BB vs. iPhone4 - Can the iPhone do these things?
 

I'm considering switching to it, but I've been with my BB for almost 4 years now, and love so many things about it, wondering how the iPhone would stack up vs. a Bold 9700 let's say, which I assume will do things just like my current BB Pearl.

I'm in the office pretty much all the time, so don't need to type a lot of emails, which I know the keyboard on the BB would be better for. I'm mainly reading emails the occasional time when I'm away from desk and out of office. I won't need to have my work emails synchronized with Outlook at work either.

What about these things? How does the iPhone handle them?

1. Separate icons per email address on your desktop, so you can decide if you want to only check certain ones (I avoid reading my work emails after hours :-)
2. Sync Outlook contacts and auto sync calendar upon receipt of email
3. Different commands for when in and out of holster, for each email address, and for different things (like for phone, text msg, etc.) You can set it up to vibrate x times for example when in holster when phone rings, but not to vibrate at all if out of it. Set which email address to flash the led, and which ones not to.
4. Silence ringer by pushing volume key easily
5. Backups easy
6. Voice dialing
7. MP3 as ringer. Different ringer per person.
8. Marking emails as opened. I really like this, because when I'm in the office, I occasionally mark all as opened, and then it's easy to spot the new ones if I leave the office and can read just those.
9. Call history per number
10. Multi task while on phone, like read and reply to texts, etc.
11. Autotext for typing words (wer gets changed to we're)

1 Yep
2 Nope, if I read you question correctly
3 Yes across the board; for the those devices on OS5 you can set the variable vibration
4 Nope.
5 Yep
6 Yes
7 Absolutely
8 Of course
9 Sure
10 Yep
11 Yes

J, thanks for the repy to all my questions! I'm happy to hear the iPhone can do most of the things my BB can do!

As far as the sync'ing of contacts goes, I thought it can do so? Basically, I've got 600 or so contacts right now in Microsoft Outlook on my PC. I don't use wireless sync'ing. Everytime I connect my BB to the PC and turn on Desktop Manager, and click Sync, it tells me which of the two (BB or PC) has changes made to it, and then you can say to update the other with the change.

So if I make changes over a week to my contacts in Outlook, and then hook up the BB, it lets me update the BB with those changes. Any changes I've made in the meantime on my BB, will get updated on my Outlook contacts.

For calendar entries, when I get a meeting request from someone (via an email), my BB automatically inserts it into the calendar after having received it, so the calendar is also sync'd with my Outlook, without me ever having to sync it using Desktop Manager. (I only sync my contacts).

Please tell me these two are doable on the iPhone! :-o

Actually #4 is YES... there's a little "flick switch" to switch between vibrate and ring.

J, you sure you can mark a bunch of emails as read (#8)? Or mark all prior to a certain point as read?

I came across this link which seems to say it didn't make it in... Bummer!

iPhone Mail Review - Mobile Email Program - About Email

Yes the iphone will do this. It does if you are using an Exchange account, anyway.

Hmmm... Right now I'm not using an Exchange account, and the BB seems smart enough to recognize when it's a Meeting Request, and inserts it into my calendar automatically, the same way Outlook does when I get Meeting Requests from other people.

I think I read somewhere also that Microsoft Outlook contacts can by sync'd but you need to use iTunes to do so.

Lotus, my mistake, I answered those questions that the 9700 could do those things, not from an iPhone point of view. So... all my yes yep sure, answers were about the 9700. :)

LOL! I'm toying with getting an iPhone, so need to figure out how much I'd miss a BB...

I'm surprised the 9700 can't do a few things then that my almost 4 year old Pearl can though! Contacts must be sync'able I'm sure, and it's interesting that they've done away with pressing the volume key to silence just the one incoming call. That's a very useful and discreet feature I find.

You will miss your BB I am 99.9% sure of that!

I switched from Iphone to blackberry and am very happy, Iphones are overrated

Hi,
Please let me know how to create separate icons for each email account to see on home screen. This is the only reason I am hanging with BB now. I like iPhone4 but need to have this features badly. Please post the instructions.

Thanks in Advance
Diskve

Hi Lotus99,

I was wondering if you did find any solutions for separate icons for each e-mail box. Should I know this within an hour I will go and buy iPhone.

Appreciate your help.


Thanks
Disve

everything can be done on the iphone with the right 3rd party software . its all about if you want to spend the money on the software . alot of people prefer the blackberry because many of the things you ask about are done with in the system itself .

Please suggest a the app in iPhone that does separate icons for different e-mail accounts.

If the iPhone has OS 4 upwards, you can go into mail and view an inbox with all items, or individual mail accounts' inboxes.


To me, iPhone on ActiveSync (Exchange 2007) is OK for rough and ready users who literally want to check a message or send one.

It irritates me that I cannot mark things as read/undread, flag for follow up, or indeed any advanced feature at all. Read and send. And file. That's all I can do on iP3GS.

And now with the new Torch coming out in Canada soon, my decision has been complicated! I read a few reviews on it though, and their were not very impressed? Sounded like the reviewers' expectations were a bit high for it though, as if they were expecting it to be as good as the new iPhone.