Thursday, November 16, 2006

From Treo to Blackberry ... what will I miss?

Big company is a blackberry place.
If you're sufficiently senior you can obtain a blackberry enterprise license without much difficulty. Mine came today.

Why would I want one - neither my calendar or e-mail synch with my palm treo wirelessly. When I send e-mails to colleagues at Big Company they bounce back. Not good.

Yesterday meetings changed times so quickly I had a different schedule after returning from the rest room.

It seems that those with blackberry's have no inhibition about firing off 10-20 e-mails while in other meetings. The rate of e-mail flow is insane. Just leaving your desk puts you out of the loop.

I need to switch to blackberry. Big Company gets discounts so I'm buying the best black berry I can buy and an unlimited data plan. The initial cost will be about $150 --- to bad I can't get the Pearl - supposed to be nicer.

All I wonder is:

1. Will my treo still work as a basic palm pda?
2. what will i be losing?

Here are some programs I run on my palm treo - the ones with stars are invaluable:

*Mobipassword
*Documents to go
Sudoku
BDicty (dictionary)
Memos (built in notes)
Pocket Quicken (very helpufl at financial moments
My Roots (use rarely)
Wine Guide (fun, use a few times a month)
Worldmate (fun, esp when travelling)
Money Mag Fin Asisitant

Any idea what replacements I can find for a blackberry?

Regards,
makingourway

PS Then there's the other issue of segregating personal data from company data - any thoughts?

6 comments:

Madame X said...

I'm getting a Blackberry for work soon too, and have a similar dilemma. I hope people leave you some good tips!

The Sarcasticynic said...

Wish I could help, but I don't own a BlackBerry, or many of the other high tech devices. Too complicated for my post-retirement lifestyle.

http://sardonicynic.blogspot.com/2006/04/free-blackberry.html

makingourway said...

See today's posting here for a discussion of available software.
regards,
makingourway

adam said...

You should consider sticking with the Treo and using GoodLink (although Big Company would have to support it). Also, there is a Palm Blackberry connector that allows the Treo to talk to the Blackberry server just like another Blackberry. I haven't used this, but it looks like it would work for you: Blackberry Connect

OwtoBahn said...

You indicate your company uses Blackberry Enterprise server.

If you are in any sort of regulated industry, they likely also enfore policies on individual Blackberries. You probably already know if this applies in your case, but at my firm they restrict all thrid party software, the bloothtooth modem tethering, bluetooth headsets must support 128 bit encryption (some cars don't), etc.

Keep a second device for your personal stuff is my recommendation.

OwtoBahn said...

You indicate your company uses Blackberry Enterprise server.

If you are in any sort of regulated industry, they likely also enfore policies on individual Blackberries. You probably already know if this applies in your case, but at my firm they restrict all thrid party software, the bloothtooth modem tethering, bluetooth headsets must support 128 bit encryption (some cars don't), etc.

Keep a second device for your personal stuff is my recommendation.