Crackberry choices...

[e30sd]

wait a few weeks, RIM is releasing the blackberry 9650 aka tour2. adds wifi and the d-pad, no more trackball.

[b*saint]

Its already out. BB ftw. I <3 Canadians.

[TDE30]

wait a few weeks, RIM is releasing the blackberry 9650 aka tour2. adds wifi and the d-pad, no more trackball.

^ True, but it won't be <$100 like the others.


Sir Young, seeing as you work at VZW, is there anyway to get around paying $50/month ($29.99 for Blackberry data plan, $9.99 for "setting the number up," and $10.00 for my 500 text plan) for one of these damn things? I spoke to a VZW rep today and was blown away that it'd be $30 more to get the required "basic" plan for the Blackberry.

[Sir Young]

^ True, but it won't be <$100 like the others.


Sir Young, seeing as you work at VZW, is there anyway to get around paying $50/month ($29.99 for Blackberry data plan, $9.99 for "setting the number up," and $10.00 for my 500 text plan) for one of these damn things? I spoke to a VZW rep today and was blown away that it'd be $30 more to get the required "basic" plan for the Blackberry.

The short answer is no. :( Like you, part of me wished we didn't have to pay that extra 29.99 charge. The other part of me however knows that by paying that I'm getting a quality service from blackberry and Verizon as a whole. *End sales speech*

[Farbin Kaiber]

I dropped my Storm monthly from ~140 to ~115. Still pricey for unlimited talk plus the data plan.

[87e30]

Among those, I would take the Tour hands-down. The Curve is already basically obsolete. The touch screen Storm sucks, since you're eliminating the best part of a BlackBerry (the keyboard). I would forget both of those.

I've got a Bold and my dad has the Tour. I like the huge screen on my Bold and it's the fastest BlackBerry I've ever used. But it's too big and the battry life could be better. My dad's Tour is about perfect.

On a side note the bold 2 is by far the best blackberry to date. Sorry verizon.

[VacMan]

I have the new Storm 2. It's fricking light years better than the Storm 1 and only $100 more. The screen is awesome, they addressed all the issues with the original Storm, and it has the 5.0 operating system with wifi. I'd say get a Storm 2 or a Tour 2 when it comes out.

[cerdman]

I have a curve through ATT and love it.

[Sir Young]

I'm glad to hear everyone loves their crackberries. That reminds me. If anyone has any questions, feel free to shoot me a PM. I'd be happy to answer anything you may need.

-Mike

[Farbin Kaiber]

Why have I gone thru 3 BB Storms with this damn JVM error 545 BS? If I end up with another BB Brick I'll be pissed.

[Kruzen]

Get something running android, I think you can get a droid or a droid eris for like 99$ already.

Blackberries are horrible pieces of junk, I went through about 4 of them in one year because they kept breaking, it's awesome when they have a global service outage because they process communications required for the phone to work on their own proprietary network, and frankly if you want a phone that just works, you're gonna hate having to recharge your blackberry every night if you do so much as make a single phone call or send 10 texts during the day.

[Sir Young]

Why have I gone thru 3 BB Storms with this damn JVM error 545 BS? If I end up with another BB Brick I'll be pissed.

If it happens again here are the steps you may need.

Step#1
Before starting make sure that BlackBerry Desktop Software is installed on the computer.

Step#2
Make sure that you have installed updated device software installed in your PC. Check this link to get update device software from carrier OS download site.

Step#3
Users can perform a full or selective backup of the data using the Backup and Restore tool in BlackBerry Desktop Manager by completing the following steps:
Connect the BlackBerry device to the computer running BlackBerry Desktop Manager.
Open BlackBerry Desktop Manager.
Double-click Backup and Restore.
Select Backup to perform a full backup or select Advanced to perform a backup of specific databases.
Choose a location to save the backup file, then click Save.

Step#4
To perform a clean install of the BlackBerry Device Software, perform the following steps:
Connect the BlackBerry smartphone to the computer and open BlackBerry Desktop Manager.
Double-click the Application Loader icon.
Click Next to start the installation process.
Type your BlackBerry smartphone password, if prompted, and click OK.
Click the check boxes next to the names of the applications you want to load, and then click Next.
Click Advanced, and then click the check box beside Erase all currently installed applications.
Click Next.
Click the check box next to Do not automatically backup the application data during the loading process.
Clear the box next to Backup and restore applications installed wirelessly.
Click Next > Finish.
When the process has completed, the message The loading operation was successful will appear. Click Close to return to BlackBerry Desktop Manager

[Farbin Kaiber]

^ That never worked. I couldn't even get the computer to recognize the device when plugged via USB. I couldn't gain any access to the device by the DM software.

[e30sd]

i'll admit, if you want to watch youtube or debug an android developer console, than blackberry may not be the choice for you. having used iphone,s60,maemo, etc, blackberry is rock solid for email, contacts, and calendar management. i can deal with a 1 day outage every 3 years. no biggie. the way i see it, my blackberry is a business tool. it helps me get my job done.

saying that, the only phone that really catches my eye is the n1. my brother picked one up and if it did full active sync (no calendar in this build) i'd ditch the work berry in a second.

[TDE30]

Just a little update for those who have been considering any of the Blackberrys mentioned beforehand...

I pulled the trigger on a Curve 8330 back in March since it was roughly $30 OTD with a two-year extension on my Verizon plan. I lived with the constant freezing, the inability to run more than one application without causing a clusterfuck (particularly with BB's Pandora app, which continues to suck,) and its general obsoleteness for a few months.

A week ago, I pulled the car charger cable out of the charging port a bit too quickly and it pulled the charging port out of the ****ing phone. So, I went to the local Verizon shop with a three-year old Curve with half of the charging port sticking out of it; they suggested that I upgrade.

So, I went with the Bold 9650 ($109.99 OTD, less the $100 mail-in rebate making it $9.99) and so far I love the thing. If anyone is considering a BB, I highly recommend the 9650 or any variation of the Bold. Just comparing it to my old BB, this one has a SIM card, WiFi, and a lot more refined menu and interface. Hopefully this one will hold up slightly better than the Curve, just thought I'd throw out the recommendation in case anyone is looking.