# Blackberry?



## FireFlyYFD (Aug 24, 2008)

l'm a medic out in CT looking into getting a blackberry possibly. I've got the nexel/sprint network. looking to see what other folks have and recommend.


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## emt19723 (Aug 24, 2008)

heres your first friendly piece of advice.....get rid of Sprint/Nextel!  especially if their service is as bad up there as it is down here.


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## MMiz (Aug 24, 2008)

Everyone I know that has a BlackBerry also uses Verizon.  I know quite a few people with Smart/PDA phones with Sprint who really like them.  The Motorola Q looks cool.


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## MrRevesz (Aug 24, 2008)

I had Sprint while in Vermont and used the Palm Centro and 755p, along with the Blackberry Pearl. If you're going the route of a Blackberry, go for the Curve. I currently have it on ATT down in Jersey and I love it.


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## AbsoluteZzZero (Aug 24, 2008)

Switch to ATT and get an iPhone. Thats my number one choice - I LOVE mine! 

Second choice would have to be a blackberry. My mom had one and she liked it. Its got a pretty decent operating system. Although, she just got an iPhone too and she says its a lot better than the blackberry.

Whatever you do, DO NOT get anything with windows mobile on it. I had a phone with it and HATED it. Everything about its OS layout makes no sence whatsoever.

... just my two cents..


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## JJR512 (Aug 24, 2008)

Here's what I consider to be the best advice you'll get:

Go to different mobile phone stores and look at and play around with different makes and models. Try to do everything you plan on using it for. Get the sales person to show you the tutorials that most PDA phones come with to get a feel for how the device wants you to use it.

I could just tell you that I loved the Windows Mobile OS and hated the BlackBerry OS, that the iPhone OS is pretty good or that I didn't much like the Palm OS. But what I and anybody else do or don't like won't matter much if you get a particular device and find you just can't stand it. I got a BlackBerry Curve and I really wanted to like it. I tried so hard to like it that after the first time I returned it, I actually bought it again, and I still wound up returning it.

Same deal goes for the networks. Here you'll need to really on people you know who live and work in the same areas where you'll be using the phone to tell you how well the network works in that area.

Over the years, I have used Sprint or AT&T each a few different times. My wife has used Verizon for a long time. Each has specific locations where it doesn't work well, but some other network gets a pretty good signal in the same spot.

For the record, I now have the new iPhone 3G. For the first few weeks after I got it, I could barely get a low-speed signal where I live; suddenly, one day (and ever since) I've been getting a decent high-speed signal reliably. I do not seem to get as good a signal inside in general as my regular partner at work, which is most noticeable the deeper we go into a hospital. I think he has T-Mobile.


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## GonnaBeEMT (Aug 24, 2008)

I say get a palm...... lots more medical applications availible.


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## CFRBryan347768 (Aug 24, 2008)

I have the motorola Q. AND LOVEEEEEEEEEEE IT!!


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## FireFlyYFD (Aug 25, 2008)

Thanks for the quick imput folks. I've used verizon and nextel/sprint both. Verizon I dropped, to many different fees. Also couldnt use it with my dcompany paging system. I have to say I've had real good luck with nextel. No real issues with service up in our area. has anyone used the blackberry 7100i?


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## Jon (Aug 25, 2008)

I have a BlackJack. I like it. The BlackJack II seems to have some pluses and minuses from the original... but it still looks good.

I had nextel for years... then I switched to Cingular/AT&T. I love it, and can't imagine going back.


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## BossyCow (Aug 26, 2008)

It depends on your area. Different companies have better coverage than others in certain areas. Around here either Verizon or AT&T do well. Nextel and Sprint are just awful, no coverage in some of our more remote locations.


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## kayrules5340 (Aug 26, 2008)

I'm also from CT, and my dad has a blackberry for his work. His company uses the Sprint network, and it is awful. He gets almost no service inside buildings, and especially when in the car it doesn't get service. Our cell phones are Verizon and that works great everywhere, so I would suggest switching to a different network to get the most out of the blackberry. Hope this helps!


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## medic258 (Aug 28, 2008)

I have the 7100 through work. It is horrible. It drops calls constantly. The messaging is intermittent at best. I went to home depot the other day. When I got out I had 31 text messages spanning a 10 hour period that I never got. I am frequently in NE Connecticut and it does not work well there either. 

If it wasn't paid for by my part time job I would ditch it.


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## FireFlyYFD (Aug 31, 2008)

What do you guys think of the palm?


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## EMTDON970 (Sep 4, 2008)

My partner has had one for 3 weeks, he still cant figure parts of it out..


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## Arkymedic (Sep 5, 2008)

EMTDON970 said:


> My partner has had one for 3 weeks, he still cant figure parts of it out..


 
same here. The centreo is hard as hell to figure out.


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## PorterTwpMedic71 (Oct 18, 2008)

*blackberry curve 8310*

I have a blackberry 8310. I love this phone and everthing I can do with it. I have AT&T and the service is kinda spotty but otherwise ok. Im looking for some good EMS related applications for it tho. does anyone out there know of any good one's that are either free or kinda cheap?


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## reaper (Oct 18, 2008)

Epocrates Rx, It's free and a great product. It has one designed for BB.


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## Hastings (Oct 18, 2008)

Just as a side note, if this thread is in regards to a tool you'll be relying on in EMS, don't. The worst thing you can do (and I've seen it happen often) is become reliant on an electronic device.

I've had medics that couldn't even convert pounds to kilograms without messing with their blackberry. They'd walk into national registry with that thing, and the minute they were told they couldn't use it, their face turned white and they were frozen, completely useless.


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## reaper (Oct 18, 2008)

No one should be reliant on it. But they are good to have. I would much rather have a medic have the tools to look up a med dosage they don't know, then risk them guessing and give the wrong dose of something!

I use mine mainly for looking up a Pt's med, that I may not know what it is used for. It is the same as carrying a pocket guide. Any medic that does not have a backup, is not prepared. No one can know every drug on the market, so it is smart to have something you can use to look it up.

If a medic can't do simple conversions, then they should not have a license!


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## Hastings (Oct 18, 2008)

reaper said:


> No one should be reliant on it. But they are good to have. I would much rather have a medic have the tools to look up a med dosage they don't know, then risk them guessing and give the wrong dose of something!
> 
> I use mine mainly for looking up a Pt's med, that I may not know what it is used for. It is the same as carrying a pocket guide. Any medic that does not have a backup, is not prepared. No one can know every drug on the market, so it is smart to have something you can use to look it up.
> 
> If a medic can't do simple conversions, then they should not have a license!



It's my personal belief from what I've seen that any backup should be in the form of books. However, my main point is that most medics now are using electronic devices as their PRIMARY AND BACKUP method, and it absolutely cripples them if something happens to that device. And things happen to those types of devices. Again, I've seen medics absolutely paralyzed without their electronic devices, and that's scary.

What they did for us in school was prevent us any use of ANY electronic helper, from calculators to PDAs until after we had proven our knowledge and skill in doing it in our head and using logic/reasoning. Sadly, I don't see that's the case everywhere. So I believe PDAs are fine if used as a secondary source, and should NEVER be used until after you're proficient at figuring things out the old fashioned way.


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## scottmcleod (Oct 18, 2008)

reaper said:


> Epocrates Rx, It's free and a great product. It has one designed for BB.



Even better, it has one designed for iPhone.


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## reaper (Oct 18, 2008)

Hastings said:


> It's my personal belief from what I've seen that any backup should be in the form of books. However, my main point is that most medics now are using electronic devices as their PRIMARY AND BACKUP method, and it absolutely cripples them if something happens to that device. And things happen to those types of devices. Again, I've seen medics absolutely paralyzed without their electronic devices, and that's scary.
> 
> What they did for us in school was prevent us any use of ANY electronic helper, from calculators to PDAs until after we had proven our knowledge and skill in doing it in our head and using logic/reasoning. Sadly, I don't see that's the case everywhere. So I believe PDAs are fine if used as a secondary source, and should NEVER be used until after you're proficient at figuring things out the old fashioned way.




I would not push it for a student, they need to learn the correct way of doing things and learn to use the knowledge they have aquired.

For us older folks, your memory tends to get shorter over time, so you need the help, sometimes!


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## TgerFoxMark (Oct 22, 2008)

ATT here. I am a self proclaimed geek. I carry an iPhone 3g, and a older blackberry 7130.
I grab the iPhone first. the UI wins. 
The bb is my backup phone. has its own number only handed out to family for those calls you never want to get, so its my emergency only number.

go iPhone


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