At RIMarkable, one of Rob's readers reports some insider-y news that this coming fall, SprintNextel will release a new BlackBerry that will bridge Sprint and Nextel's Push-to-Talk Networks.
Keep in mind that despite the merger of these two companies a year and a half ago, their two PTT's are walled off: Nextel is iDEN and Sprint's is CDMA. Qualcomm's QChat is said to be the solution to solve this.
QChat's main web page (linked below) says the solution enables communication to begin with the press of a Push to Talk button on the handset, as opposed to a standard cellular call. It forms a call by combining separate point-to-point connections between each IP endpoint at a managing entity known as the QChat Applications Server, deployed on the carrier's IP Wide Area Network (WAN.)
"Pressing the Push to Talk button originates a call to the target QChat user and provides the originator with information indicating the availability (presence) of the target user," QChat's website points out. "If the target user is available, the originator receives an immediate indication that the target user is available and the originator can begin speaking. The call originator's voice is then sent through the carrier's network to the target's handset. Initiating a call to a QChat user who is not available will simply result in a negative response tone rather than a busy signal or a voicemail."
I know more than one BlackBerry user who wants a Pearl so much that he is thinking of bailing from his Verizon Wireless contract just to sign up with T-Mobile so he can use a Pearl.
There are many more would-be Pearl users who are stuck with their carriers, and with other handsets. Preferring not to pay a $200 early withdrawal charge, some are counting down the months until their two-year service plan expires.
But did you know about Celltradeusa.com?
This outfit lets you buy unused portions of cell phone contracts, as well as list yours.
The page I have screen-capped links to a PDF with instructions on how to install the upgrade. I've put the URL for that page in the Read link below this post.
But I am not going to send you there just yet. Not until I go over the key directions.
BBHub reader Benjamin writes that he just got a Nextel BlackBerry 7520 from a friend.
Benjamin has tried to unlock it, but has not been successful to date.
"I read on the Web that (the 7520) can't be unlocked to operate on (a) GSM network," Benjamin writes. "What about CDMA?"
He hopes that in an implied best-case scenario, it is possible to do both.
Having never been in that position myself, I hand this one off to the assembled multitude of eyeballs that are currently gracing my virtual presence by reading this post.
Well, BBHub readers, have any of you unlocked a BlackBerry 7520? What are your experiences, and advice, if any, for your fellow BBHub reader?
So, should the Wayne (N.J.) School Board pay for the Board president's Nextel BlackBerry service?
On NorthHersey.com we read that Board trustee Marlene Polinik thinks the subsidy the Board is paying their president Karinne Herrschaft for her BlackBerry service is giving the Board a kind of a shaft.
Noting there was no formal board vote to approve the approximately $100 a month agreement, "We need to be accountable for every dollar we spend for the kids and the taxpayers," Polinik says.
Fellow school board member Victor Hayek takes a broader view, advocating a look at ways to cut down on the district's overall cell phone bill. The tab was $46,000 last year.
But Herrschaft sticks up for herself.
"What matters is that the (Wayne School Board) the (Board) president should have a way to communicate with the administration, and the president shouldn't have to bear the cost."
When it comes to SprintNextel BlackBerry "service," the best descriptor I can use rhymes with ducks.
This is true for so many reasons.
The overarching one is that more than a year after Sprint's acquisition of Nextel, they are, except on paper, still two separate companies.
Yes, I know that there are challenges in merging two separate systems together. But did you know that without human intervention, Sprint and Nextel's customer billing systems aren't only not interfaced with one another, they are unknown to each other. Sprint customer service can't pull up my BlackBerry records, which pertain to an account opened on Nextel. And then when you go to the Nextel site in hopes of finding this info online, such page requests automatically bounce over to Sprint.
And then there's the matter of finding a parts replacement. Say a new battery for my BlackBerry 7520.
Turns out that the reason my BlackBerry 7520 can no longer take a charge is because I was a bit too rough on it.
I had suspected this- rather than a battle-fatigued BlackBerry battery - was the case.
As they told me at the shop yesterday (Communications Northwest), they see this a lot from customers who either push the charger into the USB port too hard, or yank it out with too much force.
I can't say which I did for sure, but tracing the problem, I think I can map it back to when I was packing to leave my San Diego hotel room last week, and yanked the charger out of my BlackBerry a bit too quickly and forcefully.
When I did that, one of the pins inside the USB port apparently got unsoldered (or is that de-soldered)?
The techs at the shop said they see this fairly often. Small comfort, because I am supposed to know about this stuff, and follow the finer points of BlackBerry care.
Fine example I set.
Now I gotta pay $35 for a new BlackBerry that the store should get tomorrow.
That I can handle, but then I got to call RIM and get them to transfer my stored messages to my replacement device.
One which I vow before all of y'all that I will treat gently.
I'll let you know how the BlackBerry replacement procedure goes.
Sprint Nextel Corp. is now charging 15 cents per message - a 5 cent increase - for using text messaging without a monthly package.
This move makes me wonder how many, if any, current SprintNextel cell customers will thus decide that they are doing too much text messaging lately, and might as well switch to a BlackBerry where they can send messages as part of a data plan without being literally nickel and dimed to do so.
Then again, such a move might spur Sprint subscribers to try and break their service contracts and sign up with a competitor. They might have the "material change" clause in their corner.
That's even despite the fact that subscription-based pricing plans will stay the same- $5 for a monthly allowance of 300 messages, $10 for 1,000 and $15 for unlimited usage. Extra messages above those amounts will remain at 10 cents a clip.
And so it is that a BBHub reader named Kenneth (yes, really!!) writes to me that he had lunch with his SprintNextel reps and they told him that "by this time next year they would be releasing a BlackBerry CDMA 8800 series device that will include a lot of what has been talked about so far as well as a VoIP-enabled walkie-talkie function."
Due to some proprietary functionality, the BlackBerry 8800 (which will look like the device shown above, as provided by our sister site Engadget) will have far less latency in walkie-talkie mode than some users might have expected," Kenneth tells me SprintNextel tells them.
And as to compatibility with legacy Nextel iDEN DirectConnect (not voice) network, Kenneth says SprintNextel reps told him this handheld will be compatible.
Kenneth and I wonder, if this the beginning of the end of Nextel's iDEN?
On the BlackBerry section of Experts-Exchange, reader royaltech strongly implies that some of the sync process between the Outlook 2007 Beta and his Nextel BlackBerry 7520 is a royal pain.
"Since I installed Office 2007 my Nextel BB 7520 will not sinc the text fields of Notepad and contacts," he writes. "I have the latest d/l Desktop manager 4.1 and the handheld 4.1, what more should I do?"
WellRed has the answer. It's a rather well-read workaround, but it will help you get there.
Back in November, 2005, I wrote several posts chronicling the massive retail and direct distribution confusion Cingular Wireless had been experiencing with relation to their then-new BlackBerry 8700c. Some stores had them, others didn't, and incredibly, retail employees didn't seem to be in the loop.
Then, a couple of months ago, I described another type of confusion at Sprint- the fact that a year after the merger with Nextel, both BlackBerry carriers still maintained separate inventory and billing systems unintelligible to retail employees trying to sell you a BlackBerry.
My point in dredging up these issues is to contrast the relative orderliness and discipline of T-Mobile in rolling out the Pearl. I mean, most T-Mobile stores received their Pearl more or less on time, and the device's official retail availability wasn't greeted with either "huh," or "yes, we've ordered some, they will be here soon."
For the record, Verizon Wireless stores seem to be pretty much on board with the BlackBerry 8703e launch. They should be available at the stores in early October, but there has been some pricing confusion on the Verizon Wireless site.
Makes you wonder why some BlackBerry carriers have their act together at retail, while others are disorganized. No great mystery, though. Some carriers run tighter ships, and pay as much attention to their retail distribution channels as to their most favored national accounts.
Summing up: when it comes to BlackBerry retail distribution, T-Mobile "gets it," Verizon Wireless sort of gets it, Cingular and SprintNextel do not.
Yesterday I was flying cross-country to Boston for the VON Show. (I cover Internet Telephony, too).
Had logged my 26 (I am not exaggerating) appointments on my (you only get one guess).
On the plane (with my Nextel BlackBerry 7520's radio off, of course)- I realized, much to my horror, that the scroll wheel would only let me navigate the theme screen vertically and not horizontally. So getting to my BlackBerry Calendar was a four-step process.
So I did something radical. I removed the battery. Then I re-inserted it.
I gotta tell ya, when that hourglass keeps running for several minutes, I freak. Freak as in "what if the theme screen doesn't appear this time?"
I put the BB away for a few minutes- crossed my fingers- and then...
Unlike all other BlackBerry models to date, there won't be any carrier-specific letter labeling on this new camera-ready 8100 series.
By "carrier-labeling," I mean no more BlackBerry (model number) "c" for Cingular, "t" for T-Mobile, "g" for Verizon, "v" for Vodafone, "r" for Rogers, etc.
We hear this decision has been made to cut down on market confusion, as well as to reduce expenses incurred by re-plating physically identical devices.
AIRCHARGE (not shouting, for that's the way they want to spell their name) credit card devices are now able to be used by mobile merchants to accept credit card payments over BlackBerry devices.
Typical scenarios could be for furniture delivery, limo rides (fu-fu, woo-hoo) trade show tickets sold on-site, and even flea market booths.
The central functionality of te Pipeline Data product is the AIRCHARGE JavaME software for wireless payment processin. It is certified to run on the Sprint network that services the BlackBerry 7130e and BlackBerry 7520.
The AIRCHARGE payment processing software can be loaded onto the via BlackBerry over-the-air (OTA) and is compatible with virtually any merchant processing account.
In her new post entitled "Where Is Life Going," MySpace Blogger Tiffany wonders aloud why she is working in a call center eight years after she started college.
She describes her current gig as "working at a call center-saying 'Thank you for Calling Sprint Together with Nextel BlackBerry support' only about 50 times a day."
Tiffany believes there's more to life than working at a call center, and as she puts it, "hating your job."
The rest of Tiffany's post describes how she believes that God has a plan for her life.
At RIMarkable, one of Rob's readers reports some insider-y news that this coming fall, SprintNextel will release a new BlackBerry that will bridge Sprint and Nextel's Push-to-Talk Networks.
BBHub reader Benjamin writes that he just got a Nextel BlackBerry 7520 from a friend.
When it comes to SprintNextel BlackBerry "service," the best descriptor I can use rhymes with ducks.
