If the RIM is so great why am I still carrying my old pager?
Written: Oct 07 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Loads of great features, easy to use, and keeps you connected
Cons: Does not work everywhere and will often have long delays
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| ahwilliams's Full Review: RIM Blackberry Two Way Pager |
Do I really need to be this connected? Is there no where left to hide in this world? I received a RIM blackberry as what was supposed to be a replacement for my “one-way” pager. Well, needless to say, I still carry my one-way in addition to the two-way as well as a Palm Vx and a cell phone. I am starting to feel like I need a utility belt! I have rated this device lower than it deserves not because I think it is an inferior product but because it does not suit my needs at the moment. If I wrote this review six months ago it would have gotten five stars.
The blackberry pager is basically a cellular phone device where the two-way signal is used to send data instead of voice. The infrastructure of towers and repeaters it uses is the same, except that the data it sends is not time sensitive. What this means is that unlike cell phones the data stream does not have to be sent on in real time. This means that the RIMs can utilize the down time of any available tower whenever it is available. A message typed on your pager and sent will contact the nearest tower and send the data only when there is free airtime. This makes for a very efficient use of the available infrastructure and resources. All in all this is a very well designed device and system of communication. Before I divulge why I gave it a low rating let me first describe some of its features.
Address Book:
My RIM has 2 MB of storage space and has room for more addresses than I will ever use. The addresses have fields for first and last name, interactive pager address, email, phone, fax, one-way pager, as well as a notes field. When I first got the device I did not see the point of having some of these fields but it quickly became apparent why they are there, read on…
Email:
In addition to being able to send messages to and from other 2-way pagers on the same system you can also send messages directly to any valid email address. An important feature of the rim is that messages are flagged with status markers. You will immediately know when the messages is received at the tower (check mark), delivered to the recipient (D), and received by the intended party(R).
All of this means that I can email clients, coworkers, and even my wife to tell her what train I am on. I will routinely send her messages instead of calling so as not to wake my 10 month old son. On the same note, this allows people to send me messages when I might otherwise not be reachable. For example when I am in meetings I can utilize the down time (there is no shortage of down time in meetings) to discuss issues with people outside the meeting as well as those inside the meeting without interrupting the speaker.
Text to Fax:
The fax number field did not make sense to me when I first started using the device. It had never occurred to me that you could email a message to a fax machine from a pager, but that is exactly what you can do. Emails that are sent to fax machines are actually converted to a fax signal similar to the way a document file would be converted to print on a printer. I find this to be a quite clever and very useful feature, it would never have occurred to me to add this feature.
Text to Voice:
This is an even more mind boggling feature. Any message that is sent to a phone number is automatically converted to a voice message. This can prove very valuable when you need to contact someone who has a phone but does not have email and you are without a phone. You can send a message to their phone number, a mechanical voice will then deliver it to them and you will know that it has been delivered by the status on your pager. The only thing that baffles me about this feature is why a sexy female voice states “You have a message, would you like to hear it”. then when you choose yes a voice that sounds a lot like the robot off of Lost in Space reads the message.
PC Synchronization:
Another great feature is that you can maintain your data on your PC and synchronize it to the pager. This keeps you from having to type everything on the small keyboard that is built into the device. While it is possible to key everything into the pager it is much easier and more reliable to type on a regular PC keyboard.
Fully Programmable:
The RIM device is a dynamically programmable device. What that means is that the software, applications as well as operating system, are not hard coded on the device. It is possible to upgrade the OS as well as install new applications. This open ended architecture ensures that the device will have the longest life possible and you may get a few extra years of use out of it in the long run.
Why I still wont rate this five stars
Having said all that I still am not satisfied with this product. Originally I worked with a large team of people on about 10 floors of office space and this device was ideal. It allowed us to have instant communication anywhere in the building and even during meetings. This saved us uncountable hours and allowed us to work about as efficiently as possible. This is why I said I would have given it five stars if I reviewed this product six months ago.
I have since moved to Massachusetts and no longer work with a local team. The people I work with are still in New York and when they send me message I no longer get them in real time. I have numerous delays, the device does not work in some of the areas I work. More importantly it does not work at all at my primary residence, even though the company claims a 98% penetration rate for my zip code. This means that I still have to carry the old reliable one way pager.
You can take this information for what its worth, I can highly recommend the product as a secondary pager for those who will be working with a team in one area but would not recommend it as a reliable primary pager.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
ahwilliams
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Member: Alex Williams
Reviews written: 25
Trusted by: 54 members
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