Chapter 1. Start Here

Chapter 1. Start Here

For the past several years there has been talk of a "wireless revolution" that is going to hit at any moment. And year after year, that moment has come and gone with plenty of wires and no revolution. That is, until now. It was a few years late in coming, but the wireless revolution has begun in terms of traditional desktop computers, household appliances andmore importantly to this bookmobile handheld devices. Sure, wireless mobile phones have been around for a while now, but it wasn't until recently that technologies converged to give us multipurpose handheld devices.

Before I get too carried away with this talk of a revolution, allow me to point out that we're still in the very early stages of the wireless revolution. Wireless short-range networks have made it possible for us to roam around the house with a constant Internet connection, as well as drift into and out of spheres of connectivity in public spaces. The next level of wireless Internet access is now visible on the horizon, where high-speed wireless connections can be made across miles of separation. But this applies to broadband wireless connectivity, which doesn't entirely correlate to handheld devices. More specifically , mobile phones use a different type of network connection for shuttling voice and data, as compared to a notebook PC that is concerned with only a high-speed data connection.

NOTE

For the record, Voiceover Internet Protocol (VoIP) stands to turn this discussion on its ear by allowing you to use a wireless broadband connection to carry out phone conversations. VoIP is still relatively new and won't have a sweeping impact on mobile phones until long-range wireless broadband becomes more commonplace. Even so, services such as Vonage are quickly bringing VoIP into the mainstream, and popular wireless routers are making it possible to forego traditional analog phone lines in lieu of VoIP communication.

The wireless revolution as it applies to mobile handheld devices involves several evolving technologies, including advances in wireless networks and dramatic improvements in mobile device hardware. The wireless networks used by mobile handheld devices for voice and data communication have evolved rapidly , now giving mobile devices access to a fast enough data transfer rate to browse the Web at tolerable speeds. I use the word tolerable a bit loosely here because the transfer rate of most current wireless voice/data networks is still quite slow by any true networking standard. However, it's just fast enough to allow device manufacturers to combine Internet applications (email, web browsing, instant messaging, and so on) with a mobile phone to create truly revolutionary wireless communication devices. The BlackBerry 7100 series devices represent one of these kinds of devices.

The combination of Internet applications with a mobile phone is not new to the BlackBerry 7100. In fact, device manufacturers have been trying to marry the two for years now, but they've typically leaned heavily on one end of the spectrum or the other. For example, Research In Motion (RIM), the maker of the BlackBerry 7100, released several BlackBerry devices with mobile phone capabilities before the 7100 series. However, each of the devices was essentially a text-messaging device with a mobile phone tacked onto it. Mobile phone users, already accustomed to a certain shape and size for their phones, were reluctant to adopt a clunky phone even if its messaging capabilities were stellar .

On the other end of the spectrum, practically every mobile phone manufacturer has attempted to cram Internet features into their phones. But with tiny screens and extremely limited keyboards, it's very difficult to browse meaningful websites on such phones. Don't even get me started on the difficulty in typing text messages on such phonesit's no fun at all. So, the point is that, until recently, no one had hit just the right blend of handheld computer and mobile phone when developing a device that mixes both.

The BlackBerry 7100 device represents one of the first devices to nimbly walk the tightrope and balance the form factor of a mobile phone with the functionality of a handheld computer. This explains why the device has instantly become so popular.

If you've missed out on the BlackBerry craze, you might want to buckle your seatbelt because the BlackBerry 7100 series of mobile handheld devices takes the popular BlackBerry text messaging platform to a whole new level. Often referred to as "CrackBerry" because of the addictive nature of its text messaging feature, the BlackBerry platform has been the mobile text communication darling of corporate North America for several years now. Similar to the pervasiveness of Short Message Service (SMS) in Europe and parts of Asia, BlackBerry has played a similar role in business text messaging in the United States and Canada. However, before the 7100 series, most BlackBerry devices were positioned purely as text messaging devices with secondary mobile phone capabilities, or none at all.

NOTE

BlackBerry devices are so heavily used that some doctors are now concerned about "BlackBerry thumb," which is basically tendonitis of the thumb caused by repetitive typing on a BlackBerry or similar mobile device. Although BlackBerry thumb appears to be blown a bit out of proportion, it isn't unrealistic to think that hardcore users could develop repetitive stress- related problems from all the thumb typing.

The 7100 dramatically changes the BlackBerry platform's pure text messaging perception by adding a mobile phone to the equation, along with a more compact, mobile phone form factor. Because of its slim-line form factor, the 7100 series devices aren't quite as rugged as their traditional text messaging ancestors , but the trade-off is hardly a negative when you consider that you're able to combine two devices into one.

BlackBerry 7100 series devices use the familiar BlackBerry operating system, which is intuitive and relatively easy to use. Even so, there are numerous tricks and tips you can employ to optimize the BlackBerry experience and streamline your mobile communications. Throughout this book, you'll find a healthy dose of practical BlackBerry usage tips and tricks, as well as techniques for tweaking the device settings to suit your needs and using third-party applications to pick up where the standard applications leave off. Before getting into all that, however, it's worth getting acquainted with the BlackBerry 7100 and how it fits into the wireless landscape in general, and the BlackBerry product line in particular.