From the category archives:

Blackberry

T-Mobile Math

September 7, 2007

T-Mobile has had a Blackberry e-mail outage all day.  At first it was just the Portland area, but now it’s affecting folks nationwide.  I just got off the phone with their technical support, and they still don’t have an ETA for a fix.

What I found most amusing was this statement from support rep Christina:

The outage is showing as affecting 100% of subscribers, so that pretty much means everybody.

Ya think?

[tags]t-mobile, tmobile, techsupport[/tags]

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Reading Feeds with Google Reader on the Blackberry

August 15, 2007

I subscribe to a few hundred RSS feeds, and one of my planned uses when I got a Blackberry was to be able to read those feeds while mobile. I knew that Google had a mobile interface for Google Reader, but I wasn’t sure how things would work out. After using the device for a couple weeks and having read what is likely 1,000+ entries on the device, here’s what has emerged as my workflow:

  1. Open Google Reader in the browser: http://www.google.com/reader/m/view
  2. Scan the list of items.
  3. Based on the headlines, open the ones that I know will be relatively quick reads.
  4. For posts that require more in depth reading, or many external links, or I might want to blog about, use the Star feature to mark it for review.
  5. Once I’ve read everything on a screen, use the “Mark these items as read” link.
  6. The next screen of items will load and I’ll start the process again.

The biggest thing I’ve realized: Headlines REALLY matter. Since I’m not seeing snippets of the feed items, whether or not an item gets read is based entirely on the headline and blog name.

If anyone has a suggestion on how to make things smoother, I’m always open for suggestions. How do you read feeds on a Blackberry?

[tags]rss, googlereader, blackberry[/tags]

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Why I Chose Blackberry vs. IPhone

August 12, 2007

Since I got my Blackberry, several folks have asked (in person, on Twitter, via e-mail) why I didn’t get the iPhone. It’s a pretty easy answer.

I wanted the phone for messaging, reading feeds, Twittering, and phone calls. Not listening to music, not video, not trying to make a fashion/social statement.

The Blackberry’s actual keys and messaging-oriented software beat what the IPhone has to offer, and the Blackberry was 25% of the price.

It was a pretty easy choice.

[tags]blackberry, iphone[/tags]

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Blackberry: A Few Days Later

August 7, 2007

I’ve now had my Blackberry for five days and feel I can comment a bit more on the experience. If you want to see my first two posts about the device, go here or here.

Overall I’m pretty satisfied. I used to spend 10-15 minutes in the morning reading e-mail and critical feeds before I left the house; now I can do that on the train and either sleep in a few more minutes, or make myself a better lunch. Some further random thoughts on specific features:

  • I’m still getting used to the bigger size device when holding it as a phone. Be sure to try this out before you buy one… it’s different. It works fine for me but I’m pretty sure it would annoy some folks.
  • The browser works well and renders most mobile sites without any issues. So far my only site-specific complaint is that the mobile version of Metroblogging Portland won’t let you post comments. Twitter is lovely.
  • The calendar is synchronizing wonderfully with Outlook 2007 on my desktop. I’m using gSyncit to keep Outlook and Google Calendar in sync.
  • I gave the battery a full charge on Thursday night when I bought it. I have yet to charge it again. It’s been turned off for about 7 hours at night and had light voice and moderate data usage. I suspect I’ll charge it tonight but am impressed with the battery life thus far.
  • The task list sucks. Not being able to easily view categories, or any info on the main screen other than the description makes it cumbersome to do much. I’ve looked at NextAction! but am not sure if I’m ready to plunk down $40 on a task list. Palm version 1.0 did better than the current state of Blackberry task management.

Like I said, I’m pretty happy. This will probably end my blackberry posts unless I run into something particularly blogworthy.

[tags]blackberry, gsyncit, mobileweb[/tags]

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