Blackberries, etc.

[sergess]

Hello,

One lady in my office have expressed interest in getting something like blackberry, but she needs to be able to open various attachments as well. I am not quite familiar with what is presently availabe on the market, to be more precise - Canadian market, and would appreciate any advice.

Regards

[jmccrane]

If I'm not mistaken, Palm and Pocket PCs can open e-mail attachments with the right software. I would suggest looking for one with a capability to go online...Handspring and other manufacturers make devices like this.

[asatoran]

It also depends on the kind of attachment. If you're talking Word or Excel files, then PocketPC PDAs win because they have Word and Excel built in. Of course, the PocketPC versions are not as powerful as their desktop counterparts. And your filesize is limited by the amount of memory in the PDA. Anyother filetypes, like sound or movie clips will depend upon what application is installed in the device. For example, I installed a MPEG movie player on my HP Jornada PocketPC. And while I can play movies, I only have 32MB or RAM so I can only see clips, not a whole movie. And the processor is slow so the clip is not very steady.

Another caveat is that PcoketPC devices have battery life measured in hours, not days like the Palm. In other words, you should recharge the PocketPC every night. Something to consider if you travel or use the PDA alot.

[sergess]

I think the attachments she is going to deal with are Word and Excel files, and I also consider Pocket PC's to be a good option, but what I am looking for is something that is able to work using existing wireless telephone network (GSM/GPRS, or similar). By the moment I was able to find only one option in Canada - Rogers AT&T that offers couple of blackberry handheld models. I have never dealt with balckberries, but it looks that it is not something I am looking for. This is the problem [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img]