Need suggestions for Smartphone/PDA on Cingular/AT&T

[colleyvillesooner]

Want to surprise the wife unit with a blackberry type phone to use for her new job. She's already said she'll need to be able to check email and such out on calls. Her work is on outlook I believe.

Anyone have one of the AT&T network that they recommend? Needs to be pretty user friendly. Keyboard function would be nice.

TIA

[SicEmBaylor]

Blackberry Curve.

[Lott's Bandana]

Only mention this because it is avail on AT&T.


I love my iPhone and use it for my biz....however, it doesn't do the Office software even though it has excellent email and text functions. The REAL internets it has rools. I received AT&T's EDGE service with no problem and read posts on this board on teh ride all the way down to San Antone and back. Snipes Wi-Fi better than an FSU tutor!

[Mjcpr]

Have you taken a look at the Dingleberry?


*snicker*

[colleyvillesooner]

Only mention this because it is avail on AT&T.


I love my iPhone and use it for my biz....however, it doesn't do the Office software even though it has excellent email and text functions. The REAL internets it has rools. I received AT&T's EDGE service with no problem and read posts on this board on teh ride all the way down to San Antone and back. Snipes Wi-Fi better than an FSU tutor!

Yeah, I have an Iphone and love it, but it doesn't sync with her in office email the way she needs.

[Lott's Bandana]

Yeah, I thought it might not.

Tells ya something that AT&T won't let business customers subscribe to iPhone...has to be personal account.

G'luck

[Frozen Sooner]

:raises eyebrow:

The iPhone supposedly supports exchange servers and VPN. You might have to do some digging to get it to work right.

DataViz is supposedly writing a Microsoft Office support application.

So far my iPhone has been more usable than my Treo or iPaq ever was.

[Sooner_Havok]

Check this out (http://www.avaya.com/gcm/master-usa/en-us/corporate/pressroom/pressreleases/2007/pr-071112.htm)

[colleyvillesooner]

:raises eyebrow:

The iPhone supposedly supports exchange servers and VPN. You might have to do some digging to get it to work right.

DataViz is supposedly writing a Microsoft Office support application.

So far my iPhone has been more usable than my Treo or iPaq ever was.

So you have it hooked up right to a Outlook email box, under your mail icon?

Did you get use to the Iphone keyboard quickly? Do you like it better than the Blackberry styles with the raised keys...

[Lott's Bandana]

:raises eyebrow:

The iPhone supposedly supports exchange servers and VPN. You might have to do some digging to get it to work right.

DataViz is supposedly writing a Microsoft Office support application.

So far my iPhone has been more usable than my Treo or iPaq ever was.


You've got a point there...seems I find some new thingy or way to do something on my iP every day.

[Frozen Sooner]

So you have it hooked up right to a Outlook email box, under your mail icon?

Did you get use to the Iphone keyboard quickly? Do you like it better than the Blackberry styles with the raised keys...

Personally, I have my iPhone set to sync with 2 different POP accounts through my ISP (which are my home e-mail addresses that I connect to with Outlook) and my gMail IMAP account. According to Apple, you can set your iPhone to sync with Outlook Exchange Server 2007 over the internet if the server will allow it. iPhone also supports push-IMAP. Anyhow, yes, if I just hit "Mail" it syncs to anything in my mailboxes. With push-IMAP, the mail should just get sent right to the phone. yermom can probably answer that better than I can, though. I'm just an end-user.

I thought there was no way I'd like the iPhone keyboard, but I've found it surprisingly easy to use. I still like the keyboard on my Treo (which was raised-key) a bit better, but the iPhone keyboard is a good compromise. The iPhone is REALLY good at predictive text, which is nice.

[colleyvillesooner]

Hmmm...I'd like to get her the Iphone, but once you open it, there's a return fee if she can't get it to work with her work. I figure there's a higher probability a blackberry would work since other people at her job have them.

[yermom]

they have Exchange and Blackberrys but she has to buy one? lame.

i'm not sure how those are going to work with the corporate server. i don't deal with the server side of Exchange, but i haven't heard of anyone here supplying a personal phone to connect to it either

as far as IMAP and the iPhone, Exchange can be configured for IMAP connections but she would have to ask them if they have allowed it

the Curve does seem a lot better than other stuff i've seen. there are a few things the 8525 does that's cool, but overall i really don't like it. if it didn't tether to my laptop with 3G i would have already ditched it.

i really want to like the iPhone but it still needs some things to not feel neutered to a tech dork like me.

[colleyvillesooner]

they have Exchange and Blackberrys but she has to buy one? lame.

I think so. They're lame like that.



as far as IMAP and the iPhone, Exchange can be configured for IMAP connections but she would have to ask them if they have allowed it

So if I asked my IT guy if we can enable IMAP connection on our server, he would know what I'm talking about?

[yermom]

i'm thinking more like "do you support IMAP?"

if they don't, i'm thinking they aren't likely to

[colleyvillesooner]

I don't know how I can get her to ask that without giving it away that I'm getting her a phone.

:mad:

[yermom]

heh

i like the iPhone, but IMAP access to Exchange isn't near as good as real Exchange support. you have to work around getting the address book, and calendar, etc... a real corporate device is going to work a lot better. i'd probably call her IT people and ask what devices they support and how you could activate it

[colleyvillesooner]

Yeah that's why I'm leaning blackberry curve. I've got the iphone so when we're together, we can use it's functions.

[JohnnyMack]

<Bruce>Why all the hand wringing? Get her a couple of iPhones and be done with it.</Bruce>

[Boarder]

I can unrecommend one, the Cingular 8525 if they still offer it. Bleh. It works relatively well during the 10 minutes you have battery power.

[yermom]

that's being nice about it

seems almost worthless as a phone

[Boarder]

Yeah, I could have went Dolemite on it. Just suffice to say I wouldn't recommend it.

[soonerbrat]

I have a Palm Treo that I really like..it works with work and home..mine is Sprint, but AT&T has them..not sure if they are the Palm OS or the Windows OS though.

[OUAndy1807]

The iphone has the best interface ever, but for some reason our corporate IT guys say they cannot be securely used with our exchange server. Also, in playing with my wife's iphone, it's awesome, but not really a work phone.

I love my tile. It does require charging every night, but only because I push e-mails and play on the internet all day on it. I also don't like the size, but any smaller and I don't think it could adequately do all of the things that it does. Windows Mobile 6 is nice and cuts down on start up times that were a problem with my 8125. The GPS with live google maps is nice too. It's saved me time a couple of times already.

Boarder- you might look into Bandswitch. 3g eats up battery life and that program switches you back to edge network when you're not transferring data.

[soonerboomer93]

I was going to look at getting a tilt myself. I don't have any plans to go with an iPhone until I figure out what my travel/work situation will be for next year.

[Cam]

I can unrecommend one, the Cingular 8525 if they still offer it. Bleh. It works relatively well during the 10 minutes you have battery power.
I guess my wife got lucky. She's had this for 8-9 months and has had zero issues and loves it. She uses a Jabro ear piece all the time though, so maybe that makes a difference.

The Curve looks really cool. If I had waited a month or two, I probably would've gotten that instead of my Blackjack. I like the Blackjack, just like the Curve better.

[GottaHavePride]

Hmm. The tilt is newer; I don't know anything about it. I was looking at the Treo 750s a couple of months ago as top choice in that category.

I'm not big on Blackberrys of any variety.

The Moto Q Global and the Blackjack II look decent, but I haven't seen them up close.

[OUAndy1807]

Blackjacks are pieces of ****.

[GottaHavePride]

That's why I only mentioned the Blackjack II. I was holding out some vague hope that they might have improved on the first design.

[Sooner_Bob]

My Razor handles my gmail pretty good . . . does that count? :D

I don't miss having a PDA at all . . . in fact, since I switched jobs in September, my email traffic has gone down quite a bit too.

[soonerboomer93]

oh, I enjoy the crap out of my razr

the only reason I might switch is if I change jobs. I'll get to work from "home" most of the time after I move to houston. But i'll have to do some travel and will need to be highly accessable during strange hours to people in other parts of the world. I'll also need something that I can take anywhere, which you can't do with the iPhone (or my razr). Of course my razr only doesn't work in 2 countries, one of which I live in. All things equal and if I was just getting a phone for a phone, I'd get the razr2.

[Sooner_Bob]

I just got a 2 GB MicroSD card and will be adding music to it shortly. I can't believe how good mp3's sound on my Razr.

[Lott's Bandana]

I had Razr's, two of them. Didn't think I would ever like a phone bettah...

Then I got teh iPhone. Really, a computer with a phone. No, really an iPod with a computer and a phone...o fuggedaboudit.

Can't get it to sync with my Outlook contacts tho....says it will. It won't. Had to enter all my contacts manually...pain in the pipe, but gave me lots of practice on the touchscreen keyboard.

[Frozen Sooner]

I had Razr's, two of them. Didn't think I would ever like a phone bettah...

Then I got teh iPhone. Really, a computer with a phone. No, really an iPod with a computer and a phone...o fuggedaboudit.

Can't get it to sync with my Outlook contacts tho....says it will. It won't. Had to enter all my contacts manually...pain in the pipe, but gave me lots of practice on the touchscreen keyboard.

Mine sync'd my Outlook contacts just fine. Stupid question, but are you using full Outlook or Express?

[Lott's Bandana]

Not a stupid Q...full Outlook. (2K)

[Frozen Sooner]

It might be that it's too old a version of Outlook and it can't port it over.

[colleyvillesooner]

Looks like it only works with 2003 and 2007

http://www.zolved.com/synapse/view_content/30722/Microsoft_Outlook_Contacts_and_Calendars_are_not_S yncing_wit

[Oldnslo]

I've got a tilt.

It's teh awexome. Keyboard inside. Touch screen. e-mails show up on my phone before they're on my computer.