Blackberry is useful
Written: Apr 01 '01
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Pros: Send/Receive mail from my corporate account, always connected, flat fee per month, helps my productivity
Cons: Limited 3rd party apps, can't search on calendar items, keyboard not backlit
The Bottom Line: I whole heartedly recommend this product to anyone that is in search of a relatively stealth way to ease your worries about work related e-mail while you travel.
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| davequick's Full Review: RIM Blackberry Two Way Pager |
I've owned several 'PDA's (Casio data bank, Newton, Marco, Magic Cap, Handheld PC, WinCE, Rex, Palm I, Palm III, Palm V, PalmPC) that were supposed to help me be more organized, change my life, etc. - well they all fell well short on these lofty goals because I ended up leaving them at home or at the office.
I couldn't bear to be one of those freaks (I use the term in a nice way - some of my best friends are indeed these same freaks) that wears a palm on their belt. I also wanted to stay connected without paying a ton of money. I had a couple of devices that went through packet radio switched networks that charged per K and I had run up some big charges in the past.
The blackberry looks to the rest of the world to be just a plain old pager when it's on your belt - you don't stick out in a crowd - but it is just SO MUCH MORE USEFUL.
I have had mine since February of 2000 - this is a new first for me - using the SAME exact PDA like device for over 1 full year. This is a major feat and speaks to the wonderful, wonderful package of functionality and convenience that is the RIM Blackberry.
I run the Blackberry desktop redirector on a machine in my office that is on 24/7 and it 'redirects' my mail from the corporate mail server to my blackberry device - it is triple DES encoded both to and from the pager so it is approved by the corporate security folks at my company. I'm able to set up rules about what to forward and what to filter on this machine in the office.
I can synchronize this unit with the machine in my office (for address book, mail, task list, and calendar synchronization). I have to actually place it in a cradle - there isn't a full synch available wirelessly (and you can only synch calendar wirelessly if you are running the enterprise redirector which I am not!).
The Blackberry has had good reception (equivalent of a two way pager... hey, wait... it is a two way pager :-) in each of the metropolitan areas I've been to... nationwide coverage is included in the monthly service fee of $39. I also subscribe to the $10/month 888 number for voicemail and traditional paging.
The outgoing mail you send from the unit can be automatically saved to your sent items folder on your exchange server.
I find myself sending messages to myself when I'm out on the town, in meetings, at the supermarket, anywhere, any time. Totally wonderful to sit down at my PC and organize these random snippets, appointments, to-do items, etc. into actionable items when I have time to do so later that day or the next work day.
I find myself using the laptop less to check corporate mail because I know there is something there or isn't - no need to PPTP in and look.
I get 3 or so weeks per single AA battery change.
If you're a motivated geek (like me) you can order the SDK from RIM and program your own applications for the device - they have a software simulator as well - really pleasant development environment.
The biggest weakness is a non-backlit keyboard - the screen is backlit - but they should REALLY backlight that keyboard to make it even better in my opinion.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 399 + $50/mo
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Epinions.com ID:
davequick
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Member: Dave Quick
Location: Redmond, WA
Reviews written: 19
Trusted by: 3 members
About Me:
I consume free soda for a living at the Microsoft Corporation.
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