the tindog coffeehouse

Well, I’ve been using my company-issued CrackBerry for a few days now, and if I thought it would allow me to finally retire my beloved Sony Clie PDA, I was wrong.

Traditionally, I’ve used the PDA to sync Outlook data (contacts, calendar, etc.) between my home and work computers. The problem with the BlackBerry is, I can’t really sync it with Outlook on my home computer. Oh, I tried. And… it didn’t go so well. Screwed up my Outlook contacts and part of my calendar on my home computer and really screwed up the Blackberry. I had to wipe the Blackberry and have my corporate Blackberry server account reset, then redo all the settings. What a pain!

Now, I know what you’re saying. Yes, I’m sure there is a way to sync the BlackBerry with a corporate Exchange mailbox and a personal PST file. Well, phooey! I don’t care. It’s too much trouble. My handy-dandy PDA works just fine for that function, albeit with less-than-stellar battery life.

And yes, I know I have other choices. For example, I could forgo Outlook altogether in favor of web-based email services such those from Google or Yahoo. I could use the portable version of Thunderbird (at least for the contacts part). I could even use a web-based service such as AirSet to sync Outlook over the Internet. So, yes, I do have other alternatives. I just don’t like any of them. None of them do what I need to do as easily as my old PDA. The closest choice would be AirSet, but I can automatically rule that one out because of the bandwidth requirements, which wouldn’t fly with my Big Brother employer.

So at least for now, I’ll keep my Clie on hand to sync between my home and work computers. It’s not a perfect solution, but as long as the battery is charged, it’s a reliable one.