More Tools for BlackBerry Addicts

I have a friend who's a BlackBerry addict--she's addicted to her Research in Motion e-mail pager, which runs on the BlackBerry or Motient's eLink mail service.

My friend, who shall remain nameless to protect her identity, recently told me she answers her e-mail on her BlackBerry pager at 4 a.m. instead of getting sleep. She has a Type A personality to begin with, so I can't totally blame the device. But it doesn't help.

Here's some bad news for her and other BlackBerry addicts, but good news for their more moderate colleagues. BitFlash announced its BitFlash Mobile Messaging Suite, which provides BlackBerry users with the ability to view "visually rich" e-mail attachments on their devices.

The Mobile Messaging Suite integrates with a user's existing BlackBerry environment and lets users view graphical information contained in attachments. Attachments can be accessed upon receipt or cached on the server for later access, letting users manage their content. The user interface lets users scroll, pan, zoom, and access embedded links. It also lets users drill down to more relevant information, like reports associated with key dates in a stock's performance chart.

BitFlash hasn't said yet when the suite will be available or how much it will cost

Here are a couple of other services that let BlackBerry users access some of their attachments. Keep in mind, both of these services also cater to users of Wireless Access Protocol phones, wireless Palms and other wireless e-mail devices.

AstataView and AstataPrint: Astata's AstataView and AstataPrint let users either view their e-mail attachments or print them to a fax machine. AstataView is a service that converts attachments for easy reading on the BlackBerry device. It basically forwards the attachment to an Astata server, which converts the format into a text-readable e-mail that goes back to the user. AstataPrint provides the ability to print the attachments to any fax machine in the original document format. The services are offered both as ASP services and as corporate solutions (Astata Corporate Enterprise Solution) for use behind a company's firewall.

The service portion costs $4.95 per month for each service, or $7.95 per month for a combined print/view service.

Onset Technology's METAmessage: METAmessage provides viewing, print, and fax attachment features. METAmessage's ASP service does this without additional software or server installations. It costs $8 per month for read capabilities, $12 per month for read and print functions, and $15 per month for read, print and inbound fax functions. Onset Technology also offers an enterprise edition, which installs on a company's servers within the corporate firewall.

These products and services won't help the thousands of BlackBerry addicts out there, but they might help your company if you need this functionality for your "responsible" BlackBerry users. If you're one of those addicts, however, turn off your device and get some sleep.