Sucessful Synching: Blackberry Bold or Curve?

[MultitaskerNYC]

Help! As an avid emailer, I'm interested in purchasing a Blackberry (had an I-phone in the past.) I'm trying to decide between the Blackberry 9000 Bold and the Blackberry 8310 Curve.

I have a large database in Microsoft Entourage on my Mac and my biggest concern is that I will be able to synch this, my calendar, and my email accounts up with the new phone. Am I to expect a disaster?! Am I in danger of losing everything? I'm simply trying to increase my efficiency!

Is the Curve, since it's been around longer, a safer bet, or should I be going after the latest and greatest?!

Thanks.

 

[SnowX]

I have a Curve (8300) and I gave up trying to sync. I was using the pocketmac application, and most of the time it won't even recognize my device. The times I was able to sync, Calendars and Address Books worked fine, but email was a little wierd (I was using Mail, not Entourage). The mail I had sent from my blackberry got synced into my inbox with the time and date when it was synced, not when it was originally sent, so it got pointless. i just started bcc'ing myself instead of syncing.

 

[MultitaskerNYC]

So is that the consensus? That it's not even worth trying with either device? I'm stuck with the I-phone?

 

[SnowX]

Yes, a concensus of 1.

 

[MultitaskerNYC]

Do you have anything to add? This is definitely not the answer I was looking for! I really do want to switch to Blackberry, but not if it's going to be a nightmare. . .

 

[SnowX]

No, nothing to add. That pretty much summed up my syncing experience. Maybe RIM updated their software used on Macs, I haven't tried it in over a year. I was also using 10.4.8, in case that makes any difference.

Edit: Also, I just want to add that it all seemed to be software related, so which ever device you purchase won't really matter as it's the PocketMac application that is the problem.

 

[jive turkey]

PocketMac is the worst application ever created, for any platform. If you get a Curve it will sync pretty reliably with Missing Sync, but costs about $40. The Bold syncing was a a little buggy but I think it has been fixed. The next version of MS (in beta testing now) supports automatic bluetooth syncing, which was nice while I was testing it (the beta had a bug that I could not work around and caused me to uninstall it). RIM is supposedly putting out a desktop for Mac users (which will be free), sometime in the first or second quarter of this year. So that means it will come out around Thanksgiving.

 

[numbersyx]

I tried both PocketMac and Missing Sync but had trouble with both. Neither synced with any of my devices on a Mac... if you are getting a Blackberry make sure you have Windows around to sync...

 

[jive turkey]

Yeah, I just want to clarify that Missing Sync is not without problems. It has messed me up on a few occasions (today included), which is why I would characterize it as "pretty reliable," and not very reliable. It is sad to say, but if you go the Blackberry & Mac route, odds are you will have occasional problems. Watch your data closely and set iSync to alert you to any changes on your desktop, so you can catch the times that PocketMac or Missing Sync tries to delete everything.