Blackberry luanched on O2 Pay and Go

[pctech]

http://mediacentre.o2.co.uk/Press-Releases/BBM-for-O2-Pay-Go-customers-2bb.aspx

Was hopeing they were going to do this for some time but it'll have to wait until I upgrade my phone again and hopefully they'll come down in price by then.

[Rik]

Simon may be able to help you out with one, Mitch.

[pctech]

I'll prob upgrade next year now.

We are starting to support more mobile devices at work and most people have iPhones so it probably makes more sense for me to get a Blackberry.

[Rik]

Stand out from the crowd, eh?

[pctech]

Yes.

Could also be useful when I do start up my own venture.

[Rik]

Man of mystery.

[Simon]

You can get the "BlackBerry® Bold™ 9700 at £349.99" for less on eBay, BNIB and sim free. 

[pctech]

Hmmm

I'm a little reluctant to buy phones on ebay as on the other forum I frequent I've seen lots of folks who have bought 'new' phones and then a couple of weeks later have had them stop working because the seller has received it, sold it and reported as stolen and the seller has disapeared.

Of course there is little the buyer can do because once a phone is blacklisted its going to stay that way and ebay haven't been that helpful.

[Simon]

It's something to be aware of, but if a seller has a good amount of 100% positive feedback, you should be fairly safe.  All I can say is, I've bought several phones off eBay, and that's never happened to me.

[Rik]

Yet... 

[pctech]

Right I''ll have a look probably after Christmas.

[Simon]

There will probably be new ones out by then. 

[pctech]

Probably

[Simon]

Like the BlackBerry Torch.

[esh]

My 9700 somehow got a 3G connection when I was 200km out of Region IV in Chile in the Atacama desert. I had to be 2,500 ft in altitude before it received it, but hey, it's kind of fun to be sorting your emails in the middle of nowhere. If you need any advice on setting it up, give a shout.

[Rik]

Simon does that ever day.

[Simon]

My 9700 somehow got a 3G connection when I was 200km out of Region IV in Chile in the Atacama desert. I had to be 2,500 ft in altitude before it received it, but hey, it's kind of fun to be sorting your emails in the middle of nowhere. If you need any advice on setting it up, give a shout.

Be careful of roaming data charges when abroad.  They can be VERY expensive!

[pctech]

I'll probably go for one of the traditional monoblock ones if I get one as its spends a fair bit of its life in my work rucksack so wouldn't want it to get damaged although any phone I've had has still been in mint condition when I've sold it on as I take great care of my kit.

[esh]

It's £5 per 25MB in europe and £15 per 25MB when outside of europe, for the record. Inside the UK the price is tiny.

[pctech]

Ouch.

If I get one and go on holiday I'll be sure to disable the Blackberry functionality or take a non Blackberry phone.

[Simon]

It's not just BlackBerrys.  Any smartphone will transfer data in the background, unless you specifically stop it.  I think you can turn off roaming with most of them, which is probably a good idea.

[pctech]

Very true Simon but isn't the Crackberry renowned for being exceptionally data hungry?

[Simon]

I've not heard so.  Of course, it all depends on what apps you have running.  You can turn off things like GPS Location, weather, emails, etc and it's up to you if you use the browser.  You can just turn off data connections completely, I believe, as with most smartphones.

[pctech]

Indeed.

I'm assuming if I was using it for e-mail I can set the interval for how often it checks?

[Simon]

Indeed, but bear in mind it will download the whole email, so that could also cost.  I'd have to charge mine up to check, but I don't think there's a 'headers only' option, but I think you can set it to only download up to a certain kb's worth of each email.

[pctech]

It'll be next year before I look at one now.

[Simon]

It should be charged up by then. 

[pctech]

 

[Simon]

It has, and there isn't, but there will be a new OS by the time you get one, so it might. 

[esh]

No it does not download the whole email. Just the first couple KB. Large ones will request more when you scroll down (it will say More: xxxxx bytes). This is true on the 9 series Blackberry anyway.

You can also tell it to disable or ask about roaming data services when it detects roaming is enabled.

[pctech]

Thanks for all the info.

[Simon]

Thanks for the confirmation, Esh.  I could only see the settings on mine, as I'm not in a BlackBerry tariff at the moment, so couldn't test it.

[pctech]

Broken the habit eh Simon?

[Simon]

Just fancied a change, Mitch.  On an HTC HD2 at the moment, but would go back to BB without hesitation, when the next generation come along.

[esh]

I'm on contract in this case. When I had a problem a few months ago (the 8800s had a strange email receiving issue) rather than figure out what was wrong they just sent us new handsets at £300 a piece for free. I guess that is the upside of contract...

[pctech]

O2 always seem to be very good but I wouldn't have touched BTCellnet with a barge pole.

[Simon]

I was with BTCellnet originally, before they became O2.   

[Rik]

Me too. Then I was Tango'd.

[Simon]

 

[pctech]

I did think about joining Orange a couple of times when they were quite an innovative company and launched things such as Wildfire (if that had come to prepay I probably would have) but alas they fell in line with the others when they were borged by France Telecom.

[Rik]

I joined when they were still Hutchison, Mitch, hence I still have my free fax number.

[pctech]

Its funny though Orange turned out quite sucessfully where Three (which i still owned by Hutchison) is completrly rubbish from what I can gather.

[Rik]

I still wonder why H sold Orange only to re-enter the market.

[pctech]

I seem to remember there being a competition issue with Vodafone, Orange and Manesmann (probably not spelt right) in Germany

I'll do a little research on the net and find out.

[Rik]

I remember Mannesman as printer manufacturers.

[pctech]

Yes so do I.

They manufactured the Tally line of printers I think, don't know whether the telecoms op was linked.

[Rik]

Me neither, Mitch. One day they were a brand of printers, the next a mobile operator. I missed something in between.