Wireless E-Mail Advice Wanted
This is totally preliminary, but I thought I’d start asking around.
The plan is to improve my mobility in terms of business communications. Right now, e-mail from my big client goes out to the internet, to a mail account I receive both at home and at the office, and can check via the web from anywhere I have web access. I can be reached by e-mail to my cell phone, but that is limited, and has to be addressed specifically. If I know I will be on the road or such, I’ll tell people they can reach me that way if needed.
What I would like is to have a device that every client e-mail arrives on, no matter where I am, and can be answered on the spot. A lot of my support work is answering e-mailed questions, or starting the troubleshooting via e-mail to get to where I know I need to call or materialize there. I am not always in the office or at home where I can easily monitor things. I anticipate this becoming more common, a topic for another post.
Web access from a portable device would be a bonus. Ease of typing would be appreciated, though I can be surprisingly fast even on the cell with the T9 system. Wide coverage is pretty much imperative. Obviously I am not talking something laptop sized, though it might be fun to have wireless internet service and a small notebook computer that rides in the truck with me everywhere.
I plan to switch from my old prepaid cell, which is Verizon service, with which I have been thrilled, to a “real” cell, preferably two of them. One would live at the office, perhaps being forwarded to the other phone when nobody is here, and be usable by anyone else working here, covering for me, or by me if I manage to leave the other phone home. I may skip the second one if it’s going to cost too much. At the same time, I would be tempted to get one for Deb as well. It would be great on the road, as an emergency phone, and useful for the aspects of business she helps me with.
A wireless e-mail device that is also a phone would be a possibility, which is why I mentioned the phone aspect too.
Anyway, thoughts? Experiences?
I think the word you are grasping for is “Blackberry” (AKA ‘Crackberry’
. Verizon Wireless offers an integrated Blackberry/Phone unit, I do believe.
Posted by John on 01/10 at 05:19 PMI think you’re looking at a Sidekick.
I can pop email from my clam shaped phone, but composing email on it sucks. I know a lot of people who use blackberry’s, but they’re really email devices, and suck at web surfing.
I think the sidekick is what you want.
Posted by sama on 01/10 at 05:20 PM-
Posted by caltechgirl on 01/10 at 06:22 PM
I have a Treo, which is Verizon’s version of a Blackberry. For business-related email accounts I use ChatterEmail which “pushes” the email to my Treo (and back), giving me total mobility. The Treo has web access and I can synch it with my desktop computer, which means that documents created on one can be stored, accessed and edited on the other then synched. It also synchs with Outlook, so my calendar on both stays the same. There’s a qwerty thumb-sized keyboard built in and it’s compatible with infrared-based full-sized keyboards, although I don’t feel the need for one.
They’re pricey to start with—we got a deal on mine by combining my “new every 2” deal with Verizon (which gives users phone upgrades very 2 years) and a trade-in discount from Palm that let me turn in my old PDA for cash towards my Treo. I don’t know if they have the same offer in your area or not, but it brought the cost of my Treo down to just over $100 plus the monthly airtime cost.
Posted by Venomous Kate on 01/10 at 08:02 PMYou should look into a family plan. You can get multi lines that share one plan.
the base for the one I use is $69 a month for 1000 mins.. nights from 9 pm to 6 am are free and so are weekends (9 pm friday to 6 am monday I believe). Thats for 2 phones 2 numbers. I only have a one year contract and you can upgrade your phones every year and get a new phone at the new plane price if you renew the contract. Extra lines are $10 a month more.
There is a fee per phone if you want the good email, but I think thats pretty much true for all the majoy company’s.
I have T Mobile. There not to fussy about your credit.. Sprint wanted a 2 year contract and a deposit of $200. Verizon wanted a 2 year contract and $500 deposit..(this was serveral years ago mind you) T-mobile gave me 2 free phones and sent me on my way.
The coverage is not as good as verizon, But I find that the phone works most everywhere I go.. It works places my work nextel won’t.
And they do have all the smart phones. The point wasn’t to push T-Mobile but to push the family plan idea..Posted by Wayne on 01/10 at 11:18 PMI checked my receipts last night after leaving this comment—by waiting for a good deal and using the trade-ins, we got our Treo for $113. (It was my birthday present, but also a tax-deductible business expense, and we need every one of those we can get.)
But, Wayne’s right. Verizon is over-priced—I pay $30/mo for web access, etc. on the Treo in addition to the $70 we pay for my Treo and Hubby’s cell phone to share minutes. (We don’t have a “land line” in the house, which makes this a little more affordable.)
Honestly, I’m not impressed with their coverage. I can get a signal at my kitchen sink, but not at my kitchen table (2 feet away). I can’t get any signal at my computer desk unless I stand up. OTOH, all of my friends who have T-mobible or Cingular get signal everywhere in my house.
We signed up 7 years ago with them when I was still practicing law, and as any Verizon customer will tell you, each time you change the slightest thing on your account (adding text messaging, lowering minutes, etc.), they add 2 more years on to your contract.
I think ours expires on the Second Coming.
Posted by Venomous Kate on 01/11 at 12:37 PM
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