I just purchsed the 7100t from T-Mobile, migrating from the HP 6315. I am not going to bad-mouth the PPC device but just to say that I needed more consistant functionality.

I would like to get a program like e-wallet for my new BB, any suggestions?

Also have any of you used any of the all-in-one IM programs from Handango? My son likes Yahoo, my oldest daughter likes MSN and my youngest uses AIM, so you can see my delimma.

Any other programs I need to get to make this purchase a successful transfer from a PPC?

I'll be the first to say welcome to the BB world. For me, its been a very good experience, and I am hoping for the same for u.

Lemme answer your question about your search for an Instant Messenger with these links:

My opinion on the Instant Messengers
http://www.blackberryforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=4662

BlackBerry Instant Messaging FAQ (by Mark Rejhon)
This helped me out a lot...
http://www.blackberryforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=3123

Why is the dang software soooo expensive for the BB? The same software for the PPC is about 1/2 the price.

I agree, thats why I stopped using veri chat to cut the cost of the yearly price on top of my charges for additional data usage on my ".Unlimited Data Plan". With IM+, its only a one time charge, plus the Additional Data Usage. No yearly charges.

I will check it out. What about e-wallet replcement?

Never used an e-wallet type program, so I don't want to give you any advice on that. Their is a program you can buy through handango called my safe you could take a look at. Their may be other programs of its type on handango. I'll post the link:

My Safe

Try searching through handango if this isn't what your looking for.

Yeah I saw that but didn't know how it compared to e-wallet other than again it twice what I paid.

Also what are these programs for e-mail and office sutie? Do I need one for e-mail to open attachments and does the office suite addanything to normal use?

See this thread

http://www.blackberryforums.com/view...ghlight=wallet


There is also a program called Cryptmagic.

http://www.rimroad.com/software/rim1...-rim-rim1.html

Found these by searching, hint, hint.

The HP6315 received bad reviews, T-Mobile USA should have carried the MDAII as they did in Europe, a terrific PocketPC/Phone. I'm in the process of moving from the MDAII to a Blackberry. In fact I'm switching to Cingular since T-Mobile USA doesn't have any decent phones. Buying at full retail or ebay wipes out any price advantage for T-Mobile.

Software is scarce and expensive on the bb. If you have the 7100t I think it has a program in the OS for storing encrypted passwords. I also used eWallet and couldn't find anything replicating it for the bb. The latter has software but it isn't nearly as nice as ewallet with both desktop and handheld versions.

Email is built in, T-Mobile will give you a website where you can forward email from one of your pop accounts or have it check your email 4 times an hour and push it to your blackberry. The bb doesn't work with your pop accounts so you'll have to deal with the email again when you're back at your desktop.

Attachments are a different problem. If the server supports the attachment you can view it. There isn't any support for MS Office built into the device, there isn't even a spell check. Of course if you can pony up $200 more you can get eOffice; I haven't tried it.

There are email programs for the bb that will allow you to work with your pop/imap/hotmail servers directly. I haven't tried that software either. IMHO, the bb is only useful in the corporate world where they need to keep tight control on the email server access.

Regards-Michael G.

Wait a minute. The device said that you can set up 10 personal outside POP3 accounts and it does say that it can open doc, excel and pdf files but just can't edit them. Am I reading this wrong. I thout the thrid party programs were for composing or editing word documents.

I'm probably just not being clear, you have it correct.

You can set up 10 pop email addresses, the BWC checks these approximately every 15 minutes. It then downloads these to the bb mail server from where it is pushed to your device. You have an email address for this account like . You can forward mail to this account or email to it directly for immediate push to the bb.

The bb doesn't actually sync with the 10 pop accounts. It just copies the mail from those accounts to its email box. There is a utility available so you can set the reply to address for each message, otherwise when you respond from your bb to an email it will set the reply to address to a default that you specify. The difference with PocketPC and bb is that your PocketPC actually logs into the pop server to receive and transmit. Whatever changes you make with the PocketPC are there when you log on with a desktop client.

If you have a MS Office, a pdf or other supported file type it can be downloaded and viewed only if it was an eamil attachement. That is, you can't copy files from your desktop to your device and view them. I'm not sure if you can copy them and sent them as an attachment.

Working with an excel spreadsheet is next to impossible, but word and pdfs are ok. It is the server that actually converts the Office/pdf files to a viewable format, not the device. That's what I meant, not a big deal if you only plan to look at email attachments and not copy from your desktop.

You plan to use IM, make sure the program you use doesn't send and receive via SMS since SMS isn't usually part of your data plan.

The blackberry has it advantages, it is just very different than the PocketPC. I'll be giving up my PocketPC, not happy about it but I don't want to carry two devices. Checkout PocketDay and berry411 I find both very useful.

Regards-Michael G.

Thanks for the clarification. You had me worried there for a moment.

Ok you did state that SMS is ususally no part of he plan but I think I got unlimited through T-Mobile. At least that is what they told me. the 59.99 plan has unlimited e-mail, IM and browsing and unlimited text messaging (SMS). Does this sound correct?

I'm not sure which plan you have with T-Mobile but they do offer unlimited sms on some of their plans. Also, I believe some of the IM programs don't require sms anymore. Not sure about the 7100t. There is plenty of info on this forum. If that phone had voice recognition I would have went for it.

I've had T-Mobile for more than three years, great customer service and excellent coverage in the NJ/NYC area. I haven't had any problems at all. With the BB, I'm switching to Cingular and just trying the voice service now. So far with data I haven't had any problems.

By the way, I do like the bb. It really is a nice device and I like it more now than when I first started using it. Just coming from a PocketPC, it is very different and I didn't use the multimedia, camera or games. Things like no spell check on a device made for email just kills me though.

Getting Blackberry Connect software on something like the MDAIII or the new clamshell pocketpc being released later this year would be one terrific device. I was disappointed to read HP is shipping the goodlink client on their new pocketpc/phone that replaces the 6315. Good luck with the 7100t.

Regards-Michael G.

Yeah I am sure it will be a culture shock for a week or two. I was lucky, in that I sold my HP6315 for over 300.00 through Amazon sellers in less than a day.

I am looking forward to getting the new device later this week. I am phoneless for now.