What is your monthly cost and how is that calculated?
Someone told me Taiwan lacks the infrastructure for Blackberries and the calls would have to be made through HK, but I find that hard to believe. I’m no techie, but I thought it simply needed a mobile phone connection.
I have been lusting for a Blackberry for some time. I’ve called my brother at his number and reached him on the beach in San Diego and in the mountains of Colorado – any time any place. I receive e-mails from clients and colleagues who can always be reached by e-mail. And just yesterday I was at a gathering in HK, where several people were trying to find the answer to a question, so one guy pulled out his Blackberry and did a Google search in the restaurant and had the answer in a minute. Ohhhhhh, I really want one. If they work in Taiwan it’s just a matter of convincing the wife it’s a necessity not a luxury, but when I told her the google story she snidely replied that with one I can access forumosa anywhere, so I may have my work cut out for me.
I don’t think anyone has local blackberry service in Taiwan. Anyone who’s using it in Taiwan is incurring some rather hefty roaming expenses. Depending on your plan, it’s sometimes flat rate or calculated by KB.
You could get it to work, but not like other people’s BB. Instead of the server pushing email to your blackberry, you’d have to use GPRS/WAP to access your email. However, you’d first have to find an unlocked GSM blackberry and sign up for a data plan.
Not quite worth your trouble…or sacrificing your marriage.
With WiFi AND Bluetooth I really will be able to check mail and surf anywhere I please and whenever I please (with it being so small I’ll have it with me 99.9% of the time).
It’ll be expensive when it first comes out (like they all are), but I have not regrets about spending the… 18,000NT for my old Tungsten T (I did get a free camera ).
[Edit: The IR on your phone will do the something the BlueTooth does for getting you online, almost every phone has IR these days]
With WiFi AND Bluetooth I really will be able to check mail and surf anywhere I please and whenever I please (with it being so small I’ll have it with me 99.9% of the time).[/quote]Doesn’t the Treo 650 do the same? It’s being released here very soon at around 22,000NT.
So my source was correct – Taiwan does lack the infrastructure for Blackberries. How strange. Taiwan has the highest mobile phone penetration rate in the world, a high rate of broadband internet access, and 3G, Multimedia on Demand and VoIP services are just around the corner. They strive to be a technology leader, but one can’t use a Blackberry here without dialing out to Hong Kong. Why the problem? What is lacking in Taiwan in that regard?
I don’t want to look into how it functions, but using GPRS/WiFi sounds like a better setup than what the Blueberry does. It’s probably cool back home (where you don’t have GPRS service everywhere) and not so cool here (dialing into a number to check email is not cool).
The Treo lacks WiFi and the 4gig hard drive. This new Palm might also be running a newer OS. On top of that, it’ll be cheaper.
Off-topic, but Research in Motion, the company that makes Blackberries, is located in my hometown - Waterloo, Ontario and has singlehandedly been responsible for the new “billionaire class” of local residents - the ones that got in the company early and accrued stocks in the early years. A formner class mate of mine is one of the lucky ones. He’s retired at 38 and has become a full-time philanthropist and world traveller.
does the treo use push technology for emails like the blackberry? i personally love my blackberry and was hoping taiwan would have the infrastructure for the service… why doesnt it? seems bizarre to me.
MT - if you can get a service up and running somewhere in TW I cant recommend the blackberry enough. simple to use and VERY effective.
I’ve been looking into mobile communicators recently too, and they don’t quite have the features and usability I’m looking for. The one that comes closest is the upcoming HTC Universal. It seems to be the one everyone is lusting after: clamshell design, VGA resolution, gprs and wifi.
Another option I’m considering are the new Sharp Zaurus models, like the SL-C3000 or SL-C1000. The problem there is they don’t have any wireless functionality. If you want wireless you add a bluetooth card that can talk to a bluetooth cell phone, or a wifi card if you happen to be in a hotspot. The thing that really attracts me to them is that they run Linux under the hood, and there’s tons of people out there making cool hacks for it. That really appeals to the geek in me. If they had a Zaurus that had built in GPRS and wifi, I’d be camping out at the cell phone store waiting for it.
[quote=“miltownkid”]OK, so what does it do that GPRS/WiFi wouldn’t?
Or is it a simplicity thing?[/quote]
The beauty of the Blackberry is the way it handles email. Most phones charge you per mail sent and sometimes mail received. Blackberry allows you to push up to 10 email accounts to your handheld for a monthly charge and unlimited (or capped depending on your plan) mails.
I so miss my Crackberry Not satisfied with any of the alternatives here although Treo seems alright. May have to go with the IPAQ or O2 (anyone know of I-Mate?) when the time comes…
I use one of the O2 phones (In Taiwan they are called Dopod) and before that I used the P900 to check email and read the TaipeiTimes etc. via GPRS. Both of the of these phones worked just fine for this. They both use on screen keyboards or handwriting recognition.
A friend of mine is about to start working for Blackberry Asia in HK and he tells me they will be in Taiwan soon.
AWOL: I don’t know if FarEasTone still offer it, but when GPRS first came out, I signed up for unlimited GPRS kb data transfer for NT$400 per month.
Now I just set my phone to automatically connect and check my email every 30 minutes and anytime I am waiting for something and bored I open the browser on my phone and read the TaipeiTimes or GoogleNews.
By the way, my P900 is still for sale, but I am about to list it on Ebay in the USA. FYI, the P900 does a better job than my Dopod at these things and the funny thing is P900 is the better phone, but the Dopod is a better PDA.
ok… thanks mate. if FET are doing it @ NT$400 a month then Blackberry are going to have to come in in an alliance at a competitive rate. I might just buy a P900 and connect to FET… cheaper than 'berry - eg - here in Oz the basic level is arounf NT$900 a month for low level data transfer
18,000NT for my old Tungsten T (I did get a free camera 
).
Not satisfied with any of the alternatives here although Treo seems alright. May have to go with the IPAQ or O2 (anyone know of I-Mate?) when the time comes…