[aburdick]

Hello all,

I am currently thinking of upgrading my Palm Treo 700p with Verizon, and have narrowed my decision down to the Palm Centro and the Blackberry Curve 8330. I see that the Curve gets very good reviews online, and my girlfriend has one for her work, and really likes it, so I am tempted. To help make my decision, though, there are a couple of questions I have.

First, I currently have a calling plan with Verizon which gives me 450 minutes per month for $39.99, and an unlimited data plan for $44.99; tack on an additional $5 for 250 text messages, and my monthly bill is usually around $80. My first question is: can I expect similar prices if I switch to a BlackBerry Curve? I did some research on Verizon's website today, and I couldn't make any sense out of the different plans -- there were the Nationwide Basic plans starting at $39.99, Blackberry Nationwide Email plans starting at $79.99, the Blackberry Nationwide Email & Messaging plans starting at $99.99... Am I going to need only one of these plans, or a combination of them? Who can give me a common sense summary of what plan or plans I'm going to need?

Second, I currently sync all my calendar / contacts / to-do lists / notes from my Treo to Outlook, but from what I've read, there are occasionally problems with Blackberry's sync to Outlook; supposedly, there was a recent patch, which addressed these issues. Is that true? In general, how is the syncing between Blackberry and Outlook? Are there any third-party apps, which improve the syncing?

Third, I currently use the third-party application PDANet on my Palm Treo 700p for tethering my laptop, in those situations where I don't have wireless internet access; PDANet allows me to connect to the internet, without paying Verizon's additional monthly fee for wireless internet access. Does the Blackberry Curve support tethering, or will I have to pay that extra fee with Verizon? I have researched this question online, but have found varying answers...

I appreciate any assistance you all could provide on these issues...

Thanks,
Andy Burdick