I’m a recent adapter to the world of the Blackberry with my BlackBerry Curve 8330 (or Crackberry as they are so honestly referred to). While friends and family have had them for a while, I was dead set on getting an iPhone. Well, without going into details, the network I choose was not AT&T, so I obviously didn’t get an iPhone.
I’ve found the Blackberry to be quite a unique tool. I’m using just standard Blackberry Internet Service (BIS) which seems to pretty much be push email with my Gmail account. I’m a Mac user and am left to use Boot Camp to do updates to the OS, but I do have a sync option in PocketMac. While this is great, it still means I have to connect my Curve to my Mac whenever I want to update my calendar. Then I remember, I have Gmail, which gives me Google Calendar. By simply adding the Google Sync app to my Blackberry, I now have, for all practical purposes, push email and a calendar that syncs with a server.
Before we get technical, I know, my contacts don’t sync, and I don’t have folder sync. I do, however, have an environment that resembles an Exchange environment, including sharing calendars since you can subscribe to another users calendar with Google.
Want to get on this boat? It’s simple, setup your Blackberry to use your Gmail account, then in your browser on the device, visit http://m.google.com/sync. That’s it, now enjoy your new environment, never having to connect your device to your computer unless it’s to do an OS update.
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Wow,
I can’t even imagine going to a Blackberry at any cost over an iPhone. Most of the advantages to iPhone are not even realized until you have been using one for a while.
I would take the iPhone regardless of the network, it is simply light years ahead of the Blackberry “abacus” in every possible way.
Blackberry users seem to get excited when Blackberry makes available simple rudimentary applications that are so incredibly mundane I really feel bad for them.
I srtongly recommend picking the tool and then picking the network. I am in a group of about 400,00 ex-Blackberry users that you could not get to go back if the whole thing and the service was free, honestly.
It is the comparative equivalent of a couple of soup cans with a string between them.
Alas, I guess it is best to make of it what you can until you can get to an iPhone.
really, the time I save just having the right tool for the job is worth 10 times the cost difference, and since I have the “baby” iPhone, it is actually very inexpensive indeed.
Great blog!
While I respect your opinion Ron, this is my following rebuttal to your verbal bashing of my post. I at no point said I choose the Blackberry over the iPhone, I stated that I chose the network differences, mainly due to a cost limitation.
My entire family (of whom I now live over 2000 miles away from) is on the Verizon Wireless network, as well as all of my in-laws are on the Verizon Wireless network. The amount of minutes and text messages that we would need on our plan (my wife) and I, was nowhere close to what it would cost if we had AT&T for 1 reason, the IN network. If they were all on AT&T, it’s a totally different story. I have an iPod Touch and love it, and would love an iPhone if the network it was on met my needs as a user.
Just to throw a little salt your way, *cough* copy/paste *cough* MMS *cough*. To be honest, you just made me want an iPhone even less. I am happy with what I have, and since I wrote this article, the Google Sync App has added contact syncing, which if I’m right, you still need to sync with your computer or have an Exchange server to do on your device.
Cheers!
I’m impressed! You’ve managed the almost imopsisble.
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