[southlander]

RIM is no more.* Long live BlackBerry.

* Technically not until later this year but the old company name is dead, even more dead than BIS email which lives on for legacy devices.

Yeah I know. But it's still RIM to me.

[Omnitech]

Blackberry (who let's be real, already long ago became a nobody in the phone market) is trying to break back in, in an established and oversaturated market, while saving penuts by eliminating features and as a result abandoning it's existing core customers?

Honestly, I think the USB PIM sync issue is a triviality compared to what might happen if all the Blackberry customers in non-wealthy countries who rely on BIS for cheap "unlimited" text/BBM/internet get that taken away from them. Right now the only solution to that issue I see from BB is continuing the legacy BBOS devices in those areas along with traditional BIS. But that's not going to solve the issue for long.

If carriers don't come up with some alternative to the BIS free-ride that kept so many of those people using Blackberries, the company is going to see a very serious erosion in their userbase and an exodus to other platforms like some of the cheap Android devices out there.

[Thunderbuck]

Honestly, I think the USB PIM sync issue is a triviality compared to what might happen if all the Blackberry customers in non-wealthy countries who rely on BIS for cheap "unlimited" text/BBM/internet get that taken away from them. Right now the only solution to that issue I see from BB is continuing the legacy BBOS devices in those areas along with traditional BIS. But that's not going to solve the issue for long.

If carriers don't come up with some alternative to the BIS free-ride that kept so many of those people using Blackberries, the company is going to see a very serious erosion in their userbase and an exodus to other platforms like some of the cheap Android devices out there.

Remember that OS7 devices are still in production and on sale. They'll likely remain so for the next couple of years. As that happens, carriers will be upgrading in a number of these regions and the gap you point out here won't be quite so wide for so many people.

[Omnitech]

Remember that OS7 devices are still in production and on sale. They'll likely remain so for the next couple of years. As that happens, carriers will be upgrading in a number of these regions and the gap you point out here won't be quite so wide for so many people.

If I were a customer in one of those countries and I were told that all I could get is the old legacy OS devices, that wouldn't sit very well with me, especially considering how quickly those devices are becoming non-competitive in the marketplace in other respects.

And I don't know exactly who RIM laid-off leading up to the BB10 launch, but when you consider the sheer volume of layoffs, I cannot imagine that a bunch of them were not related to legacy BBOS support.

[b320]

Ha, no I wouldn't attempt to do this for anybody, I struggle enough with my own issues. Just wondering about fixes for the issue at hand.

This is not so much to you as you sound perfectly reasonable but mostly to those out with pitchforks ready to march on the BlackBerry headquarters:

There IS a fix: wait for BlackBerry to add USB sync. It is not supported right now. BlackBerry has already indicated that it will be supported.* No amount of complaining will make USB sync appear in BlackBerry Link 1.0 as the functionality is simply not there. I would hazard a guess and say that it's also NOT in the BlackBerry 10 launch software.

BlackBerry carefully chose the features that are supported by BlackBerry 10 and its accompanying software for the launch. They needed to launch. (See all the posts about people waiting months, years, decades, centuries and BlackBerry is so horrible to make them wait). BlackBerry decided to launch with as full of a features as possible given the constraints. That appears to have worked. Only time will tell for sure.

Most reviews out there don't complain about a missing "USB sync" (or even a more limited "bedtime mode") but about apps and comparisons to phablet-level hardware (the processor is "outdated," 2GB is barely enough, the screen is not as big as the three devices on the market that the Z10 is NOT trying to compete with and such nonsense). In the past, the complaints were that it wasn't enough like the iPhone, that it didn't offer a FaceTime competitor and that BBM wasn't worthwhile because BlackBerry is a "dead" platform. The progress made is that the general area of complaints is about future looking issues, not "how can we make it like the current iPhone" issues. BlackBerry did the right thing choosing those other features *over* sync. Sorry.

Whatever *my opinion* is on this right now, this is the current situtation: If you *must* adopt BlackBerry 10 and *must* have USB sync and *must* not use the cloud, then your options are as follows:
- buy your devices now and wait
- use third party software
- change your plan

If you have legitimate security considerations, then you must be accustomed to using a wait-and-see approach frequently. Would you adopt a brand new release of Microsoft Office or let alone Windows? Probably not. You probably not only heard of but follow the "let's wait for Service Pack 1" rule rather than adopt a first release version.

* Not officially though as BlackBerry is wisely choosing not to comment on future features just as Apple does.

[b320]

If I were a customer in one of those countries and I were told that all I could get is the old legacy OS devices, that wouldn't sit very well with me, especially considering how quickly those devices are becoming non-competitive in the marketplace in other respects.

And I don't know exactly who RIM laid-off leading up to the BB10 launch, but when you consider the sheer volume of layoffs, I cannot imagine that a bunch of them were not related to legacy BBOS support.

Legacy BlackBerry devices continue to be fully supported and will remain supported for years to come just as BlackBerry has been supporting old handhelds that are many years old. BlackBerry 7 is intended to keep being a driving force in mid-range and low-end markets where it's made significant inroads and has driven subscriber growth for BlackBerry. Once mid-range BlackBerry 10 devices are released, BlackBerry 7 will be used for low-end. That strategy makes sense and it's similar to what Apple does (iPhone 3GS free on contract and such).

[ssbtech]

If carriers don't come up with some alternative to the BIS free-ride that kept so many of those people using Blackberries, the company is going to see a very serious erosion in their userbase and an exodus to other platforms like some of the cheap Android devices out there.

Carriers are free to offer whatever data plans they want, including unlimited plans. Doing so doesn't require BIS. There's nothing to stop a carrier from offering an unlimited data plan for a BB10 device.

That being said, carriers were perhaps more likely to offer unlimited data plans for BIS customers due to the compression BIS offered. This significantly reduced overhead on the networks and made offering unlimited plans more feasable.

[ssbtech]

Back on the USB sync issue - why does Link exist at all? If "the cloud" is so vastly superior (and face it, everyone uploads all their photos to facebook anyway) why not make photo, document and media sync online only?

[b320]

Back on the USB sync issue - why does Link exist at all? If "the cloud" is so vastly superior (and face it, everyone uploads all their photos to facebook anyway) why not make photo, document and media sync online only?

PIM data sync doesn't use a ton of data, which is important when you're using limited cellular data resources. forcing all media to be over-the-air only would be a big issue because of that. Also, it would take too long on slow networks.

BlackBerry Link is the desktop software that supports BlackBerry 10 devices and it has other features than media sync, including software updates, backup and restore, and file access.

[WES51]

Geeks and Flagwavers might be not surpisingly in the majority here on this board, but to suggest that their needs would make a dent in the market is like suggesting the opinions or needs of some scooter club board members would make an impact on overall traffic.

Be real! You are among yourselves and you have already sufficiently demonstrated that you have no idea and no understanding what the business world is about or what their needs are.

You keep pushing your points and trying to find reasons excuses for why such a simple feature was not incuded.

With this much defense effort any SMART IT person might have already wrote (or adopted a past code) for this tiny little chickens**t feature AND collected the corresponding profits.

So in essence this gigantic effort to convince the business world against USB sync is either a waste of talent or proof for having none. Sorry.

[b320]

With this much defense effort any SMART IT person might have already wrote (or adopted a past code) for this tiny little chickens**t feature AND collected the corresponding profits.

See the business model that's already used by at least two software companies: CompanionLink Software and MarkSpace, the makers of Missing Sync

A smart BUSINESS person would consider the competition (at least two established players) and active product life timeframe (for most people, only until BlackBerry releases a free solution) before investing resources (including time, effort and money) into developing a product.

Finally, several posters on this thread have said that they will simply NOT ACCEPT a third-party product as a solution even though CompanionLink has not only committed to a release but was ready before BlackBerry 10 launch on January 30. See:
http://www.businesswire.com/news/hom...nces-BB10-Sync

[Omnitech]

Or is trying to present himself as one.

And who is that?

[Wilkerson4492]

By the way folks, Companionlink currently has a deal until Feb 14, 2013 for a $12 discount.

[Omnitech]

How about we have the USB sync option and individual users can choose if they want to tack on another $7-10/mo for email?

Please see xkcd: Workflow

I've never had sync issues with my 9800 and Outlook 2003.

LOL. How surprised I am that you are still using Outlook 2003.

That's a 9.5 year old application, and Microsoft will end ALL support for it in about 1 year from now. How much longer are you going to expect to keep using it after it stops receiving security patches and no other major vendor will support interoperating with it after Microsoft pulls all support? It's already incompatible with Windows 8.

I will agree that the Desktop Manager software does a poor job in the media department but that's another story.

No it's not another story, as my own crappy experience with it revolved specifically around buggy/data-losing Microsoft Outlook syncing and broken PIM data import.

Again, in what you would call my stone-age configuration I can easily log into my webmail if I've lost my phone.

If you have a webmail interface for a POP3 account that's not going to help you when you need to see an email you already retrieved on your desktop PC, or something you wrote a month ago. (Or even something you wrote 5 minutes prior, unless you're making copies of everything you sent back to yourself - oh yeah, that's a great way to capitalize on the vaunted "data efficiency" of BIS - send a second copy of everything you send back to yourself over the mobile data connection.)

And the beauty of my current setup is that if I lost it, there's at most a day's worth of emails on it, probably even less. Not only that if/when I cross the border I don't want or need Homeland Security sifting through all my emails. The less information contained on a portable device the better it is for everyone.

Kinda like saying you really got a leg-up on the spooks by never carrying a wallet or for that matter, never venturing outside of your house. It's not difficult to protect data on a smartphone if you know what you're doing - matter of fact, it's a Blackberry specialty. Unless you operate your own mail server on your own network doing direct peering with all the major transit networks, there's an audit trail a mile long about what you've been doing in email. (Including on RIM/Blackberry's BIS servers as well as various bits and pieces left on your phone after you think it's all been deleted.)

Tell me again how moving the email to a "trash" folder removes it from the phone? As I repeatedly said, if I want to delete a message I want it removed from the phone, not moved into another folder.

Instead of fixating on continuing the same habits you've adopted for the last ten years, why don't you start thinking about what you're trying to accomplish there: managing or "disposing of" new messages on the smartphone, which can be done in many different ways.

Your argument makes me think of a guy who wants to go to a gas station on the north side of the street, who explains: "I turn right at the next block (going south), then turn right at the next block, then turn right at the next block, then cross the street." Whereupon I suggest: "Why not just turn left?" to which his response is: "But that doesn't accomplish my objective of making 3 turns like I always have!!!"

[ssbtech]

LOL. How surprised I am that you are still using Outlook 2003.

That's a 9.5 year old application, and Microsoft will end ALL support for it in about 1 year from now. How much longer are you going to expect to keep using it after it stops receiving security patches and no other major vendor will support interoperating with it after Microsoft pulls all support? It's already incompatible with Windows 8.

Hey, it works. And why are you bringing Windows 8 into this? I have no desire to use Windows 8. Why should I use Office 2007 or 2010 when the 2003 version works perfectly fine?

No it's not another story, as my own crappy experience with it revolved specifically around buggy/data-losing Microsoft Outlook syncing and broken PIM data import.

I said the picture/music sync was another story.

If you have a webmail interface for a POP3 account that's not going to help you when you need to see an email you already retrieved on your desktop PC, or something you wrote a month ago. (Or even something you wrote 5 minutes prior, unless you're making copies of everything you sent back to yourself - oh yeah, that's a great way to capitalize on the vaunted "data efficiency" of BIS - send a second copy of everything you send back to yourself over the mobile data connection.)

I love how you purport to know more about my needs and how I work than I do. On the rare occasion that I need to keep an email on my phone, I'll forward a copy to myself. It's much easier and faster than constantly wading through hundreds of messages needlessly stored on my phone. As I said before, I like my phone free of emails, not displaying a months worth.

Kinda like saying you really got a leg-up on the spooks by never carrying a wallet or for that matter, never venturing outside of your house. It's not difficult to protect data on a smartphone if you know what you're doing - matter of fact, it's a Blackberry specialty. Unless you operate your own mail server on your own network doing direct peering with all the major transit networks, there's an audit trail a mile long about what you've been doing in email. (Including on RIM/Blackberry's BIS servers as well as various bits and pieces left on your phone after you think it's all been deleted.)

Sorry, one more time from the top. If someone finds my phone and it isn't locked, or I'm dealing with uniforms at the border and they demand a password, how do I make my email invisible if I'm using a sync'd email account?

Instead of fixating on continuing the same habits you've adopted for the last ten years, why don't you start thinking about what you're trying to accomplish there: managing or "disposing of" new messages on the smartphone, which can be done in many different ways.

I've been doing things the way I have for the last two years because that's what works well for me. Why do you take issue with that? Again, how do I delete a message from a phone but have it remain on the server for my desktop to download later?

[b320]

Sorry, one more time from the top. If someone finds my phone and it isn't locked, or I'm dealing with uniforms at the border and they demand a password, how do I make my email invisible if I'm using a sync'd email account?

I'm all for a good degree of privacy and security but what does this even mean? I, for one, don't get your scenario.

[ssbtech]

Just explain to me how I can delete an email from the Z10 and leave it on the server for my home PC to download.

[duckJAI]

Sorry, I'm a bit lost.

I have a hosted exchange email plan and it syncs perfectly with my iphone4s, but not with my BB10.

Is this what the issue is with BB10? It doesn't sync (if I respond to an email on my BB10, it'll show that I responded to that specific email in my desktop outlook?)

[b320]

Just explain to me how I can delete an email from the Z10 and leave it on the server for my home PC to download.

What email service are you using?

[b320]

Sorry, I'm a bit lost.

I have a hosted exchange email plan and it syncs perfectly with my iphone4s, but not with my BB10.

Is this what the issue is with BB10? It doesn't sync (if I respond to an email on my BB10, it'll show that I responded to that specific email in my desktop outlook?)

No, the thread here is about PIM sync from desktop application (BlackBerry Link) and a BlackBerry 10 device, not Exchange mailbox sync. Please post in an existing thread dealing with Exchange sync or, if you cannot find one, post a new thread.

EDIT: Here you go. Please review this thread and then post your issue:
http://forums.crackberry.com/blackbe...change-767782/

[calicocat2010]

No, you can't copy-and-paste between Microsoft Outlook and Outlook.com, the supported scenario is for you to retype all your entries whenever you want to add, change or delete an appointment.

No, no, just kidding.

Microsoft provides a free Outlook add-on that will give you automatic sync between Microsoft Outlook on the desktop and Outlook.com on the web. Please follow these instructions from Microsoft on how to do that: How to configure Outlook to connect to an outlook.com email account

Hello, I am pretty new to the whole Outlook topic and so honestly I couldn't even figure out how to sync my Outlook Calendar to My 9900. I did a test from the Outlook Calendar on their website, and it didn't show up in my phone. In fact I don't even Have a Sync Calendar Option on my 9900 so I can't sync any calendars from the outlook.com website Or the Desk Top Application. Oh yeah one more thing, I can't even setup an Outlook Email Address To my 9900 so I don't know how Any of y'all are doing this. I checked the How to configure Outlook to connect to an outlook.com email account THAT link Out and I managed to get my Hotmail Connector to work on the MS Outlook 2010 Desktop Application. However, it Still didn't work. Oh and one more thing, I can't copy and paste the calendar from my Desktop to the outlook.com website. It wouldn't let me.

[ssbtech]

What email service are you using?

My ISP's service. POP3 on the desktop and I presume the Z10 can use their EAS webmail server.

[b320]

Hello, I am pretty new to the whole Outlook topic and so honestly I couldn't even figure out how to sync my Outlook Calendar to My 9900. I did a test from the Outlook Calendar on their website, and it didn't show up in my phone. In fact I don't even Have a Sync Calendar Option on my 9900 so I can't sync any calendars from the outlook.com website Or the Desk Top Application. Oh yeah one more thing, I can't even setup an Outlook Email Address To my 9900 so I don't know how Any of y'all are doing this. I checked the How to configure Outlook to connect to an outlook.com email account THAT link Out and I managed to get my Hotmail Connector to work on the MS Outlook 2010 Desktop Application. However, it Still didn't work. Oh and one more thing, I can't copy and paste the calendar from my Desktop to the outlook.com website. It wouldn't let me.

Again, please post this in the BlackBerry 7 or BlackBerry 9900 forums. You've posted this issue in another thread in this forum. Please DO NOT post in other threads in THIS forum. You are in the wrong forum. Please go here:
BlackBerry Bold 9930/9900 - BlackBerry Forums at CrackBerry.com
OR
BlackBerry 7 - BlackBerry Forums at CrackBerry.com

Per calicocat2010's post in another thread, calicocat2010 is just saying that sync through BlackBerry Desktop never worked for him or her.

PS: We're glad you're a BlackBerry user and want to make the most of your BlackBerry 9900.

[b320]

My ISP's service. POP3 on the desktop and I presume the Z10 can use their EAS webmail server.

OK, then I'm fairly certain that the feature you're looking for is currently not supported. If this is a must have feature for you, you may want to hold onto your old device for a while longer until this feature is available.

[TNSberry]

Here's my contribution to the whole "Outlook sync" issue - I was a Torch 9800 user with stand-alone Outlook and, yes I relied on syncing calendar/contacts/tasks via BB Desktop. When I switched to the Z10 I tried Google as a temporary solution but have now switched to CompanionLink with DejaOffice sideloaded. Yes, it appears to work - however, Deja office is somewhat clunky. It's slow and awkward to navigate compared to the native Contacts & Calendar apps. I will stick with this for now in the hopes that: a) BB replace the syncing functionality in BB Link; or b) DejaOffice is improved.
By the way - attempted the Outlook.com solution and could not make it work - must be me.