The Blackberry server (BES) can be gotten relatively cheaply, blackberry where in fact giving it away with one licence if you input you blackberry's imei. You still need lotus' or Microsofts mail server on another box though. Doesn't work with OSS mail servers, or Gmail natively. A better solution for single blackberry user small business may simply be the blackberry desktop redirector. You can set it up on a windows box in the network that has her mail being pulled down through imap and it will forward it on to her blackberry, push style, I believe you can even reply and it will put the reply in your computers sent items. Crazy johns also used to do a deal for small to medium for 5 blackberry's with 5 BES cals, don't know if they still do, but that can be feasable.
On Wed, Aug 5, 2009 at 6:00 PM, Zhasper <[email protected]> wrote: > On Wed, Aug 5, 2009 at 3:29 PM, Sridhar Dhanapalan > <[email protected]>wrote: > > > 2009/8/5 elliott-brennan <[email protected]>: > > > Hi all, > > > > > > My wife is setting up her own business. She'll > > > need quite easy access to e-mail and is thinking > > > of getting a Blackberry (not sure of which mobile > > > provider yet, though we're currently with Three on > > > our other phones). > > > > > > I don't have and haven't used a Blackberry, so am > > > seeking any advice regarding syncing the thing > > > with my desktop (8.04) and accessing e-mail (e.g.. > > > by having a gmail account and then IMAP'ing that > > > for the Blackberry). I understand gmail has an app > > > for the Blackberry (and similar phones) so I'd be > > > interested to know of people's experiences with that. > > > > A simple solution is for her to set her mail to automatically forward > > to the Blackberry's mail address. > > > > That way, the Blackberry will alert her as soon as a message comes > > through, and she can view it on the phone. The original message still > > stays in the main mail account. > > > There's also the "Google Apps Connector for BlackBerry Enterprise Server" > coming later this month - > http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/mobile.html > > I'm not clear on what that does though; it looks like it might need you to > run your own BES, which is probably too much overhead for a one-person > business (but I don't understand crackberrys well enough to understand how > this works for small business anyway - I think it involves forwarding all > your mail to Canadia and having RIM push it to the phone?). > > Oh wait: there's a system requirements section that says you need "Windows > 2003 Server SP2 (approximately 1GB of disk space per GAC for BES user) and > BlackBerry Enterprise Server 4.1 Service Pack 6 Maintenance Release 4" - so > I guess you do need to be running your own server somewhere. > > The best gmail integration I've seen is (not surprisingly) on the G1; it > also has a physical keyboard, but the battery life is notoriously not even > as good as the iPhone. The notifications on the G1 are quite nice though. > > Personally I'm reasonably happy with the iPhone; but I don't do a whole lot > of message writing there, I mostly use it to catch up on threads while I'm > out of the office, and anything more than a quick reply waits until I'm > back > at my desk. > > > > > > > > Any other advice or information would be most > > > appreciated, including suggestions for other > > > devices. She wants a full keyboard like the > > > Blackberry, along with a reasonable screen size > > > when typing and for reading e-mail. > > > > Other manufacturers have Blackberry-style devices now (with a > > keyboard). Take a look around and you might find another that suits > > her needs better. I've seen some companies standardising on the Nokia > > E Series or even the iPhone. > > > I have a friend with the nokia E-series blackberry clone, and he's quite > happy with it. I have another friend with a similar phone who prefers the > mobile gmail app to the web app, and emails almost exclusively from his > phone. > > Personally I think they're both nuts... > > > > > > > > But if you really want something nice (although I'm horribly biased), > > there are the Android-based phones. > > > The only Android so far with a physical keyboard is the G1 though. I find > the on-screen keyboard on my iPhone to be better than the G1s on-screen > keyboard - but I hear that later devices have higher resolution touch > screens, so the keyboard works better. > > > > > > -- > > Bring choice back to your computer. > > http://www.linux.org.au/linux > > -- > > SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ > > Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html > > > -- > SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ > Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html > -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
