Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 6-10 of 38
 GPS Tracking from BlackBerry Enterprise Server February 16, 2008
Bill Shen (Randolph, NJ United States)
20 out of 25 found this review helpful
As the title suggests, it's about location tracking from the GPS feature on the device. That is, tracking your location by someone else.
From BB8310 User Guide (SWDT203041-203041-05302007-001): "If your BlackBerry device is associated with an email account that uses a BlackBerry Enterprise Server, your system administrator might be able to track the location of your device". It followed by instructions to turn it off from the device: Options - Advanced Options - GPS - Location Tracking - No. The problem is that there is no "Location Tracking" under GPS.
After spending hours with Tech Supports from AT&T & BlackBerry, and Googling, here is what I can report.
*** From BlackBerry knowledge base:
http://www.blackberry.com/btsc/dynamickc.do?externalId=KB14430&sliceId=SAL_Public&command=show&forward=nonthreadedKC&kcId=KB14430. In part it reads:
"The BlackBerry Enterprise Server includes options to allow the BlackBerry Enterprise Server administrator to control the GPS feature and the location-based services on supported BlackBerry smartphones that use the feature". In other words, someone else has control over monitoring your location.
*** Advices I received from ATT/BB/Others:
"You can turn off GPS" (yeah, well, can I have a $100 rebate? Besides, I don't see how); "it's not that easy to query location from BES" (give me the admin rights - Joe, looks like 9:36:51 last night you were at...); "well if you don't have anything to hide" (heard this one before, how about the government records you phone calls whenever it wants); "you can file a suggestion to BB" (obviously they already knew but it'd be good to know before I buy it); etc etc.
So my conclusion is, if you are ok with all of this, or at least can "live" with it, it's a pretty good device otherwise. If not, either disable BES support, or get another device.
 Indispensable March 1, 2008
JAD (On Airplanes)
17 out of 17 found this review helpful
What can I say - the Blackberry 8310 (my fourth BB) continues to be an absolutely indispensable tool for a professional on the go. My productivity remains super high because the BB integrates so well with both my lifestyle and workstyle and I have so much more flexibility to live and work where and how I want to. Some high points for this particular model:
1. Its slim and light. Smaller and lighter than an iPhone. No burden at all
2. Great Battery life. Runs well through a full day of calls and email.
3. Internet. Provides web access when you need it. [Need AT&T to get G3 on this device!]
4. Easy to use. Keyboard is very workable for even those lengthy, from the field reports.
5. Attachments. Big screen makes it easy to work with docs - even pdfs.
6. GPS. A good backup when you need to know where you area.
7. Audio Quality. Phone and Speakerphone are excellent
8. Bright Screen. Use it anywhere
9. Camera. Comes in handy for quick snapshots that you want to email on the fly
10. Email. The best, most reliable mobile email out there.
Blackberry knows its target customers - mobile professionals. they do a great job of steering clear of the consumer bells and whistles and have stayed on track with delivering a product that fits the way we work.
 A review from a devoted blackberry user December 26, 2007
Nicoletta Carlone (Los Angeles)
16 out of 16 found this review helpful
The 8310 is my third Blackberry, before this one I had the 8300, and got this one because it has a better screen and GPS. Blackberry is not fancy like the iphone, but it is easy to use and pretty self explainitory. Blackberries are great for people who are professionals, or even students. This a wonderful phone, everything is very organized and easy to understand, unlike the 8300, this has clearer, brighter more varied colors. The track ball is easy to use, and the full qwerty keyboard coming in handy for writing e-mails or texts. It offers the setup wizard which well easily help you set up the phone including linking it to your e-mail, it was very easy to link my yahoo mail onto this and check it in one click. The camera is pretty good, but not as good as something like the iphone, but cameras arn't really what people buy blackberries for.
 Not for the new users of Blackberry March 5, 2008
Dominic M. John
16 out of 37 found this review helpful
Set the scene and then I can base the critism on my user profile. Note, this review is about the phone and not the service.
I get 200-250 e-mails a day and in 4-8 meetings a day. I am 35 years old. I spend 10-12 hrs a working day around a computer. I just used a small laptop for my organiser and e-mail. I have never used a PDA. Blackberry seems an obvious choice to make me more productive?
Why did I buy?
-Many people around me had PDAs either iPhone or Blackberry. I felt I was being left behind.
-Computing magazine review rated this phone the highest for e-mail
-I wanted easier access to my Outlook calendar and e-mail
-It's cool for my friends to see me with one?!
What's good about it?
It was easy to link to my Outlook exchange server and get e-mails. But the goodness stops there. It may be easy to put gas/petrol in the car but if the car is slow, incredibly difficult to steer and drive, what's the point of having easy filling?
What's bad?
-It crashes once a day.
-The keys are so rediculously small that writing text fast will not happen. You hit multiple and wrong keys. You often need the delete key and it is burried at the bottom under your thumb. Someone needs to think about usability!
-Usability is appauling!!! I expect to invest some time in learning new technology but the whole thing has been designed without a primary audience. I want a Blackberry to phone, see my calendar and read and answer short e-mails. I have an iPod for music.
You start the device and you have by default 20+ icons. I want 3!!! The first thing you need to work out is how to get rid of the usless items to make it quick to navigate to your primary use cases. (Blackberry, give me a set up wizard!)
When you want to dial a number you have to use the 9 '2' font keys on the screen. Doing this with one hand is painful. The numbers are also on the left hand side. Most of use will use our right thumb!
Then to chnage any settings most items are burried in very un-intuitive text on a 'left click' button. Further more, what you are after is often burried deep in the navigation. Read on for an example...
-The Noises!!!! The defaults drove me crazy!! 200 e-mails a day. I could have danced to the music the phone made. Every e-mail, every calendar invite the things buzzed beeped and chirped! It was killing the battery. I just needed to know if a phone call was coming in. The fun part was then turning the bleeps off! Read on for an example of crazy usability.
-Turning off beeps
I write this as an example of how bad it gets in places to do simple tasks
It took me about 15 minutes to find out how to do an obvious function.
1) Navigate to item 15 using the roller ball
2) Click using the roller- ball. This opens the drop down menu with 4 big items, normal, vibrate, Quiet and Loud. You would think you then use that 'left click' button to edit. Wrong.
3) Carefull observe there is a tiny indicator that you can scroll beyond these basic options- not obvious. Select at the very bottom 'Advanced' option. Click using the roller ball
4)Observe a new list of profiles which you just saw in just a smaller menu this time!!!
5)Navigate to the profil you wish to edit- say 'Loud'. Now click with the roller ball.
6)If you didn't realise, the 12 different items on this screen from 'Browser' to 'Tasks' are all individual functions on the balckberry with their annoying beep associations. Get this, you need to edit each one to set your desired noise. Here's how
7) Select the functionality you wish to change the noise on, say 'Messenger- New Message'. Who named it 'messenger'!!!
8) You now have a dialogue with 11 options per beep function!!! Change volumne, tune, number of beeps, LED, vibrartions and number etc
9) Click 'Out of Holster' using the roller ball, None, vibrate, Tone or vibrate plus tone.
10) Select an option by clicking with the roller ball.
11) Change any of the other 11 options per function by going to step 9)
12) Use the navigate back button to force a save. Save dialogue then pops up.
13) Select the save or discard button using roller ball.
14) Now go back to step 7 and repeat to 14 another 11 times for the other default beep and tune settings for the default 'Loud' profile!!!
...another 15 minutes later...
-The e-mail text you get back has lost all formatting so often you loose context and it is impossible to read.
-The synchronization software using default installs on XP was slowing my machine start-up by 2 minutes, locking all access to the machine! It was the first thing I uninstalled.
- I can go on but hopefully you guys get the drift and won't make the same mistake as me
Final conclusion
For new users I would wait until a decent user interface comes along that hooks up with Outlook and addresses primary needs. Also a user interface that tries to do core jobs well and not everything from navigating the internet on a 2 inch screen, playing games, GPS, music and so on. For BlackBerry, they need to clean up their usability, software performance and stability. If iPhone get easy sychronisation and backup with Outlook and Lotus Notes, Blackberry will die as soon as their contracts expire.
 Good phone! Jack of all trades, master of too few January 29, 2008
Globalaza (Washington, DC)
14 out of 19 found this review helpful
I purchased my Blackberry Curve 8310 after two long painful years with the Motorola SLVR L7. Needlesstosay, I was glad to rid of it due to too many glitchy problems and incomplete features, although I liked the size, style and overall feel of the phone. I was looking for a non-flip phone that didn't feel like a kid's toy.
I narrowed my search to Blackberry Curve, Blackberry Pearl, and the Samsung BlackJack. I rejected the Pearl because it was a bit too small for my hands and the buttons felt flimsy. I could just see those keys popping off and the phone become useless. The BlackJack is a good, strong feeling phone. I especially liked the rubberized surface that prevents the inevitable slipping. I felt like a sturdy communications machine, not a toy, albeit with mixed reviews. But the Blackberry Curve felt good, lightweight, big enough to use easily but not too big like the Apple iPhone or the Palm Trios.
After a somewhat strange purchasing process at an AT&T store that still says Cincular on the door [AT&T REALLY should provide better training to its salespersonnel so it doesn't feel like you are making a backroom deal to simply buy a phone], I purchased the Curve and went through the fast and easy process of setting up the e-mail features and configuring it to my tastes.
The Curve is a good basic cellphone, with the typical features you would find in most phones such as various ringtones, alarm clock, calculators, camera, and the ability to play music. It is a good "smart" phone with features you would find in other smart phones such as web browsing. The camera is notable in that it has a flash, takes good photos (as phones go) and allows you to send them in only a few steps. Big improvement over most phones. But, who really buys a phone for its camera?
The e-mail features are superior and if you have a lot of e-mail accounts, like I do, this is the only device I have seen that will bring them all to one location and let you address them from once source. Bravo! I imagine others will want to adopt this capability as the technology becomes more commonplace.
Bottom Line: If you are looking to upgrade your current cellphone, and want to add new features such as web-browsing and a better camera, this is an excellent phone.
PROs: Sleek, modern, compact, sets the standard for smart phones. Capable, fully functional, and mostly intuitive. Uncomplicated, and simple to configure. Good sound, lightweight, a pretty cool camera.
CONs:
GPS requires extra money, on top of expensive "unlimited data" feature, adding a lot of additional costs per month.
When phone rings or message/e-mail comes in, and phone has keys locked, the screen does not light up so you can see who is calling. You have to press the trackball to see what's going on.
When phone is on Vibrate while charging, and call/e-mail comes in, a great feature is when the phone switches to loud/sound so you can hear it, and switches back to vibrate when you unplug it from the charger. Motorolas do that, and it is very convenient.
Some "Applications" can't be put on the main screen as an icon. It would be great if they could, although some websites are configuring icons just for Blackberry.
I get e-mails back in my Messages Inbox once I have sent them. I can't see how to turn off this feature. I just want the check mark to indicate that the message was sent. I don't need the message I sent filling up my inbox.
Speakerphone feature not readily accessible.
Blackberry needs a screensaver.
I would love to be able to remove the Blackberry Wireless signature. The manual says it can be done, but the phone has different ideas. The menu necessary to remove or change the notation just doesn't appear.
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