the other side of the fence: the blackberry curve

I have been using the Curve for about three or four weeks. So far so good. I feel like I have used it long enough to talk through what I like and what I don't.
Kaleidoscope, the company I work for, does not have a blackberry server, so I realize in advance that my experience is less than advertised. In fact let me start there. I am going to sound like a microsoft fan boy, but I miss the activesync. Yes, I do get my e-mails in a timely fashion, but I noticed that if I review an e-mail on my computer, the e-mail may or may not be delivered to the blackberry. I absolutely hate having to plug in the phone to my laptop and sync the updates to the calendar, contacts and tasks. It will be interesting to see how the new iphone software handles this... it does claim activesync compatibility. The other day, my battery died and I was not in a position to charge it, so I used a windows mobile device for the weekend. I have switched devices enough that I have the outlook settings memorized. Plugged them in and all my contacts, appointments and e-mails show up. Pure magic :)
Speaking of battery, the battery life on the curve is good. Maybe that is because it an EDGE device and doesn't support the 3G. But on eastern long island where I live, there is 3G is pretty rare unless you are deep in Nassau County or in the Hamptons. So based on that, it seems like RIM has done a good job of optimizing the battery life.
I like the form factor. It is a tad too thick, at least it seems to be so. I realize the Blackjack plays thickness games, with the top being thicker than most of the back. If the curve was 1.5 mm thinner it would be perfect. The slightly shorter length than a blackjack is nice.
I think I prefer the non-touch screen, but I will admit that first week, I kept trying to push the buttons on the screen. The overall UI seems dated. Maybe not quite as bad as my old SLVR, but there is a lot of text, icons, and overall graphic feel is a little too windows 3.11. I guess that keeps the GUI snappy and there is never delay because the processor can't keep up with the 'shiny GUI.' But for me, as a designer, I don't think I would choose this over other options.
I set the UI back to the blackberry default. The ATT version wasn't doing anything for me. I did like that I can move the home screen icons around, even remove them. This allowed me to delete all the silly ATT apps, music, radio, tv, etc.
There is some subtle rubber on the rear housing. It is a nice touch... it seems as if the whole housing is IMD parts... Looks nice from a distance, but seems almost cheap up close.
I really would like use the device with the blackberry server. Then I would have the missing 'activesync' connectivity.
The qwerty is good, same width as a blackjack. I think I like the keys of the blackjack better, but the curve definitely look better. I hate the fact that all the punctuation is on a shifted state. It is interesting to me that Samsung, Motorola, RIM spend lots of resources testing and validating keypads, but they all arrive at different solutions.

changes...

February 15 was too long ago. To a certain degree that is because I have become accustomed to the blackjack and windows mobile. As I have mentioned in previous posts, when it comes to outlook integration I am really impressed with windows mobile. Just plug in the settings on the device and never hard wire sync again. Once I started traveling with a new ipod nano, I gave up on multi-media on the blackjack.
About three weeks ago, I ordered a Samsung sgh-780. It is sort of a Blackjack big brother. The form factor is virtually identical to the Blackjack II. But it has a larger display, a touch screen, camera on the front, wifi and it runs the full version of windows mobile, not smart phone. Like the Blackjack II it is quadband gsm, but it seems to me that the radios are tuned when a phone is certified by a carrier. The 780 seems to drop calls too frequently, even shut the phone feature off when there is no signal... which is pretty often on Long Island.
I am surprised how different windows mobile and windows smart phone are... because my primary apps are making calls and sending and receiving e-mails, I think I prefer the smart phone version. It just seems a little cleaner.
The 780 has a really cool optical navigation button on the front. It is sort of a super mini track pad. It takes up less space than a traditional 4 or 5 way key. I assume it is much more reliable than a joystick. The rubberize finish on the rear and battery cover is nice. It reminds me of the original Blackjack. I personally prefer the satin finish to the super high gloss of the Blackjack II.
The wifi is great too. Pretty speedy web browsing, and it is nice to still be able to connect to e-mail in the house where there is no cell signal.
We had some pretty bad rain the last several days, and the non-reliable phone is N.G. (no good). So I am moving on...

blue screen

ok, it wasn't blue, it was an at&t globe, but yesterday morning when i went to start my phone, it would begin to start up but got hung up somewhere before the end of the boot. it sucked!
I finally figured out how to get it unstuck. (hold the up of the nav & press the power button while it is starting.) but it wipes out all the data on the phone... i removed the sd card so i did not loose that.
once or twice in the last 7-8 years I have had a phone get stuck, but i was always able to remove the battery and it would come back up... and I did not loose all the data.
i suppose if i had the outlook settings memorized i could have survived without my laptop. activesync is awesome... once i plugged my settings in, all the contacts were back as were the unread e-mails... but shame on windows for needing to flush everything.

mobile phone infrastructure

It seems like the only time I have to catch up on my reading in on airplanes. While reading last months Metropolis magazine, I stumbled across Ericsson's new cell towers. As a designer I think they are cool, much nicer than anything I have seen out there today. So at least it is no longer an aesthetic blight on the landscape. As far as I can tell it doesn't do much to reduce RF emission, which would make it the ultimate infrastructure solution. Here is the link to the Ericsson web page that discusses the new towers.

calendar

The last week has revealed some frustration with the calendar. There have been a number of instances where I would like to have been able forward a meeting appointment to someone else. There may be a way, but I have not been able to figure it out. It is an action that I use frequently on my outlook on my laptop.

phone geeks

Today at lunch, I am not sure how we ended up on the topics, but we were discussing how long it takes for mobile to boot up (for example my blackjack takes over a minute)... just to show how how bad it is, here is a picture of the design team racing to see whose phone is fastest and the slowest... yes designers are a sad lot :)

wm media player update...

In an earlier posting, i said that it was frustrating that i could not listen to music while doing something else... it turns out that if you did deep enough, there is a setting to play audio in the background. i suppose that a blackjack is primarily a business device, so having that is the default is understandable.
It is frustrating that the outlook integration is so good and the media is so amature. the blackjack plays aac files, which windows media on the pc doesn't recognize, so therefore i can not add them to the sync list or create any kind of playlist. i can add them as files via the file manager, but i can only listen to one song at a time. songs not on a playlist are viewed via a file manager and there is no way to play an entire directory or shuffle the entire library.
Another gripe, i was watching some movies on the airplane today... they have been compressed below dvd compression. the longer i watched, the further the audio lagged behind the video.
I still maintain that the ff / rw search is bad, even once you figure out how it works.

killer app

I find myself always wanting to check e-mail while I am driving... obviously not safe. (given the fact I have three kids, I am very good about resisting the temptation) I think it would be cool to have a text to speak app that would read my e-mails to me while I am driving. I realize that this is not really that revolutionary, as I know there are applications that will do this on a desktop. I am not sure if smartphones have the horsepower to to run something with good enough sound. it would definately be a nice addition to windows mobile...