This blog post is quite late but none the less still appropriate.  I’ve had the BlackBerry 9780 for a few months now and want to share my thoughts on it.  This isn’t going to be a traditional review like most others, I’m just going to tell you what I like and dislike about it.  But essentially I liked it and would recomend it to someone who wants a good BlackBerry but doesn’t want to spend the big bucks to get the new 9900.

First off for the positives:

• It’s a BlackBerry so it obviously has a good keyboard.  It’s not the best I’ve used, that would go to the Nokia E6 or E71, but it’s pretty darn good.
• I like that it has a flash I can use as a flashlight (torch for my British friends) with the proper app.  But that’s something that should come built in to the phone from day one, it shouldn’t need a 3rd party app to be done.
• The screen is really nice, well at the time it came out I really liked it, it’s a bit dated now but none the less it does the job without a doubt.
• UMA is a life saver in my home/office.  It’s on the T-Mobile network in the US that seems to work everywhere but in my house even though the coverage map says it should.  So UMA makes it useable allowing voice and data to go over my wifi versus the TMO data network.
• Reception is surprisingly good though in my home even without the UMA, I’m still able to make calls but they do break up sometimes, where as on my Android phones I can’t even make a call.
• The feel of the 9780 is a bit bulky but very solid in my hand.  You won’t forget it’s in your pocket like you might with a BB Curve but if you like to FEEL your phone this is the way to go.
• Most importantly for me is the email, it is race car fast and always shows up.  If email appears on my iPhone or computer before the BB I think for a second, Is the BB broken? Yes it’s just that fast.
• Data consumption is minimal on this beauty, just like every other BB I’ve ever used.  I only used 35mb of data even installing new apps and syncing my expansive address book.  On other phones I can easily burn through hundreds and hundreds of mega bytes of data but the BB has never gone above 35mb.  This is key when traveling and potentially roaming in foreign countries where you are charged on a per MB basis from your carrier.  I personally use a Tru sim when I go abroad.  It’s literally saved me almost $40 on 1 single week long trip.
• Lastly and almost most importantly is battery life.  I’m a sucker for a good battery, something that will go the whole day, into the night and maybe even into the next work day.  Having kids I feel it’s a necessity to always be reachable and the excuse “my battery died” doesn’t help when your wife is calling frantically.  It’s also important when you’re jumping from airport to airport all day with no time to stop and play the iPhone game I like to call “Where’s the closest outlet?”.

Back in the early summer somewhere near the beggining of June I was in San Diego for the Uplinq conference put on by Qualcomm.  I was introduced to Craig Braun and thought the company he works for Shorthand Mobile has something very interesting going on.  They are brining data usage to people that may not usually be able to afford it utilizing sms in a very unique manner.  Watch the video and I think you’ll understand.

So I’m a huge BlackBerry fan.  I have been for a while now and used a BlackBerry as my primary device until my Nexus One got Gingerbread.  In that time I’ve switched from AT&T to T-Mobile and now back to AT&T.  The bottom line is I don’t have a BB plan on my account any longer and I’m of the understanding I can’t add it to my iPhone sim.  So I’ve put a spare sim into my BB and it works on many fronts but not for email.  I figured this would be the case and unfortunately BBM doesn’t work either but I can live with that.  But I can’t live without email, that and a battery that will go the distance, at least 1 full day is what I need from the BB.  Battery isn’t an issue but email is.  I’m currently using the Gmail Mobile app which is ok and liveable because it’s not my primary device.  My 2 issues is 1 not having color coded tags, yes I know, the iPhone doesn’t have that, but Android does and I want the best of all worlds.  I can live without it for now.

What I can’t live without is the Push.  I can’t live without it on a BB if I’m going to take it out and about like to a trade show.  I live in my email especially at trade shows and must have Push support.  I was told by a good friend that he uses this app for some of his email on his BB and I got the feeling he had is being Pushed.  I could have misunderstood him but that’s what it sounded like to me.

So my question to my readers is, Is there a way to get the BlackBerry Gmail Mobile app to sync more often and hopefully at near instant speeds?  I guess I could live at a 1-2 minute delay but not longer then that and that’s really pushing it.  Thanks!

I’ve been writing about Truphone since 2007 and I suspect using it even longer.  I was called the biggest Truphone fan by Ewan MacLeod back in 2007 or 2008.  I wish I could remember when they launched but boy oh boy was it amazing back then. Fast forward 5 years (I’m guessing) and you know what I’m using now?  A Truphone (now called Tru) sim and you know what, they are a legitimate MNO, mobile network operator.  They have their own towers and everything, small as it may be, it’s growing.  Well their sim card has evolved and changed and I think I’ve had every iteration of it.

Just days before I left for MWC ’11 back in mid February I was graced by a new sim card.  At the time, from my understanding it was 1 of only a dozen or so in existence.  Well the beauty of this sim card was not that it could make calls, use data or send/receive SMS but that it could do all of that IN A BLACKBERRY.  Yes that’s colossal news.  It’s the first time that I’ve known any international roaming sim to support BlackBerry use.  I could be wrong though. Anyways, I was in a BlackBerry phase and couldn’t imagine going to Spain without using my BB as usual and this sim made that possible without incurring ANY roaming charges.  This was amazing, I tested the sim before I left the US and it worked great but the real test was going to be on the ground in Barcelona and low and behold it worked just as it was supposed to.

This new sim in my opinion opens up a whole new angle for Truphone, they can now go after the business user who is tied to a BlackBerry.  I had a very nice set up for the week I was gone.  I had my Phone.com (a client) phone number forward to my US Truphone number so I could receive calls like normal.  I got all kinds of business calls while I was there without ever skipping a beat in service.  And to make calls I used a combination of my Truphone sim plus I was running the Phone.com Mobile Office app which allowed me to make calls using just a tiny bit of data via my Truphone sim.  It is a setting in the Mobile Office app that sets the app to call back your phone versus calling through.  It’s not complicated and saves a ton of money.  I had the best of both worlds using Phone.com and Truphone. One of the nicest parts about the Truphone sim is that you get 2 phone numbers, 1 US number and 1 British number.  I used my Phone.com number for business but was able to give my UK number out so friends in Europe and England could call and text me on it for cheaper then to a US number.  Europeans are much happier to call a UK number and Americans feel the same way about calling a US number.  And in my testing I could receive text messages on both Truphone numbers. There are many more benefits to the Truphone BlackBerry sim but I won’t go into all of them.  I will say thank you to Truphone and give their service and sim card 2 very big thumbs up (as usual for them).  It worked for me flawlessly and I can’t imagine traveling without it ever again.  If anyone travels abroad much I would even suggest transferring your regular cell number to Truphone and just use their sim all the time.  Check the rates in your country but it’s definitely something to think about.

Warning, I’m about to RANT:

I’m a huge fan of Google Maps.  It’s really a great stand alone app and it keeps getting better but I’m amazed that when they added Latitude they did not include (even just a basic form of) instant messaging with your Latitude friends.

Latitude shows you were your friends are on Google Maps, but how are you supposed to contact them if they are near by and you want to grab a drink?  I don’t want to have to call or SMS them, if I’m already in a Google application I should just be able to IM them from within the app.

With Google Voice now more widely available then it was before I think we should be able to SMS from within Latitude also.  It seems most of my friends have their mobile number showing when I click on their icon, so why can’t I send an SMS to it utilizing Google Voice?

That’s the end of my rant today, more to come later about more deep integration of services into our so called smart phones.

I am a pretty heavy email user and Mondays seem to be all about clearing out and responding to 2 days worth of email, that is until I started using mobile email. Now I am able to read my email over the weekend (if I’m inclined) and have it marked as read back in my inbox. My choice of mobile email providers is emoze (a client).  I find it very well integrated into my phone and it is very lite on my battery life.  Before using emoze I could read the mail but it would all still be marked as unread in my inbox.  I was using an unnamed service before and for some reason it just wouldn’t mark my messages read.

If you read my blog very often I’m a big fan of anything that saves me time and emoze is definitely a big time saver for me every Monday morning. For that matter I’m able to check my email before I even get to my computer every morning, which is nice because I can see if I need to rush into the office to deal with something big or just make my way in and get to work.

emoze is a real time saver for me and a tool I use all day every day.  It seems like I reach for my phone first before going to the mail on my computer because my phone alerts me first and it’s just all around easier sometimes.  I give emoze a big thumbs up.

If you want to try emoze you can download it directly to your phone at emoze.com from your mobile browser.

If you have any questions you can reach emoze on Twitter at @emozepushemail or email me at Jeb@emoze.com.

So I’m very excited about the E72.  It’s going to rock, blah blah blah, I can talk about it for hours.  I think it will change a few things for many people.  It looks like your average QWERTY keyboard phone, it will have good email (I use emoze), it will hopefully include Ovi Contacts (but I’ll still download my current favorite IM app called Palringo), the voice quality and speaker phone will be Nokia esqu… great, and it will be an all around solid phone.

Now what I think may change things for people is the 5mp camera built in.  It is not N97 quality but I think people will start to leave their point and shoot cameras at home and start relying more on their phone.  We’re already seeing this but the E72 is the first business class Nokia that will have a 5mp shooter.  It will give people the option to leave their pocket camera at home.  Or in my case leave the N97 or N79 at home.

Do you leave your P&S at home or do you lug around a small camera and a camera phone?  If you do or plan on owning a 5mp camera phone do you think you would leave a pocket camera at home more?  Let me know what you think.

So as many of my readers know emoze is a client of mine and I tend to write about them a great deal.  We are going to be launching an emoze blog very soon so there will be a great deal less posting about emoze on here.  This post is all about emoze but it’s definitely for this blog.

I have been using emoze for a while now on my beloved Nokia E71 but I was also using Nokia Messaging at the very same time.  I am a bit of a mobile email enthusiast and pretty addicted to being connected all the time.  I generally checked different email addresses with each of the different apps but a few weeks ago Nokia Messaging went down.  It is a good email app but just not super reliable.  I got tiered of not being able to count on it to always be getting my email.  So what do I do, I decide to go solely with emoze.  I could not be happier.  I have been using just emoze to collect my mail for a few weeks now and it has been wonderful.  I have the icon on my home screen letting me know all is well with emoze and I’m reliably getting all my messages now.

emoze is just rocking and rolling and I’m very excited about what’s coming out soon.  I’ll share a little secret, it has to do with emoze push email on the iPhone.  I know many of you are waiting patiently and I only ask that you continue.  I know it’s not easy but we want to get this right for you.

Blackberry is in trouble, I mean deep trouble.  The trend lately has been for anyone and everyone to go out and pick up a smart phone when it’s time for a new phone.  People are no longer just getting ultra basic phones and only making calls and sending sms on them.  The masses want more from their device, they expect a phone to check the weather, access Twitter, surf the net, get driving directions and I think most common, offer email access.  Email has been a staple for Blackberry since it’s inception and for the most part they have done a great job with it.  Of course some people have a few niggles here and there but bar none Blackberry was the mobile email standard.

Up until a few years ago mobile email was kept in the echelons of the corporate executive and the upper class.  Recently it has gone mainstream (do to Rims excellent marketing) and Rim has been able to milk that and in some peoples minds create a demand for mobile email for all.  Well Rim may have kicked themselves in the shorts.  They created a void with people who want mobile email but can’t afford or don’t want/need a Blackberry device.  People who want email on their phone now have more options then ever and don’t need to stick to a Blackberry.  This means Rim may be seeing a mass exodus to other popular devices like the iPhone, Palm Pre and Nokias vast number of smart phones.  Let’s not forget the dozens of smart phones that go unnamed but can handle downloading apps.  Blackberry is in serious trouble because now most phones can do email and in my circles everyone buying a new phone is getting a non Blackberry smart phone.  They are going for the iPhone,Nokia N97/E71/E75/6650/Surge, or Palm Pre.

Up until recently Rim has had a hold on the market and they’ve done such good product placement and advertising job even kids were getting Berries in mass.  It was the hip cool device to have.  Now times are shifting and people want more from their devices like better music player, camera, and video players.

emoze along with a few other email apps are filling the instant email void.  To the best of my knowledge emoze is the only option that will work on multiple platforms, including smart & dumb phones, Symbian S60, Windows Mobile, and push your email.  If you’re interested emoze (a client of mine) has a paid (about $13/yr) option and a free version.  Check it out at www.emoze.com.

Rim you need to get back to work and not stand on your laurels or you will get cut off at the knees.  You have something very good going but you need to rethink how you’re getting the word out and work on the younger hip crowd again.  Rim are you listening? Ping me and we can talk.