A Bold Year

BlackBerry Italy’s PR head, Cinzia Liguori, very kindly let me have a BlackBerry Bold smart phone to play with.  Now that I’ve had the Bold for a year, I thought it might be interesting to write about my experience of using a BlackBerry smart phone in Italy.

Overall, I have to say that I have found the BlackBerry incredibly useful.  Being able to use email, surf the internet, interact on Facebook and Twitter wherever I find myself, has been very handy indeed.

I guess it would be fair to say that the BlackBerry Bold has contributed in no small part towards increasing traffic to BlogfromItaly.com too.

The list of things one can do with a BlackBerry seems to be just about endless.  It’s a mobile powerhouse!

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Rome and Milan Differences

After my brief jaunt to Rome, I thought I’d write a little about some of the differences I’ve noticed between Italy’s largest two cities.

Rome

First of all you should know that Milan is very much the business capital of Italy, whereas Rome is more of centre for administration.  Italians regard Milan as being well organised by Italian standards, with Rome being more typically Italian, in that there are pockets of organisation but these are often blurred by inconsistencies.  Some Romans admitted to me that their city was more chaotic than Milan.

Up to now I’ve been to Rome three times.  The first time was very much as a tourist and was in around 2000.  The other two times I was there on business, although on my trip before last week’s, I did not go to the centre, indeed, I really do not know to this day just where exactly I went in Italy’s Eternal City as I had no time to wander the surrounding area.

On the other hand, after more than ten years in Milan, I think I know it quite well.

Last week, however, I was able to have a quick look around the centre, mainly because I had opted to stay overnight.  As a result, I noticed one or two differences between Rome and Milan.  Some good, so not so.

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Surfing on the Red Line

Travelling boldly around Milan, as I do, I often find myself on the city’s red underground line.  This tube line is quite sophisticated technologically.

What you can do while sitting on one of these underground trains is surf the Internet.  Well, you can if you happen to have a mobile phone which can access the world wide web, like my Blackberry Bold 9000.

This means that cumbersome papers may become a thing of the past for me, as I hook myself up and check the latest news in Italy on the mobile web friendly website of the Italian newspapers La Republica and Corriere della Sera.  So, what’s the mobile web surfing experience like on my Blackberry smart phone in Milan? … Continue Reading

To Boldly Go Blackberrying in Italy

Those nice people from the Italian arm of RIM, the Blackberry makers, have kindly supplied me with a shiny new Blackberry Bold 9000.

Bold Blackberry

I thought it might be interesting to hear how the Blackberry experience is going so far, even if I’ve only had this mobile email receiving handset for a couple of days.  First though, a few comments on the Bold itself, and I’ll also mention the Vodafone data connection plan I’ve hooked the Bold up to.

Finally, I’ll be offering a little warning with regard to picking up used Bold’s and, most probably other RIM Blackberry handsets.

Right let’s Boldly go on, says he naughtily splitting his infinitives before starting this trek around one of the star players in RIM’s current galaxy of products. … Continue Reading

Blackberry Bold Availability for Bramblers

If perhaps Apple’s new iPhone is not as good as momma’s apple pie in your eyes, then perhaps you would feel more at home with RIM’s latest addition to its mobile stable, the Blackberry Bold 9000.

This article will tell you where you can boldly go to buy one of these email manipulating little gems in Italy. … Continue Reading

The Techno-Fashion Victims – Iphones and Blackberries

The lasted craze amongst the better heeled Milanese is the iPhone. This technological jewel and ultimate expression of cool has only just become available in Italy, semi-officially. A Vodafone shop near us has a few of the things in stock.

However, what the ingenious Italians have been doing is bringing these toys back from the US. Then they have been hacking and cracking the things so they can be used on Italy’s mobile phone networks.  I see the things everywhere. My other half wants one too, and guess what? Yes, she knows someone who heads Stateside quite often. Joe, could you do me a favour??!!

The in-crowd has certainly decided that the iPhone is in. Big time!

On the other hand, those who regard the iPhone as being a bit too trivial (or heavy), and who wish to give the impression that they are switched-on fully connected professionals, go for the mobile phone/always on email manager made by Blackberry.

Blackberry’s are all over the place too. Just the thing for ensuring that you get those all important Hotmail messages as soon as they are written.

I have no doubt at all that there will be a few Italians who have the best of both worlds – an iPhone and a Blackberry.

Funny thing is, that although many here love to have the latest and greatest, all singing (ringing!!) and dancing mobile phone, most people only actually use these fully featured multi-function devices for simply making phone calls.

Enter the techno-fashion victims.

Italy – Armani, Versace, Dolce e Gabbana, Blackberry and iPhone.