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Need phone/PDA advice

S

spikespiegal

Golden Member
Unfortunatley I spend too much time in the server farm and not enough time staying up with the latest gadgets. The other day the VP of sales asked me for advice on what phone/PDA to get so he could get E-mails and also do voice on the road, and I had no idea what to tell him. He may be a 'suit', but he's a good guy and I offered to research it for him.

He wants to stay with Verizon (preferred), or Cingular. Phone must otherwise be novice proof and easy to use. I've used some of the BlackBerrys and approve of their ergonomics, although I'd prefer to avoid them for other reasons.

Biggest criteria is the phone does a good job handling E-mail, and be easy ot use in that respect. The couple of BlackBerry's I've set up have been a nightmare requiring additional forwarding servers be put on our network, which isn't going to happen. I prefer the gadget be able to handle it's own basic PoP mail without an intermediate service, and do so reliably. Advice?
 
Blackberry. Period.

I'm sorry, but you have to get with it and realize that it may require a little bit of work on your end to make things easy for your users.

And if you have more than a couple users with Blackberries, you really should be running an Enterprise server, which is a breeze to set up and administrate if you are using Exchange or Notes for mail.
 
Well, there really only are a few choices.

The Motorola Q, the XV6700, a Blackberry, or a Treo.

I have the XV6700, and it can pull mail from a POP3 server just like a regular mail client. It has built-in wifi so you can pull mail from any hotspot, or you can use Verizon's widely available broadband network.

The Q looks nice, but no touchscreen left me a little disinterested. Our office moved over to the Treo 700w, and it's nice but it doesn't have built-in wifi.
 
I'm sorry, but you have to get with it and realize that it may require a little bit of work on your end to make things easy for your users
Click to expand...

Several of our roaming staff aren't using BlackBerry's, and Pop'ing our mail server just fine without having to fart around with BlackBerrys additional strap ons just to provide basic mail functionality. Problem is they aren't using Verizon or Cingular. I'd consider the BlackBerry enterprise server only if it were free like it should be.

So, it looks like there are alternatives to BlackBerry, but thank you for reading the post.
 
Originally posted by: spikespiegal
I'm sorry, but you have to get with it and realize that it may require a little bit of work on your end to make things easy for your users
Click to expand...

Several of our roaming staff aren't using BlackBerry's, and Pop'ing our mail server just fine without having to fart around with BlackBerrys additional strap ons just to provide basic mail functionality. Problem is they aren't using Verizon or Cingular. I'd consider the BlackBerry enterprise server only if it were free like it should be.

So, it looks like there are alternatives to BlackBerry, but thank you for reading the post.
Click to expand...
BES is free for a single user. And...I read your post. It was severely lacking in detail, except that you emphasized ease of use for your users and a concentration on email functionality, which is precisely what Blackberry devices do. I'm not saying other devices won't do the same (I love my MDA), but no one has beaten Blackberry at those requirements.

Anyways, you don't have to fart around with anything. All providers are now using BIS2.0 and it'll do exactly what you want it to. Enter a email address & password on the BIS site and it'll start POPing away. POP sucks, but that's a discussion for another day.
 
You by chance use IMAP on your BlackBerry or something?

If BIS is so wonderful, why do the users I know using it often have to wait what seem like days to get their mail? I then have to deal with that providers gauntlett of RBL filtering and other nonsense.

No thanks. Path of least reistance I've found is pulling mail directly from our mail server. Win95 can do it - why can't your PDA?
 
This is silly. Go ahead and get him a Treo 700p then, jack of all trades, master of none, and expensive to boot. He'll feel like a hotshot too.
 
Originally posted by: spikespiegal
You by chance use IMAP on your BlackBerry or something?

If BIS is so wonderful, why do the users I know using it often have to wait what seem like days to get their mail? I then have to deal with that providers gauntlett of RBL filtering and other nonsense.
Click to expand...

Because they're doing something wrong? BES gives you push-email. Your emails will arrive on the blackberry in real time, there's no need to ever click a "send and receive" button and wait for everything to download at once.

What do you use for your business email service? POP3 and IMAP are both useable protocols for end-users but are most definately not the best methods for email in a corporate environment.
 
Originally posted by: spikespiegal
I'm sorry, but you have to get with it and realize that it may require a little bit of work on your end to make things easy for your users
Click to expand...

Several of our roaming staff aren't using BlackBerry's, and Pop'ing our mail server just fine without having to fart around with BlackBerrys additional strap ons just to provide basic mail functionality. Problem is they aren't using Verizon or Cingular. I'd consider the BlackBerry enterprise server only if it were free like it should be.

So, it looks like there are alternatives to BlackBerry, but thank you for reading the post.
Click to expand...

Treo 700 series ftw.
 
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