I think the Curve 8310 is fantastic. Absolutely brilliantly done. I really get the feeling that the phone has been tested and refined until absolutely every feature and small minute detail perfected. It isn't, however, without it's quirks. The other day I upgraded to the AT&T Unlimited plan and somehow that killed my data access, and I spent the next two hours rebooting the phone (15+ times) and standing around the store waiting for the problem to be resolved. The other day the phone wouldn't bring up the main menu options. Had to reboot the phone to fix that.

But aside from these minor issues, the phone is really an amazing productivity tool that lets you stay in touch in a way that I never realized I couldn't live without.

The GPS with Google Maps is great. It's been a life-saver finding bars downtown and I can literally get anywhere using only the phone to guide me. BTW the GPS chipset is the SIRF Star III. Best GPS on the market.

http://serialmedia.com/curve.jpg

the pearl is hardly a blackberry

i have a curve and i would say its the best phone i have ever had, the battery life is good and its pretty easy to use and work with.

i love mine

Ya I did some more research on the whole 8310 8320 thing. the 10 has the gps but no wifi, the 20 has wifi but no gps, but you can buy a 89.00 bluetooth gps to go with it that goes on your keychain. So to me that is better. Since you cant add wifi to a 8310. :winkwink:

Battery life is crazy for me cause I was used to the sidekick 3 which wouldnt make it 24 hours before going dead on me. From what Ive seen the curve will go 4 days even with fairy heavy use. :winkwink:

As a Tmobile crackberry 8320 user, hotspot at home user, and gps user on top of it, here's some frustrations that'll help clear now should you run into them.


Assuming you're using their router (which was free after a rebate for awhile, which is nothing more than a wrt-54gs, but w/ the multi-media device extensions in it)

wireless advanced settings -
Beacon = 50 ms
DTIM = 2
Frag and RTS = 2304

That should help phone find hotspot faster and also hang onto it a bit better with UMA.

Make sure you have latest firmware version in the phone, as of current, it is 4.2.2.180 (go under the wrench and about, it should be 3rd line down). If you don't have it, you can get it on tmobile's site, it fixes some hotspot@home issues.

Bluetooth + wifi = dropped calls. If you plan on using your hotspot at home, bluetooth headset works, but it will drop some calls too "call failed". Since I quit using my bluetooth unless i switch to edge, i haven't had any calls failed. Supposedly this will be fixed more in newer software versions, which 4.3 is in testing and i had read it should be rolling out sometime during Q2.

GPS - If you don't need a keychain one, i found a holux gps receiver on ebay for $40. Google maps is also available for blackberry (and supports gps). Unfortunately, there is no navigation software that you can install the maps onto the card, it's all streamed/cached over the i-net/edge, so if you lose connectivity, your navigation is lost. I have a an old MDA which I loaded some nav software on and keep it around as my navigation suite.

Starbucks - used to be your friend, but they're pulling out and switching to AT&T. Enjoy UMA there while you can for phone at least.

Opera mini - alternative browser, sometimes handy to have two different browers for page rendering purposes. It seems to act a little more normal than the blackberry one.. opera.com for that, it's free.

If you haven't used the voice recognition for dialing, it works pretty well and doesn't require training. Handy when driving. "Call <name> <type>" "call netpimp mobile" "call netpimp home" etc.

Good stuff. Im set on the firmware, and installed opera mini and google maps already. Trying to install Skype from www.Iskoot.com being a bit tricky, but Ill get it.

One thing I want to change is what icons are displayed on the first screen. Still researching that one.

I have the Curve and Tmo's @home service and have been using it extensively since early fall. It's the cat's ass.

Love the fact that I have unlimited minutes anytime of day or night as long as I have Wifi. Also means I have rock solid 5 bars type coverage anywhere in the house now including basement. Works exactly as advertised, it's very common that I'm on the phone as I leave the house or on the phone as I roll into the garage, it switches between wifi and tower seamlessly.

The wizard to setup wifi connections is also amazingly easy. I'm amazed at how many places I can find to leach wifi now. ;)

For phone quality, the voice and radio quality is better than any previous phone I've had. I dont think I've had a single dropped call since I bought it.

Tmo also just started test marketing a version of @home in a couple of markets that has RJ-11's on the router (ala vonage), so you can dump your wireline completely and have basically unlimited calls on all your home phones via your cell service. I await it's availability here with baited breath.

Do u have to buy any additional software or programs to get the gps to work?? i dont think mine works out of the box

I've installed a bunch of various GPS software, but the best one I've found by far is Google Maps. It includes support for the integrated GPS.

My biggest gripe about Google Maps for the Blackberry is that it doesn't verbalize the directions turn by turn. Also, it doesn't recalculate your route when you miss a turn. So it makes navigating while driving quite difficult. But really if you had to rely on it, you could get away with it. It's just not really too easy to use while you're driving. Garmin has a software package for the Berry that costs $9.99 a month that gives you the same nav features built into their nav units. I'm considering buying it.

50..............

Dork. 8char

Ya we have the @home service also with it. Plus unlimited data. I think we pay like 100.00 for both phones per month. Very happy. Right now I am looking for a photo viewer similar to the iphone right now that you can flip through pics with the trackball. I have a media player that does that with the album covers so I know it can be done. :winkwink: