PDA/Phone for Intern

[firstdoc101]

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Hey all, new question for the techies out there. I need a PDA/phone that is VERIZON capable. Would like to easily web-browse, download an epocrates/etc onto it and be able to both hear well and be heard well via the phone. Obviously the iPhone would be great but all my family, gf, and friends are on VERIZON. I have heard that the Blackberry Storm is terrible and the Treos seem to have trouble with good sound through the earpiece and back to your caller. Any suggestion? thx

 

[CanIMakeIt]

you can consider other blackberry devices...strom is not the only one (also i have heard that after software update, strom is doing better)

I personally do not like palm devices so have no opinions on treos.

 

[nlax30]

Really can't go wrong with the blackberry.... look at the 88xx/87xx series. If you are interested in the storm find a friend who has it or go to the store and spend some time playing with it, using the touchscreen, etc.... Played with a friend's the other day along with stopping by a Verizon booth and it seems like the latest updates have improved the interface quite a bit from some of the early reviews I read but it still had some hiccups (slow screen transitions, freezes, sometimes not recognizing touch). The screen is REALLY nice on it and I think it's a real promising device. It does have the clickable screen though it seems that people either like it or hate it. That said if you've ever used the iphone multi-touch screen you'll probably be disappointed with any other screen.

Palm..... eh. Platform is getting a little stale, some are even wondering if they'll be around for much longer, we'll see.

When I stopped by a Verizon booth the other day I was looking through their catalog and saw the Samsung Saga, which I hadn't heard about until that point. It's a Windows Mobile 6 Pro touchscreen device, with physical keyboard, wifi, and I think multiple radios in it (EVDO, GSM). Haven't looked at any reviews yet but if you don't mind windows mobile then it may be an option.

So if just have to stay with Verizon it's looking like either a Blackberry device or Windows mobile. I wouldn't totally write off the Storm yet, just read some recent reviews and play with it yourself. If you don't need it know just wait for a while as more updates come out.

I'm currently researching options for when rotations start as well. Currently with AT&T so looking at the Blackberry Bold or iPhone so I don't have to switch. Leaning towards the iPhone as the interface is just soooo nice to use. Still have my old iPaq (Windows mobile) so I'm use to windows mobile but I'm kind of tired of dealing with windows mobile.

 

[MGKatz036]

Regardless of which PDA/smartphone you ultimately choose, the most important consideration should be: is this device/data plan compatible with my hospital's email server.

For example, many people at my hospital, including myself have Verizon service plans. As you may know, Verizon has or had 2 different data plans. An "unlimited" data plan and an unlimited data plan with "enterprise support." The main difference for me was that the first plan was $20 a month and the enterprise plan was like $50. What I ended up doing was forwarding my hospital email to a gmail account, which had instant push to my blackberry phone. This seemed to be what everyone was doing... UNFORTUNATELY, the hospital became concerned about patient privacy concerns and discontinued forwarding of hospital email accounts. Their solution was to set up an enterprise server, which means that I can't get pushed email to my device. (Right now, my personal email goes directly to my blackberry, my if I want to check my hospital account, I need to use the web browser to use our hospital webmail site.)

It's probably worth asking your hospital IT department if they use an enterprise server, but if you can forward your email, I actually think that's a better solution since gmail accounts are fully archivable and searchable.

 

[RTrain]

I have the Storm and I really like it. I've had no problems at all. Prior to the Storm I had a BlackBerry Pearl, and Epocrates made it crash constantly, to the point that I had to uninstall it, but the Storm has a ton more memory and it works just fine.

 

[nlax30]

I have the Storm and I really like it. I've had no problems at all. Prior to the Storm I had a BlackBerry Pearl, and Epocrates made it crash constantly, to the point that I had to uninstall it, but the Storm has a ton more memory and it works just fine.

Can 3rd party programs be installed on the external memory card or only to the internal memory leaving the memory card only for media/files?

 

[RTrain]

Can 3rd party programs be installed on the external memory card or only to the internal memory leaving the memory card only for media/files?

Theoretically, yes - but I haven't figured out how to make that work. http://crackberry.com/ may have the answer somewhere.

Also, my husband and several friends have the BlackBerry Curve, and I can recommend that too if you're hesitant about the Storm.