Tags:
Hardware
Well
that was a weekend of frustration. Within an hour of getting my new
BlackBerry Tour, the brand new leading BlackBerry, home I was stunned to
realize that the basic BlackBerry e-mail client does NOT have IMAP folder
support. Seriously?? I live in my e-mail folders and e-mail
that can't access folders is utterly useless. I've set these up for
clients before but never realized that the Inbox is the only folder they
could see. To get full e-mail functionality you need a BlackBerry
Enterprise Server and need to pay yet another $15/month in fees (bring
the Blackberry data plan up to a whopping $45/month.) That's crazy.
I talked to a rep on Friday who said he would have the $35 restocking
fee waived, which I just reconfirmed with the rep I talked to a few minutes
ago who helped me convert my service back to my Dare. Whew.
I learned a few other things during
my brief BlackBerry experience. First, the operating system really
is somewhat old and clunky. I guess this new Tour is a bit updated
but basically all that means is the icons are different (in my opinion,
harder to figure out what they actually are.) But really, it's 2009
- the interface should be quite a bit jazzier, shouldn't it? At first
I thought the little trackball was pretty good and navigating around the
phone worked pretty well but I got tired of that pretty quickly and it
became difficult and painful. Scrolling left and right didn't work
as well as scrolling up and down and the ball felt kind of flimsy. Some
menu options (such as "delete" in e-mail) seemed to move around
sometimes - I never really knew where it was going to show up. The
web browser looked great at first but really wasn't as useful as I thought
and I needed to either borrow reading glasses to use it or zoom in and
scroll back and forth to read anything. It did not feel like progress.
So I guess you can say I'll never become
a "CrackBerry" addict. This thing will be back in the store
tomorrow morning. Then I'll start discussing their early termination
fee. Did I mention previously that I just got back from the Apple
Store where I played with an iPhone...? More to come...
Tags:
Hardware
Well,
just a few days after I posted about my cell phone dilemma I think I've
decided to take the plunge into the Blackberry world. Top choices
on Verizon Wireless are the old standby Blackberry Curve (yeah, really
- 2 years old is "old") and the newly released Blackberry Tour.
The Storm, the first touch-screen Blackberry, isn't that old but
it is almost universally panned as an epic failure so that's not an option.
I did some reading, listened to some advice, and decided that for
my first Blackberry the Curve is good enough. But then I did some
more reading and played around in the store again and damn, that Tour is
nice. It's no iPhone, but damn...
I convinced myself (I'm a pushover)
that it's worth the extra money for the Tour over the Curve - why should
I buy ancient technology? That's after I convinced myself that I
really should have a Blackberry at this point. I mean, I'm supporting
more and more clients with Blackberries and the best way to support them
is to have one myself.
So I called Verizon Wireless customer
service and ask if they'll bump up my annual renewal discount a week or
so so I can get the new phone today. Since I'm a long-time customer
(11 years) it was no problem. The very nice woman said to wait an
hour or so and I should be all set. I went down to the store to pick
up my new phone. After debating and playing with both I confirmed
that yeah, only the best for me. Then... uh oh. The guy at
the store said I wasn't eligible to upgrade until April of 2010. Huh?
A phone call to customer support later and it turns out that my request
is still "being worked on." April is my "new every
two" date, but August 2 is my annual upgrade date. I'm pretty
sure last year I upgraded a bit early too.
Well, a few phone calls later and my
date still hasn't been changed. Bummer - no new phone for me. In
fact, one or two of the reps I talked to tonight said it wasn't even possible
for me to have my date changed anyway. Seriously, every time you
call you get a different answer. This is by no means limited to just
Verizon, but it's darned annoying.
So there's still time to change my mind.
Curve... Tour... iPhone...??
Tags:
Internet
Google
frequently changes their logo on the search
site to reflect holidays and special
events. I thought today's logo was one of their best. Who knew,
was Google to the moon first...?
Also check out the latest version of
Google
Earth, where you can now browse
the moon.
Tags:
Internet
I
have been using Verizon's Mobile Email on my LG Dare for months now. It's
not great, but it's useful enough to check my e-mail and respond to important
messages when I'm out and about. I connect up to my company Lotus
Domino server via IMAP, which synchronizes messages. I could delete
messages, move them to folders, and reply.
Some time back, I'm not sure when, I
started noticing that when I deleted messages on my phone they weren't
getting deleted on the server. It was annoying but not enough to
worry about. Until it got really annoying. And until my clients
started complaining as well. I resisted calling Verizon technical
support, knowing what was going to happen, but eventually I had to do it.
I talked to a tech a week ago who actually seemed helpful. He
even tried it on a Dare himself using an account I set up for him on my
server. Then he disappeared. He didn't do anything and won't
respond to e-mail any more.
Take two, I called back today. Several
times. Eventually I managed to get through to someone who passed
me on to tech support. The guy I talked to said that Mobile Email
doesn't work that way - it just downloads messages. Um, it USED to
work that way. I mean, c'mon. Then he put me on hold for a
while so he could go back to school to learn about e-mail systems and telephones.
I doubt he ever heard of Alexander Graham Bell. He's probably
still stringing up tin cans. He finally came back and told me there
aren't any other settings on my account he can change - I should uninstall
and reinstall the application on my phone. Been there, done that.
He wasn't listening - it's not my phone, not my server. It's
a Verizon thing, and their service is far less useful than it used to be.
He's putting in a ticket with some other group but he didn't seem
very hopeful. I'm not either.
Is there anything more frustrating than
dealing with these companies...? When is my contract up again...?
Tags:
Hardware
Last
year I finally got a new cell phone, an LG
Dare. It had everything
I wanted, including a touchscreen for coolness factor and a QWERTY keyboard
that popped up when you rotate the phone. I've been a Verizon Wireless
customer for a long time now and this seemed to be becoming their premier
phone, so it was a no-brainer. The LG Dare is not a smart phone,
but I didn't need one. I occasionally need to check and respond to
e-mail when I'm away from computers and with Verizon Wireless Mobile Email
and the decent keyboard I am able to do so. The Dare also has a web
browser that is supposed to be one of the better ones. The screen
is just big enough to be somewhat useful to look something up but you're
not going to want to spend that much time browsing the web.
Fast forward 9 months and, well, I'm
kind of tired of the Dare. There are lots of arguments over which
is the better phone with diehard radicals on each side. I'm not that
crazy about things, but I do want some basic functionality to just work.
First, the Dare is also a phone, right? But it's clumsy to
get around sometimes and get the right screen up to hit the right button
at the right time. The e-mail solution worked for a while, but lately
it has not been synchronizing properly with my Lotus Domino/Notes e-mail,
and tech support has been no help. They've been less than no help
- they've just wasted a bunch of my time and haven't resolved anything.
I now have a client with the same setup with the same problem so
I know it's not just me. The web browser is pretty clumsy too, although
I don't really know if any other devices do it any better. The e-mail
and web browser applications are completely separate so if someone e-mails
me a link I can't click on it. That's something I know other phones
can do. I'm starting to think I might need a real smart phone that
can synchronize my e-mail, contacts, and calendar. I knew I was going
to get there eventually. Finally, the Dare apps available are just
pathetic. It's not critical, but those iPhone apps do look like a
lot more fun, and it seems like every time I turn around there's another
website optimized for the iPhone and a dozen new apps available.
I'm still on a Verzion Wireless contract
for another 14 months or so, but I'm getting itchy. And there are
rumors about that a version of the iPhone might be coming to Verizon. We'll
see if I can wait that long...
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