Blackberry question

“Not the fruit, the two-way electronic pager thing.

Does anyone here have experience using the blackberry? I'm interested in a communication device for use on the AT and was wondering about it. It seems ideal if the range is good - its small, light weight, long battery life, wireless, no charger to carry, etc. Does it have a similar range as a mobile phone, does it link up to mobile phone towers, or is it a different animal altogether? My hunch is that service would be better the farther north I go (until I reach Maine, of course). Most discussions involving e-mail and the AT generally talk about "pocket mail" but the Blackberry is a relatively new and emerging item. Any "field experience" will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for any help.”

“If I didn't have one supplied through work, I would probably use a PDA instead. I have a smaller Blackberry with a small screen which is handier than the newer models. The keyboard makes typing emails and reports nicer than trying to do the same thing with a cell phone.

I have to have access to a digital cellular wireless web and that is not available in many areas which do have regular cellular coverage. You can still compose reports and save them to be uploaded later.”

“Well you start with four cups of fresh blackberries, 3/4 cup of sugar....

Oops sorry, wrong thread.”

“GS - sounds like the one you have is the one I would want if it would work. The 850 and 950 (I think) are pager sized, not pda sized like the newer ones.”

“MM-They work very well. I would go with the t-900 or newer. you can get service through Arch paging. I use to work in that industry for about 2 years. It works very well.”

“we use them at my job. they rock. the range thing will be your biggest limitation. i have found that generally speaking, they have a little better range than cell phones but not nuch.”

“Sounds like this might be worth a try. If they range as well as cell phones I think it will work often enough. I don't need it to work everywhere, just most of the time.”

“Hey Binks -

Are you still planning on thru-hiking next year or is that out. I noticed in the "trips" page your signed up for the htru-hike and the Smokies Deathmarch.”

“MM-after I open the store in Oct, I don't think I;ll be able to thru-hike. I've been meaning to call you but haven't gotten to it yet.”

“BB - I thought as much when I saw how busy you were before the Smokies Deathmarch, and that was w/ just the online store. It's a good decision, though. It'll be so worth it.”

“I know- The online store is cranking right now and I still have tons and tons of product to add.”

“BlackBerry Reveals Bank's Secrets

From Wired.com (Topic: Security), Aug. 25:
The eBay ad read "BlackBerry RIM sold AS IS!" So Eugene
Sacks (not his real name), a Seattle computer consultant who
always wanted one of the pager-size devices to check his
e-mail, sent in a bid. For just $15.50, he bought the
wireless device with 4 MB of memory. The BlackBerry didn't
come with a cable, synching station, software or a manual.
But it did come with something even more valuable: a trove
of corporate data.

http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,60052,00.html”

“good article”