Tell me about iPhones and Blackberries and such

In My Humble Opinion
1

If (major if) I get this job I’m interviewing for, my scheduling will suddenly be a lot more important. As it is, I use my Levinger Circa system and that works fine for me. However, I’m a lowly peon now and if I get the job I won’t be. I’m considering, if I get the job, getting some sort of smart phone and using it for scheduling, e-mail, etc.

It would have to have a very intuitive calendar function. (At work we theoretically use Outlook calendars, but we don’t really. I hear there may be more emphasis on it in the future.) It would have to send me my e-mail conveniently and easily (we use Outlook and Outlook Web Access) and if I could get everything all integrated with my personal e-mail accounts that would be great, to. IM is also important, personally, for keeping up with Himself. (We use AIM.) Internet, wi-fi, etc. Other than that, I need a good phone, you know, one that makes calls n’ stuff. Battery life is fairly important, although I can charge it at work. Available plans are also important - I don’t want to spend a TON of money on just having the phone around.

I’d really like an iPhone. Isn’t there a new version coming out really soon? I’d spend a little more on the phone for something that pleases me, but does it do everything I need it to do? I have a Mac at home, but work is PC all the way. One assumes that is no longer an issue?

Experiences? Suggestions?

2

In this new position, your employer may provide you just such a device.

As for phone suggestions, here are my comments based upon my experience with each. My company uses Microsoft Exchange and Outlook…

iPhone - Love it to death but it does not currently have support for MS Exchange. I use mine to sync my PERSONAL calendar, etc., to Outlook but it is purely local sync and not via Exchange. Apple is supposed to release MS Exchange support in June on the iPhone to make it more attractive to business users. I think this will be great BUT… the mail and calendar programs on the iPhone are not that great (for business use) and beyond allowing the iPhone to talk to an Exchange server they’ll need to do a lot of work on the email and calendar apps. If this is an option for you, I’d wait and see what Apple releases in June.

Blackberry - I had one of these and I liked/disliked it. Our company outsourced our blackberry enterprise server and it didn’t auto-magically sync contacts which drove me insane. I also could not access the company directory through it either. Email and calendar functions were very good for the most part. I miss it immensely since my company replaced the blackberry’s with…

Treo w/Windows Mobile - Hate it, hate it, want to throw it against a brick wall on a daily basis. I think it is mostly due to Windows Mobile being so crappy. On the up side, I can now access a company directory. Down side, it takes what seems like forever to initiate a phone call and to end a phone call. Battery life is abysmal. Of course the integration between email and calendar at Exchange is very good.

MeanJoe

3

Well I have an Iphone and I love it. The calendar function is good but I don’t think that it does reminders but leaving notes on it is quite simple. I use the notepad function to take all kinds of notes and it is quite easy to type on.

The biggest problems I have with email is that the synch function does not always work, I have it set to check and download every 15 min but it seems that it requires two new messages to make it download. Other times I will force it to check and I will find emails that are hours old that never got downloaded. This is from gmail by the way. It should also be noted that there isn’t a aim function currently, or at least not one I know of.

As for the battery during heavy use, surfing the internet while listening to music over the speakers I get about 4 hrs to a full charge. When I was flying to Australia I got 19.5 hrs of continuous use of listening to music over the head phones in airplane mode. I typically make it through the weekend without a charge but I don’t talk on my phone much. But I do get good reception.

4

<snort> I’m a librarian. I’m luckily to get devices like paper clips and staplers that work.

5

I can only speak anecdotally, and I am extremely behind in the gadget craze, but I absolutely love the Blackberry Pearl. I’ve been told that the newer Blackberry phones are also wonderful, but I will keep my Pearl until it fails to work consistently. It integrates great with our home PC, and with a little work it does the same with my laptop. A friend of mine got rid of his so he could get an iPhone because he wasn’t able to sync the Pearl with his iBook, but if you use PC at work, it would be fine. There is a program called PocketMac that is discussed in this article. It allows Mac/Blackberry syncs.

Personally, I dislike the iPhone, but I also dislike Mac computers in general. I don’t want to say that PCs are absolutely superior, I just like working with my PC more.

Brendon Small

6

I’m biased toward macs, and LOVE my iPhone.

that said, here’s how I see it working with what you outlined:

Outlook = iPhone software update 2.0 is coming in June. It will support seamless integration with exchange servers. Of course, if they have Web Access enabled, I think you might be able to check it through Safari until then.

IM = There are “web apps” out there that are free and provide AIM access. I use JiveTalk, and it works very well. However, with the 2.0 update coming, AOL already showed a working demo of their AIM app running natively on the iPhone. I also wouldn’t be surprised if Apple creates an iPhone version of iChat.

Calendar = While the calendar will track events and such, if you need something more robust, I’m sure there’ll be 3rd party apps that will be coming to your iPhone come June (if apple doesn’t beef up what they already have).

But overall, the iPhone is the future of mobile devices. Come June the lid will be blown off once developers are able to create and distribute native apps for the iPhone, right from its homescreen. The iPhone interfaces with your Mac or PC all through iTunes, just like an iPod, and is very easy to sync and update stuff that way. With every update, it feels like you’re getting a new phone, and Apple will consistently update the features. Web browsing is bar none. The Google Maps feature is superior. The visual voicemail is the best thing since tivo. And the touch interface… gah, it’s just so natural. I could gush more, but I won’t. I don’t think you’d regret getting one.

7

This is a perfect example of what I was referring to earlier. It all depends upon the implementation to Exchange. If they do not allow over-air sync to Exchange than it is a mostly useless application to the business user. Having to dock my iPhone and sync via iTunes to update my Exchange calendar appointments, etc., is not condusive to business use.

We’ll all see in June! :slight_smile:

8

I believe it does sync with the server through the air. In case you’re really interested, here’s a demo of the implementation… fast forward to about 2:30…

http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/iphoneroadmap/

9

Okay, to skip the mumbo-jumbo, skip to 4:30…

10

I’ve had a Helio Ocean for about 8 months now, and I love it. We use MS Exchange at work for email, and it keeps me updated constantly. It has built-in support for all the major IM networks, and as an added bonus, is pretty darn nifty.

11

Much appreciated, I’ll end this hijack with a simple “thanks!”

Michael

12

My BlackBerry makes me happy. I used to get the free phones, but the calendar is nice and it works beautifully. Everything about it is great.

13

You need to make sure the sync-over-air services are supported by your employer first; getting a device without the supporting services (i.e. Exchange over-the-air sync or Blackberry Server) are actually available, or you’ll only have desktop sync which is a bit of a waste of time unless you spend your life running from meeting to meeting.

At work I’ve had:
Old Pocket PC device (Compaq IPaq) - utter rubbish. no over-the-air sync, abysmal battery life, pretty much a good paperweight but I would not bother with one in future. Have largely gone out of style anyways, with the new Pocket PC Phone devices anyways. You could look at an HP Ipaq (HP bought Compaq a few years ago) which generally have wi-fi and can be quite nice, but battery life is still a problem.

Orange MS Smartphone (gen 1) - same problems as above but it did have over-the-air sync with Exchange which made it easy to download emails and calendar sync with Exchange, but we had all those features enabled with Exchange, many do not.

Orange MS Smartphone (gen 2) - better support for Exchange and mail, better battery life, but still trying to answer emails on a phone screen not much fun. Good calendar reminders, etc… Windows Mobile 5 was an improvement but still a work in progress

Orange MS Smartphone E650 (gen 3) - brilliant device. Had a pop-out QWERTY keyboard, full over-the-air sync with exchange for contacts, calendar, email, tasks. Bit hard to take notes on it, bluetooth finally included and working well, and battery life improving (1 or 2 days, depending on usage). Some problems with phone calls being disconnected and failing to connect, but largely down to problems with Orange who suck IMO. I used it also as a 3g modem for my laptop from time to time, which was cool, and overall was very very pleased with it. Uses the same basic interface as a Windows machine, so easy to use and familiar to most folks

Blackberry Pearl - once I finally got used to the weird keyboard, not a bad device. I don’t much like the calendar, and some of the settings menus drive me nuts (it is NOT a user-intuitive device!) it does what I need it to do. Keyboard is a bit too small, note-taking is a joke, but it sends / receives emails from both my personal (Hotmail) and work (Exchange) accounts. But you do need to pay for a Blackberry service, or else pay for a Blackberry server, to host Exchange content to the device.

I haven’t used the IPhone, so can’t comment, but they’re very much a niche device over here due to lack of support for 3g.