New User, Dumb Questions

[annehere]

I’m new to the world of BB, and the User’s Guide is vague in a few areas, so here are my details/questions:

-I have Blackberry 8830 World Phone with a pre-installed SIM card
-I’m a Mac User
-I have PocketMac installed on my Mac and have already performed a sync which loaded all my addresses (and for some reason deleted all my iCal entries- not sure why but I’m not that worried b/c I will use my BB calendar 100% of the time & iCal entries were old)

MEDIA QUESTIONS:
I need a media card to load music and pictures, correct?

What are the steps to load certain albums from my Mac iTunes (not my whole iTunes library, but just select stuff)?

What are the steps to load certain pictures from my Mac iPhoto (not all, but selected pics)?

Will an installed media card also give me extra memory for phone apps?

SIM QUESTIONS:
I’m traveling to London, Paris, Florence primarily. The pre-installed SIM card is the only thing I need to access the GSM network in each of these places, correct?

When I’m back in the states, that card can just stay in my phone forever, correct?

When I synced with PocketMac, did the address book go on my SIM card or in my BB address book? How do I tell the difference?

How do I figure out what to expect as far as data usage is concerned? How much data (web, e-mail transfer) is usually used per minute when roaming on a GSM network overseas? (I will not be using GPS)

[djm2]

I'll try to help although I am not a Mac user.


"I need a media card to load music and pictures, correct?" Technically don't HAVE to, but it is certainly the best way to go. The 8830 doesn't have a great deal of internal memory.

What are the steps to load certain albums from my Mac iTunes (not my whole iTunes library, but just select stuff)?

What are the steps to load certain pictures from my Mac iPhoto (not all, but selected pics)? Answer to both of these questions is that your Mac should see the connected BB as an external drive -- at least that is how it works in PC-land. If so, simply copy from the Mac to the music (or pictures) folder on the media card that you've purchased and inserted.

Will an installed media card also give me extra memory for phone apps? Unfortunately no.

SIM QUESTIONS:
I’m traveling to London, Paris, Florence primarily. The pre-installed SIM card is the only thing I need to access the GSM network in each of these places, correct? Yes, but you will need to activate international coverage with your carrier. It works great in all of those locations, BTW.

When I’m back in the states, that card can just stay in my phone forever, correct? Yes

When I synced with PocketMac, did the address book go on my SIM card or in my BB address book? How do I tell the difference? Almost certainly in the BB address book, but since I don't use PocketMac I'm not 100% certain.

How do I figure out what to expect as far as data usage is concerned? How much data (web, e-mail transfer) is usually used per minute when roaming on a GSM network overseas? (I will not be using GPS) That will depend on what you do. I always get unlimited international coverage activate when I'm abroad so I don't worry about it. I usually figure that e-mails are about 3K-5K each. Web browsing will be more intense. As far as GPS, I don't think it will work abroad -- at least I never got the GPS to work (although Maps could be used with data for position manually entered into the program).

Edit: I see that you are also on Sprint. One of the advantages of Sprint is that you can turn on/off international coverage very simply and without extending the contract.

[annehere]

What are the steps to load certain pictures from my Mac iPhoto (not all, but selected pics)? Answer to both of these questions is that your Mac should see the connected BB as an external drive -- at least that is how it works in PC-land. If so, simply copy from the Mac to the music (or pictures) folder on the media card that you've purchased and inserted.


Can anyone else answer whether my Mac will see my BB as an external drive by which I can transfer media? (Maybe I ought to post this Q in the Mac User's forum...)

[SteveO86]

I would give a shot in the Mac users forum.

[djm2]

As an added note regarding iTunes, some of the tunes that have been digitally downloaded may not work unless the protection scheme that Apple was/is using is removed. I thought that I heard of people burning a CD of their downloaded iTunes and then reloading the CD -- that would remove the problem.