Obama can't live without his, how about you?

[Nahmeanz]

I've had Blackberries since the Blackberry 850 series back way back when. Strayed to WinMo phones (treo and moto q) and even the iPhone Gen1 but always came back. I know there has to be crackberry addicts on SF, how bad is your addiction?

 

[Tarmac]

what is great about Blackberries in particular? I can't think of any appreciable difference between a phone which has scheduling, dedicated e-mail app/outlook, and web access at all times. I use an iphone but I could see myself using anything else which has these features with no problem.

 

[thekunk07]

i think blackberry is used like band-aid or kleenex as a catch-all for these types of devices at this point

 

[Nahmeanz]

Originally Posted by Tarmac

what is great about Blackberries in particular? I can't think of any appreciable difference between a phone which has scheduling, dedicated e-mail app/outlook, and web access at all times. I use an iphone but I could see myself using anything else which has these features with no problem.

Blackberries have push email if you're on a corporate server. It also has push email if you're on gmail, yahoo, aol, hotmail/msn email accounts. So email is instant. Other phones use the pull method which checks for emails in time intervals. The iPhone has push email with mobileme and yahoo I think. But for push email Blackberries have always been the leader.

also I can't leave Blackberries because of Blackberry Messenger. It's a chat client that works only with Blackberries, and since all my friends and coworkers have it, it's very convenient.

 

[gdl203]

Well, to be fair, Obama had to switch to an NSA-secure General Dynamics device instead of his blackberry. The encryption level for bb was not sufficient for the level of classified information the POTUS receives and sends.

 

[JoeWoah]

Originally Posted by gdl203

Well, to be fair, Obama had to switch to an NSA-secure General Dynamics device instead of his blackberry. The encryption level for bb was not sufficient for the level of classified information the POTUS receives and sends.

I thought it was a BB with the upgraded software from GD?

 

[gdl203]

Originally Posted by JoeWoah

I thought it was a BB with the upgraded software from GD?
I don't think so. I believe the GD device is based on Palm Treo

http://www.gdc4s.com/content/detail....2-55106fbaff32

 

[Nahmeanz]

no, they had a press conference that said they upgraded his blackberry.

 

[gdl203]

Originally Posted by Nahmeanz

no, they had a press conference that said they upgraded his blackberry.

I must have missed that

 

[Nahmeanz]

http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/22/c...edge-in-sight/

 

[JayJay]

I depend on mine heavily, but I can easily turn it off or ignore it.

 

[dtmt]

I can quit smoking any time.

Oh, wait.

 

[Tarmac]

Why does the president of the US need e-mail anyway? I would think everything would be told to him by his staff 24 hours a day, and anything he forgets could be remembered by someone else.

It's a huge risk for him to use anything even close to personal e-mail, instant message, etc.

 

[JayJay]

Originally Posted by Tarmac

Why does the president of the US need e-mail anyway? I would think everything would be told to him by his staff 24 hours a day, and anything he forgets could be remembered by someone else.

It's a huge risk for him to use anything even close to personal e-mail, instant message, etc.
He made some statement about people being able to stay in touch with him. I thought this was odd given that just anyone can't e-mail him.

 

[flashback]

I am completely addicted

for anyone wondering what blackberry has over other smart phones, well, the functionality of the email service is second to none. I will be sitting at my computer which is set to check for emails every minute and they will come to my blackberry first. Additionally the BB OS is extremely fast & IMO quite intuitive. Performing things like copy & paste, or the way it parses info & makes it super easy to add it to the address book is awesome. I know a LOT of people who got iPhones when they came out, only to switch back to BB because they can text & email so much faster. Not only that, but in terms of communication it is an amazing machine. I can SMS (text) MMS (picture) PIN (blackberry exclusive, gives you delivered & read confirmation) BBM (same thing, also BB exclusive) email, instant message, and finally call on the phone. There might even be some communication method that I have left out. Its also very smart when it comes to handling international numbers and such.

Really my only gripe is the design of the phones & OS... while RIM is getting much better, I still lust for phones from Nokia, Sony Ericsson, & HTC for their beautiful industrial design. I had to buy a Nokia N95 as a back-up phone because it was just too damn sexy, and I am very tempted to buy an Xperia X1 or N97 when it comes out.