Can someone answer basic BB questions for me?

[JHW]

Everyone,

I am considering getting a used BB Pearl 8120 to use on the Fido $15 "personal e-mail" plan, but I have a few questions about it. Not a BB person, so they're pretty basic.

1. When the BB Pearl is used as a music player, is it possible to use actual keys to pause / play / skip tracks, without actually going into the Music Player app?

2. Is there a voice recorder app that can be used on the Pearl to make at least decent voice recordings (through a headset mic or the phone's mic) and then e-mail them as MP3s?

3. I know the Pearl will sync with my GMail, but will it sync with Google Contacts and Google Calendar, and if so, how? (i.e. do I have to connect it to a computer, or can it work by WiFi?)

Thanks for the advice...

[adrian1200]

Gmail works great with bb's. I use google sync to sync my calenders. You can sync it wireless so that's pretty handy. For google contact I'm not too sure how it works. That's all I can pretty much answer since I'm also new to my bold

[shankeith]

yes u can sync google contacts
yes u can control media player, the only controls i know of are next and previous song
yes u can take voice notes they are saved as .amr files which can be sent out through email

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_multi-rate_compression
for more info on amr files

[JHW]

Gmail works great with bb's. I use google sync to sync my calenders. You can sync it wireless so that's pretty handy. For google contact I'm not too sure how it works. That's all I can pretty much answer since I'm also new to my bold

Thanks for this -- on another forum someone mentioned that he wasn't sure the syncing would work without a "data plan". (I intend to get the FIDO Blackberry personal e-mail package, which to my understanding just covers personal e-mail plus a few different IM services.) I can't imagine why it wouldn't work with WiFi. Anyone know?

[Cheshire Bob]

Doesn't Google Sync (and any other Google App) require a data plan? I'm using a new Curve 8900 on FIDO without a data plan and tried to access the Gmail application over wi-fi and it said something to the effect of "Gmail requires an active data connection." Not sure if my experience is related or not, just my 2 cents.

Thanks for this -- on another forum someone mentioned that he wasn't sure the syncing would work without a "data plan". (I intend to get the FIDO Blackberry personal e-mail package, which to my understanding just covers personal e-mail plus a few different IM services.) I can't imagine why it wouldn't work with WiFi. Anyone know?

[infamouskid]

Everyone,

I am considering getting a used BB Pearl 8120 to use on the Fido $15 "personal e-mail" plan, but I have a few questions about it. Not a BB person, so they're pretty basic.

1. When the BB Pearl is used as a music player, is it possible to use actual keys to pause / play / skip tracks, without actually going into the Music Player app?

2. Is there a voice recorder app that can be used on the Pearl to make at least decent voice recordings (through a headset mic or the phone's mic) and then e-mail them as MP3s?

3. I know the Pearl will sync with my GMail, but will it sync with Google Contacts and Google Calendar, and if so, how? (i.e. do I have to connect it to a computer, or can it work by WiFi?)

Thanks for the advice...

1.yes. if you hold down on the side volume up and down keys for 1 second this acts as skip and back. or you can press N on your keypad. space to pause. the mute button is pause as well.

2.yes its build into the media player.

3.yes rogers and att just added this support you will have to do all this from your bis carrier website.

for fido go here. https://bis.na.blackberry.com/html?brand=fido

for rogers go here. https://bis.na.blackberry.com/html?brand=rogers

[JHW]

1.yes. if you hold down on the side volume up and down keys for 1 second this acts as skip and back. or you can press N on your keypad. space to pause. the mute button is pause as well.

2.yes its build into the media player.

3.yes rogers and att just added this support you will have to do all this from your bis carrier website.

for fido go here. https://bis.na.blackberry.com/html?brand=fido

for rogers go here. https://bis.na.blackberry.com/html?brand=rogers

Very helpful -- but please forgive my ignorance (and I don't have a BB yet) -- once I set up "support" through those websites, how do my Google Calendar and Google Contacts get synchronized to the BB? Whenever I am connected to a WiFi network, over the "Personal E-mail for Blackberry" connection, or only when I connect the BB to a computer?