Telecom Trends

I received a little package from Rogers last week - an opportunity to test drive the new Blackberry 8800.

I have been using a 7200 series Blackberry for the past few years and my family will attest that I am a certified addict. I need the full keyboard, so I have been waiting for the 8800's full keyboard combined with the Pearl trackball. It takes some getting used to - but there is so much more.

The system boots up almost immediately - a welcome change from what I have been used to. Starting from removing the battery is a longer initialization process. Quad-band, GSM/GPRS and EDGE networks with resultant zippy download speeds.

The built-in GPS came in handy for a road trip yesterday. While Pierre Karl Peladeau, chief executive of Quebecor, was in Ottawa calling for an acceleration of the AWS spectrum auction, I spent the day testing the Telenav turn-by-turn voice navigation to help us get through the streets of Montreal. At $10 per month, it is a nice package that is priced competitively to services like GM's OnStar.

One-touch voice activated dialing and a speaker phone are other useful tools - especially when driving. The system responds to other voice commands as well. Has anyone built an application to get the system to read my incoming emails to me while I drive?

Of course, it is also Bluetooth equipped and I was able to easily pair one of my Motorola earpieces. The demo unit I have also came with wired stereo ear buds - the system can play audio and video files (MP3, WMA, MPEG4 and WMV among others).

Will RIM design one that can float when I drop it into Lake Muskoka?

Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO of Research In Motion, will be a keynote speaker at The 2007 Canadian Telecom Summit on June 12.

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