[kiteless]

Hi all.

I'm very keen on the new 8700c after discarding my treo600 few months ago that kept breaking down on me. however, i'm new to blackberries as i live in europe where practically noone offers 8700 nor blackberry yet, and the operators don't offer it to general consumers but only as corporate solutions for medium and large sized corporations. so just a few questions to help me on the way...

1) which is the easiest (fastest, or most legit) way to get hold of a 8700c unlocked from overseas or in NY being an non-US citizen?
2) would BIS or BES would have to be installed to use it against a pop3 account?
3) what limitations (in terms of functionality), if any, would there be by using an unlocked device + pop3 + apple osx + gprs/3g sim?

thanks for your help, patience and advice. as you would reckon, any info besides shallow sales pitch is practically impossible to get around here...

[barjohn]

I'll take a shot at answering your questions:
1. Since you need an unlocked unit it will depend on whether you are in the U.S. or ordering it from overseas. If ordering it from overseas, unless you have someone in the U.S. that can purchase it for you, you will probably need to order it from Adam at www.GSMPHONESOURCE.com already unlocked.
2. You only need your carrier to provide the BIS service and a BlackBerry data plan to access your pop3 email accounts. The best way is to forward your mail to your BlackBerry address (fastest) but if your pop3 account doesn't allow that, then you can use your web service account to poll for your email. You could also sign up for one of the third party BES services since setting up your own is quite expensive.
3. The major limiting factor if you are using an Apple product running OSX is the ability to install upgrades and applications to your handheld. You really need a PC to do this easily. There is a third party application for sync to your PIM (search the threads and you will find it).

Merry Christmas and enjoy!

[bperkins]

3. Many Mac users including myself use PocketMac (http://www.pocketmac.net/products/pm.../indexrim.html)

[kiteless]

2) ok so i take it as BB are not able to pop mail in the same fashion as the treos does (gprs straight from the account to handheld) every x minutes?

[barjohn]

This is correct as all email goes through the carriers service. You can set up on your BIS account to poll for your pop3 email accounts every 15 minutes and then send to the handheld as a push rather than a polled pull. There is no specific advantage to setting up email accounts directly like one does on the Palm OS as that uses much more battery power than the BB system. With a third party email system the alternate may be possible, I don't know as I haven't tried it (Reqwireless comes to mind).

[Mike_in_nyc]

Cingular offers an unlimited international usage plan for $19.99 per month. You could order directly from Cinular if you are willing to pay the premium for service.

[kiteless]

good idea but no candy... cingular intl usage plan is for US customers planning to use it overseas extensively, ie you still need a social security no to sign for a plan. and no, rest of the world don't have Cingular, or social security numbers, are not accountable to Department of Homeland Security and don't evolve around the crossing of 57th and broadway. Nor do we have BB 8700s by the way....

[lrdiaz]

Rim announced the 8700 for Orange France, maybe already available, and Orange UK will follow.