[gpia7r]

Good Morning,

I'm now a proud new owner of my first Blackberry, the 8900. I was pretty amazed with it right out of the box, it's very crisp and bright.

I nabbed mine for $130 on Newegg, got the 300 anytime, free night/weekend, myfave voice plan with the Blackberry Unlimited +400 plan (cheapest available)

While I was under the impression I could make free calls on Wifi, I didn't realize that was another $10... but I doubt it'd matter, so I won't bother with that.

I do have a few questions though:

Could someone explain the "battery pull" term that gets tossed around here? Apparently not only is it a physical battery pull, but there are applications to emulate it? May I ask how "pulling the battery" occasionally improves the Blackberry? Definetly appreciate some clarification on this one.

Battery seems to be pretty good so far. I assume it's safe to just keep on the charger every night? I understand that modern batteries no longer "remember", and need to be cycled?

Lesse... While I don't really care/need the "Internet Anywhere" that's part of my BB Unlimited plan, can you name a couple of ways to take advantage of it so I don't feel like I'm wasting money?

Also, as part of the BB Unlimited yadda yadda plan... does that allow unlimited e-mails to be pushed to the device, for example, from a Hotmail or GMail account?

I was sent a couple of picture messages, but they just redirected me to the my.t-mobile.com website to view them in my album. Please tell me this device can directly receive images without having to go to a computer... that wouldn't make sense....

As a side note, I have to say I'm pretty happy with t-mobile's customer service. They're always available and very friendly on the phone (can't say the same for their e-mail and online chat service...)

Edit: Also, what are good measures and practices to preserve the battery life? I've got Bluetooth and Wifi turned off, is there anything esle I can do?

Thank you for your time!

[Shaun]

Originally Posted by gpia7r

Could someone explain the "battery pull" term that gets tossed around here? Apparently not only is it a physical battery pull, but there are applications to emulate it? May I ask how "pulling the battery" occasionally improves the Blackberry? Definetly appreciate some clarification on this one.

A battery pull is exactly that, pull the battery for 10-15 seconds and put it back in to reset the device fully (including memory). There are apps that emulate a battery pull, but research has shown nothing beats a true battery pull to get a fully refreshed/reset device.

Originally Posted by gpia7r

Battery seems to be pretty good so far. I assume it's safe to just keep on the charger every night?

Yes

Originally Posted by gpia7r

Lesse... While I don't really care/need the "Internet Anywhere" that's part of my BB Unlimited plan, can you name a couple of ways to take advantage of it so I don't feel like I'm wasting money?

Viigo (RSS/news reader) and Bolt Browser

Originally Posted by gpia7r

Also, as part of the BB Unlimited yadda yadda plan... does that allow unlimited e-mails to be pushed to the device, for example, from a Hotmail or GMail account?

There is a limit on BIS servers for the number of email accounts, but not the number of emails.

Originally Posted by gpia7r

I was sent a couple of picture messages, but they just redirected me to the my.t-mobile.com website to view them in my album. Please tell me this device can directly receive images without having to go to a computer... that wouldn't make sense....

This I am not sure of, or how MMS works on T-Mobile, but would recommend you have MMS enabled on your account at the least. Others will have more info on this.

[BCollins521]

Wirelessly posted (Wohoo! I'm mobile!)

Yes the 8900 can receive picture messages without having to log into the picture server, since this is new TMo recommends you send two picture messages to yourself first and that it should start coming in as a MMS message and not having to log into the server. If that doesn't work then you'll see to call customer service. I have no issues getting MMS messages in my inbox on the device

[ricpac]

This is OT so please allow me: BC, you got a kewl title "Theme Mafia Founder" <-- I love it!

[chrapojr]

Had a friend who had to call Tmobile to get MMS to go to the phone and not his online account.

[TheBigNewt]

The battery pull will essentially reboot your phone if you need that for any reason. Do it while the phone is on. On occasion I will view messages/emails and the phone will still show x unread messages. A battery pull will usually fix that. The other reason to do it is to increase "free memory" on the phone (to see this: Options>Status shows memory free, move decimal 6 places to the left for MB). However the 8900 has twice the memory of previous BBs (128mb) so I don't think you need to worry about this myself. In fact my wife refuses to do a battery pull on her Blackberries and they work just fine. So I say if something seems screwy with the phone do a battery pull, otherwise don't.

[gpia7r]

I see I see, good information, thanks everyone.

Viigo sounds intriguing...

Oh, and is there a way to surf the internet through WiFi rather than using the T-mobile browser? I know I can connect to Wifi/UMA... but I don't think it matters since I'm not on their T-Mobile hotspot $10 plan. Just curious, wondering if maybe it'd be faster to use Wifi than the EDGE browser.

What's the difference between edge and EDGE, by the way?

I also agree with other topics mentioning how "light" the vibration is... any way to pump that up a bit?

The amount of and depth of the menus is a bit intimidating. Lots of places to find options and settings... yet I'm still not able to find a practical way to put a picture as a background on the main screen.

... then again, I haven't checked the "Photo" menu... maybe it's an option there.

[Dreskills]

Lol dude take your time you have a long way to go.. There is no way you can understand this crazy high tech device in a day not even weeks... Maybe months. Ive had 3 in 3 years and im still learning. As far as MMS goes (picture mail) your MMS (Multimedia Message System) should come straight to your phone I had an issue with this once before and it took 3-5 calls with T-Mobile before they finally got me taken care of. I know you've heard this before but... Even though we are friendly people the Search button is your best friend.

Just my 2 cents...

Oh yeah and welcome to the Blackberry your life has just changed for the better.

[BCollins521]

Wirelessly posted (Wohoo! I'm mobile!)

The difference between "edge" and "EDGE" (same with "gprs" and "GPRS") is that when there is Blackberry data service available then you'll have capital letters.

Yes you can browse the internet connected to a wifi network and it will be faster you don't have to sign up for hotspot service, I connect to my home network when I come home so I can browse the internet faster. As long as the network is open or you have the security password then you'll be good to go

[BCollins521]

Wirelessly posted (Wohoo! I'm mobile!)

Originally Posted by ricpac

This is OT so please allow me: BC, you got a kewl title "Theme Mafia Founder" <-- I love it!

Thanks lol

[Shaun]

Originally Posted by BCollins521

The difference between "edge" and "EDGE" (same with "gprs" and "GPRS") is that when there is data service available then you'll have capital letters.

Network/Carrier data is available when 'gprs' and 'edge' are displayed on the device, the difference being that BlackBerry data (email, bbm, etc.) is not. That is the significance of 'GPRS' and 'EDGE' and now the BlackBerry 'B' for 3G.

[BCollins521]

Well yea...same thing lol...a BB won't work without the BBData working, you'll only be able to send picture messages

**edited my original post to include *Blackberry data* **

[gpia7r]

Good good.

Hm, based on my plan (Blackberry Unlimited)... Are there any free MSN Messenger apps that will cost me nothing and have no limits? I mean, I guess they need to be able to work on the Blackberry unlimited portion so they don't count against my message limits or anything...

I promise I used search feature :P All the answers in other topics were very wishy-washy and didn't really help.

Edit: I take that back. BeeJive seems to get the job done for what I'm asking... not expensive, and works over the data rather than text limits.

[TheBigNewt]

MSN Messenger is already installed on the phone in an icon that looks like a file folder with "IM" on it.

[BCollins521]

If not go to mobile.blackberry.com and under the IM section there should be a MSN download

[dcjoe662]

You shouldn't have any battery issues with the phone as far as the phone dying on you. I use my phone all day long from 9am to 10pm. Phone calls, email, BB messenger, text, internet, and such. Bluetooth is on for half the day and the WIFI is used half day as well. It leaves me with one battery bar by the time I get home. All in all the 8900 is a solid phone just like all the other BB on any other carrier. Even the Storm ;)

[gpia7r]

From what I read, the built-in MSN Messenger counts against SMS, not Data... but BeeJive seems to be working very well for me.

I do have another question, though...

Is there a way to create folders to store items such as SMS messages? For example, I'd like to have a folder with a label, then store messages maybe from one specific person in this folder...

... Further, is there a way to hide/password said folder?

[gold7]

hi I'm new to the forum as i am to blackberry.i have learnt a bit about blackberry devices from reading the pages. thanks

ok i've just picked up an unlocked blackberry curve 8900 which is branded tmobile how ever i will need to be using it with a voda phone sim for the next 3 months.
my questions are these;

1 is there any way i can get pushed emails with out a data plan ?

2 what benefits do i lose out on by not having a blackberry data plan?

3 i've been connecting to the internet on the device using wi fi however i find the pages are so very slow to load is there any way to improve this? i am currently using the blackberry browser pre installed.
the only pages which load quick are the internet pages designed for mobile.

4 lastly why does youtube not play on my device?

thanks for your help. keep up the good work.

[BCollins521]

1. No you must have a data plan to get email sent automatically to your phone

2. You lose email being always there, web being always there, and no BlackBerry Messenger and third party applications. Those all require the data plan

3. Full pages will run slow even if your on a wifi connection or the data connection. It's the fact of the phone rendering the page. I recommend using the mobile version as much as you can so it loads faster unless you really need the full version personally.

4. Go to m.youtube.com for youtube

[gold7]

Originally Posted by BCollins521

1. No you must have a data plan to get email sent automatically to your phone

2. You lose email being always there, web being always there, and no BlackBerry Messenger and third party applications. Those all require the data plan

3. Full pages will run slow even if your on a wifi connection or the data connection. It's the fact of the phone rendering the page. I recommend using the mobile version as much as you can so it loads faster unless you really need the full version personally.

4. Go to m.youtube.com for youtube

thanks for answering every thing with such clarity.

I've downloaded opera mini for web browsing which has made a huge difference in speed. i'll try "m.youtube" now thanks again.