My first PDA was a Sharp Wizard. Then a Zaurus. Some Palm devices ending with the Kyocera flip phone. Then my wife, a corporate executive, convinced me the Blackberry was the cat's pajamas. That's what I use today and I have hated it ever since I followed my wife's advice.
Why does the Blackberry suck? I'm an independent consultant without access to RIM's enterprise software that seems to do the magic for anyone working for a company running Exchange coupled with the RIM enterprise server. So I have to use some lame crud built by Puma which only synchronizes when I tether my Blackberry to my desktop running Outlook. This is NOT a mobile solution. It is not a solution worthy of the sell RIM makes. When I first started trying to get my Blackberry to do ANYTHING my wife's did I was told by RIM support that there was something in the works that would give me what I wanted. Two years later there is still nothing.
The Blackberry is, in short, a useless piece of junk if you are not hooked up to Exchange Server and the RIM enterprise server. All it is for me is an extra large cell phone and tethered high speed modem - it doesn't even support bluetooth tethering even though it has bluetooth support. No voice recognition like the Kyocera. No touch screen like the Kyocera. A primitive user interface. And the most primitive synchronization.
I have tried the hack where you make the Blackberry desktop software think it's being installed on a corporate desktop with Exchange Server but without Exchange Server really there and that gives me about 25% of the solution but it's still a hack and not support by RIM.
Being an independent consultant, I run Outlook on my desktop which pulls mail from multiple accounts including my own domain, gmail, and yahoo mail. I need my cell phone/PDA to synchronize with Outlook in real time no matter where I am and as long as I am within range of a cell tower. Just like my wife's Blackberry. when I send an email from my cell phone/PDA I want to see it in my Outlook Sent folder when I return to my desk. If I send an email using Outlook I want to see it in the PDA's sent folder.
Here is my wish list:
Cell phone.
High speed internet.
Modem tethering via Bluetooth.
Touch screen.
Reasonable UI like the Palm PIM applications.
Wireless synchronization - not wi-fi synchronization - wireless as in cellular.
Outlook continues to work as it is with all my email accounts supported.
What my friends have told me:
"Buy a Windows server box and install Microsoft Business Server. Run my own Exchange Server and get a Windows Mobile phone."
"Windows Mobile phones crash a lot."
"Get an iPhone and look for some synchronization software from a third party." [I have looked an there doesn't appear to be a solution - besides, Apple and AT&T are still in bed together (looks like until 2010 now) and I refuse to go back to AT&T.]
"Get a Palm phone and install the GoodLink application." [Doesn't the GoodLink solution involve some kind of expensive enterprise solution like RIM?]
"Sign up for an enterprise service." [This doesn't work for me as I have multiple email services - at least I don't think it will.]
Does anyone out there have a great solution that works?
Kevin
