Blackberry 9000 worth having?

[ironcoder]

We have a deal over here where I can get a Blackberry 9000 basically just if I yack enough to spend 20 bucks a month on call charges for 3 years.

These things look pretty cool but I imagine they can also be blackholes for money if you have to pay for apps.

Anybody have one? I suspect you would have posted in the pocket PC thread but nobody mentioned one so I'm starting a new thread.

I can also get some 8000 series but the 9000 has some good reviews.

[hyperlinked]

Is the 9000 the BlackBerry Bold? I'm not a fan of it. I have an 8900. I like the keys on the 8900 much better than the keys on the Bold. The feature comparison between the 8900 and the Bold is very favorable and the 8900 has a higher resolution screen. At least it did at the time I had to make a purchase decision.

It costs me around $65/month from T-Mobile. I don't talk on it a lot, but it does enough of everything that I need. The call clarity is good and it does an ok job as a speakerphone. The most important thing it does is work as a mobile SSH terminal for me so I can login to my servers when emergencies happen when I'm not at my computer.

I love the thing, but the 8700 that it replaced was a better alarm clock. The 8700 was also far superior in speakerphone mode.

[ironcoder]

Right, it's the 9000 Bold. Did you have to pay for the SSH app? That sounds amazing.

I have to check if they are going to add on fees for the internet based on bandwidth or whatever...

[ironcoder]

Yeah the 8900 looks to be better in every way than the 9000. Not sure why they upped the numbers! Thanks for pointing it out.

[J888www]

BB Bold 9000 is good, feels more solid and elegant than the BB Curve 8900 . Though after half Year of usage, the battery is getting to a point of needing frequent charges, I'm still content. My advice is, DO NOT buy the BB Bold 9000 !!!
      Wait then buy the new BB Bold 9700, out next Month, else you'll have regrets of having an old BB Bold.
Did I just stutter ?

The Curve was designed for the everyday user market, whereas the Bold was designed for the Business market. IMO BB Bold is in a different class.

[Mr.6502]

Is the 9000 the BlackBerry Bold? I'm not a fan of it. I have an 8900. I like the keys on the 8900 much better than the keys on the Bold. The feature comparison between the 8900 and the Bold is very favorable and the 8900 has a higher resolution screen. At least it did at the time I had to make a purchase decision.

It costs me around $65/month from T-Mobile. I don't talk on it a lot, but it does enough of everything that I need. The call clarity is good and it does an ok job as a speakerphone. The most important thing it does is work as a mobile SSH terminal for me so I can login to my servers when emergencies happen when I'm not at my computer.

I love the thing, but the 8700 that it replaced was a better alarm clock. The 8700 was also far superior in speakerphone mode.

I'm curious what SSH app you use as well.  I tried a free one and I've seen a $99 one out there.  What's the name of the one you have?

I currently have a BlackBerry 8320 (provided free from work) and I really miss the 8700 that I had before it.  But, beggers can't be choosers in my case.

[Hak Foo]

I like the scroll-wheel blackberries better than the scroll-ball one.  I had a scroll-wheel one for a few years; it started switching itself off, so I got an 8700, and it switches itself off once a month or so from day 1.

the scroll-wheel on the side was a great user experience-- big enough to be easily manipulated, responsively tactile.  I'd love an MP3 player with the same wheel.

[hyperlinked]

Right, it's the 9000 Bold. Did you have to pay for the SSH app? That sounds amazing.

I have to check if they are going to add on fees for the internet based on bandwidth or whatever...

I got a free SSH app here:
http://www.xk72.com/midpssh/

This is the second time I tried this app. The first time around on my BB8700g, it didn't work so hot. I had a hard time installing it at first on my 8900 too, but after a second attempt a few months later, it works like a charm! You just have to remember to switch out of the delayed insert mode so you can type in real time.

I don't believe I'm being charged extra for my SSH connections, but maybe I should take a good look at my bill first!

There are several other terminal apps on the BlackBerry. I think the big one is Mobile Admin by Rove Mobile. They used to make an SSH app that was pretty expensive and now they've moved on to making a more complex suite of tools that are even more expensive and IMHO, way more complicated than I wanted.

BB Bold 9000 is good, feels more solid and elegant than the BB Curve 8900.

The Curve was designed for the everyday user market, whereas the Bold was designed for the Business market. IMO BB Bold is in a different class.

I can understand that you prefer the 9000, but I'm not sure how you can call the 9000 to be in a different class. If you check the specs on the BB site, the 8900 actually seems to have a leg up in most areas that I'd care about. I did consider getting a Bold, and it did feel satisfyingly solid, but the 8900 isn't toy-like in feel by any standard.
http://na.blackberry.com/eng/devices/blackberrybold/bold_specifications.jsp
http://na.blackberry.com/eng/devices/blackberrycurve8900/curve_specifications.jsp

In the end, the keypad and higher resolution screen really sold me. I wasn't fond of how the keys on the Bold bordered one another. I loved the 8700 wide style keypad and wish they had made the 8900 in the same mold. I expected to hate the way the 8900 typed, but was surprised that it was remarkably easy to get used to after a few minutes of practice. The physical separation of the keys made a big different for me. I made more errors when playing on the Bold.

I like the scroll-wheel blackberries better than the scroll-ball one.  I had a scroll-wheel one for a few years; it started switching itself off, so I got an 8700, and it switches itself off once a month or so from day 1.

I miss the scroll wheel, but I've become accustomed to the scroll ball. It's a lot better for navigating websites so in balance I don't actually miss the scroll wheel so much as I feel some nostalgia for the simplicity of it.

What do you mean it switches itself off once a month? Is something wrong with it? I still have my 8700g and it's in good condition in a box somewhere.

[roaduck]

My friend just got a RIM Blackberry 8310 which has a scroll ball on it - he got it for a song because he part-exed his Nokia N70 for it and the whole thing was less than ninety pounds.

He can't stop playing with it and as he's not that PC savvy yet, I've put a load of applications in it for nothing - it can even accept a 16 GB micro HCSD card
but it was a bit of a bugger to set up for email and the GPS etc and of course I
customised it all for him.

Blackberries aren't for me though - screen is too tiny and the sound is urgh...I'd need a big 19 inch laptop minimum because I hate small screens.
If you must have pocket email with a full Qwerty kb albeit one the size of a calculator watch ; there's no real alternative.

My Sammy tocco ultra can eat it alive for multimedia though - full hd and B&O 5.1 sound in a phone plus 8MP camera with slow motion video.Mind you it's a pig to use the web or email which I don't use so I'm not really that bothered.
_______________________________________________________________

We have a deal over here where I can get a Blackberry 9000 basically just if I yack enough to spend 20 bucks a month on call charges for 3 years.

These things look pretty cool but I imagine they can also be blackholes for money if you have to pay for apps.

Anybody have one? I suspect you would have posted in the pocket PC thread but nobody mentioned one so I'm starting a new thread.

I can also get some 8000 series but the 9000 has some good reviews.

[ironcoder]

I'm going to check out what "other charges may apply" I need a new phone anyway.

[roaduck]

I'm going to check out what "other charges may apply" I need a new phone anyway.

So you've already got the 9000 then; is that the touchphone one and not the curvy one then?

I can't get used to my Samsung S8300 ; the touch is too sensitive and not precise enough.I might go back to a phone with buttons on it and flog this one even though the feature list is as long as your arm.

I'm not sure that I want to switch to a big Nokia or Sony because the spec is nowhere near as good as the Sammy though.

It's all down to usability and do you actually need ALL the features I reckon ironcoder.For example is the screen legible in the sun and can you press the buttons accurately when your fingers are cold and is it intuitive to use even when you're tired or had a few drinks?

My Hi-fi has no buttons on it; no tone controls, no headphone jack, no flashing lights, no autostop at the end of the record but god does it play music and that's what it's for; not fiddling with and tweaking all the time - haha!

http://www.cellphone-reviews.co.uk/2009/03/samsung-s8300-tocco-ultra-touch.html

[ironcoder]

So you've already got the 9000 then; is that the touchphone one and not the curvy one then?

No, I haven't gotten anything and I may not, depending on what the internet package costs. I don't really need it since I don't travel for work anymore. If I did get one it would be the 8900 after hyperlink's comments...I checked the specs and it beats the 9000 senseless. It would be really cool to have one, but I may just get a new crappy phone to replace my old junker.

I'll check the monthly prices and see what to do next.

[roaduck]

No, I haven't gotten anything and I may not, depending on what the internet package costs. I don't really need it since I don't travel for work anymore. If I did get one it would be the 8900 after hyperlink's comments...I checked the specs and it beats the 9000 senseless. It would be really cool to have one, but I may just get a new crappy phone to replace my old junker.

I'll check the monthly prices and see what to do next.

Do you need constant wi-fi access though because that can be slow or unreliable.If I didn't need the BB on the net all the time I'd skip the contract ironcoder.

Personally I'd just use hotspots or piggy-back onto unsecured wifi routers if I didn't need 24/7 access.Plus you can plug 100m class3 wifi dongles into it which would almost guarantee an internet signal especially in an urban area.

[hyperlinked]

Personally I'd just use hotspots or piggy-back onto unsecured wifi routers if I didn't need 24/7 access.Plus you can plug 100m class3 wifi dongles into it which would almost guarantee an internet single especially in an urban area.

I never thought about that as a possibility. You could get a cheapie phone and a BlackBerry for the other stuff. The only thing is that it'd  probably make more sense to get an iPod Touch at that point. While there's no physical keypad that most of us need, it's not the end of the world and it beats the price of a crippled BlackBerry.

[ironcoder]

Do you need constant wi-fi access though because that can be slow or unreliable.If I didn't need the BB on the net all the time I'd skip the contract ironcoder.

Personally I'd just use hotspots or piggy-back onto unsecured wifi routers if I didn't need 24/7 access.Plus you can plug 100m class3 wifi dongles into it which would almost guarantee an internet single especially in an urban area.

That's a damn good idea, and thank you very much. I totally forgot about that.

I could run it into my wireless at home and we do have pretty good wifi in the cities over here. As long as you're running SSH it doesn't matter if the network is open. I live in the mountains and we don't have any wifi or hotspots out here, but I wouldn't really need it. If I'm in town I can use hotspots I guess. I haven't ever done that so I didn't think about it. I don't even really know what you need to hook up to them. I am pretty far behind on wireless, haven't kept up with it.

I'll keep that in mind!

[roaduck]

My friend wants to swap his RIM blackberry 8310 curve for my Samsung Tocco Ultra but the screen is miniscule and watching it would give me headaches or if you increased the font it would take an hour just to read the front page of a tabloid.

What I'll probably do is take my all-singing and dancing Samsung back to the shop and get a refund 'cos the bluetooth is so hit and miss or flog it and get a basic Nokia 3310 with just call and text on it and a black and white screen for a tenner (they are totally bombproof) and get a 10.1 inch, 1.6 speed ,250 GB N270 netbook with wi-fi, bluetooth and 7 hour battery life and still have change for extra big batteries, external DVD/RW's and a 4 inch square 750 GB external HDD and cheap printer.

If I want a small pc I would rather go with a half decent netbook rather than squint at a tiny 3-4 inch slow as hell phone that is a glorified electronic diary.What's the difference - if you've got big pockets a netbook will fit or I could buy a Manchester United manbag for it haha.  http://store.manutd.com/stores/product_images/mufc-64064.jpg?width=400&height=400&quality=95

Now why didn't I do that in the first place....less compromise....same overall price.

[hyperlinked]

My friend wants to swap his RIM blackberry 8310 curve for my Samsung Tocco Ultra but the screen is miniscule and watching it would give me headaches or if you increased the font it would take an hour just to read the front page of a tabloid.

Ha, I used to use the Nokia 6800. It would have taken me all day just to read your last post on that thing. I loved the keyboard on that thing despite its strange split configuration. It wasn't hard at all to get used to.

I should have tested it more thoroughly before I bought one. You could adjust the font size on it, but for some insanely stupid reason, the font size for the built in email client was fixed and the font was rather large. It usually took two lines just to fit in someone's email address. It was totally useless for reading or writing email which seriously sucked because I was expecting to use it for remote email access.

[roaduck]

Ha, I used to use the Nokia 6800. It would have taken me all day just to read your last post on that thing. I loved the keyboard on that thing despite its strange split configuration. It wasn't hard at all to get used to.

I should have tested it more thoroughly before I bought one. You could adjust the font size on it, but for some insanely stupid reason, the font size for the built in email client was fixed and the font was rather large. It usually took two lines just to fit in someone's email address. It was totally useless for reading or writing email which seriously sucked because I was expecting to use it for remote email access.

I just popped into a phone shop near me hyperlinked and had a look at the new models - they were all suprisingly samey like most cars look non de script these days.

Nothing radical jumped out at me at all and at the end of the day they're just fashion accessories first and useful tools second - no form following function at all - crap ergonomics.They looked gorgeous but were a bastard to use.

[ironcoder]

I finally ended up with a Nokia 5800. The guys over here didn't have a clue about the Blackberry even though it was on the carrier's website. First they tried to sell me a Samsung Blackjack (this is the blackberry!) and then they couldn't find the rates for the phone, etc. It was just easier to get the Nokia. By the time they were done screwing around and apologizing for various other mistakes made during the transaction I should be paying about half what the Blackberry would have cost me if anybody knew what one was.

I got the wireless LAN working last night which is way cool. Not only do I save money but I found a halfway working Putty SSH client and I was able to log into one of my Linux boxes! I couldn't get internet to work through cellular and I was sure the settings were messed up because I could get to the net from my wife's phone (different Nokia we bought at the same time.) I found out today the idiots at the phone company didn't bother to activate my internet plan. That was a few hours wasted.

I actually signed into geekhack last night from my phone over my WLAN. The screen is actually big enough to be usable but the interface is really bad. I think they have Opera Mini, maybe that will be better than the stock browser.

Anyway cool little phone, not really ready for prime time, but with alot of nice features. It's a pain in the ass that none of the apps work on Linux so I'm fixing an old laptop for syncing duties. I'll try to post pics in a few days.

[itlnstln]

WiFi on a cell phone is pure win.  I love streaming Pandora over my phone with it.

[ironcoder]

Yeah WiFi is definitely a must have. What is Pandora?

[itlnstln]

Pandora is sort of like internet radio.  You tell it a song or artist, and it creates a "radio station" that streams music that is similar to the song/artist you chose.  It will store a ton of your personal "stations," and you can tailor each station to your liking by giving a song a thumbs-up or thumbs-down (this is particularly helpful if the song or aritist you choose crosses over into different genres).  The best part is, there is no commercials, and the songs stream at a decent quality (not great, but pretty good).

[ironcoder]

That sounds good, I'll look into it, thanks.

[itlnstln]

That sounds good

You bet it does.

[ironcoder]

I'm looking for some CD ripping software for Linux. I loved dbPowerAmp on Winbloze. Haven't found anything comparable on NIX. Anybody have something they like?

[itlnstln]

EAC (Exact Audio Copy) is my preferred ripping software, and it works with pretty much any compression (or lossless) codec available.  I am not sure if there is a *nix version or not, though.
 
Now that I think of it, I don't think there is as that was one of the reasons I didn't stay with Linux.  That may have changed, though.

[ironcoder]

Ok how about some NIX only solutions?

[ironcoder]

I found an SSH client and tons of other amazing stuff. It really rocks to log into your own LAN or webserver from a phone. Thanks to whoever mentioned that (my connection to this site is too slow for me to wait a half hour to get the first page of the thread) I would never have thought to look for one.

There is a company that even makes a VNC client!

Now I'm off to go find the webserver I saw somewhere...

[ironcoder]

Ok well I went ahead and bought a BlackBerry 8900 after all, I just couldn't live without a physical keyboard. This phone rocks unbelievably. Thanks for the advice hyperlinked and the rest of you guys.

[hyperlinked]

Ok well I went ahead and bought a BlackBerry 8900 after all, I just couldn't live without a physical keyboard. This phone rocks unbelievably. Thanks for the advice hyperlinked and the rest of you guys.

Glad to welcome you into the brotherhood of the 8900. I'm still quite happy with mine.

My only complaint is that the alarm clock doesn't turn off until you turn it off so if you accidentally leave it on, it'll go off until the battery dies and because of this, my battery is in need of replacement after less than a year of very modest use.

I use MidpSSH on my 8900. It works great as a quick terminal on the go, especially with the great keypad on the 8900. Just remember to configure the display settings a bit or you'll go blind trying to read the output. With a few tweaks, you can make great use of your screen space and bump the font to a readable size.

[ironcoder]

Thanks, I think it's the best one available if you don't need 3G. Combinattion of size and features can't be beat. Glad you saved me from buying the 9000, it's really not very good. Thanks again.

I actually like having an alarm you have to stop, my Nokia is so wierd with alarms and appointments, they run out after a while. I want something I have to clear. It's also cool that the alarms are honored even when you turn the phone off. That's a serious alarm phone! I also use BerryBuzz so I can set the LED how I want for various notifications and they never go off until I clear them.

I bought a couple of products from Pader-Sync including his SSH client and a multiprotocol file manager that includes sftp and samba. I use the same stuff on my Nokia so it's like I only paid half price. Most of the product is freeware, take a look if you haven't seen it yet pader-sync.com.

I'll try midpssh just for grins one of these days.