Do you own a Blackberry or Iphone?

jryantech

How much does it help you on the daily basis?
What applications on these do you use the most?

I'm thinking about purchasing one of these... what do you recommend?

gojericho0

I have a blackberry and I completely rely on it. It completely organizes my life and i'm completely spoiled by the instant contact

RTmarc

+1 for blackberry and organization / calender / reminders / tasks / address book ...

jryantech

RTmarc wrote:

+1 for blackberry and organization / calender / reminders / tasks / address book ...

All those apps you just mentioned are the main reason for this purchase.

School, Work and Certifications I want a way to manage my time... Because if I do not I'll have no time for the girlfriend and small hobbies.

gojericho0

i also was horrible with organization using paper pencil. I would always forget where i put the notes. If i had a planner i would always forget to bring it with me or check. with the blackberry its always with me and i can set alarms/reminders plus sync it up with outlook

dynamik

Do you guys have any recommendations for specific devices? Our contract is up in January, and we're looking at getting something along these lines. Any carrier preferences? It looks like GSM is the way to go.

I clearly don't have problems keeping track of things, so I'm not sure how much this would benefit me...

gojericho0

Thats ok, in college I forgot the day i had a calculus final and completely forgot my calculator. Needless to say its hard to do integrals and derivatives of COS in your head

RTmarc

dynamik wrote:

Do you guys have any recommendations for specific devices? Our contract is up in January, and we're looking at getting something along these lines. Any carrier preferences? It looks like GSM is the way to go.

I clearly don't have problems keeping track of things, so I'm not sure how much this would benefit me...

Really depends on what is the best in your area. Verizon seems to have the best coverage nationwide but I know they have their dead areas; as do all carriers. EVDO seems to be the best network I've encountered. It has been the fastest and most reliable.

EDIT: As far as model is concerned, I've been using the 8830 Curve and really like it.

AmpdChaos

i have the att Tilt.. its windows mobile.. has office mobile basically what i use.

darkerosxx

iphone and I don't know how I ever lived without it...it doesn't seem like a big deal till you get one and see how much it helps your life...

TechJunky

Blackberry.

Email all the time.

Darthn3ss

iphone 3g... internet/email/IM/text/camera/phone/calendar/budget/calorie&exercise counting/music/video/etc.

RussS

pfftt - I'll stick to my Nokia 3315 .... it's a phone and just a phone

moss12

jryantech I recommend Blackberry 8100 pearl

astorrs

I was a really, really early Blackberry user (i.e., In 1999 I had a 950, then upgraded to a 957 when it came out, etc). I "cut my leash" in 2004 and I've loved every minute of not being available.

I still have a phone so if its important - call me. But no longer do I find myself replying to emails while picking up a coffee, waiting in line at the bank, etc. Since I get paid for work done (consultant) I found myself "giving away" a handful of hours a week, to the tune of over 10k a year in time-not-billed.

snadam

astorrs wrote:

I was a really, really early Blackberry user (i.e., In 1999 I had a 950, then upgraded to a 957 when it came out, etc). I "cut my leash" in 2004 and I've loved every minute of not being available.

I still have a phone so if its important - call me. But no longer do I find myself replying to emails while picking up a coffee, waiting in line at the bank, etc. Since I get paid for work done (consultant) I found myself "giving away" a handful of hours a week, to the tune of over 10k a year in time-not-billed.

+1

I manage a 45 user BES environment, and my BB acts as both my personal and business mobile device (company "perk" depending on how you look at it). If I didnt have a blackberry, Id be down with whatever the carrier wanted to give me for free (ie a RAZR or comparable model) I dont see myself needing to have access to emails/calendar/tasks/notes/etc outside of my job. As long as I have a phone that can place/make calls, MAYBE some SMS capabilities and has voicemail, Im happy

we use verizon as our carrier and regular users receive the 8703e (my current model) Upper management gets the 8830 or the Curve (8330?). I have no complaints about verizon. I like the way these devices are built and configured for business, and would highly recommend them if you are looking for a good mobile device for work or play. ITs just overkill for personal use, and love the fact that I don't hear any email notifications every 5 minutes when I have to turn it off

cablegod

BBerry 8830, and I live by it. I tried WinMo devices and founf the email capabilities to be wanting ie: too slow. I like the 2-3 second email arrival time on my BES. Now if AAPL would license the Bberry connect client from RIM, I'd jump all over an iPhone.

astorrs

snadam, nice pic

Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking Blackberry's - I think they're great - I just feel that the way I was using it wasn't working for me (I could lease a car for what I was loosing out on).

We have over 1500 Blackberry users at the place I'm working and for the most part they're all happy.

snadam

astorrs wrote:

snadam, nice pic

Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking Blackberry's - I think they're great - I just feel that the way I was using it wasn't working for me (I could lease a car for what I was loosing out on).

We have over 1500 Blackberry users at the place I'm working and for the most part they're all happy.

agreed. They are great if you NEED all that stuff. I just don't need it outside of work.

PS thanks for the avatar comment, it made me laugh so hard, I had to make it my new avatar.

skeet2331

BB World Edition for me

Megadeth4168

I have one (work provides) and it's nice and all but I don't need many of the features.

brad-

I plan to go through life without any such device. I'm not into phones.

eMeS

Blackberry 8830 here...

The apps I use are phone, email, and sms. I really like the battery life on this phone.

I'm not a fan of the iPhone primarily because of the keyboard that doesn't feel like a keyboard. However, I carry an iPod Touch for music/movies on trips because the Blackberry just isn't in the same league as the iPod for music/movies.

My wish is for an iPhone-like device with touch-screen and a more realistic keyboard...or a Blackberry that does a better job of playing music/movies.

One caveat to the 8830...losing the trackball is a bad thing. I was in Boston last December during a snowstorm. I was walking from the subway to my hotel while talking on the phone. The little trackball fell out of the phone into about a foot of snow, never to be seen again. The 8830 is useless without the little trackball....

MS

kellyjohn

Both phones are tremendous gadgets. i currently have a BB supplied to me by my employer which i would happily craw over to get my hands on an iPhone… The iPhone wins hands down in every department I was lucky enough to test for.

dynamik

eMeS wrote:

I'm not a fan of the iPhone primarily because of the keyboard that doesn't feel like a keyboard.

Has anyone seen Maddox's review of the iPhone? It's NSFW (mostly language), but I thought it was hilarious. Your keyboard comment made me think of the "tactile response" feature his nokia phone has

http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=iphone

I think I'd still prefer a regular keyboard. I can see the touch screen being useful for a lot of things, but a keyboard is not one of them. A few of my coworkers have one, and it looks like an absolute nightmare to type anything on.

Supposedly, the Google Android phones are going to coming as soon as September, and they (at least the one's I read about) are going to be touch-screen with a slide-out keyboard.

Darthn3ss

Maddox's review is funny but i have to say the iphone keyboard isn't nearly as bad as i thought it would be.

initially, its a major PITA but once you get used to it its fine.

Also, maddox's review applies to the original iphone. the iphone 3g is full of awesome. I can reboot his webserver from my iphone VNC to his domain controller, and most recently, i can now stream music from my computer.

the copy and paste is still true, unfortunately, but IM is possible, video should be possible with 3rd party apps and whenever qik is released for the 3g.

aueddonline

I ordered a blackberry last week which shoud come tomorrow, it comes with 500mb of free data a month so i hope that going to be enough to get all my e-mails

I thought about the iphone but it's heavier, costs more and you have to get it on a high talk plan I had an ipod touch which was ok but once you get over the novelty I didn'y find much use for it.

RTmarc

aueddonline wrote:

I had an ipod touch which was ok but once you get over the novelty I didn'y find much use for it.

That, and typing on it absolutely blows.

vCole

I have a BlackBerry Pearl 8120 that I love.

Darthn3ss

aueddonline wrote:

I ordered a blackberry last week which shoud come tomorrow, it comes with 500mb of free data a month so i hope that going to be enough to get all my e-mails

I thought about the iphone but it's heavier, costs more

blackberry = $250 w/ 2 year contract iphone = $200?

as far as the plan you get unlimited data and 450 minutes for $69 a month

eMeS

Everyone that I know that has one has said "oh, you just get used to it not feeling like a keyboard". I'm not so sure...I've tried typing simple things on my iPod Touch and it's very close to that nails on a chalkboard feeling...