Thinking of Moving to BB Storm
 

Hopefully, I'm in the right place here.

I've had a Motorola Q (Windows Mobile) phone for 2 years now, so I'm pretty loaded up on software and I'm pretty set it my ways of doing what I need to do on Windows Mobile.

My NE2 is up on Verizon and I'm looking to get a new phone. There are no WM phones I'm interested in at the moment and it looks like the HTC Diamond and Touch Pro are pretty far off in the distance.

The BB Storm looks like it could be a great piece of hardware, but I'm pretty scared of jumping into the complete unknown of a new OS.

I guess I'll get this started by explaining some things I do/need to do and hopefully it can all be done on the BB system. If it makes a difference, let's assume all questions will be related to what can be done on the Storm, as opposed to other BB devices, if that matters.

1) Email - I use the phone for business and personal email. Right now, I use a 3rd party WM client and connect either on demand or sometimes via IMAP IDLE (sort of push). I've heard all about the BB email addiction. I want the ability to check on demand or to have it pushed to me, but only when I want it pushed. 90% of the time, I don't want any notification/downloading of new emails unless I actually go and check email. The business account is a hosted exchange account (which does have some sort of support for BB devices, though, based on the above, I'm not sure I'd want to set it up that way), the personal account is a gmail imap account.

2) Is there any way to sync my contacts and calendar with Outlook on my desktop? Can I sync over the air with my gmail calendar? I use the free oggsync now to do that on WM.

3) This is probably a tough one since the Storm isn't out, but maybe the answer can be based on other BB Verizon devices. I'm in a pretty low signal area and EvDO mode absolutely kills my Motorola Q battery. So, as a sacrifice, I've accessed a hidden menu and enabled 1x mode only. Will I be able to do that on the Storm? I'm hoping that somehow the storm pulls in a better signal or has a much better battery than my Q and this won't be necessary, but I have no way to know that now.

4) Can I run Opera Mini? In other words, can I run Java apps, which Opera Mini is one of. Because of #3 above, IE or Opera Mobile are real slow on 1x as I'm sure will be the default Storm browser, but Opera Mini is quite usable on 1x.

5) Can I use Avantgo on BB Storm? It looks like it's available for the BB, but no idea if it'll work on the storm
my.avantgo.com / rim

6) Music. Right now I sync using Windows Media Player. It looks like there's some BB program that will allow me to sync from ITunes? I think I could live with that if it's pretty simple. I don't really need to sync DRM'd music.

7) I use Google Maps/MS Live Search, but looks like I'll be ok with that on a BB.

8) Can I play videos? What formats are ok? I'm using TCPMP on WM now which pretty much takes any format. I'm already recompiling movies for the Q, so really shouldn't be a big deal to get them in whatever format the BB requires. It'll wind up being the same amount of work.

9) Any suggested sites where there's blackberry freeware/shareware type programs that i could look over? I do have a decent number of games. Not that I play them much, but it's nice to have that diversion there once in a while.

I assume it'll have a solid contact/calendar/alarm system so I wouldn't need a 3rd party program like I use on WM.
I'm sure I'll have some more questions shortly as well.

Anything else anyone want to comment on about my potential mobile OS switch?

Thanks in advance for any help. It's appreciated.

Let me try to answer some of your questions (numbering corresponds to your numbering):

1. Can't beat push email with a BlackBerry. Email is where it shines. You shouldn't have any problems. You can set up to 10 email accounts and have the emails pushed to your phone.

2. I'm not too familiar with OTA sync with Google as I don't use it, but as for Outlook, you can definitely sync your calendar, contacts, notes, tasks with the BB. That's what most people use.

4. I think Opera Mini for BlackBerries is a pretty standard software. Again you shouldn't have problems with it. BBs also come with their own browsers -- which I've found to be a bit better than Opera Mini for some things.

5. I use AvantGo on my BB, but I dont have a data plan. Worse come to worse if the software install doesn't work for you, you can just use it like you are visiting the website.

7. Google Maps work on BBs. There's also a BlackBerry Maps program built into the phones. Some debate about which is better.

8. Yes you can play videos. Dont think avi format works. I use the BlackBerry Desktop media manager to transfer my videos over to the phone and it converts it to mp4 format I believe.

Thanks for the quick response.

1) Yes, but what if there are times (most of the time) that I don't want the email pushed. I don't want business emails coming in all night when I don't want to look at them. Is it possible to only turn on push when I want to check email? This is my biggest concern about going to a BB.

2) Are you sure that applies to the Storm? I thought I had read something that the Storm was more consumer oriented, so I was worried the sync to outlook might not be there.

Download and check this out. It's the 4.7 simulator. ;)


https://www.blackberry.com/Downloads...897474079C1477

Email = most of the time when you get emails, you have a profile set up to alert you about incoming emails. If you are worried about off hours, just turn off your phone (like at night when you sleep) or simply switch to a different profile (which you can customize) so it doesn't alert you. The emails will be there if you want to check it.

Outlook = no, I'm not absolutely sure. But it wouldn't make sense for a BlackBerry with contact/calendar functions and not be able to sync it to Outlook, which is what most of the population uses for an organizer. Outlook is more consumer oriented than some of the other business alternatives.

you can turn off/turn on email reconcilation as wanted if you go with BES for your business email. I can't remember if that is a option for BIS accounts.

I'm not sure that's going to work either. Maybe it seems like a minor thing, but I don't want the emails sent to the phone unless I request them to be sent. See, this is my biggest fear of the BB and why I'm very hesitant.

I don't want to be out of work for a day, open my email program and see that I have 100 emails waiting for me, even if I'm not notified of each one. I just don't want them there.

I may turn on push email during the day or if I'm out somewhere and want to be notified of each email as it comes in, but, otherwise, I don't want the Storm to receive emails on it's own.

If there's no way to do that, then maybe the BB isn't for me.

Yep sounds like a BlackBerry is NOT for you.

Yeah. I agree. Unless you have multiple accounts and set up certain mailbox rules.

That'd be pretty surprising that you can't stop email from automatically coming to the device.

Playing around with the simulator, what's the option to Send Email to Handheld (Yes/No) in the email settings?

Since the hosted exchange service has IMAP access, I couldn't just create the account as an IMAP type account as opposed to using the service's blackberry connectivity option?

The simulator also answered question 3 with a Yes. I see there's a simple option for 1x only.

I am guessing you will not be on a Corporate BES. With that said there is no easy way to address stopping email. The BlackBerry has been designed to not play a tone / alert you when you choose but the data still flows.

It sounds like you are just going to be stressed knowing there are unread emails from work. You can't set the device to only grab when you want it. The BlackBerry was designed for people who want instant communication.

If this is truly an issue for you a Windows Mobile device would probably be best.

Yes, that's exactly it. I can get stressed out when I see unread emails from work.

We use appriver.com and yes, it appears as if they have a BES implemented in their hosted exchange service. With that being the case, still same answer?

What about my personal email that I access via IMAP? The BB would also constantly check that (no matter what) and notify me of all new emails in real time?

You can turn off Data and just have the phone working to avoid getting e-mails, also you can change the setting of send emails to handheld and that will stop them, but you won't get the e-mail that arrived at that time if you turn it on later.

Yes, that's the way BlackBerry is designed to work.
It's the reason why people choose BlackBerry over other Smartphones.

If this is NOT what you want, then don't get a BlackBerry.

There's really no good way of turning email off and on. If you're on BIS you'd have to remember to log into your carrier's BIS site to turn email delivery off and on each time and that's an incredible hassle IMO.

On BES I think you can disable mail delivery via options on the BB itself. Still, I don't see the point. However, if unread email being delivered to your device bothers you then I'd also say that the BB isn't for you. If you want to specify when you receive mail then you should really look into a pull device.

Sounding like, yes, a BB might not be for me.....and that's why I started this whole threat. I've been using WM for 2 years now. I wouldn't say I'm overly happy with it, but it does what I need, how I need.

Seems like connecting through a BES definitely isn't going to work for me.

Still, I haven't heard how the BB handles just regular personal mail that's in an IMAP or POP3 account? It just constantly polls those types of accounts with no way to stop it from downloading that email?

I answered that above.
Yes, it constantly pushes new messages to your device. That's the nature of a push email system. The BlackBerry is a push email device.

Ok. I must have missed that.

Unless anyone else has any other ideas, sounds like no Storm for me then.

I had used AvantGo back in the Palm Pilot days. I now consider AvantGo little more than a virus. Avoid it at all costs as it's a steaming pile of dung that does not work as advertised, at least on the Blackberrys I have tried it on. Plus, AvantGo's time has come and gone. It is a pathetic solution compared to using a data plan and an RSS reader like Viigo.

Sure Avantgo is a little dated, but since I have had to turn off EvDO in exchange for any semblance of battery life, it's nice to be able to download articles in one batch and read them offline.