I’ve been using the Blackberry Curve 8520 on T-Mobile here in the USA on and off for a few weeks now.  I see how and why so many business people are such huge Blackberry fans.  My family and friends call me a power emailer so I was very excited to get my hands on the 8520.  Almost every aspect of it is nice.  From the screen to the fact that it has 3.5mm headphone jack.  I like that it comes with however small a memory card.  The track pad is pretty nice.  It charges via a MicroUSB plug.  The battery life is amazing.  There is no shortage of Twitter apps for it and the app store seems to be useful.

My favorite part about the BB is that it has UMA, meaning it connects to a wireless router and let’s you make calls over the net.  I have almost zero reception on T-Mobiles EDGE network in my office (though 3G is alright) and I was able to make and receive dozens of calls.  From my understanding you should be able to use the phone via UMA overseas on any wireless network.  Plus you can get unlimited calls on UMA if you pay T-Mobiles added fee.  It’s a great deal if you are a heavy talker in my opinion.

The 1 thing that has me down on this phone is the keyboard.  Writing so many email on my phone I want the best keyboard possible.  I understand that the Bold keyboards are the lowest end versus the the Tour for example.  That’s not ok for a phone company who’s key focus in the past has been mobile email.  Every single BB device should have the TOP of the line keyboard.  I sometimes spend 2 hours on my phone reading and responding to email and I want a top of the line keyboard from a BB who’s supposed to have the premiere email devices.

As a whole I liked the Curve but it’s just not for me JUST because of the keyboard.  If you like the keyboard then by all means, I would recommend it to anybody.

Blackberry is in trouble, I mean deep trouble.  The trend lately has been for anyone and everyone to go out and pick up a smart phone when it’s time for a new phone.  People are no longer just getting ultra basic phones and only making calls and sending sms on them.  The masses want more from their device, they expect a phone to check the weather, access Twitter, surf the net, get driving directions and I think most common, offer email access.  Email has been a staple for Blackberry since it’s inception and for the most part they have done a great job with it.  Of course some people have a few niggles here and there but bar none Blackberry was the mobile email standard.

Up until a few years ago mobile email was kept in the echelons of the corporate executive and the upper class.  Recently it has gone mainstream (do to Rims excellent marketing) and Rim has been able to milk that and in some peoples minds create a demand for mobile email for all.  Well Rim may have kicked themselves in the shorts.  They created a void with people who want mobile email but can’t afford or don’t want/need a Blackberry device.  People who want email on their phone now have more options then ever and don’t need to stick to a Blackberry.  This means Rim may be seeing a mass exodus to other popular devices like the iPhone, Palm Pre and Nokias vast number of smart phones.  Let’s not forget the dozens of smart phones that go unnamed but can handle downloading apps.  Blackberry is in serious trouble because now most phones can do email and in my circles everyone buying a new phone is getting a non Blackberry smart phone.  They are going for the iPhone,Nokia N97/E71/E75/6650/Surge, or Palm Pre.

Up until recently Rim has had a hold on the market and they’ve done such good product placement and advertising job even kids were getting Berries in mass.  It was the hip cool device to have.  Now times are shifting and people want more from their devices like better music player, camera, and video players.

emoze along with a few other email apps are filling the instant email void.  To the best of my knowledge emoze is the only option that will work on multiple platforms, including smart & dumb phones, Symbian S60, Windows Mobile, and push your email.  If you’re interested emoze (a client of mine) has a paid (about $13/yr) option and a free version.  Check it out at www.emoze.com.

Rim you need to get back to work and not stand on your laurels or you will get cut off at the knees.  You have something very good going but you need to rethink how you’re getting the word out and work on the younger hip crowd again.  Rim are you listening? Ping me and we can talk.

The following post is from Kkndka over at Bright Hub.  He wrote one of the best step by steps I’ve ever read covering emoze Exchange OWA installation and I just had to republish it.  It’s part of a series he’s writing and I’m very impressed.  Kkndka please contact me, I’d love to chat with you Jeb at emoze.com.

Anyway, please enjoy and if anyone has any questions I’m here to answer them for you.

Ever wanted to have push email functionality on your phone just like Blackberry users? You can experience push email on your Symbian phone with Emoze. Read on to find out how to configure Emoze to work with your office email.

Introduction

Microsoft Exchange Server has a component called Outlook Web Access (OWA) that allows you to check your mail anywhere from a web browser. It requires a stable network connection to operate. Emoze can use OWA to push emails to your Symbian phone. Emoze provides end to end security using AES 128 based encryption and authentication.

Read on to find out how you can configure Emoze to work with your workplace email.

How To

Step 1 : From the main screen of Emoze, select Add Account.

Step 2 : Emoze will check for all available account types and display them on the main screen, choose the Office option.

Step 3 : You will need keep the following OWA details ready for the next step – username, password, OWA URL and windows domain name.

Step 4 : Fill up the user name field, password field, your OWA domain which is your windows domain name , and OWA URL. These field are vital and are required for getting your office ail, contacts, email and calendar data. You may need to get some of these details from your System Administrator.

Your windows domain can be obtained by selecting Alt+Ctrl+Delete on your windows terminal. The OWA URL is the URL of the exchange server. It cannot be behind a firewall or VPN.

Step 5 : Select Next and choose the folders which you want to synchronize. For example, you can choose Calendar and Inbox.

Step 6 : Now choose Settings and select Account info. Specify the folders which you want to push. You can specify Active Days which decides on what days the application will synchronize your emails.

Step 7 : You can enable Power Saving mode to increase the synchronization period to save your Symbian phones’s battery life. During this time the application will check for mails with longer gaps. In the Active From and Active To fields, you can enter the duration for the power saving mode.

Step 8 : If you want to specify an access point which you want to permanently use with Emoze, you can enter it under the Settings menu. The Statistics option will display the connection details, so you can track your data usage.

This was part 2 of 3 from kkndka of Bright Hub. Part 3 is coming soon.  Stay tuned to learn how to set up emoze to check Gmail, POP3 and IMAP email.

Truphone the leader in mobile VOIP is expanding it’s line up to include 11 more Nokia handsets.
They include:
N96
N78
N85 (also VoIP enabled)
N79 (also VoIP enabled)
5630 (also VoIP enabled)
5800
5320
6210
6220
6650
E63

I’m a huge fan and extensive user of Truphone and think the world of the company and what they have done for mobile VOIP.  They have fought the big mobile telcos and won.  Even more impressive they have provided low price calling/sms for the masses.  Don’t hesitate to download Truphone on a Nokia, Blackberry, Android, or iPhone/Touch, you won’t be dissappointed.

I’ve been using a smart phone for a while now and I don’t think they are all that smart anymore.They are not keeping up with where I think they should be.  I need my phone to get smarter.  Maybe in my case that means I want my phone manufacturer to get smarter or maybe it’s my service provider that needs to get smarter.  Now that I think of it, it could be a 3rd party company that could solve this issue.

I have been switching  between handsets a great deal in the last month.  I recently had to format one of my phones and needed everything on it.  When I say “everything” I’m referring to data not settings.  To be specific I really wanted to be able to easily have my contacts, calendar, bookmarks, and landmarks loaded onto my phone.  Now don’t tell me that there’s a switch application on Nokia smart phones (S60), I know it’s there.  I don’t want to have to use it.  I want there to be an app that does it for me so if I only have one phone with me and I have to format my handset I can easily get my essential info.  There are already great services like Switch that Nokia builds into their handsets that does this but I want something that is stand alone I can use if I only have one phone, not doing a swap or upgrade.  Now there’s Ovi a Nokia program which I find to be ok for some but not for me (I feel it’s only consumer grade) and it only handles calendar and contacts.  There’s Emoze (a client) that serves up your email on your handset and additionally syncs your calendar and contact, which is very similar to Blackberry and Mail for Exchange.  Problem is none of these fine apps will load my bookmarks and landmarks.  In recent years mobile web surfing has become quite popular and a necessity in some peoples lives (mine included).  Landmarks are saved geographical locations that the built in GPS and mapping applications on my phones use to give me directions.  I along with many people are reliant on these 2 forgotten aspects of mobile use.

I have been known to leave my office not having a print out or written address of where I have to go.  I just get in my email or on the web and pull up the address of where I’m going.  I then put it in my phone and just use built in or downloaded map applications to give me directions.

If you swap phones, or lose one and replace it, how am I supposed to get my bookmarks and landmarks on my new phone?  I’m stuck using the very useful and handy switch application but I shouldn’t have to.  I believe the mobile manufacturer, mobile service provider, or maybe some third party app will have to step in.  In my case between my service provider AT&T or Nokia I prefer Nokia.  They already have a service to sync your calendar and contacts called Ovi Sync so how much harder can it be to use the standards they already use in their handsets and create a way to push the bookmarks and landmarks down to my handset.

Ovi Sync seems like the perfect opportunity/outlet to do something like this.  It already has the ability to log into my handset and  can pull and push info up and down to my phone.  I hope we see something like this soon, Ovi has been upgraded and maybe Nokia just has to flip a switch.  We’ll just have to wait and see but until then I just don’t think my Smart Phone is smart enough.

One of my favorite mobile related companies, Emoze, just became a client so I’m going to write a few posts about them, this being the first.  I like them for a few reasons.  First they took the less-then-desirable, built-in Nokia email application and turned it into something quite nice.  I’m sure that wasn’t an easy feat.  Second they have one of the nicest women in the business working for them.  Caron Tal is the voice of Emoze and she does a great job getting the word out there about them.

In case you don’t know what Emoze is, it’s an email application for your handset that provides the user with free push email.  In tests Emoze has been known to be surprisingly faster then Blackberry push email.  It’s basically push email for the masses.  You don’t have to be a big time executive at some corporation, or willing to pay the extra money for push email to have it now – you just need to download Emoze.  Anybody can get Emoze for free.  It will work on over 3 dozen different brands of devices and at least 4 of the major platforms, bringing instant email to the people.

When I most recently downloaded Emoze to give it another go-around, it was up and running in just a few minutes.  I was collecting my messages and was ready to conquer the email world.  It was a pretty painless procedure sending myself an sms from the Emoze website and then using the link in it to download the app.  I was happily surprised to see how nice and business-like Emoze looked and acted.  I’m testing Emoze on a Nokia N95 8gig and really enjoying it.  I’ve had a few hiccups that I believe are due to the phone, but as a whole it’s been a really nice experience.  Keep up the good work Emoze.

Now go download Emoze onto your mobile from m.emoze.com and let me know what you think.

Suddenly it seems like everywhere I turn everyone has a phone with a QWERTY keyboard.  I am curious why that is.  Is it the new statuesque?  Does this mean everyone is writing emails on their phone?  Or are people just texting with their QWERTY handsets?

I have asked a few people and one or two of them have said it’s because _____ (fill in a provider name here) was just offering the phone for free or really cheap.  I asked why not a phone with just T9 and they just responded with a plain old “why not???”  Why not get a business class phone, it’s the same price as something else….. Free.

So basically I see high school and collage students walking around using Blackberries just to make/receive calls and do sms.  Does this make sense?  I’m not sure.  A senior at the local university told me she thought it would help after she graduated when looking for her first job.  By already knowing how to use a Blackberry she figured it would look good on a resume (CV for my non North American readers).  Okay, I have to take a step back now and breath.  Yes she really plans to put on a resume that she is proficient in using a Blackberry.  Just like putting down that she knows how to use Word, Excel and PowerPoint.  I guess it would go between proficiencies in Microsoft Windows and Apple OSX.

Okay back to everybody having a QWERTY device.  Have you noticed an upswing since the Fall?  I sure have.  I mean for G-d sakes, do 6th graders really need handsets let alone a QWERTY handset? Oh well I guess I’m old fashioned.

While looking for a pic to use for this post I found a great post on Lady Geek.  The author talks about preteens wanting Blackberries.  I ended up using their pic because I thought it was so representative of what I’m talking about.

I don’t have all the details just yet, but I got an IM the other night telling me that Truphone (mobile VOIP) is now set up to receive calls on the iPhone.  Previously users could only place calls, which is nice but a little restrictive.  Now having Truphone on your iPhone is like having 2 phones built into one.  Truphone will give you the ability to make and receive calls at a much reduced rate when roaming outside your home area.  I use Truphone on my Nokias every time I travel out of the country.  It has been the cheapest and easiest way for people to reach me and gives me the opportunity to reach out.

Check out the Truphone website to get all the details, I’m still a little vague on how it works on the iPhone but I do know that these guys have a really useful app that is now available on at least 3 platforms, iPhone, S60, and Blackberry.