[EricaJ1074]

I'm not a Mac user, but as a former user of 6 Windows Mobile devices, 3 Sidekicks and a few regular cell phones, and a BlackBerry user for 4 years off and on, I am completely aware of the things that a BlackBerry is capable of doing and what it is not capable of doing. The reason I got a BlackBerry (as a college student, not in a corporate world yet) is because of my need for a stable organizer and access to the web away from my home. This is ok as it serves my needs/wants for now.

1) Music-I have an mp3 player and my pc.

2) Camera-I can buy a camera for picture taking.

3) Document viewing, editing, etc.-I have a computer for that reason.

4) Third-party software-I have found TONS of titles I use. There are places to find this stuff online. I am only waiting for 2 or 3 games I used to play on my PPC's to come out for BlackBerry. Otherwise, I'm happy.

5) Mac support-I cannot answer this personally as I do not own a Mac.

6) Bluetooth IS enabled (Go to Options, Bluetooth, Enable it and set your BB so it can be discovered by other BT devices). I have 2 BlackBerries and they are paired with each other. I also attempted to pair my 7100t with a headset...don't wanna go off into that rant due to the problems I had. I also am still trying to figure out how to pair my 7105t with my pc (anybody willing to help me out here? LOL).

7) Tethering-Hopefully this will change for Mac users. I've heard it works well for PC users but I haven't tried it yet.

8) Voice dialing has just been recently released for the 7100i by Nextel. Other models/carriers haven't released it yet (maybe T-Mobile will soon). It would be a nice addition since I am not able to hold a phone at the same time I am driving. I have a handsfree headset to get around this issue since I am not willing to change providers for voice dialing.

9) Windows Mobile OS-I personally have had 6 PPC/PPC Phone Edition devices die on me.

10) Browser-MUCH more stable than the THREE Sidekicks I went thru and the Windows Mobile devices I had. I couldn't even browse the web on my Dell Axim X50's or my Compaq 3835, and all 3 of my Sidekicks gave me constant errors about timing out or not supporting certain pages. I can go anywhere I want on the web with my BB.

11) Durability-I dropped all of my BlackBerries and they're still working, except for 3 that dropped a signal never to come back, one of whch also had a malfunctioning power button (I got 2 of these replaced). Try this with a Treo, Sidekick or WM device (none of my PPC Phone Editions survived a single fall. My Compaq iPAQ won't stay turned on either but not because it's been dropped). Heck I had a Samsung E635 (basic phone, nothing fancy) which froze and RESET itself several times a day. That phone lasted a month before I gave up on it.


12) E-mail-I can view email attachments on my BB. I don't have a need to edit them on my BB yet. My only gripe is that they only support Yahoo Plus and Hotmail Plus (which I don't have) but I can check those accounts on my pc.

Overall, I am very happy that I came back to my BlackBerry. I missed it while I was using other devices (while waiting to find out what was to become of the patent lawsuit which was resolved).