Handy little things like that make having a BlackBerry a must for me!

Just had to share

David

Similar to the 8900 Curve it has a sleek design, full QWERTY keypad and part rubberized housing for extra protection.

A major new feature though is the brand new navigation controller. Replacing the rollerball is an optical trackpad and word is, it works a treat. This is the equivalent to the PC mouse going from rollerball to optical so you can expect no more clogging up and sticking that you sometimes get with the ball – way to go RIM!

There are also music control buttons embedded within the rubber housing (as well as a few other familiar shortcut keys).

The camera is only 2MP which is a step down from the 8900’s 3.2 MP but for taking pictures to upload to Facebook or email direct from your BlackBerry then 2.0Mp is more than adequate.

All in all this is a very nice looking unit with some brilliant features and will further RIM’s headway in to the mobile market.

I have searched high and low for a solution and the general consensus was to upgrade the device software. This is not recommended for beginners though and so I had a play about.

On both devices I discovered that their profile was set to “Loud” and changing it to “Normal” cured the problem, even when the volumes were set to max in the “Normal” profile.

If you have this annoying problem, before sending it away or attempting to upgrade it yourself then just try changing the Profile and see if it fixes it.

Please leave comments below if this does (or does not) work.

David

BMcClure from CrackBerry Forums has posted a great guide on best practice for performing the update successfully. There are two actually, one for beginners and one for more advanced users.

These are highly recommended reading for anyone attempting to update their BlackBerry.

Check the full guide here.

The cost is £4.26 extra for the BIS Bolt-On and will prove a no brainer on the data orientated network.

Look out for details of the award winning INQ1 Social Phone in a future post as well. This looks a neat bit of kit and I will be road testing one soon.

For details of “3″ Business plans with BlackBerry to suit your business then please call me, David Allen, on 01204 595335.

You see I am of the opinion that if the main function of a device (after making and receiving calls) is to get email whilst you are out and about then a BlackBerry wins hands down. My reasoning is that the email application is built in to a BlackBerry as part of it’s normal operating function. You don’t have to open an email application like you do on some other devices, it’s there already; just open, read and reply to your messages – they have already downloaded to your device without you having to do anything. Push email means that there is no “send and receive”, not delay whilst you run the email software.

Better still, with most network operators, the BlackBerry add-on means that all of your email is included in the price (whilst in your home country). That means no big shocks when the bill arrives for expensive data usage. Even when used abroad, the data used by a BlackBerry is a lot less than that on a Windows device so the roaming data costs to get your email are a lot lower. The most I’ve spent in Europe for 7 days’ BlackBerry use was around £9 and that was with email being hammered every day!

Some IT departments argue that the Windows device will integrate with their server without any additional software or costs but they need to look at the options available on BlackBerry. For BIS it can easily be configured at no extra cost and the Professional Solutions is now free for up to 30 users, you even get the first CAL included.

If my clients are looking for web browsing as well the BlackBerry works well there as well but it’s not ideal. If they need to visit lots of “scripted” web sites that use big applications then the BlackBerry browser is not always usable. My suggestion? use a laptop with a Mobile Broadband dongle! Seriously, if you need to do lots of work on heavily scripted sites, view videos etc then any small screened device will cause problems and it’s easy connecting a laptop to the internet these days, wherever you are.

If you are faced with the same dilemma, about which mobile office device to go for then call me. My office number is 01204 595335 or use the contact form link at the top of this page. My advice is free and I always give my honest opinion about what tool would suit your needs the best, even if I am BlackBerry biased!!

David Allen