Approx. a week ago my firm had an engineer come in to setup a BES Server and configure/setup our new Cingular BlackBerry 8700c's.

One of the fellows want his AOL IM but we are told that we have to setup "GoogleTalk" and then somehow make the AOL IM work.

I am not an engineer so I need a some help. I have read that some folks set this up and then have double-messages, etc... and, of course, we are hoping to have it setup with NO problems (Am I asking too much?).

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

MUCH LESS IMPORTANT:
Also, if anyone can tell me how to get fun stuff like Local (and Anywhere) Traffic reports, maps/directions on our BlackBerry's that would be great.

I really want some good tunes as ringtones (Coldplay....) but I have not had time to search for this stuff. Can you tell I want to have SOME fun/cool stuff on MY BB 8700c?

Thanks for your help...and any suggestions/tips.

someone had posted some good info (in a different thread) on how to get AIM to work, but it seemed like it was a PITA to get it to work so I just said F-it... :(

Literally TONS of threads/topics on this stuff! Use the search option, brother!

Ringtones, wallpapers and whatnot even have their own devoted sections with dedicated stickies! These forums are well put together and simple to use. Jus scroll down and take a few minutes to familiarize with them.

Wirelessly posted (7100I: BlackBerry7100i/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/103)

Have you considered Ramble? Or is this not an option?

I have Google Talk and I am using it for AIM. The only problems I have with it is when I am signed on at home and on my BB, I get a message that says I'm logged in at 2 location, which is a very small problem to have. I assume that most people at your work won't have that problem though.

Amen to the search suggestion. There's a lot here already!

In my opinion, AIM on the BlackBerry ain't that great. Built in client is SMS, which is possibly costly and definitely sluggish. Ramble I have found to be unreliable, and the others I have found to be non-free, which makes me not interested. So I stick with Google Talk, and I LOVE it. The GoogleTalk/AIM integration piece doesn't appeal to me because I don't want to bother with keeping a dedicated desktop logged in to support it. http://www.bigblueball.com/forums/go...msn-yahoo.html

http://google.com/gmm for awesome maps. This is an absolutely killer application.

Google Maps is all I need, and I travel a lot. But it doesn't do GPS. For that check out www.telenav.com.

I make my own ringtones from my MP3 and sound effects collection, saved as 48Kbps mono MP3 files, hosted in a private area of my web site. All the sounds my BlackBerry makes are custom tones I've cooked up in this way. TMI?

Games? www.magmic.com -- something for everybody there.

eBooks? www.mobipocket.com -- can import your own content from a variety of formats.

Good luck and have fun! If you want to go deeper, look into "Zen Theme" -- you'll need to get your hands a little dirty, but most people who try the Zen theme really dig it.

I really did not like Rambler either. I am a former sidekick2 user and the only AIM program that has appealed to me is Yak-On. Its only a 2 weeks free trial, but the quality of the tabbed windows and reliability of AIM is excellent. It will definitley satisfy anyone who is a real heavy instant message user. Hopefully an official Aol instant messenger is realeased similar to the Yahoo Messenger and Google Talk currently available.

I have set Google Talk to run AIM and MSN (and could use it for yahoo and ICQ if I cared about those) and it works like a charm. I only had to setup the "connection" between the 2 once and then never had to touch it again. And you don't have to keep anything running on any machine to support it. Actually, after I set it up I formatted my machine and haven't reset anything up. And as I add new contacts in AIM or MSN, they are still showing up/being added to Google Talk. GoogleTalk has been awesome.

You may also want to check out Yak-On. I use that one sometimes as well and think it is pretty dang good.

anybody consider yahoo ? I'm using it on my 8700r and i like it better than google one because it also shows new messages in the email list view.

blackberry dot com /products/blackberry/im/yahoo.shtml

sorry to revive such an old thread, but I was wondering. can anyone confrim that this google talk method does not need a 2nd machine that is running in order to work? Will I just be able to connect to my aim account with just the bb?

Yes, I can confirm this. You will need a computer initially to setup the connection. But once that is setup, then that machine does not need to be running in order for it work. This is how I am setup and working, so I know it works.

Yeah, I haven't touched my Jabber client for months and it still works fine.

I'll confirm what casmer and stealth said.... only need second machine to set it up once...