Verizon Blackberry questions,texting work with Verizon and a Blackberry?

How does the texting work with Verizon and a Blackberry? Do you have to send everything as an e-mail? WIll it change the way people send me texts? Can they receive pictures? I am looking at the Blackberry 8703e.

Also I would like realtime synch with Outlook. I know there are 2 solutions one is having the Blackberry software run on the computer all the time... and the other is a Blackberry Exchange Server..

I am really interested using a Blackberry Exchange hosted service I have read about but I cannot find any information on it..

Can I still have unlimited in texting with the Blackberry or does Verizon screw you like they do on the PDA data plan?


Thanks