Do you own a Blackberry or similar device?

[Tom Eichholz]

What's this new fangled "Blackberry" thing do?

Besides, what could be better than typing my reports on a Royal Typewriter with Carbon Paper, using a little "White-Out" here & there, and then glueing the Polaroid pic's onto the photo sheets?

 

[Tomasz]

I'm curious how you all like your Blackberries. I had a Palm Treo 650 and liked some of the features, but as a phone.....stinky. Worse yet was Verizon's billing, so I switched back to T Mobile and got a Dash. It's OK, not fantastic, just OK.

The Treo is horrible in terms of voice quality; also can't say that my experience with Verizon is any better. I'm counting the days until I can switch back to A T & T: better plans and customer support in this area.

On topic - I've had a BlackBerry for the past 5+ years and don't know how I ever operated without. Allows me to respond to voice and e-mail as if I'm in the office. Nothing but positive things to say: I use the 8830 "World Edition."

 

[TN Pro]

I have an Iphone which i use a lot. It has a good email program which can open PDF files. This is valuable as my fax comes to my email. Its shows websites really well and you generally get the full website version, and not the mobile one.
I can easilly pull comps on the fly, its compatible with my MLS system.
Would thoroughly recomend it. Pretty good camera too, its saved my bacon a few times when my digital cam died.

 

[Frederick]

I-Touch, cost me a fortune and........

It sucks

 

[OCApp]

have a windows based pocket pc with a pretty good keyboard through Cingular. hard to see the screen in bright sunlight though. great for email and the internet.

works great and the price was right--FREE. got a refurbished one through Cingular over a year ago and still works fine.

 

[Ed Clark]

I have the Samsung Blackjack 1. The phone will do POP e-mail, never could get the e-mail push thing to work right. I think you need exchange server for that. My fax also shows up in my e-mail and I can view attachments on the phone. The 3G internet is ok, but the small screen is not the best for surfing. It’s ok to read the news while waiting for the misses at the store. The phone also does video and pictures. I used the pictures in a drive-by report one day when the digital quit working. The coverage is through AT&T. All in all, a decent phone that does what I need it to. The phone came with two batteries, good thing because they only last about a day each.

 

[REM sleep]

ditch the dash

I'm curious how you all like your Blackberries. I had a Palm Treo 650 and liked some of the features, but as a phone.....stinky. Worse yet was Verizon's billing, so I switched back to T Mobile and got a Dash. It's OK, not fantastic, just OK.

had the dash - hated it. tiny buttons. that volume bar is a night mare or day mare - whatever time you use it. The e-mail - PUSH - technology - hate it.

I can effectively run my business from my Blackberry - e-mails come in - instant response, calls forwarded - answer the phone, texting - instant response. All my clients are always informed instantly. It's absolutely vital to "tech-Savvy" clients and "Old School" clients are coming around to the technology - also appreciate the updates. And synch my calendar, to do and tasks - daily.

ditch the dash

 

[PBKlingensmith]

Blackberry Curve here...love it...all the features you need. Had a Motorola Q, was also a very good little PDA. Just replaced it with newer toy with better battery life.

 

[AppraizinAZ]

I have a cell phone and an laptop everytime I leave the office....good enough...I drove with another appraiser one day and she almost killed us trying to "accept an order from an AMC before someone else got it" while driving for a discounted fee....no desire to get one! Maybe when they get rave reviews from everyone...

 

[c w d]

My personal opinion is if one needs to have access to read their email while on the road then a small mobile device such as a blackberry is great. Reading and responding is another matter. It is always going to be slower to respond on these devices than on a full sized keyboard. I'd rather wait to get back to the office or bring along my laptop and connect to the internet via my cell phone if I'm expecting something important.

Years ago I had a pocketpc before the technology converged with cell phones. I never could respond to emails efficiently without using abbreviated type like IDK, BTW, IMHO, etc, etc. And that is not professional when responding to clients.

And with such small devices these days one can quickly find themselves bogged down responding to emails taking 3 times longer than it would back at the office with a fullsized keyboard. Just my opinion.