Posted by:

Ryan Thogmartin (Huppstiverson)
Connecting Directors, Co-Founder

Where I am in Texas we are lucky to have cell phone service while in town or about 10 to 15 mile radus of town. It is very handy, and has made it possible for me to go somewhere without calling to check in. Blackberry service is available here, but once you leave the area, cell service, blackberrys and all other sorts of communication devices are sketchy at best (Imagin me walking around a rural cemetery with my cell phone frantically searching for just one bar). That is how it WOULD be if my firm did not rely on antiquated communication equipment. Each FD has a digital pager that works almost everywhere in the county. To communicate back to the funeral home (or the owners wife when we are out on a night call) we have a two-way VHF frequency radio system. We have dash mounted units in all of the funeral home vehicles, a base unit at the funeral home, a base unit at the bosses house, and two hand-held units. These work on a repeater system, so we have crystal clear communications within 50 or 60 miles from the tower. It works well, and I can check my email at home or at the office.

My mother asked me the other day "Steve, how did we ever get along without cell phones?"  I replied "We just called when we got to a phone."

Well there is a reason they call it "crackberry".........LOL

I have been thinking about getting one, my problem is more with the price off the phone, i hate paying alot of money for a phone or handheld device. But ill probably breka down one of these days and get one.

hmmm im not fond of the blackberry.. i do prefer my iphone though.. its very handy with this type of work.

David,

I have an ipod touch and I use a Macbook Pro laptop. I would switch to an iPhone is a second....if it was available thought another carrier (Verizon), instead of exclusively through AT&T.

I love the features of the iPhone and the Safari browser. I just can't stomach the carrier.

Posted by:

Ryan Thogmartin (Huppstiverson)
Connecting Directors, Co-Founder

Yeah id like to have the IPhone, but cant stand AT&T service, i had it before and it was horrible.

You can always get an unlocked IPhone, but i still dont think it would work on verizon, as they are CDMA and the IPhone is GSM.

Ill probably end up buying a Blackberry towards the end of this year.

I just traded in my Blackberry 8830 for the new Blackberry Curve (8330) with Verizon. The Curve has a camera, which is nice, I can pull it out and snap pics of the kids in a hurry.

I read on www.crackberry.com that there are a few more Blackberry Models due to comeout by the end of the year.

Posted by:

Ryan Thogmartin (Huppstiverson)
Connecting Directors, Co-Founder

No single item has changed the culture of our organization more than the deployment of the blackberry. It has had a tremendous impact on how we work and communicate.

I often forget that not everybody has a Blackberry. I will email someone and expect an immediate reply, then I relize they just might not have a Blackberry.

Posted by:

Ryan Thogmartin (Huppstiverson)
Connecting Directors, Co-Founder

im trying to think of a way that we can use the iphone and blackberry to make meeting families easier on the fly... now that you can make software for the iphone im looking in to how we can use it.

The only blackberries I use are in pie.

Have to say I had a Windows Mobile phone prior to moving over to the dark side (Apple Iphone) and it locked up more that it worked. The iphone has never given me problems.. The upside is I used to have to carry around an MP3 player and my cell when traveling now they are all in one!!!! The new app store has every utility tool you can imagine and many are free.. Sorry guys I can't go back now!!!

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