[sammyboy]

Guys can someone provide their experiences with the new 299 plan for Airtel?
How is the connectivity ?
Is there an extra charge for roaming?
How is the speed when it comes to downloading large emails?

I cant really find any reviews of the plans anywhere so wanted to check.

[navin]

Guys I might get a BlackBerry (Tour 9630, Bold or Curve 8900) soon. Scary thought for me. I like the Tour from their paper specs but Vodaphone does not have it. The Bold is too big and the Curve is too small.

Not my choice of phone (my office insists). If it was up to me I'd still have my old Siemens S4. It was a real phone.

What should I worry about? Email is one worry. I dont want a phone that will ping me all night. Will it recieve emails when it is off so I can look at any urgent stuff in the morning? Can it decide between junk and good emails?

Does BB have a simple calculator and an alarm clock. My present phone has both and these are 2 of the most useful features I find in my phone. My present phone (Sony G900) is nice becuase I can switch it off but the alarm will still work if the charger is plugged in. This way i am not bothered by SMS and phone calls but I still have use of the alarm. Will a BB do the same?

I will continue to be a Vodaphone user but is the BB better on Airtel than Vodaphone? I called Vodaphone and they said I can get 10 email accounts on this phone!!!

I dont want to read 10 different accounts - I dont have 10 accounts, I have 3 which is a lot in itself. I want to read all my emails together in one screen. Can the BB do this?

Also they told me that I can get my Yahoo Messenger on the BB. How will this work? like it does on a PC?

[Jaggu]

You can switch off when you dont want to be disturbed like any phone You can configure whichever emails you want to but as far as i know it will be shown as separate accounts and yes you can be online on messengers also. Chat is similar to pc. Alarm and calculator is also there.

You can go here and check out the features BlackBerry - PDAs - PDA Phone at BlackBerry.com India

[Akshay1234]

Originally Posted by Sahil

How exactly does the barcode work? Can I download bbm5 OTA?

well when u choose to add a contact you get an option to scan anothers barcode or show your barcode for scanning. if you want to scan anothers barcode that person has to show their barcode and you put your camera over the screen of that phone till it focuses, then the contact is added. ive tried it, lol it works.

Originally Posted by navin

Guys I might get a BlackBerry (Tour 9630, Bold or Curve 8900) soon. Scary thought for me. I like the Tour from their paper specs but Vodaphone does not have it. The Bold is too big and the Curve is too small.
i suggest you get the bold, once you start using it you realise its not that big. plus typing on it is soo much easier than on the curve. also the curve is slooooow compared to the bold and that might really irritate you.
dont know much about the tour. i suggest you get the bold.

Not my choice of phone (my office insists). If it was up to me I'd still have my old Siemens S4. It was a real phone.

What should I worry about? Email is one worry. I dont want a phone that will ping me all night. Will it recieve emails when it is off so I can look at any urgent stuff in the morning? Can it decide between junk and good emails?
when you go to sleep there is this mode called bedside mode where the screen will dim and only show you time. you can put off radio (all calls, emails, msgs, bbms will not come) and when you switch off bedside mode in the morning all your missing emails and bbms and msgs will show up.
the phone dosent decide between junk and normal it depends on your account i.e if hotmail lets a mail into your inbox it will be the same on your phone.

Does BB have a simple calculator and an alarm clock. My present phone has both and these are 2 of the most useful features I find in my phone. My present phone (Sony G900) is nice becuase I can switch it off but the alarm will still work if the charger is plugged in. This way i am not bothered by SMS and phone calls but I still have use of the alarm. Will a BB do the same?
it has a scientific calculator. if an alarm is set and you put the phone off it gives you a note saying the next time it switches on is the time set for alarm. easier than switching it off is the bedside mode i mentioned in the earlier answer.

I will continue to be a Vodaphone user but is the BB better on Airtel than Vodaphone? I called Vodaphone and they said I can get 10 email accounts on this phone!!!
ive found vodafone to be much better than bpl and airtel in bombay at least.

I dont want to read 10 different accounts - I dont have 10 accounts, I have 3 which is a lot in itself. I want to read all my emails together in one screen. Can the BB do this?
not sure about this. i think its possible.

Also they told me that I can get my Yahoo Messenger on the BB. How will this work? like it does on a PC?
yes exactly like it does on a pc.

my replies in bold.

also another handy feature is you can set the bb to go off on certain days at certain times, like to go off on weekends at 9pm and come back on at 10am.

i suggest again you get the bold, because we use bbs alot and you will find it much easier to type on the bold.

[navin]

Originally Posted by akshay1234

i suggest again you get the bold, because we use bbs alot and you will find it much easier to type on the bold.

What is BBS? Buletin Board Service?

So if I set an alarm for 5:30am (my normal wake up) and switch the phone off at 10pm (after which I dont like to be disturbed) it will not only ring the alarm at 5:30 but also switch the phone on? Killer. I like that.

So while I am getting ready all the emails will have downloaded. Nice Idea. I like this phone already.

[mohit]

Originally Posted by navin

What is BBS? Buletin Board Service?

So if I set an alarm for 5:30am (my normal wake up) and switch the phone off at 10pm (after which I dont like to be disturbed) it will not only ring the alarm at 5:30 but also switch the phone on? Killer. I like that.

So while I am getting ready all the emails will have downloaded. Nice Idea. I like this phone already.

BBs = BlackBerrys
These phones are designed to fit all the needs of an on-the-go person. You will have all the required software (office document viewers/editors, messengers, memo pad, voice notes recorder, voice control, etc.). And there's a decent apps marketplace now where you can get applications not already there on the phone.

[shajufx]

I think he meant BlackBerrys (BBs). Auto ON OFF feature is a lovely function, which I use right from the first day I owned a BB. You can set an auto OFF and auto ON time seperated for weekdays and weekends. There are too many other small small things which one has to enjoy exploring. The menu is as equal as a PC. So far I have no count on the Menus, Sub menus and sub sub menus on my BB. Once you start the BB way, there is no going back to a normal/smart phone.

[quickdraw]

Originally Posted by Sahil

How exactly does the barcode work? Can I download bbm5 OTA?

Read up & download link here : The Barcode Scanner In BBM 5 Scans More Than Just Contact Info

Originally Posted by sammyboy

Guys can someone provide their experiences with the new 299 plan for Airtel?
How is the connectivity ?
Is there an extra charge for roaming?
How is the speed when it comes to downloading large emails?

I cant really find any reviews of the plans anywhere so wanted to check.

You can use it when roaming (have to stay on airtel though) the connectivity and all is good. The speed is also quite good for downloading attachments. As far as I know emails are just text right, they come over lightning quick for sure.

Originally Posted by navin

Guys I might get a BlackBerry (Tour 9630, Bold or Curve 8900) soon. Scary thought for me. I like the Tour from their paper specs but Vodaphone does not have it. The Bold is too big and the Curve is too small.

Not my choice of phone (my office insists). If it was up to me I'd still have my old Siemens S4. It was a real phone.

Can totally see that you're quite scared to move away from something that you're used to. You need not worry so much. We all BB nuts are here and trust me there is a reason that BB's are a industry standard platform. It will very well seamlessly integrate into your life. One piece of advice though. The Curve series (8900/8520) and the Bold type (Tour/9000) keyboards are quite different in a way. The curve has spaced keys. I suggest you play around with both to see which one you get used to better. It depends on person to person. And yeah Siemens did make some good phones back in the day.

Originally Posted by navin

What should I worry about? Email is one worry. I dont want a phone that will ping me all night. Will it recieve emails when it is off so I can look at any urgent stuff in the morning? Can it decide between junk and good emails?

There is a amazing level of customization available on the Blackberry in terms of many things. In each and every profile you can set notifications for each and every app, sms, email anything. And yeah each and every profile has two modes inside holster/outside holster. So basically depending upon if the phone is in your pocket/charger/belt holster you can make it behave differently!

The Bedside mode like mentioned before specifically exists for the problem you stated. Email download is lightning fast, dont you worry. You'll have all the mails waiting for you on the way to office.

Originally Posted by navin

Does BB have a simple calculator and an alarm clock. My present phone has both and these are 2 of the most useful features I find in my phone. My present phone (Sony G900) is nice becuase I can switch it off but the alarm will still work if the charger is plugged in. This way i am not bothered by SMS and phone calls but I still have use of the alarm. Will a BB do the same?

Oh come on, really? The Calculator is there and its quite nice infact. The Alarm is quite nice and has loads of features like different behaviour depending on the bedside mode as well as automatic disabling on weekends. Oh your last question about asking would it not go off incase you switch off the phone will be answered when you shut off the phone with the alarm activated.

It will say something like

Shutting down, next on time XX on day date year. Impressed right?

Originally Posted by navin

I will continue to be a Vodaphone user but is the BB better on Airtel than Vodaphone? I called Vodaphone and they said I can get 10 email accounts on this phone!!!

I dont want to read 10 different accounts - I dont have 10 accounts, I have 3 which is a lot in itself. I want to read all my emails together in one screen. Can the BB do this?

Also they told me that I can get my Yahoo Messenger on the BB. How will this work? like it does on a PC?

Vodafone is quite nice, I've been using them for quite sometime and other then initial goof ups I've never had to call customer care. The Email app is inbuilt into the OS, you can set up any number of accounts as you like. You can arrange them in infinite ways actually. And change the notification behaviour depending on the email account as well like I mentioned before. There is a main Mail icon which groups together all the email and separate account icons as well. You can get your Yahoo, Facebook, MSN, GTalk, Jabber, Skype etc messengers on it! Once you get used to the keyboard you'll be hammering away on it most of the time.

[sammyboy]

Just got back home with the BlackBerry 8520
Yayyy am soo excited. Thanks to QD for pushing me into it and a big thanks to Nandish for helping me with the procurement.

Have mailed Airtel to activate the 299 plan. Will update on the features soon. Am just admiring the set now, havent even started it yet .

[aZa]

The AUTO ON / OFF feature is usefull but i remember once i was going out for a vacation and i didn't plan to take my bberry along so i switched it off (it did flash the next on time) but by then i had kept it in the drawer ... 3days later i came back to see the fone was on and online on gtalk...msn ... getting msges from all my friends hahah now i just take the battery out and go ...

[navin]

Originally Posted by quickdraw

One piece of advice though. The Curve series (8900/8520) and the Bold type (Tour/9000) keyboards are quite different in a way. The curve has spaced keys.

There is a amazing level of customization available

Ok I'll check the keyboards again and see. My initial impressions was that the 8900 keyboard was too small and the Bold keybaord was a bit iffy. I wish they made a 8900 with a slightly larger keyboard.

[quickdraw]

Originally Posted by sammyboy

Just got back home with the BlackBerry 8520
Yayyy am soo excited. Thanks to QD for pushing me into it and a big thanks to Nandish for helping me with the procurement.

Have mailed Airtel to activate the 299 plan. Will update on the features soon. Am just admiring the set now, havent even started it yet .

Congratulations SammyBoy, you owe me a coffee! Post some unboxing pictures already and how much did it end up costing you?

Originally Posted by aZa

The AUTO ON / OFF feature is usefull but i remember once i was going out for a vacation and i didn't plan to take my bberry along so i switched it off (it did flash the next on time) but by then i had kept it in the drawer ... 3days later i came back to see the fone was on and online on gtalk...msn ... getting msges from all my friends hahah now i just take the battery out and go ...

Yeah, but if you dont have a alarm or some calendar event set up it wont turn on. And how could you not take the berry along

Originally Posted by navin

Ok I'll check the keyboards again and see. My initial impressions was that the 8900 keyboard was too small and the Bold keybaord was a bit iffy. I wish they made a 8900 with a slightly larger keyboard.

Navin, its more to do with personal preference then the actual physical size of the keys. I've used them all. And was quite comfortable on the Bold as well, but somehow I personally like the tactility and spaced keys on my Curve a lot more. You will get used to the keyboards in time dont worry about the size as such. Just see which one you prefer initially rest you'll get used to.

[Akshay1234]

one question about roaming. i moved to the 899 plan. now when i go aborad to say the us will i get charged for data?

[quickdraw]

Originally Posted by akshay1234

one question about roaming. i moved to the 899 plan. now when i go aborad to say the us will i get charged for data?

Yes, and its very expensive.

[Akshay1234]

Originally Posted by quickdraw

Yes, and its very expensive.

oh crap. so i should deactivate my plan.