In message pmpgj31n4suuim7nmlg5ep9pmaqb8e5iuf@4ax.com,
Angus Rodgers <twirlip@bigfoot.com> Proclaimed from the tallest tower:

> (Please excuse the rash of posts on or around this topic, here,
> in uk.telecom.broadband, and in alt.consumers.uk.discounts-and-
> bargains, but I'm being subjected to a relentless daily barrage
> of pestering, which makes rational thought almost impossible.)
>
> My <expletive deleted> teenage daughter now says that what her
> rich kid friends do, and what she therefore wants to do, is to
> use MSN Messenger on a Blackberry Pearl.
>
> She is under the impression that MSN Messenger is "e-mail", and
> she pours scorn on me when I tell her that e-mail is a term for
> a different Internet protocol, and that MSN Messenger is an
> instant messaging service (or a client for such a service).
>
> A quick Google search seems to show that there are several ways
> of getting something like MSN Messenger service on a Blackberry.
>
> Some of them look very complicated, and there seem to be several
> competing shareware solutions. It would take a long time for me
> to find my way through the thicket of technical and commercial
> details, especially as I know very little about mobile phone
> technology in general, and Blackberries in particular. I don't
> even know what a "smartphone" is, or whether /any/ smartphone
> (and not just a Blackberry) would do what my daughter wants her
> phone to do.
>
> What I would like to know (I think - as I said, it's being made
> almost impossible for me to think at all!) is (a) whether there
> is some canonical, "official" or semi-official (e.g. approved
> both by M$ and by Blackberry) way of her using a Hotmail account
> in something like MSN Messenger running on a Blackberry, and (b)
> if so, whether it is necessary to pay £10/month, or whatever it
> costs, to Blackberry (RIM?) for an e-mail contract - also (c)
> whether what you actually pay for is not specifically an e-mail
> contract at all, but some kind of generalised Internet access.
>
> (I'm sorry if these questions are not clear. Normally if I have
> a technical purchasing decision to make, I do a little research,
> ask some questions of informed people, and make up my mind. But
> in this instance, this process is being made almost impossible,
> and this flurry of half-thought-out posts is the sad result. My
> daughter will not answer my questions on the subject in anything
> other than a whining and demanding and impatient tone, so it is
> almost impossible to get from her a clear statement of what she
> actually needs, only that whatever it is, she wants in NOW! And
> she really does need a new mobile phone, so I can't just tell
> her, as I would like to, to go and get <expletive deleted>.) :-)
>
> (I asked her to research mobile phones weeks ago, but she appears
> to have done nothing; and she now expects instant action because
> her old phone is broken - probably by her own fault. Excuse the
> stressed single-parent rant, but I'm being driven nuts over this.)
>
> The O2 site says that Yahoo! Messenger comes as standard with
> the "Individual users - BlackBerry Internet Solution". I have
> no idea whether this is of any use to her (and I bet she can't
> tell me).
>
> There's a Blackberry Pearl 8100 and a Blackberry Pearl 8120.
> Which one does she want/need? Search me (and I bet she can't
> tell me).
>
> The "official" UK website for Blackberry stalls on something
> like 75% when loading over my slow dial-up connection.
>
> (She has just come into my room for the umpteenth time to
> pester me contemptuously some more and specifically to tell
> me not even to try to inform myself about the financial and
> technical implications. It has now reached the point where
> I literally can't think about this any more, so I'll just
> have to post this message, in its current unsatisfactory
> state ... She wouldn't even let me do that, but stood in
> my doorway and harangued me literally for a whole hour,
> insisting again and again and again that there was no point
> in my trying to discuss this with anyone on the Internet ...
> Are there any family therapists out there? Help!) :-)

'Spect you've already read this if you've done any Googling at all (which it
sounds like you have), but your post seemed like such a cry for help that I
felt I had to do something, no matter how small...

http://www.blackberryforums.com/afte...e-updated.html

HTH and good luck!!

--
Regards,
Chris.
(Remove Elvis's shoes to email me)