Do you really want a blackberry without a data plan?
A Blackberry without a data plan seems to be a very sensitive topic on most blackberry forums. There are supporters and then there are haters. Fortunately, crackberry.com is fairly WIFI-Friendly. The purpose of this post is for me to share my experience of using a BlackBerry without a data plan and provide some advice to any lurkers out there who are planning on doing the same. (In a nutshell, I can't strongly recommend it.)
When I lost my old Cingular 3125, I went looking for a phone with a nice design, nice QWERTY keyboard, nice organizer features that didn't require a data plan. Enter BlackBerry Curve 8900. A beautiful device with a nice screen, nice keyboard and just a great form factor. I picked one up from a wireless kiosk with the hopes of being able to do everything via WiFi at my house.
I was in for a disappointment. I wanted to do 2 major things with this device: 1) Sync calendar and contacts with Google Sync 2) Access Facebook and link profile information with my phone contacts. Alas, neither will work without a data plan. Why? Not really sure. Conflicting answers are present. Some blame RIM, some blame the carrier, some blame Google. No one is owning up to it at this point. All I know is that it doesn�t work and no one plans on fixing it.
That�s not to say that the phone is useless, it�s just that nothing is easy. Owning an iPod Touch, I thought the experience would be just as easy. Not quite. You have to do a lot more reading/researching to get things to work on the curve without a data plan. Here�s a quick list of apps that I found that will work with a BlackBerry on Wifi:
(Several from sonni_kuba in the post Will Wifi work on Blackberry without Data Plan?)
Email Client - LogicMail
Instant Messenger - Palringo
GPS Mapping - MGMaps
Online Radio - Flycast Radio
Fast HTML Browser - Opera Mini
Weather Update � BBWeather
Maratick, Mycart � Grocery List App
Pandora � Awesome Internet Radio
Palringo � Chat Client
Logicmail, Funambol � Plain Text email client
So I reached the point where I was so frustrated with the limitations of my blackberry on Wifi, that I considered getting a data plan.
Verdict: I returned my BB Curve and got an iPhone. Since this is a Blackberry forum, maybe other users can chime in why they would get a BlackBerry over an iPhone if the price is the same? Let�s not consider the touch screen keyboard because some love it and some hate it.
PS � I�m a big fan of the Getting Things Done philosophy and as such, I don�t believe in checking email in real time. I feel it should be scheduled for certain parts of the day.