I'll pickup the BlackBerry part of this. I use Verizon, but that doesn't really matter if you go BlackBerry as all of the major carriers have some version of the current BlackBerry handsets. The current version of the "traditional" BB would be some version of the Curve or Bold. The main thing to remember when getting a BlackBerry is that you are effectively getting two services. Your providers data service which is the carrier and RIM's BlackBerry backbone that provides the messaging layer for email and BB to BB messaging. While my 2 year old 8700 doesn't do any of the fancy multi-media stuff (no camera, no music playback) the newer units do. My 8700 will work as a modem. Verizon only supports Windows with its connection manager. I have had it working with xmblackberry in modem mode. I need to rebuild the software under 64-bit openSUSE 11.1 and get that working again. (Its not something I use a lot so it will happen when I need it again.) The main reason I got the BlackBerry is that I was tired of carrying my personal phone and the companies BB so I got my own and used the "personal cell phone" option we have at work. I've moved my domain to Google Apps and there is a BlackBerry mobile gmail client that allows me to get mail for jacku.com and gmail.com by simply selecting the account. At work we have Exchange 2003 and a Blackberry Enterprise Server. (It was in-place when I got there so I don't know what we paid for it. But we're a non-profit so we get charity pricing.) My favorite app on the BB is Google Maps. I don't pay Verizon to unlock the GPS so I just use the Google Maps "current location" feature that works of the cell towers. Its great when traveling by train. When you wake up in the middle of the night because the train stops with a jolt you can figure out where you are. Do to paperwork snafus my "New every two" doesn't come up until December. I'll look at the Storm and the Curve (or what ever is current) at that time and probably replace my current unit. FWIW I personally hate the Pearl series. I want my full thumb keyboard not some odd two letter per key thing that the Pearls have. On Tue, Jun 9, 2009 at 7:38 PM, Mike Miller <mbmiller+l at gmail.com<mbmiller%2Bl at gmail.com> > wrote: > On Tue, 9 Jun 2009, Chuck Cole wrote: > > > I need, and I use the free 3G modem "loophole" for internet access often > > enough to care. > > > > Does the Palm Pre still allow the free 3G modem loophole on the Sprint > > network? > > > > Do iPhones and Blackberries provide free 3G modem service for laptops? > > > Good questions! I never tried the 3G loophole and I don't know if the Pre > can do it. Is there a web page on how to make it work? (Perhaps with a > different device.) If so, I can try it. > > > By the way, I find it interesting that some people seem to see this > discussion as a kind of contest. It may be a contest for Apple and Palm, > or for Sprint and AT&T, because every customer goes to only one of the two > (a zero sum game), but for me to own a certain phone is not part of a > contest against other phone owners. If someone has a phone with much > better features than my phone has, that is good to know about, but I have > not in any sense been "defeated"! ;-) Whenever I want a different phone, > I'll go buy one. I want to know about other phones because I might want > to buy another phone (and I definitely will need another phone *someday*), > not because I want to establish my dominance in the world of phone > ownership! ;-) > > Mike > > _______________________________________________ > TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota > tclug-list at mn-linux.org > http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mailman.mn-linux.org/pipermail/tclug-list/attachments/20090609/dcba98f2/attachment-0001.htm