[DigitalEl]

I posted this as a help ticket with the folks at PocketMac. It's been 4 days and I've received not so much as an acknowledgement. I figured maybe someone here might have some answers. Thanks in advance.

I can sync Entourage and my BlackBerry 7100t with no problem using PocketMac. I can't get the software to sync using iSync though. Where is that option in PocketMac Preferences, or am I looking in the wrong place?

Additionally, I can't sync iCal or Stickies using PocketMac, but was told this was a feature. I'd much rather use Apple's programs than Entourage, but have switched back to the latter due to this issue.

I absolutely love my BlackBerry so far. I'd love it more if it were syncing up with my Apple-branded apps. Kickin' it old school with the 2001 version of Entourage kind of sucks.

[kman42]

I don't have a blackberry (yet) so I can't help you specifically, but I have been trying to decide between a BB and a Treo 650 so I have been looking at sync solutions. The Pocketmac site clearly states that iCal, AB, Stickies, etc should sync so there must be something simple that you are missing. Please post back here when/if you get it working and how their tech support turns out.

Also, did you compare the BB with the T650 before buying? I'd be interested in your thoughts. Does the 7100 feel too big? That is my major concern. I'm used to using a small LG VX6600 clamshell phone, so I'm not sure how I'll adapt to the larger BB or T650. Finally, does it feel snappy? I've heard it can seem a bit sluggish.

kman

[DigitalEl]

I didn't really consider the Treo, b/c it was $100 more. It was hard enough talking my wife into letting me get the BlackBerry. For me, the 7100t doesn't feel too big. I have big hands though. My previous phone was a Sony Ericsson T610. That felt *really* small in my big mitts. The 7100t feels perfect. And SureType works as advertised... Just beautifully. There was maybe an hour or two of a learning curve. You have to fight the instinct to go back and fix a word mid-stream. If you just keep going, by the time you get to the end of the word, SureType will have figured it out. For example, typing "Library" brings up the word "Linear" first... But in less than a second, it changes to the correct word once you enter that final "Y." If you were to see that it was not displaying library and stop, you'd likely have to erase several characters and re-enter them. You really have to see it to get how intuitively it works.

The Pocketmac site clearly states that iCal, AB, Stickies, etc should sync...

I'm glad I'm not imagining things. The PocketMac website does boast about how the software lets you sync with Mail, iCal, Stickies, etc... And I can't. So far, my "Help Ticket" with them has not been addressed, so I'm still waiting. It's now Day #5 since I entered it.

For all it's worth, I do like Entourage and it's been kind of neat going back to it after a year or more using Mail and iCal instead. I'm just now remembering how much more powerful Entourage is over the Apple programs. Still, I don't consider myself a power user. I don't need all the stuff Entourage can do and would love to get my BB working with the Apple apps.

Edit to Add: I forgot to address your question about interface speed. It doesn't feel sluggish, per se... But it's not crazy "snappy" either. I've owned a handful of PalmPowered devices, from the original PalmPilot to the latest Sony Clies and my BlackBerry doesn't feel any slower (or noticeably faster) than any of them. It just works like it should. I don't ever sit and wait for it saying "C'mon already..." The hourglass comes up for a second when opening a large e-mail or when changing Themes (there are only 2 on the 7100t), but other than that it's fine.

Feel free to ask anything else you can think of. I love talking about my toys, er, essential productivity-enhancing tools.

[alex_kac]

Well first off - which OS are you using? Panther? Tiger? Jaguar?

I would assume if its Tiger that they may not have Tiger iSync support completely taken care of yet. Just a guess, but iSync in TIger is very different than in Panther.

[kman42]

What are the service plans like? Do you have to get a data plan and a voice plan?

Are you on t-mobile? I used to have t-mobile when I moved to san diego and couldn't get reception at my house so I switched to Verizon. My contract with VZN just ended but I am not willing to go back to t-mobile due to the crummy reception. I guess that leaves me with cingular for a Blackberry.

kman

[DigitalEl]

I am on T-Mobile. I have the BlackBerry Unlimited plan, which is $19.99. Here's the description.

From T-Mobile's Website:
Add access to BlackBerry's powerful data functionality to a voice rate plan. The BlackBerry Unlimited Add-on includes unlimited BlackBerry Web Client e-mail and Web browsing.

If you want your corporate e-mail on your BlackBerry, as well, that's $29.98.

These fees, of course, are on top of whatever regular voice plan you have. In my case, it's the $69, 800 minutes plan. My wife and I share the minutes. Other than T-Mo's horrid customer service, I have no complaints. I've learned, however, that every cell company I've ever dealt with is horrid customer service-wise. As for coverage, I've found my 7100t has e-mail and web capabilities with only 1 bar of service... For voice calls, that's inadequate and will get you dropped, but it works for data. In my area, coverage is pretty strong, except for in the suburb where I live. Luckily, I move into my new house in about 4 weeks... And coverage there is strong.

As for alex kac's question as to what operating system I'm using and whether PocketMac is compatible with Tiger yet, this is straight from them.

From the PocketMac Website:

System Requirements:

Mac OS 10.3 ("Panther")/10.4 ("Tiger") Or Higher

14MB free disk space on your Mac

1 Available USB Port

I'm using Tiger. I have plenty of disk space and plenty of available ports. There is simply nothing in the PocketMac preferences about adding iSync functionality. If you select "iCal" in the what program to sync calendars with pull-down, nothing happens. If you select "Entourage," it works beautifully.

[kman42]

I just bought my BB 7100t today! I love it so far and the PocketMac syncing is basically working (one issue, below). Did you get the latest upgrade v3.11? They mention some tiger fixes in this version. I am running Tiger as well, and it syncs ical, AB, tasks fine.

The one problem I am having is that the times on the BB calendar start 1 hour later than they do in iCal. I have time zones turned on in iCal. Is that a mistake? My computer and my BB are both set to Pacific Time (GMT -0800).

thanks,
kman

[alex_kac]

One thing to look at possibly is Daylight savings. At least on the Pocket PC that's the #1 reason for something being off by one hour. Either the device or the desktop are off on that - usually the device.

[kman42]

So it seems to add some recurring events to the NEXT DAY on the BB and it adds others an hour late.

kman

[DigitalEl]

Did you get the latest upgrade v3.11? They mention some tiger fixes in this version. I am running Tiger as well, and it syncs ical, AB, tasks fine.

You, sir... Are The Man. I downloaded version 3.1 and everything works perfectly now. I'm not having the one-hour-off problem, but I live in Arizona, where we don't observe Daylight Savings Time, so none of my machines/devices are set that way.

Now why the Hell couldn't PocketMac have someone shoot me a quick e-mail and advise me to upgrade to the latest version? I bought this software on 5/8 via download. I don't know when it was released, but it never even occured to me I was out of date already.

Thanks kman42 and enjoy your BlackBerry!

[ero2]

cool now I am not worried with my BB on the way, being overnighted from verizon, and my recent purchase of pocketmac. I am looking for cools games and software too. I found a few but am looking for more, how hard is it to uninstall things from a BB. On my treo i would always hard reset and reinstall everything to make sure I got every remnant of a program, is this necessary on a BB or much easier?

[DigitalEl]

From the Applications Menu, you simply choose Delete and it's gone. There's not nearly the amount of software available for a BB as there would be for a Palm device. I never used all the games & what-not available on that platform anyway. Check out Research in Motion's software site -- it's through Handango, I believe -- for a wide array of the stuff that is available.

kman42, I'm very interested in hearing your initial impressions. Congratulations on your purchase!

[ero2]

so I just found out you cannot download programs via a mac and USB cable...have you guys been able to download programs to your BB in any way, through a web browser.

[kman42]

I haven't tried to download any applications yet, but I'm assuming it will be easiest to do them OTA or to use virtual pc (?).

Is there a way to move the Tasks application to the home screen? That seems like a bit of an oversight as it is an important PIM function. Is there voice dialing?

So far I really like it. SureType works great and the syncing is working okay now. I think the problem may have been that I had two macs syncing with .mac and one of them wasn't set to use time zones. I switched it and everything is now sync'd up properly. I'll keep an eye on it though.

kman

[DigitalEl]

Is there a way to move the Tasks application to the home screen? That seems like a bit of an oversight as it is an important PIM function. Is there voice dialing?

Agreed wholeheartedly. If there is a way to move Tasks to the Home screen, I haven't yet found it. As for voice dialing, to the best of my knowledge, it is not a BB feature.

I also haven't tried to download any applications. This thing, so far, has everything I need. I have no interest in games or diet & exercise logs or other such software. If I did, I'd have probably held out for a Treo, as Palm has a sh!tload of software and freeware available. Everything I've seen for my BlackBerry is pretty expensive.

[kman42]

Any way to make it vibrate more than once when the phone rings?

[DigitalEl]

On Vibrate, mine rings a total of 5 times. On audible ring profiles, when it's set to "Tone + Vibrate," it rings twice before the ringtone begins.

Now that we're nitpicking, that is the one real problem I have with my BlackBerry. The ringtone volumes are not as robust as on some other devices I used. The "Low" setting is too quiet, as is "Medium." The "Loud" setting is what I use, but -- you guessed it -- lots of times it's too loud. "Escalating" is nice, but by the time it gets to a volume you can hear, you've often missed the call altogether.

I miss being able to set ring volume and vibration separately. I'd like the ring and vibrations to start simultaneously. I'd also like to disable the feature of having the ringing stop when I unholster my BB. I get why it does that, but it should be a toggleable (is that a word?) feature.

</nitpicking>

Unrelated, I finally heard from PocketMac today. They said they've been inundated with support requests since Tiger's release. Well, hey guys... How about putting something on your website about that? Make it obvious! I'd have much rather had gone to your support page and found a solution than write you and wait. Everybody wins!

[kman42]

You're right. Mine vibrates multiple times. Not sure why I had the impression it only vibrated once.

Once PocketMac adds support for bluetooth, I will be totally stoked.

Have you tried www.go2.com? It is a simple web interface for movies, restaurants etc that works great with the BB browser.

kman

[kman42]

I just downloaded the trial version of PocketDay. So far it is awesome! The only issue is that a couple of my recurring items don't seem to be showing up in the events list. Some do, some don't. I can't figure out what the problem is.

kman

[DigitalEl]

Thanks for the heads-up on go2.com. Perfect site for a handheld.

[ABrengle]

Hello everyone...

I heard about the discussion on this thread and I wanted to step in and say thanks to those of you who shared the solution about the version 3.11 update we posted on 5/20 that solved the "Device not connected" problem for Panther users who installed our first Tiger update version 3.1 between 5/13 and 5/20.

We were indeed inundated with requests, and I must admit, we weren't aware until midweek because we had an unexpected staffing change at the same time. When we learned about it, we sent a mass email to all those in the support queue, but our backlog extended to 5 days.

In the mean time, we're still working our way through the emails and trying to catch up, and we updated our knowledgebase and troubleshooting guide in the help system so the answers would be available without needing to submit a support ticket. We're hoping everyone who was waiting has some communication from us by now so life can go on!

On the BlackBerry features themselves: We are in communication with RIM to see if we can add support to a future version for installing apps to the device, email support, and Bluetooth support. No word from RIM on when we can do that. You can believe we're eager to move forward, because almost everyone asks us about that.

In the mean time: I'm impressed with the sharing and generosity of this community, and grateful that you were able to help each other out.

Happy syncing!

--Anne Brengle, MBA
VP Operations and Support
http://www.pocketmac.net

I welcome your suggestions:
anneb@pocketmac.net

[DigitalEl]

Wow. Thanks for the straight up response and for your attention. Now that ver. 3.11 is out, I'm getting all I ever expected and wanted out of PocketMac. Your message here makes me feel better about my purchase and that more functionality might happen down the road.

Thanks again for coming here and introducing yourself.

[ero2]

I have a question, I got my 7250 today and setup my .mac mail to b forwarded. I also enabled permanent deletion through web client. So, when I get a .mac email on my BB, and I delete it, eventually it will delete it from the .mac server as well correct?

[ero2]

oh yeah, after getting my serial number to work (had to reinstall pocketmac, was say server had not processed payment yet) it is syncing BEAUTIFULLY, seems to be a real good piece of software, with apparently great developers. Very few would step in here and say HI, and to me that is awesome.