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First 3G BlackBerry Announced
An anonymous reader writes "The Register is featuring an article on Research In Motion's first 3G BlackBerry, due shortly for release in the UK via Vodafone. The big news is that it contains an integrated 3G data modem - meaning UK addicts will be able to connect from the device and their laptop (via USB/BlueTooth) at 3G broadband speeds. No EDGE so the US will have to carry on waiting, but for those in the UK and Europe, short of integrated GPS, is the BlackBerry 8707v finally the first example of mobile device convergence everyone has been waiting for?"
Nope. For that it needs to support my 1GB mini-sd card so I can carry around MP3's for my commute like my Cingular 2125 does. It's not the most featureful music player since it's really a phone, but it works and keeps me from lugging around multiple devices. You'd think that with the wheel on the side the Blackberry would be perfectly suited for this task and do it as well as it does email. Oh well. They're decent phones, fantastic for email, and suck at most anything else.
Depends on what you call convergence. I call convergence a handheld that's reasonably small, handles data and voice, gives me real-time access to my e-mail, and serves as an effective adjunct to my laptop. And I call that a GSM Treo 650 - which I've owned for the better part of a year. With the addition of a quality IMAP-based e-mail client instead of Versamail, the Treo gets messages as they arrive, can do real background processing, and give me easy access and editing of all my accumulated information. If I wanted to, I could use the built-in camera to take pictures, and capture lo-res video to my SD card.
To me, that's convergence. The only thing it lacks is support for the higher-speed cellular broadband standards (and enough internal RAM), but the Treo 700w (Windows Mobile-based) works with the CDMA EV/DO service from Verizon, and the forthcoming 700p (PalmOS) is expected to work with Sprint's EV/DO network. GSM EDGE versions of both are slated to arrive pretty soon as well.
And the Blackberry that's covered here? That's the tip of the iceberg. The CTIA Wireless show is in Vegas less than two weeks from now. And there's sure to be quite a few relevant announcements there. I'm holding my breath for a ExpressCard-based EV/DO card, though - My MacBook Pro is on order and I'd rather use a card than tether a phone (I use a PC5220 card from Verizon right now with my existing PowerBook).
The ultimate definition? Convergence is a state of mind. And when your device does all the things you need, it matches that.
-- Josh Turiel
"2. Do not eat iPod Shuffle."
Actually the 8700 is the best PDA/Phone I have ever used. Blackberry does email phenomenally well. And the phone on the 8700 is finally a very good phone with great sound quality.
Because of the large user base, Blackberry has learned how to make the Blackberry VERY intuitive... try doing something intuitive on a Windows mobile unit and you'll see what I am talking about. It will be at least a year before Microsoft catches up to Blackberry as far as ease of use.
Don't get me started on how well these things perform as phones. With the exception on the 7100 series, Blackberries are generally awful as phones. The form factor is all wrong, the UI is all wrong, it's just plain wrong. Put your voice plan on a decent wireless phone, and put the data plan on the Blackberry if you must have one. Of course if you're going to go this route, and don't need live access to your email, then forget the Blackberry, get a Bluetooth phone, a Bluetooth PocketPC or Palm, and access the net through the phone.
I can only second that, I don't understand what all the fuss is about. The Blackberry is really a rather mediocre package which makes me wonder why it is so popular. I have used the Blackberry but ditched it in favor of a PocketPC PDA phone which does not have push mail but is in every other respece superior to the Blackberry, as an organizer, an email client, it is pretty equal as a telephone and now that Exchange 2003 with push-mail is available even the Blackberry service is losing it's appeal. Blackberry fans keep telling me their 72xx, 77xx or 87xx series phones are smaller and weigh less than my PDA phone but when I put it down on the table and physically compare the two the difference betwen the bigger (supposedly so small and neat) model of Blackberry phone and my (supposedly big as a king-sized club sandwich) PDA phone is marginal. Also keep in mind that my PDA phone is OLD, these days, you can actually get PDA phones with Windows Mobile 5, Linux or some other OS installed that are both ligher and handyer than the Blackberry plus the ones with Windows Moble 5 into the bargain are also push mail capable vis-a-vi an Exchange 2003 server.
Only to idiots, are orders laws.
-- Henning von Tresckow
I have a HTC Universal, and trust me, this thing really does have it all. It's so powerful it can play 700MB XVID movies WITHOUT having to re-encode them like you have to do on almost all other devices, and battery life is many orders of magnitude better than all laptops.
It comes with Skype and MSN pre-installed in ROM usable over wi-fi or 3G, so you can war-drive, chat to your mates, video conference, VNC or RDP into a desktop PC, GPS navigation for your car, hell there is hardly anything this device cannot do.
Why Americans seem so obsessed with these pathetic little Blackberries I do not know - you enjoy your "email" while I have fun with Skype, MSN, IRC, VNC, RDP, etc. at 640x480 over 3G/wi-fi on my HTC Universal.
Here's a test for you:
Get a Blackberry, and get a PocketPC or a Palm. From 4 feet in the air, drop/throw them all on concrete.
I found that the Blackberries are built to withstand a much greater deal of abuse/collision/drop than all other PDAs.
That, combined with a great browser and emails that arrive the second (sometimes before!!) it reaches your mailbox, is a great combo for me.