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Posts with tag Blackberry

What to know before switching from Blackberry to iPhone

Thinking of making the switch? No, not Windows to Mac, Blackberry to iPhone! There's a great list of what you need to know to ensure a smooth transition at Web Worker Daily (WWD). Some of the highlights include the ease of moving applications between home pages and multiple calendar support.

It's not all wine and roses on the Apple end of things, though, and WWD lists the email experience as the Blackberry's domain. It's a very thorough list, and one we'd recommend to the informed consumer looking to ditch the 'berry. Read the full article here.

Missing Sync for iPhone: Windows Version



The wizards of sync at Mark/Space have announced the availability of The Missing Sync for iPhone (for Windows). This is the Windows edition of the package that takes PIM data from your existing Palm OS, BlackBerry, Symbian OS, or Windows Mobile device and moves it to your sparkly new iPhone.

Like its Mac counterpart, the Windows version of The Missing Sync for iPhone comes with three separate applications that let you pull your SMS text messages, Call Log, and Notes from the iPhone. The app is available from Mark/Space for $39.95 and runs on PCs with Windows XP or Vista. To use the Migration Assistant feature of The Missing Sync for iPhone, you'll also need to have Microsoft Outlook 2003 or 2007 on your PC.

The Missing Sync for iPhone comes in English, French, and German localized versions.

In the interest of full disclosure, I wrote the User Guide for The Missing Sync for iPhone under contract to Mark/Space.

John Mayer found cheating on Apple, again

John Mayer has been closely related with Apple for years. He has played after multiple keynotes and he got his MacBook Air earlier than anyone else. I wonder how Apple feels about his latest blog posting? Yeah, that's right, his new cell phone is a... erm, how should I put this nicely... a Blackberry? Seriously, John, did you ever even consider that your friend Steve might give you an iPhone?

We first noted John's two-timing tech ways when Blackberry/RIM sponsored his concert tour in the summer of 2007, but we always held out hope that his heart was in the right place. So much for our shattered popstar dreams.

[via Gizmodo]

iPhone owners do everything but talk

I always pay my iPhone bill with the phone itself. It's simple -- touch settings, then phone then AT&T services. In just a few seconds, I can wave about $70US goodbye. What a world!

There are other options on that screen, like "View my minutes," which I usually check when I pay my bill. As of right now, I'm looking at 1300 roll over minutes. This can only mean one thing:

I rarely use my iPhone as a phone.

I'm not alone. According to a report on International Business Times, 46.5 percent of iPhone owners spend the time they use their iPhones engaged in voice calls (that number is 71.7 percent for BlackBerry owners).

Also, iPhone owners in the US claim to spend 12.1 percent of their iPhone time on the net (compare that to 2.4 percent for all other mobile phones on average), and nearly 12 percent of their time listening to audio (compared to 2.5 percent for others).

In observing my own behavior with the iPhone, I use it most often as an iPod, and then to check email and use the net (Twitter mostly). For me, the iPhone is a computer that just happens to make phone calls, not a phone with some cool features. It appears I'm not the only one with this opinion.

TUAW Faceoff: iPhone Vs. Blackberry



In my continuing quest to find, paraphrasing a bit from Lord of the Rings, "one device to rule them all," I've gone through so many different phones, "smart" phones and other devices like them that I've pretty much lost track of how many, which ones and when I used them all. They're all a bit of a blur from the Palm Treo 650 to the Sony Ericsson P910i to products from T-Mobile and Nokia. In short, name a device and I've probably tried it and, for one reason or another, found it wanting.

After trying so many different devices, I finally settled on the Blackberry 8700g as the one that most completely satisfied my needs for an all-in-one phone, contact, calendar and email tool I could take with me instead of having to lug a computer everywhere or a separate PDA and phone. The Blackberry had many things going for it: decent interface, speedy response, best-of-class email handling and it was even a pretty good phone too -- something that several of my other previous choices (which shall remain nameless) failed to be.

But as good as the Blackberry was, it was soon eclipsed by a shiny new device: the iPhone. From the moment the iPhone was announced, I felt certain it would finally be the one device that would be able to handle everything I wanted it to handle plus have the multi-media capabilities, ease of use and brilliant design Apple was famous for. Then, in June of last year, the iPhone was finally in my hands and I was off and running.

During the months that followed, I grew to love the iPhone and most of its features. It quickly became an indispensable tool capable of so much. However, I still felt like it was lacking a bit in some areas and I also started to miss some of the things about the Blackberry and they way it handled certain functions.

Continue reading TUAW Faceoff: iPhone Vs. Blackberry

What's the deal with Entourage 2008 and Blackberry sync?

If you've got a Blackberry that you plan to sync with Entourage 2008 (other than via Exchange and a Blackberry Enterprise Server, which could give two figs for your client application -- although as a commenter points out, BES still doesn't fully support sent mail or read/unread sync from Entourage), you might run into some difficulty. No, you'll be fine. Well, now we're not sure. What's all this fuss about?

Let's start with this post from MacWindows, which raises the alarm: Microsoft dropped direct BlackBerry syncing in Entourage 2008, the headline reads. Uh-oh, whatever shall we do? The article reports that the plug-in that enabled direct synchronization of Entourage to Blackberries will not be supported in 2008 by Microsoft or Missing Sync, and all synchronization must take place via Apple's Sync Services framework.

Gosh, that's scary news, except that it's complete hogwash, says Mac pundit/gadfly John Welch. While Entourage 2004 did support Palm synchronization via a HotSync plugin that's now absent in 2008, the Blackberry sync process was always handled by Entourage's interface to Sync Services, the same underlying technology that connected Entourage to Address Book and iCal. Did MacWindows talk to someone at Mark/Space who mixed up the two sync technologies, or was the confusion on the reporting end? Welch is pretty sure where the problem lies.

All that said, it should be safe to sync Entourage with your Sync Services clients, right? Not so fast, say the mavens at the Entourage Help Blog. Since Entourage 2008 shipped, there have been plenty of reports of issues with Sync Services, including some catastrophic cases of data loss. The recommendation of the experts is to leave Sync Services off for now until Microsoft can address some of these problems. Once that's taken care of, both Mark/Space and PocketMac say that Entourage 2008 should be supportable for calendar and contact sync. What a relief.

iMobiMac tethering for Blackberry hits private beta

Lo, and the cries of the Mac Blackberry faithful went up, and indeed they were a fractious multitude: "Where is our dial-up networking?" they wailed. "We are paying for data service on these things, and it's EVDO, and everyone else is doing it!" And they saw that those with Intel Macs could tether their Blackberries within Parallels or VMware, and did get online after a fashion, but they said "This is a silly hack, not good." And they saw that Pulse would give them a proxy server and Bluetooth, but they cried "This is slow, and we crave USB!"

And the developers of iMobimac did hear this loud kvetching, and did indeed release upon the multitudes a private beta of a new, USB-based DUN tool. No way to gauge final performance yet, and the beta release notes warn that Safari may not detect the proxy server running on your machine, but it's a start. You may sign up for the beta at the iMobimac site, and may the broadband be with you.

John Mayer's calls to Steve Jobs no longer returned

John, John. OK, dude, behind the sensitive rock star/guitar god front, we know you're a not-so-secret Mac geek. Sure, you jammed out to Message In A Bottle with the Police at Live Earth, but wasn't it just as big a thrill to be onstage for a legendary Stevenote? Wasn't it good, John? Good enough for you?

Apparently Mr. "I'm Going To Serenade The Macworld Faithful" has been sneaking around the country with some other company's smartphone. Sure, Blackberry might sponsor your summer tour, and even provide some exclusive photos and video, but we know what kind of mobile device you're keeping in the pocket closest to your heart, with your guitar picks... and its name begins with 'i' and ends with 'one,' if you know what I'm talking about.

*sniff* Two-timing creep. I'm taking all the photos of you down from my locker RIGHT NOW.

Note: Comments have pointed out the striking similarity between this story and Fake Steve's take on the same issue. While I can think of nobody better to flatter by imitation, the deal is this: I wrote this post very early Wednesday morning (about 1:30 am ET), FSJ's post not yet published. My post was published at 11 am ET on Wednesday, and I hadn't read FSJ's post... which is timestamped 6:58 pm, Wednesday 7/11. Even if FSJ's on UK time, that's still well after my post went live. So... let's just go with "great comedy minds think alike" and call it a day, mmmkay? (Much love, FSJ.)

Most so-called iPhone alternatives are nothing of the sort

I think a lot of people are getting confused as to what expensive phones are actually designed for. Analysts are trying to compare the iPhone to efforts from other companies, or folks like Walt are touting the Nokia N95 and BlackBerry Curve as potential alternatives.

While I might be a little biased since I write for TUAW, I still think these are bad comparisons. Just because a phone costs north of $400 or $500, doesn't mean that phone is designed for the same purposes as any other phone in the general vicinity of its price. Take the Nokia N95, for example - it's an über-camera phone (which costs nearly $800, by the way). That's what it does. It has a freaking 5 megapixel camera that is making mobile photo geeks go nuts, and that's what it should do. It doesn't have any form of a full QWERTY keyboard, and it isn't designed to be a full-featured multimedia rollercoaster ride of music, movies, and podcasts. It's an über-camera phone. Period.

Continue reading Most so-called iPhone alternatives are nothing of the sort

iPhone and Enterprise

When you think of business and Internet-enabled cell phones, you probably think of Crackberry Blackberry. Why not think "iPhone" instead? That's what AT&T would like. They plan to market the iPhone to business users and are working on making sure that enterprise billing and support will be ready when the iPhone launches, according to a recent Macworld article. Some analysts disagree. Macworld quotes Ken Dulaney of Gartner, who thinks an enterprise iPhone would be a "serious mistake". Without a removable battery and with its driving-unfriendly button-less interface, Dulaney thinks the iPhone has definite business shortcomings. On the bright side, the iPhone is just as likely to wake you at 3 in the morning to the insane ravings of your boss as a standard cell phone.

Missing Sync for Blackberry out of beta


Rejoice, o ye owners of Pearls and such: Mark/Space's Missing Sync for Blackberry is out of beta and on sale today. $40 for new licenses, $20 for cross-grades from other Missing Sync editions... but wait, you say, isn't PocketMac for Blackberry free of charge now? Yes it is, and you get what you pay for. (Kidding. Much love, PocketMac.)

A couple of key features in MSfB for the road warriors among us: iTunes and iPhoto syncing for capable devices (eh), you can charge your Blackberry via your laptop's USB ports (yay!), and Notes sync now includes Yojimbo as a data source (YAY!). Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be a demo download available at the moment, so I suppose you pays your money and you takes your chances.

Missing Sync for BlackBerry Preview Released

Back in January we mentioned the forthcoming release of Missing Sync for BlackBerry from Mark/Space scheduled for a nebulous "Q1 2007." Yesterday Mark/Space hit the mark, making a "Preview" edition available for download. Like the other "Missing Sync" products, the BlackBerry edition will sync your contacts, iCal calendar entries, notes, iPhoto pictures, iTunes tracks and more (though some of these require more advanced devices like the BlackBerry Pearl). The site lists compatiblity with several different series of BlackBerry devices running version 4.0 and later of the BlackBerry OS. Be sure to check out the known issues page before you download.

Mark/Space does not appear to have announced final pricing, but they do note that they will offer upgrade pricing for registered users of Missing Sync for Palm and Windows Mobile. The preview is available for download now (scroll all the way to the bottom of the page).

[Via MacNN]

Missing Sync for Blackberry coming soon

If you haven't yet made arrangements to sell your Blackberry to an unsuspecting family member on May 31, you might be interested in some syncing options that are more, shall we say, fully featured than the free PocketMac 4. Sync ninjas Mark/Space are working on 'black(berry) to the Mac future' with The Missing Sync for Blackberry.

No specific shipping date other than 'Q1 2007,' but when it does arrive it will allow direct sync with iCal and Address Book plus a standalone notebook app; other PIM apps will sync through via iSync and hence to the Blackberry. If we can get a pair of eyes over to Mark/Space's booth at Macworld, we will check it out.

Thanks Jeff L.

iPhone market fallout: RIM racked, Palm pounded


If your stock ticker symbol is RIMM or PALM, today would have been a good day to stay in bed. The trend noted in this Engadget post from 2 pm ET kept on going through the trading session, with Blackberry-maker Research in Motion losing nearly 8% on the NASDAQ and 7.7% on the Toronto exchange. Palm suffered nearly as badly, with Nokia and Motorola posting much smaller declines. For the homes of the Treo and the Pearl, "Black Tuesday" represented a total loss of market value approaching $2.2 billion dollars. Meanwhile, Apple's one-button bounce on the day was a stunning $6.1 billion.

Seems that Wall Street got Steverino's message loud and clear; he expects to take his 1% of cellphone market share right off the top, and he is definitely playing for keeps.

I'm guessing that this "Sponsored by Blackberry" ad button won't be showing up on any more CNET videos, either.

Thanks Florian!

How To: Tether a Samsung BlackJack to get your Mac online

About a month ago I swallowed the poison and picked up a Cingular BlackJack, a new Windows Mobile Smartphone (I know, I know). I had been looking to step up to some sort of a PDA phone so I can surf and keep on top of WIN/TUAW business without having a MacBook sewn to my head, and so far it's been working out well. The one thing I haven't been able to figure out yet is how to use this cutting-edge HSPDA phone (a new high-speed wireless data network) as a modem - until now.

While cruising Smartphone Thoughts (a good resource for other WinMo5 users in the audience) and their forums, I found this post at Mobility Today by David Ciccione that describes how to use a BlackBerry 3G Driver (of all things) to tether a BlackJack to a Mac for getting online. It isn't a simple process, but I just went through the paces and can confirm - it works.

Now before you run off and start tethering your BlackJack to your Mac all over the place, I want to add a few things to Mr. Ciccione's awesome work so everyone in our diverse audience knows what they're getting into. First off: if you don't have the proper data plan with Cingular, I have no idea if or how much they'll charge you per KB or MB for connecting, even if you're just testing this out. Try this at your own risk - we can't be responsible if you connect and start downloading movies from the iTunes Store, only to get a $300 bill for data next month. Call Cingular, like I did, before you goof around with this to make sure you have the right data plan. For what it's worth, I have the $20/month Smartphone unlimited data plan, which gets to fly under the radar of their ~$50 PDA data plan since it's a 'Smartphone' instead of a full-blown Pocket PC phone or data card for a notebook.

Continue reading after the jump for some add-on tips and gotchas to make this a smooth and worthwhile process.

Continue reading How To: Tether a Samsung BlackJack to get your Mac online

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