what it was for. “It’s so you can connect your iPod to your mobile phone,” he saidNow I’m a man who likes a gadget, so I thanked him profusely and turned to go. Then I thought of something. Why would I want to connect my iPod to my mobile phone? What would they possibly have to say to one another? It would be like slotting George Bush into the back of Hillary Clinton. Fun, in a “look at that” sort of way, but a bit pointless.
Which brings me on to the BlackBerry. I’m told by those who’ve invested that this is the biggest leap forward for mankind since the invention of fire, and that when you’ve had one for a week or so you’ll wonder where you’ve put it. Because losing it is like losing your mouth and your ears.
*
For those who think a BlackBerry is a fruit, let me explain. It’s a mobile phone that can also receive and send e-mails. This means that no matter where you are on the planet someone can always get hold of you to ask if you’d like a bigger penis.
But this is not its biggest fault. Have you ever been out for a drink with someone who has one? Sure, they’re in constant contact with the office, which is great for them, but they’re not in constant contact with you. Every time you get to the interesting part of a story the BlackBerry chirps and you can see they’re not listening any more. They’re willing you to hurry up and finish talking so they can whip it out and see if, this time, it’s not somebody wanting to offload a bucketful of Viagra.
Go out with someone who has a BlackBerry and you’ll not get a single word out of them. Because it will be chirping or whining or playing the theme music from The Persuaders. And they’ll be texting with one hand and sending an e-mail with the other and it’ll be like talking to someone who has an unreachable itch and a daughter who’s just been kidnapped. Their mind won’t be on what you’re saying.
If you have a BlackBerry you may be physically out with friends but mentally you are at work. This means you can never have fun. You can never relax. Soon, then, your friends will stop wanting to see you and then you’ll die, quite early, from stress.
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