Look ma, no wires
Written: Mar 12 '01
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Pros: Great Corporate tool, time management and mobile e-mail.
Cons: Holster clip weak, allows RIM to fall to ground quite often
The Bottom Line: Great for mobile e-mail, and has many useful time management features
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| vivisector's Full Review: RIM Blackberry Two Way Pager |
Our company partnered with RIM to be their first guinea pigs, and test all the functions of the Blackberry in the real-world. I have used the RIM Blackberry for over a year now, and it has been holding up fairly well, considering how much abuse it takes.
My 1 main complaint about the RIM Blackberry is the holster they give you to clip it in place on your belt has a very weak catch. Every second day, I would watch in horror as I seen it fly out and crash on the pavement or sidewalk as I walked around town. That said, I have to admit, this is one tough cookie. It has stood up well, as I only have 1 crack in the case, which has been there for about 6 months now. I had a strange problem with it today, but it cleared itself up in about half an hour. It started to have blank horizontal lines that moved to different spots, making it difficult to read the display. I took it apart and reseeded the display connection, this made no difference. I let it sit for a while (as I put in a request for a new one), and when I got back to it, the blank lines were gone. It must have know it's days were numbered if it kept acting up.
The Blackberry can be connected to a computer via a special cable that connects to the serial port of your computer. Using the software supplied by RIM, you can download programs to it, as well as write your own programs to run off it, as my company does. My company runs its call database off the RIM, which allows us to update our calls and order parts from the customer's site. This is a real timesaver.
The Blackberry also has a fully functional e-mail system, which is great as you can send and receive e-mail from anywhere you happen to be. The only problem I have noticed with this is that the Blackberry uses radio tower technology to send and receive messages, instead of cellular technology. Coverage varies dramatically as you move around the city, and out of the city, coverage is nil. I have spoken to people within our company from about 15 different cities and all have the same problem.
The Blackberry also comes with a built-in calendar, which is helpful to remember appointments, as it will alert you before you are to meet someone. The calendar functions much like MS Office calendar, or from a Palm Pilot. You can display a calendar, search for appointments, or set appointments and how long before you want the notify charm to beep.
Also included is a task manager, where you can store certain tasks in memory, and update like a notepad. I use it to store multiple phone numbers, and it is quite handy.
The Blackberry is very ergonomic. The keyboard, while small, is easy to type on. Symbols and numbers can be typed by pressing shift, and the character. They also include a character map, which can be accessed by pressing shift and the spacebar. Here you can get any characters that aren't available using the shift buttons. The Blackberry also has a scroll wheel, used much like a mouse. This is a very handy addition to control all of it functions. The display can be adjusted both in character size and contrast to get the desired display setup to make it easy to read by all. And the RIM Blackberry can be set to vibrate, or have one of about 10 different chimes when you receive a message or alert. The Blackberry also contains an internal Lithium battery, as well as taking 1 AA battery. With this, you don't lose all information everytime your battery dies. My only problem is that the Blackberry battery indicator monitors the Lithium battery (Which gets charged by the AA when it gets low) and not the AA battery. Therefore you never truly know when to change the battery until it is to late.
All in all, I highly recommend this valuable tool, as long as you are in a area with radio tower coverage.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): company
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Epinions.com ID:
vivisector
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Location: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
Reviews written: 39
Trusted by: 20 members
About Me:
Computer Geek
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