I truly love the new Blackberry (really a blueberry), but it is amazing how hard it is to get support for it. Between the carrier and Blackberry, it doesn’t seem like there is a place to find out what is going on. So it is off to Google we go. BTW, the only difference between the 7210 and the 7230 is that one is locked to T-Mobile and the other to AT&T Wireless:
* RIM/Blackberry – AT&T Wireless Support. Although we have T-mobile, there is no support forum at all for it. They tell you to literally call Blackberry or email help@blackberry.net. Right. AT&T does run a pretty good forum though, so I’m going to use it even though I’m on T-mobile. I am completely in love with Markf who is on that forum. he actually answers back.
* “PDAStreets”:http://www.pdastreet.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=7. This is the top google hit for blackberry forum. Seems more random than the AT&T forum, but is more active.
* “Tekforum”:http://www.tek-tips.com/gthreadminder.cfm/lev2/66/lev3/68/pid/952. Another moderately active forum.
* “Blackberry Developer Forum”:http://www.blackberry.net/developers/forum/index.jsp. Amazingly, the only forum that Blackberry sponsors is about Java, still sometimes some useful tips there.
Here are the problems and answers as I know them:
* “Invisible Fonts”:http://forums.attwireless.com/attws/board/message?board.id=rim&message.id=584. I personally find the system font nearly invisible. I’m getting old. Millbanks 10 in the Options icon, choose screen/keyboard is much better. I am now using BBCondenses in 8 font with subpixel rendering and it is very nice too.
* _Lousy deleted interface_ The Blackberry web client has a 10MB limit (not very much!) and if you delete mail from the inbox, it just goes to deleted items and it still counts against your 10MB limit. So, to really get more space, you have to deleted from the inbox, then go to deleted items and delete again. Arrrrghhh. So, if you just complete delete from the inbox, you have to either understand what “Permanently Delete” is vs. just “Delete” or go to deleted and delete there. What a lousy interface. Also, the same happens with sent mail. There are aging rules, but the default is 365 days which is way too long given that there is only 10MB of storage and you have to set for each folder, so that’s another half hour wasted.
* “Reconcile mail”:http://forums.attwireless.com/attws/board/message?board.id=rim&message.id=607. It is completely unobvious is how to do it. You have to first hit on your Blackberry, the options/Reconcile now, then you have to hit Options then in that page, goto the menu item that says Purge Deleted items to actually get rid of it because of the strange deleted is not deleted. Doesn’t appear documented anywhere but the AT&T forum. Alternatively, you can set the deleted items aging rule to 1 days. The minimum it appears.
* Web Client slowness. The client is incredibly slow. Sometimes takes a minute to respond. Nothing like hotmail or any other web client I’ve used. Must be lots of fancy Jscript programming, but it is nearly unusable.
* “Backlighting”:http://forums.attwireless.com/attws/board/message?board.id=rim&message.id=491. I’ve never thought any Blackberry really had it, but this is nearly as bad as the original 957. More information at AT&T support
* “HTML Web Sites”:http://forums.attwireless.com/attws/board/message?board.id=rim&message.id=153. It is sad, but both AT&T and T-mobile lockout the use of standard HTML web sites via WAP. So, you can’t just browse an ordinary site, you have to have a WAP enabled, yucky one. What are they thinking, the Blackberry is a 486 class machine, it could browse static html easily and the browser is already on the machine. The best solution appears to be to use the “Wap.google.com”:http://forums.attwireless.com/attws/board/message?board.id=rim&message.id=211 site which then proxies to the HTML web page cache that google has. This does the HTML to WAP translation. How cool!
* 7210 Applications. None of the older 957 or 6210 or 6710 applications appear to work. Requires a whole recompile. Wonder why.
* 7210 Unlock. The Blackberry is locked to a particular service. The good news for those of you using T-Mobile USA is that they will supply the unlock code. You just need to call them and tell them you are traveling overseas and don’t use their service there. This BTW is true for all T-Mobile phones I’ve had, they will give you the unlock. Very friendly folks. AT&T on the other hand won’t give the unlock code at all and there appear to be no third party services that do it.

11 responses to “Blackberry 7210/7230 woes and FAQ”

  1. Bracy Avatar
    Bracy

    Why, via my BB7230,when I access certain websites, do I get an error Website requires cookies enabled? I thought this phone was able to access all websites?

  2. Bracy Avatar
    Bracy

    Why, via my BB7230,when I access certain websites, do I get an error Website requires cookies enabled? I thought this phone was able to access all websites?

  3. Bracy Avatar
    Bracy

    Why, via my BB7230,when I access certain websites, do I get an error Website requires cookies enable? I thought this phone was able to access all websites?

  4. Rich Tong Avatar

    Ooops, old question about use with Hotmail. Short answer is that it won’t work with Hotmail. Hotmail unfortunately uses a proprietary interface. It will work with any ISP that supports POP3 or IMAP. Or with Notes or Exchange.

  5. Rich Tong Avatar

    Unlocking means that you can use it with any cellular provider. Some folks lock, like AT&T Wireless in the US, others don’t like T-mobile in the UK. Others will unlock if you ask, like T-mobile USA.
    Voice service you can get on your blackberry with anyone’s SIM once unlocked. Data service is another story, that requires some work with carriers, so in a sense you are locked on data service, but not on voice. OTOH, with T-mobiel USA at least, they seem to have unlimited data roaming, so its not a factor in the UK or elsewhere in Europe I’ve found.

  6. Howard Avatar
    Howard

    I was interested in finding out where you purchased your contract in the UK for your unlocked blackberry.
    Cheers.
    Howard

  7. t j Avatar
    t j

    hi.does this 7230 blackberry actually recieve e-mails from a proper internet mail service like hotmail? the guy in the shop didnt seem to know.thanks

  8. george Avatar

    i got my Blackberry unlocked from gsmlocker.com now i can use it in Europe

  9. Rich Tong Avatar

    I’m afraid not. Unlocking will let you use other wireless carriers than T-mobile. So that if you go overseas, you can use a local carrier rather than expensively roaming from the US.
    The google workaround is about all that you can do. It is frustrating that you can’t see most HTML. BTW, it is true that if T-mobile would change one setting in the 7230 you could see lots more pages directly. Essentially, they only allow WAP (the dumbdowned phone version of HTML) to show even though the 7230 has a full HTML browser built in. Sigh.

  10. chris f Avatar
    chris f

    I am unclear as to what “unlocking” a 7230 means. I just bought one and I love the email functionality. I wish it could browse to html pages but between the google workaround and trying reqwireless web browser most sites seem to work. will unlocking the BB allow me to surf to html pages? there is just not alot of information out there on this.

  11. Mark Peters Avatar
    Mark Peters

    Just purchased a Blackberry 7230 in the UK on TMobile.
    Surprisingly the unit is not locked .. have tried it with O2 and also Orange – both sim-cards work fine.
    Unfortunately only Tmobile support the InstantEmail option, so looks like I will be staying with them for a while.
    The 7230 is very cheap over here .. the unit was free, and the contract is 12 months @ ?13.50 (sterling) per month ! No additional data charges for emails etc ..
    Cool !

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