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Mastrap · Mar 13, 2006, 04:24 PM

Just debating this. I am one of the owners of a small but growing ad agency in Toronto. I also run a publishing company, produce a radio program and am on the advisory boars of a film festival. I live by email and routinely monitor about five accounts.

Currently I mirror all accounts at home and on my PB at home. This gives me a chance to answer mails from other time zones early in the morning or late in the evening. Working longish hours isn't an issue for me, I love what I am doing and consider myself lucky that I can do it for a living.

Recently I am finding myself out of the office for long periods of time, talking to clients, meeting people, presenting work etc. Coming back to the office, or home, tends to present me with a barrage of mail that I could have dealt with on the streetcar, in the taxi or while waiting for clients to turn up.

So we've been discussing Blackberries. Our contract runs out in September, so we should be able to get a decent deal on the hardware. If you're using one, what's your experience with them? Love them, hate them? How is the web browsing, would it for example be possible to get directions via google?

Paco500 · Mar 13, 2006, 04:52 PM

I have limited experience with Blackberries for anything other than email/scheduling, and, if hooked to a corporate exchange or notes server, I think they are second to none. I've never heard good things about any other functionality in BB's beyond their core function. If you just want basic email and want to surf/other stuff, I'd look at a Treo, Windows Mobile or Simbian device.

Nivag · Mar 13, 2006, 05:48 PM

i've been looking at these people for a similar service other that blackberry.

http://www.fasthosts.co.uk/email/mobile-email/

http://www.good.com/index.php/index.html

and if you get a device that's got WiFi as well you can use local hotspots for accessing emails, which may save you money on data charges.

Rumor · Mar 13, 2006, 08:07 PM

I would wait until the court case pans out before investing into a BB. Even though RIM says they have a functional workaround, I'm still a little skeptical.

El Gato · Mar 13, 2006, 08:40 PM

Blackberries are a headache unless you have a dedicated IT department to keep things running. First off, you need either the latest Exchange server or Blackberry's Enterprise Server (around $3000) up and running to receive push email. If this isn't an option, then you need to keep a computer on all the time that checks for email and use a redirector program to send the email to your Blackberry. The redirector, in my experience, is not very reliable and I'm not sure if there is a Mac-compatible solution.

As far as MS Office documents go, you can only view Word, Excel, and PowerPoint - not create or edit. To my knowledge, the only 3rd party app that allows you to create and edit Office docs on a BB will run around $200.

My advice: get a Treo.

Agasthya · Mar 13, 2006, 08:47 PM

Originally Posted by Rumor

I would wait until the court case pans out before investing into a BB. Even though RIM says they have a functional workaround, I'm still a little skeptical.

The case was settled a while ago. RIM paid NTP $612 million.

rickey939 · Mar 13, 2006, 09:16 PM

Short answer: Yes.

production_coordinator · Mar 13, 2006, 11:16 PM

Longer Answer: Ummm... yes.

Rumor · Mar 14, 2006, 01:36 AM

Originally Posted by Agasthya

The case was settled a while ago. RIM paid NTP $612 million.

No, it wasn't. RIM never paid. It is still in court pending reviews from the patent office. Which so far hasn't approved any patents, but has rejected two (maybe three) held by NTP. The company I work for uses BB's and we have been following this very closely.

Mastrap · Mar 14, 2006, 07:26 AM

Originally Posted by Rumor

No, it wasn't. RIM never paid. It is still in court pending reviews from the patent office. Which so far hasn't approved any patents, but has rejected two (maybe three) held by NTP. The company I work for uses BB's and we have been following this very closely.

It was settled three or four days ago I believe. At least that was what the papers said.

wallinbl · Mar 14, 2006, 07:30 AM

Originally Posted by Rumor

No, it wasn't. RIM never paid. It is still in court pending reviews from the patent office. Which so far hasn't approved any patents, but has rejected two (maybe three) held by NTP. The company I work for uses BB's and we have been following this very closely.

He's in Canada anyway. I'm pretty sure the case is only applicable in the US.

wallinbl · Mar 14, 2006, 07:32 AM

For email, they work like nothing else. I have no clue why a competitor hasn't come along in this market (although I've been told by Nokia execs, that the NTP patent kept many of them out of the game because everyone knew about the patents, including RIM).

I don't know how the BB works standalone, but connected to our Exchange server, it's amazing. I have Outlook in Cached Exchange Mode, and the BB gets emails before Outlook does when I'm sitting at my desk.

The phone part of the BB is mediocre. Most of the people in my company have both a phone and a BB. I don't want to carry two things, so I just use the BB as a phone.

Paco500 · Mar 14, 2006, 10:38 AM

Originally Posted by El Gato

Blackberries are a headache unless you have a dedicated IT department to keep things running. First off, you need either the latest Exchange server or Blackberry's Enterprise Server (around $3000) up and running to receive push email.

There is another option- getting a hosted exchange/notes solution. A company runs the sever and sells you individual mailboxes- may $10-$15 a month per mailbox w/ BB support. http://www,apptix.com is a company that does this- there are lots of others.

One big problem for a lot of us here, the shared sever solution for exchange does not play nicely with entourage (or mail or ical) leaving a lot of the advanced features of exchange (and even some basic ones) unavailable. Not sure if notes suffers from the same issues.

Agasthya · Mar 14, 2006, 11:45 AM

Originally Posted by Rumor

No, it wasn't. RIM never paid. It is still in court pending reviews from the patent office. Which so far hasn't approved any patents, but has rejected two (maybe three) held by NTP. The company I work for uses BB's and we have been following this very closely.

http://money.cnn.com/2006/03/03/technology/rimm_ntp/

You guys should hire a full time "news follower" since your current system is not working very well.

Rumor · Mar 14, 2006, 01:27 PM

I stand corrected. I haven't been paying attention to news that much it seems. At first I thought you were referring to the settlement from 2004.

CMYKid · Mar 14, 2006, 05:03 PM

I havent looked to see who offers it up in tha North there, but I absolutely LOVE my PPC-6700. Unlike the Blackberries its about as close as you get to a real computer and I've yet to find anything I can't do with it, even file-sharing. The biggest plus for me is syncing it over the air with my Exchange server at work. Generally the email, attachments included, makes the trip from the Exchange server, over SPrints cell network and onto my handset within seconds of it showing up on my Powerbook. Sent messages are also stored on your Exchange account. With a 1 or 2 Gig MiniSD card even big attachments are no problem.

You can also set up lots of POP/IMAP accounts for it to check, and there are quite a few hosted Exchange server options now specifically for people with these. 4smartphone.com is one of the bigger ones. 5 bucks a month, hard to beat.

And if the agency is hiring I'll configure it for ya in person. ...been contemplating a move to Toronto.

Really tho, there are quite a few forums devoted to this, pdaphonehome.com being one of the better ones.