[RichmondJim]

Yesterday, one of my friends lost his Treo and the only phone his rep had immediately in stock was a BlackBerry Curve. Since he's going on vacation, flying out last night, he bought it. He asked me for help getting it set up before he left and I said I'd see what I could do, but, coincidentally, I was attending a 3 hour "dog and pony show" by RIM at the Verizon office.

Pretty impressive stuff it will do with BES, BPS, BIS... and the ability to extend the office PBX out to the phone is pretty slick, too.

BUT... back to my friend. He's already out of town. He needs to get his contacts set up on his phone and VERIZON tells us that the only way to get the contacts on his phone (short of manually typing in 100+ entries) is to use a USB cable to his DESKTOP! My friend is now 500 miles from home without his contacts unless I email him a large text file to search through.

Crackberry was mentioned in the meeting, yesterday, so I came here to see what I could find out. So far, it's not looking good. From what I can tell, if you're a small business without an Exchange server and you use Outlook on your desktop for your contacts, calendar and email; and if you have a Blackberry and Verizon, you're pretty much tethered to your computer with a USB cable is you want to sync up your PDA. It would appear that Outlook + Blackberry + Verizon is the trifecta of uselessness.

I was considering a new phone, but if I can't sync my Outlook contacts and calendar OTA, I might as well stick with my simple flip phone. It has a calendar, contacts, sends and receives SMS and email and syncs with my desktop using a USB cable. It even has a web browser (not a very good one, granted).

CAN ANYONE help me see the BB as something more than an email toy? And is there any work around to getting the contacts pushed to my friend's Curve OTA without a lot of interruption in his vacation time (i.e. I don't want to have to spend an hour on a land line phone with him trying to help install some work around application; it was tough enough just getting him to the options screen to get his BB Pin and ESN!)

Thanks!

[bmcclure937]

BlackBerries are essential business tools for a number of reasons...

Most bunsinesses use their Berries with an Exchange server, which opens up many more business functions on the device. On BIS you can still make the Berry a productive business tool tough

And, if I was your friend and was on vacation I would not want to be dealing with work email anyhow! That is what vacation time is for... to get away from it all.

But, if you take a browse through the forums you will find out a ton of uses for the Berry besides it being an "email toy" (for lack of a better term)

...(edit out)...
it was tough enough just getting him to the options screen to get his BB Pin and ESN!)

Thanks!

And if that is really the case, and he cannot navigate to the options menu on his device, then maybe he really should consider a different alternative

[Crucial_Xtreme]

You cannot degrade Blackberry or it's services until you try the best they have to offer. That would be BES. It can do all you want and more, and is the BEST in it's league, hands down.
Back to your synching dilemma, I think you might be able to sync OTA with Bluetooth. And it's Options>status to get the PIN & IMEI numbers.

[patrick.waugh]

You should let him fight is own battles. Let him setup his own Berry.

[tony2979#CB]

Just to understand.....Your friend is not on a server and is using a stand alone computer for his business.

You want to sync OTA with contacts on his computer without having done any inital setup on said computer with the Blackberry?

Are you aware of any other devices that do this? I know that Apple's mobileme is SUPPOSED to do that type of thing, but it doesn't work very well. (had it, tried to use it, hated it)

It is unusual that your friend would buy a phone and not make sure his contacts were on the phone before he left.

[talltubatom]

Yeah it sound like your requirements for the phones capabilities are pretty unrealistic.

[exelant]

Sounds like scubaguyjohn's back with more outlook Berry problems. Same MO right down to complaining and criticizing before asking for help. Seems like his friend would have asked how/if he could get his contacts transfered to his address book before he left. So if his friend is on a working vacation, John, er, Jim, should send his friend that email and let him get to work building his contact database.

It sounds pretty unreasonable for John, er Jim, to think his friends Outlook contacts will transfer over if he isn't a BES customer. It has been my experience that sometimes at work, one has to attend to tedious tasks. To complain about it without just rolling up one's sleeves and getting the job done is just lazy.

Edit: Jim has proven to me he is not ScubaJohn. I still think the two original posts sound familiar (sorry Jim). The old adage, you get more flys with honey, still applies. As does my comment about his friend just rolling up his sleeves and getting to work entering his contact data. As a supervisor, that work might be something I'd have an employee do for losing his phone like that. , Don't flame me, I wouldn't really do that to one of my people if there was a way around it, I'd just think about it .

[bmcclure937]

P.S. : Welcome to CrackBerry

And your device info and carrier do not match up! That may also be the root cause of the entire problem!

Never seen an 8320 on VZW before lmao

[RichmondJim]

OK... I'll give in, a little. I forgot to mention that he does have an Exchange server and that his Treo was syncing through Active Sync. (And if I switch to a "smart phone", I have access to Exchange)

BUT, the Treo didn't require a $4,000 (US) BES software that must run on its own server, and ActiveSync took 10 minutes to set up.

Since I posted the original message, I've spent a good part of the morning logged in to his Exchange server trying to get all the crap together to install BPS... MDAC with the latest patches, etc. I'm hoping that BPS will take care of things, and I've already warned him that it will cost about $100 each for any other employees that switch to buy the CALS needed for BPS.

Talltubatom said, "Yeah it sound like your requirements for the phones capabilities are pretty unrealistic."

With one of the BlackBerry's claims to fame being that it uses push technology instead of constantly polling servers, why would it be unrealistic to ask for a "Desktop Manager" like software that syncs with Outlook, that has the ability to initiate a connection as needed with the BB to sync Contacts, Calendar, To-do, and Email? Being an OUTBOUND connection from the office, there would be fewer issues with firewalls and the only caveat would be that the computer would have to be left on. Is this such an outrageous request?

[RichmondJim]

P.S. : Welcome to CrackBerry

And your device info and carrier do not match up! That may also be the root cause of the entire problem!

Never seen an 8320 on VZW before lmao

Oh, my mistake, while I didn't specify the model in my message, I've updated my profile to 8330.

[doktrgroove]

My company has BES but I'm a BIS subscriber (not a company phone). IT is willing to set me up on their BES server which would allow my phone to sync calendar, contacts...etc OTA plus my email would get pushed instantly where as with BIS the Exchange server is polled every 15 minutes. The deal is that you need to have all of that info on the Exchange server rather than on your local machine. I personally don't want my calendar and contacts on the server and I'm just fine with syncing to my laptop.

My personal email gets pushed to me BB instantly.

[doktrgroove]

Oh yeah, there's no way I'd take a Treo over a BB. The Treo and WM sux IMO.

[BlackBerry Guy]

With one of the BlackBerry's claims to fame being that it uses push technology instead of constantly polling servers, why would it be unrealistic to ask for a "Desktop Manager" like software that syncs with Outlook, that has the ability to initiate a connection as needed with the BB to sync Contacts, Calendar, To-do, and Email? Being an OUTBOUND connection from the office, there would be fewer issues with firewalls and the only caveat would be that the computer would have to be left on. Is this such an outrageous request?

Blackberry's claim to fame has always been push email, not push technology in general. But with the iPhone 3G now touting push contacts and calender, RIM may have to up the bar at some point.

[jenaywins]

I second the notion that your friend's expectations of this device are unrealistic. He basically wants it to do things that it is not meant to do. And again, if your friend cannot even locate his PIN, this may not be the device for him. Let me ask you this: Has your friend done proper research, or even read the manual for that matter, before you decided to come post in a Blackberry forum and call Blackberry part of the "trifecta of uselessness?" I would be willing to bet the answer is no.

Also, let me be sure I am understanding this correctly. You are angry/frustrated/whatever because your friend wants to sync up his contacts without a USB cable from 500 miles away? Really? Again. Unrealistic expectations.

[RichmondJim]

Thanks jenaywins for your comments. You're right... he lost his Treo hours before his flight and he took whatever smartphone his Verizon rep had in his office (the rep actually delivered it in person). Shame on him for not cancelling his flight to do proper research on a replacement device.
Yes, I did say that BB was a PART of the trifecta. But, honestly, I think it's more the CRIPPLEWARE Tactics of Verizon that makes the BB "less useful" (how's that?) According to the Blackberry website, I should be able to take the CSV file that took 30 seconds to export out of his Outlook contacts and upload it to the "address book" at Blackberry.com which would then push to his Curve. Nope... not available to Verizon subscribers.
So... don't think of me as mashing BlackBerrys (makes a mess anyway)... think of it as BASHING VERIZON.

Can you HEAR ME NOW, VERIZON... stop crippling technology like BlackBerry!

[sphynx]

Yesterday, one of my friends lost his Treo and the only phone his rep had immediately in stock was a BlackBerry Curve. Since he's going on vacation, flying out last night, he bought it. He asked me for help getting it set up before he left and I said I'd see what I could do, but, coincidentally, I was attending a 3 hour "dog and pony show" by RIM at the Verizon office.

Pretty impressive stuff it will do with BES, BPS, BIS... and the ability to extend the office PBX out to the phone is pretty slick, too.

BUT... back to my friend. He's already out of town. He needs to get his contacts set up on his phone and VERIZON tells us that the only way to get the contacts on his phone (short of manually typing in 100+ entries) is to use a USB cable to his DESKTOP! My friend is now 500 miles from home without his contacts unless I email him a large text file to search through.

Crackberry was mentioned in the meeting, yesterday, so I came here to see what I could find out. So far, it's not looking good. From what I can tell, if you're a small business without an Exchange server and you use Outlook on your desktop for your contacts, calendar and email; and if you have a Blackberry and Verizon, you're pretty much tethered to your computer with a USB cable is you want to sync up your PDA. It would appear that Outlook + Blackberry + Verizon is the trifecta of uselessness.

I was considering a new phone, but if I can't sync my Outlook contacts and calendar OTA, I might as well stick with my simple flip phone. It has a calendar, contacts, sends and receives SMS and email and syncs with my desktop using a USB cable. It even has a web browser (not a very good one, granted).

CAN ANYONE help me see the BB as something more than an email toy? And is there any work around to getting the contacts pushed to my friend's Curve OTA without a lot of interruption in his vacation time (i.e. I don't want to have to spend an hour on a land line phone with him trying to help install some work around application; it was tough enough just getting him to the options screen to get his BB Pin and ESN!)

Thanks!

you guys can try funambol to push his contacts. if you do have his outlook information, you can sync up outlook to funambol, and eventually to his BB.

All he needs to do is install the installer OTA, give him the username and password and click on synchornize.

hope this helps.

[itoig]

you could use the blackberry professional software, which works like a BES and i think it was free for the first CAL. and 499 for 5 CALs it would have to run on the exchange server and would wirelessly sync his contacts to his phone after the enterprise activation, providing his contacts are saved to the exchange server.

[adambigge]

I may be missing something but I have never had any problems in syncing my outlook contacts with my BB. I simply used DM to access my outlook contacts and it loaded them right in. Granted from then on I actually just enter contacts directly as I get them. If your associate doesn't have his laptop or PC available then that seems to be the situation playing against him rather than unfriendly software/hardware configurations. He could have asked to have them load his old contacts into the new BB. If the Treo was nuked then the contacts would have to be gotten off of his PC anyway since he would need to set his BB up with his BES before he could access his network anyway. Although maybe he has all of his BES settings memorized and could have done it instantly on the spot. If so then I retract my previous statement.

If he had been at his home office and this had happened we wouldn't be having this conversation. But he wasn't and we are. I think the lesson learned is..................always have a backup plan!! If you don't have a plan in place for a possible equipment failure then you are just SOL. Especially in the cutthroat world of small business.