BlackBerry® Tour™

[Super8er]

Hello all,

After many years of picking the cheapest, simplest phones my provider (Verizon) offered, my business finally warrants me stepping upto a smartphone. Even though I am in the design/tech business, I've always resisted getting a 'fancy' phone. Yeah, I was the guy that made fun of Blackberrys. But now I can say I'm the proud owner of a Blackberry Tour. I got it this past weekend and am very happy with it so far. Not quite to the point where I'm saying "how did I ever live without this", but it is pretty **bleep** awesome, and useful as hell. That said... I, as a Blackberry newbie, have a few questions about the Tour...

1) I have my Hotmail and Mac mail sent to my phone now, but so far I only see emails sent since I got the phone. Is there any way to view/manage my entire inbox?

2) With all my past phones, if I got a text or picture message, a big screen comes up and announces that I have a message, and I immediately get the options of 'read or ignore' or some similar terminology. With the Blackberry, a tone sounds and the little red astersik appears on whichever place I'm getting a message from, be it a mail account or a text message. Then I go hunt it down. Is there a way to have some sort of alert to pop up or do I just need to learn 'the Blackberry way?' Not a huge issue, but thought I'd ask.

3) I guess in a similar vein to the previous question, is there anyway to hotkey certain functions?

4) I'm having issues with picture messages some people I send them to get them and some don't different phones, different carriers. Is this a Blackberry thing, a carrier thing, or a smartphone-in-general thing?

I appreciate any info anyone has to offer and apologies ahead of time if I have annoying follow-up questions. Just trying to make the most of my device.

Regards,

Kevin

[dajogejr]

While I'm no Pro...I used to be the guy that said hell with crackberries until our email provider offered hosted exchange and BES.

Now I get it....seriously.

I can't answer all your questions...I'll try my best.

1.  Not a way that I've found. Only new messages.

2.  There may be an automatic open option, but I don't think so.

3.  You'll find the most adept users have hot keys for everything, a few examples:

•  Hold a letter down an extra second to capitalize it
•  In messaging or on a website, press T to go to the top, B to go to the bottome (saves a lot of scrolling)
•  Press Alt and Left shift key for number lock
• In an email, press r to reply, F to forward (anyone know the hot key for reply all?)

There are all kinds of hot keys you'll find.

4.  No rhyme or reason. I got a lot of buds that send and receive pictures with me, Nextel, Verizon, Sprint, etc.  Some come through, some don't.  

[Super8er]

Thanks so much for the info! I'm really liking my Blackberry so far.Anything else anyone can think of I appreciate it! And your right, dajogejr, I'm learning new little things about it everytime I go exploring! Thanks again!

Regards,

Kevin

[sdgardne]

You might check this out...

 http://supportforums.blackberry.com/rim/board?board.id=NewBlackBerryUsers