ek ete Table Hopping. - Michael Becker News Editor mbecker@nsnews.com NORTH Vancouver resident John Vandespyker would like to plug in to e-mail junkies who can’t be connected enough. All things wireless are the wonders to be marvelled at this year. Vandespyker’s roving ¢-mail send- and-receive option of choice is the BlackBerry Internet edition, a device that promises an element of coo! effi- ciency for its user. Vandespyker is vice president and general manager of Rogers AT&T Wireless for B.C. He is one of thou- sands of BlackBerry users across the county. Said Vandespyker, “I've been using it since the fall of last year. The relia- bility on the network is fantastic. There’s very litte downtime.” BlackBerry specs: @ e-mail, calendar, address book and task list applications; © Rogers Web-based e-mail account, 8 32-bit Intel386™ processor with 2 MB flash memory plus 304 KB RAM; OWER TY tesboard d displ TY and display; @ thumb-operated trackwheel; §§ docking cradle ; W@ selectable alerts: vibrate, tone, silent; @ search funciionality; B& auto text; B clock, alarm, auto on/off; @ menv-driven interface; &% password protection. The device can: @ send, receive and archive anytime | without plugging in or logging in; . @ page, receive numeric and alphanu- meric messages; BB synchronize by using the included docking cradle and software. Changes to the BlackBerry organizer or desk- top software are automatically updat- BlackBerry supports Microsoft _ Outlook, Microsoft Outlook Express 4.0, Microsoft Schedule+, Lotus Organizer and ACT! desktop software applications. The hardware operates over the Rogers AT&T Mobitex network. NORTH SHORE NEWS Picking new Alternative to cell phones possible Coverage includes [5 centres in Canada and 492 cities in the United States. PDAs (personal digital assis- tants) and a new generation of phones with Internet access or wireless access protocol (WAP) are the foreseeable competition for BlackBerry . : Said Vandespyker, “The real benefit of Blackberry is instant connectivity across the country and throughout the United States from this where you can check ¢-mails and respond to messages. You can do it very silently as well, so if you are in meetings or in work groups, you’re not talking on the phone. “From a productivity stand- point, it’s less expensive than a cell phone. If you’re paying 50 dollars a monsh for unlimited usage, you would pay, if you usc it to the same extent, prob- ably hundreds of dollars a month on a cell phone,” he said. . The miniature QWERTY keyboard interface seems too tiny to be of practical use at first glance. But . said Vandespyker, “When you first get it you think it’s really small, but you become an expert typist with your thumbs. It has an intelli- gent keyboard, so I can just type short-form messages. You can program it to finish words for you.” The pricing for BlackBerry is as follows: @ Hardware — $399 for a 12- month agreement, $299 for a 24-month agreement, lease to own for $20 a month over 24 months. Air time — $25 monthly for 75,000 characters to a miaxi- mum of $50 monthly for a flat rate. Meanwhile, BlackBerry is evolving. “The next version will have graph- ics capabilities and a micro-browser. So for sites that are configured for WAP capability, you can open up lim- ited graphics. At some point as we roll out third generation cellular, you'll have full access to the Web at speeds at 384 kilobytes. It’s already in tests. We've already tested video-conferenc- ing from Montreal to the States.We’l! have the first generation of WAP later this year and then full third generation capabilities targeted for the end of Next year across our network. That’s when things get really exciting.” Research In Motion (RIM), the Wednesday, April 26. 2000 — North Shore News - 15 NEWS photo Cindy Goodmen JOHN Vandespyker shows the BlackBerry Internet Edition, a wireless device for e-mailing throughout Canada and the United States. company that makes the BlackBerry wireless e-mail device, will soon release a new product equipped with a wire- less Web browser. The BlackBerry 957 comes with a larger screen, a stronger antenna and more memory. It will also support Lotus Notes, allowing users to synchronize data in the BlackBerry with Notes data on their PC. THERE’S been a cer- tain, I don’t know ... negative buzz in the air in the last few weeks, have you noticed? It happens every year right about now and it’s like community PMS. Decent, hard working citizens every- where seem particularly edgy. Incidents of road rage increase, as white-knuckled commuters lose their tem- pers at generally safe drivers like me who occasional! blow it and cut them off. Moms and dads get short with their kids over next to nothing, like a few failing grades and a big ding in the fender of the family car. Brothers get overly sen- sitive when you tease them about their lousy golf swing, and husbands, espe- cially the ‘ex’ kind, get downright cranky when you mention anything at all about money. It’s not like any of us can help it. . It’s tax time, and it’s always been like this. I can remember my mom and dad going through this when I was a little girl. We were a traditional family; and my dad did the taxes. The weekend before they were due he'd bring out the old cardboard shoebox he See Tax page 18 Re-new, Re-use, Re-upholster Do you have a favourite sofa or chair in needlof an update? Come into Arlene's Interiors where our experienced staff can help you breath new life into your piece. We'll help you choose the fabric and accessories to fit both your personality and budget. We'll even pick-up your furniture and deliver it back to you when it's done. And since we have the Lower Mainland's largest selection of in-stock home decorating fabrics you'll be amazed ar the wealth of choices available to add colour and beauty to your home. Remember the three R's. Visit Arlene's Interiors. 2282 Holdom Ave. in Burnaby, just south of Lougheed. Ogen 7 days a week. Call 291-6922. + wwwaarlenes,com 9 7 oe we Nes. Sa