[X4U] BlackBerry & Mac?

[Jim Colgate]

Hi Joe,

I recently switched from a Palm Treo 650 to a Blackberry under Sprint. In
general I love to hate my blackberry or is that I hate to love my
blackberry. Specifically it gave me navigation that works most of the time
and a better integration of audio book player and phone. However the third
party applications are more numerous and better for the Palm.

I considered the iPhone, but being held hostage by AT&T at a much higher
price did not set well. I know I am being held hostage by blackberry (RIM)
but at least it is at a lower cost. Also, voice dialing and navigation is
poorly implemented in the 3rd party Apps for the iPhone; IMHO.

You can get PocketMac for Blackberry for free which does an acceptable job
of syncing the Blackberry with your Mac. I also just acquired Missing Sync
for Blackberry which is also acceptable. They are slightly different so it
is a matter of personal choice.

I have not tried tethering, but from what I read it works and at no
additional cost. There could be some carrier dependency there.

Overall the Blackberry is as good or better than any other smart phone for
us Mac users. The iPhone has some better capabilities, but I'm not convinced
that they are worth the extra cost.

My two cents worth,

   Jim


> From: Joe Sporleder <joe at wacondatrader.com>
> Reply-To: "A place to discuss Mac OS X for the casual user."
> <x4u at listserver.themacintoshguy.com>
> Date: Tue, 14 Apr 2009 05:20:18 -0500
> To: "A place to discuss Mac OS X for the casual user."
> <x4u at listserver.themacintoshguy.com>
> Subject: [X4U] BlackBerry & Mac?
> 
> Anyone on this list use a BlackBerry? How do you like it? How well
> does it interface with your Mac? I'd love an iPhone, but
> unfortunately, I live in a rural area where Alltel (soon to be Verizon
> this Summer) is the only decent option (and obviously a different
> network than AT&T, Apple's current iPhone partner hear in the US). I
> am aware of Missing Sync for BlackBerry that allows syncing of
> calendars, contacts, etc, with Mac. How about tethering? I am able to
> tether my current RAZR2 via bluetooth to my Mac, costs me an extra $25/
> mo, unlimited data. However, the RAZR2 has some issues that I will
> either need to get repaired under my insurance, or upgrade to a
> different phone. I'm hoping that in the future (2-5 years?) that when
> AT&T & Verizon are both on a 4G network that Apple will be able to
> make an iPhone that'll work with either carrier.
> 
> Anyways, I'm running an older MacBook Pro and MacOS X 10.5.6 and am
> thinking that I might go the BlackBerry route for a few years until
> the iPhone is available here. The things I'm interested in of the
> BlackBerry is the GPS maps (I do a lot of bike riding on rural roads),
> syncing at least contacts with my Mac, and being able to tether to my
> Mac as a broadband modem, and of course, a fairly decent cell phone.
> 
> Joe
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