Looking to buy, need advice on Blackberry features please

[saldous]

Hi all, I'm looking to buy either the XDA IIs or the PDA2K. Firstly, which one would you all recommend?

Secondly, my main reason for wanting this is that I have a phone and a Blackberry today (connecting to my companies Blackberry email server). If I go with one of these, will I still be able to collect my company email or do I have to use O2's email service and forward my work mails to it?

For those of you who have used a Blackberry before, how does the BB features on these devices compare? Is it easy to use etc..

Thanks in advance.

[numanoids]

Hi all, I'm looking to buy either the XDA IIs or the PDA2K. Firstly, which one would you all recommend?


There is no difference in the hardware between the XDAIIs and PDA2k except cosmetic differences. the PDA2K is silver and the XDAIIs is black

The differences are in the ROMs which are shipped with each unit, however if you read this site you can find ways of installing different ROMs onto different suppliers machines


Secondly, my main reason for wanting this is that I have a phone and a Blackberry today (connecting to my companies Blackberry email server). If I go with one of these, will I still be able to collect my company email or do I have to use O2's email service and forward my work mails to it?

For those of you who have used a Blackberry before, how does the BB features on these devices compare? Is it easy to use etc..

Thanks in advance.

There are mixed reports regarding blackberry support. Some people report it as working fine with Blackberry Connect for Internet mail, whilst others report its not working. As long as your BES server supports the client, and your price plan will allow you to connect to a corporate BES server, then there should be no problem.

Personally, I've not been able to get it going, mainly due to having to convince the company to add me to the BES server and also with getting the software talking to the desktop manager.

[saldous]

Thanks for your reply. Yes my first question was mainly around the software but if you can install from one to another etc. then great as from what I have read the PDA2K has newer drivers etc.. for the radio.

The Blackberry piece is what concerns me the most as this is the main reason for getting it.

One final point, I urrently have an iPaq in the car with TOMTOM3 on. Can I put TOMTOM3 on the XDA ok as well?

From your experience, should I buy one of these devices or wait for something better to come out? I head there may be a smaller version of the PDA2K down the line?

[Jiggy]

Just to add to the debate I am on the T-Mobile BB Instant Email flavour service not BES.

It has now become apparent that attachments received or sent using the BB Instant service on my MDA III (i.e. XDA 2s/PDA 2K etc) cannot be above 36kb or something like that. Also it cannot handle scanned documents etc. In my job I deal with 50 page plus word documents so this is a killer. :cry:

T-Mobile informed me that they weren't aware of this limitation when selling me my price plan. To be fair they are being very helpful and their customer service is excellent.

We have discussed putting me onto my corporate server (Vodafone BES) which can apparently easily be done (provided we have a licence at the Server level). I will have to see what our IT guy says about that ! :wink: There is also a charge though on the device side of £35 per month (the instant email is £10).

T-Mobile are also checking whether there are any inherent device/software restrctions on attachments on either the Instant Email or Enterprise service. I cannot believe this is an inherent device issue, as Rim hardware is much less sophisticated than the Pocket PC version.

The moral of the story is check the small print and the service very carefully.

Anyone's help and advice would be appreciated.


J

[weasel]

Can I put TOMTOM3 on the XDA ok as well?

TOMTOM3 work fine on my XDA2s - that's why I bought one rtathaer than any other phone; I wanted a PDA & phone all-in-one that could support a SatNav system

[cbrow51]

Posted: Thu May 19, 2005 08:41 Post subject: Looking to buy, need advice on Blackberry features please

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Hi all, I'm looking to buy either the XDA IIs or the PDA2K. Firstly, which one would you all recommend?

Secondly, my main reason for wanting this is that I have a phone and a Blackberry today (connecting to my companies Blackberry email server). If I go with one of these, will I still be able to collect my company email or do I have to use O2's email service and forward my work mails to it?

For those of you who have used a Blackberry before, how does the BB features on these devices compare? Is it easy to use etc..

Thanks in advance.


/

I currently have an xdaIIs, which I got a great deal on with O2, but in hindsight and if you can afford it, I would probably go with the PDA2K. Reasons? Well it appears that iMate are quicker to come out with ROM updates and fixes and it seems as a result these device are a bit more stable out of the box. The xda IIs with O2 Active interface on is particularly unstable and O2 (and most everyone on this forum) recommends using this device in 'corporate mode" This is simply done by selecting the corporate mode option when prompted toward the end of the set up process. This deactivates the O2 Active interface and makes the device more stable (i.e. less soft resets needed)

On Blackberry service, I had used it exyensively on my old xda II with T-Mobile USA. I was using the BWC rather than BES version and found it to be very fast and reliable. A couple of problems with it that I found:

1. Could not get any attachemnets to download form the T-Mobile Server

2. The "Sounds and Notifications" function was very poor. You could not set an audible, repeating alert on the device, as the blackberry client did not show up as an option in the sounds and notifications settings dialogue box..

There have been a lot of fos try to install the Blackberry CAB files on the XDA IIs, without much success of making them work. There are certainly some integration issues to ovbercome here with the device and the Blackberry client. Some sevice providers are including it in there ROM and supporting it now, but many are still not. O2 have been working for some time on a new ROM for the XDA IIs, but its release has been delayed again as there are still issues with the Blackberry client integration. Latest I heard is that it will not be out before July at this point... In the meantime, I use Smartners "Always on Mail" web client (www.alwaysonmail.com) as an alternative. You can try it free for 2 months and its $49 per year thereafter. It supports attachments and is almost as fast as Blackberry (18 seconds slower per message on random tests I have done). Also gives you the ability to set a repeating audible alert. I would say the service if pretty reliable overall, although some users have noted that it occasionally does not forward a message. I have had a couple like that and it appears that some spam filtering is going on somewhere. Altogether though a pretty good altrenative and a fair beit cheaper.

Hope this helps

Regards

Chris

[Jiggy]

See my mail above. Although I am speaking about the UK the same will no doubt apply to T-Mobile US.

What it comes down to is this - support for attachments is very limited on the BB Instant Email Connect Service. You need to do your homework very thoroughly before signing up.

In its favour - if you are just receiving emails without attachments or simple rtf attachments you will be fine.

As I keep saying learn from my mistakes and check out the usage restrictions on the service very carefully.
:wink:
J

[saldous]

My company has a BES server so I just need to connect it to that. Does that work?

[Raptor]

I keep hearing people say that they have the Blackberry Connect for Pocket PC on these devices. Are any of them the English version and could you please post a link here?


Thanks a Bunch!
Raptor

[cbrow51]

For the xda II or xda IIs..??

[Raptor]

XDA III iMate PDA 2K aka Siemens Sx66

[cbrow51]

No, sorry :-[ Latest I heard from O2 is that itwould be July, as they were still experiencing some issues with the integration of the Blackberry software with the xda IIs ROM...

It seems the T-Mobile MDA III in germany may have it now, so hopefully we won't be far away.

In the meantime try Smartners push mail (www.alwaysonmail.com) for siimilar functionality (free 2 month trial) Use this in conjunction with pocketmax AlarmToday, which has a WM 2003 wake up fix so the mail gets through even when the device is off.

Hope that helps

Regards

Chris

[Raptor]

Thanks, but I need Blackberry, trying to turn my all in one device (iMate PDA 2K into an all in one device and quit carrying multiple devices on my belt... :cry:

[cbrow51]

Yes, thats what I do. All my group use Blackberry's. I keep that address and just have the e-mails forwarded to the account smartner uses and then respond from the PPC..

[Jiggy]

Just to clear up the confusion T-Mobile UK launched Blackberry Connect (called Instant Email in T-Mobile speak) on the MDA III months ago.

They have stolen a march on all the UK Operators on the MDAIII. The update is unofficial (in that they have been posting it out on request).

The Rom was uploaded to Wiki. As yet I don't believe anyone has it working with a non T-Mobile device.

I only wish they would be as frequent with the ROM updates. However I am told a new ROM update is imminent (my contact says end June).


Here's hoping as it is my birthday soon.... :wink:

[tekhound]

We have a mix of Blackberry users and Good Technology users. Good Technology has a product that IMHO run circles around RIM. The server software works almost exactly the same as the BES (encrypted push technology), but the cost for the server is $0.00 (unlike the BES which can range from $1,500 to over $3,000) and it is specifically designed for PocketPCs with Wifi, PocketPC Phones and the Palm Treo. The client is a 1 or 2 year subscription which comes out to about $28.00 a month for 12 months. With my t-mobile umlimited data plan @$29.00 a month, it roughly comes out to around the same as the monthly blackberry service.

The Good client has it's own email, calendar, notes and tasks applications that is a wireless direct sync to your exchange server mailbox (no active sync required). You can tell it to add additional email folders to sync, not just the inbox, outbox and send items. It shows you every email folder in your mailbox, but will only show the emails if you either move the mail from the good client, or you have setup the folder for sync. My PDA2K phone app goes right into the good contacts or I can click on a phone number in an email or in my contacts and directly call the number. If you have any contact public folders, it will allow you to add them to your contacts application. It also lets you backup the client on to PDA storage or a card. If you do a hard reset, it takes minutes to reinstall using the recovery backup.

If your interested in this, you can go to www.good.com to get more information.

If your IT department has any reservations about this, let me know. I am the Director of IT for my company and swear by this. Their Customer Service and support are fantasic, the units are easy to setup and I have literally gone on to my Good Server twice in the last twelve months (the two times was to do the server upgrades which are also free AND easy)

Sorry if I sound like a sales rep, but this is a great piece of software.

[saldous]

Thanks for the info Tekhound. But my company has already invested in a BES server that has been running for some time and they won't change it.

[cbrow51]

We have a mix of Blackberry users and Good Technology users. Good Technology has a product that IMHO run circles around RIM. The server software works almost exactly the same as the BES (encrypted push technology), but the cost for the server is $0.00 (unlike the BES which can range from $1,500 to over $3,000) and it is specifically designed for PocketPCs with Wifi, PocketPC Phones and the Palm Treo. The client is a 1 or 2 year subscription which comes out to about $28.00 a month for 12 months. With my t-mobile umlimited data plan @$29.00 a month, it roughly comes out to around the same as the monthly blackberry service.

The Good client has it's own email, calendar, notes and tasks applications that is a wireless direct sync to your exchange server mailbox (no active sync required). You can tell it to add additional email folders to sync, not just the inbox, outbox and send items. It shows you every email folder in your mailbox, but will only show the emails if you either move the mail from the good client, or you have setup the folder for sync. My PDA2K phone app goes right into the good contacts or I can click on a phone number in an email or in my contacts and directly call the number. If you have any contact public folders, it will allow you to add them to your contacts application. It also lets you backup the client on to PDA storage or a card. If you do a hard reset, it takes minutes to reinstall using the recovery backup.

If your interested in this, you can go to www.good.com to get more information.

If your IT department has any reservations about this, let me know. I am the Director of IT for my company and swear by this. Their Customer Service and support are fantasic, the units are easy to setup and I have literally gone on to my Good Server twice in the last twelve months (the two times was to do the server upgrades which are also free AND easy)

Sorry if I sound like a sales rep, but this is a great piece of software.

Hi Tekhound

Sounds interesting... Does Good Server support showing messages as D delivered and R read, in the same way as the RIM pagers do?

Regards

Chris

[Raptor]

Thanks Tekhound, I agree, GoddLink service is fantastic. I was using Good on my xda III when I worked @ Cingular and had only high remarks for it. Unfortunately when leaving for one of the parent companies they only use BES so GoodLink service is not an option.

And BTW, no no delivered, read, delete receipts as RIM devices.


Raptor

[tekhound]

Chris...

I'm not sure exactly how the rim pager does it, but I will tell you how the goodlink works:

Since the client by default syncs the Inbox, Outbox, Deleted Items and Sent Items from the Exchange mailbox, it works EXACTLY like Outlook. Once you compose a message and hit send, it goes to the outbox and the client checks to see if it has a connection to the net (keeping in mind that the current version supports regular PocketPCs with WiFi as well as PocketPC Phones). When the message is successfully sent, it puts a copy of the message into the sent items folder of the PDA. While all of this is going on with the PDA, the good server is updating the mailbox itself. I tested one day and it normally updated the mailbox within 2 minutes of makes changes on the PDA, with as little as one signal bar.

If you read a message in the PDA, it marks it as read in Outlook and vice versa. Same goes for deleting messages, but unlike outlook, it does not have a permenant delete. It will go into the deleted items folder in both the PDA and outlook when you delete it from goodlink. The good thing though is that unlike the RIM, the goodlink server understands permenant deleted items and will not orphan messages like the RIM. My policy is that all of my staff have the checkbox for "empty deleted items folder" upon exiting outlook EXCEPT for my RIM users because the way the BES operates.

Options in a new goodlink email message includes the options for Delvery Receipt, Read Receipt, High, Normal and Low importance on version 3.7 up to the current version 4.0. Accept, Tentative and Deny options are available on goodlink for things like meeting requests. I have not checked whether a task request works the same way.

You have your Outlook contacts sync wirelessly as well as the ability to do a LDAP lookup in your exchange global address list. A nice feature is that it not only remembers those you lookup like the RIM, but it also remembers everyone you receive a message from kinda like the autocomplete feature in outlook, but it's also available in the contacts list and not just in the new message.

I will stop this book now in the hopes I have answered your questions. Please let me know if you want any further information. As I mentioned in the earlier post, the server is free, so your only investment is a machine that will run Windows NT, 2000 or 2003 and the OS license. It doesn't have to be this powerful machine. You could use a PIII with 512 of RAM if you wanted. I actually have both my BES and my Good Server on two VMs (Virtual Machines) running on a PIII single processor Dell Blade Server with 1GB of RAM. They run smooth as silk with no problems.

[cbrow51]

Hi Tekhound

Many Thanks! It sounds pretty good and if you don't have a a big BES investment already, probably a lot cheaper to implement....

On Delivered and Read, I was really meaning to be able to see if the person you sent the mail to had received it on their device (Delivered) or actually opened it and looked at it (Read) This is a great feature on the RIM pagers, soon to be on the Blackberry Units too, that I have not seen implemented elsewhere...

Regards

Chris

[tekhound]

That's what delivery and read receipts are for. If you enable them, you will get a message back when it is either read or delivered. Outlook can do the same thing.

[Raptor]

I know in outlook 2003 you can choose not to show you read it. I never tried that with Good as everyone deny's the ability to know when you read it anyway.

Raptor