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.