Please Help! iPhone User Ready to Make the Plunge!

[Please Help!]

Ok, long story short, I need to switch to a BB for work. I want to get the Tour and switch to Verizon's flawless service, but I have a few serious issues first.

Neither of these have been addressed (that I can find) since the recent release of the new BlackBerry software for Mac, so I figured I would ask the experts - you.

1. My BB absolutely MUST be able to sync up with my Mail.app (the standard Apple Mail app) on my computer. I tried to switch over to a BB about a year ago and ditched it after a weekend for this exact reason.

- Mail messages must sync (meaning deleted, new messages, sent, and stored mesages) with my computer at all times

- After sending, receiving and deleting e-mails, I want this to be reflected EXACTLY on my Mail.app as I did it (the iPhone is virtually my computer on the go)

2. My iCal must also sync with my BlackBerry constantly. It is the only calendar I use, so I do not need several calendars attached as well (ie. entourage, outlook, etc.)

- Recent reports of the BlackBerry Manager for Mac have indicated issues with this sync ability



Everybody, I LOVE the feel and look of the BB. I LOVE the idea of BBM. But I am a clean freak when it comes to organization, and I cant have e-mails and calendar appts floating around in cyberspace whose whereabouts I am not 100% certain of.

Please help me to decide if RIM has finally made the BB as syncable with the Mac as the iPhone with regards to these two features, or if I need to purchase a BB with a new phone number and only use it for BBM and work contacts.

Any help is greatly appreciated!!! Thanks!!

[MidnightDraven]

1. no. this is not what happens.
email is not SYNCED. it is pushed with BIS. syncing only occurs on a BES (server).
emails can be deleted from BB and be told to be deleted from the SERVER of your EMAIL PROVIDER.
But the BB cannot sync mail with an email client on a pc.

2. it should with DM for Mac, I cant see why it wouldn't be.

[Please Help!]

Thanks MD. So I get that the syncing wont happen, and It will just Push to my e-mail provider. So this means that emails that I send/delete will do be recorded on the server, and when I open my Mail.app on my Mac, and hit "Refresh," everything should line up, correct?

Anybody else have any other input?

I think the general problem here is that I have 4 email accounts, which are then all combined in my Mail.app. Therefore any activity on the BB will be recorded on each individual account's server, but not in the Mac mail client. Ya?

[MidnightDraven]

No. Sent emails from the BB do not show up anywhere except BB.
BIS is NOT a 2-way sync solution.
Yahoo I believe allows for read/unread sync and gmail is nearing 2-way sync with the upcoming OS 5 release.
But it still wont do exactly what you want without a BES.

[rambo47]

My MobileMe mail has a high level of synchronization with my BlackBerry, even on BIS. It's not always instantaneous, but the sync does happen. Send mail appears in a separate "Sent Messages" mailbox in my .Mac mail area. Likewise, when I delete a MobileMe email on my Tour that message appears in "Deleted Messages" within .Mac, pictured here: http://homepage.mac.com/rseijas/.pictures/bbdotmac.jpg

I would prefer it if these all appeared in the standard mailboxes, but at least I have a record of them within Mail.app. The problem is with read mail on my Mac appearing on my BlackBerry as read. This does not happen, at least in a timely fashion. This can take hours, if it happens at all. Usually I've deleted the original on my computer before this can happen. I'm a bit anal about a clean inbox. :oops:

[takeshi]

1. no. this is not what happens.
email is not SYNCED. it is pushed with BIS. syncing only occurs on a BES (server).
emails can be deleted from BB and be told to be deleted from the SERVER of your EMAIL PROVIDER.
But the BB cannot sync mail with an email client on a pc.

Even on BES email isn't synced. I can see why people say "sync" but on BES you get full reconciliation. It's very similar to sync but reconciliation won't place old messages on your device where sync will (a small but important distinction).

[MidnightDraven]

right, thanks for that.

[Please Help!]

Ah, so the plot thickens...

This means to say that as soon as I set up my BB, none of my current messages in my inbox, trash, etc will "reconcile" up. But, once the activity begins on my BB, my Mail.app will reflect the activity from that point forward?

Also, I need to do this for work, so I will be set up on BES, not BIS.

What the hell is the difference between BES and BIS anyway?


And Rambo, if you can tell, I'm quite anal about my clean inbox as well : /

[MidnightDraven]

Yes.

BES = Blackberry Enterprise Server
used for companies, with Lotus or Exchange, allows wireless sync of calendar and contacts
BIS = Blackberry Internet Service
used for personal devices to alow up to 10 email addresses

[jbairdjr]

I have a smaller provider for my home internet (Windstream). I have an email account with them, added via BIS>
When I send messages from the windstream.net account, it does place the sent messages on the web client of Windstream's email. Doesn't go to my Outlook at home though

[rambo47]

I have a smaller provider for my home internet (Windstream). I have an email account with them, added via BIS>
When I send messages from the windstream.net account, it does place the sent messages on the web client of Windstream's email. Doesn't go to my Outlook at home though

Email reconciling on BIS is a provider-by-provider thing. It didn't work on .Mac either until they updated it for push email to iPhones. Your BES mailbox will definitely reconcile, and nearly instantaneously too. But BIS accounts, even if they're set up on a BlackBerry connected to BES, still won't participate in the superior reconciling services of the BES account.