Thursday, December 11, 2008
A Bold upgrade
I've been talking a lot recently with people in my social network about advancements in mobile computing. (Or at the very least, what mobile phone they rock.) Josie loves her BlackBerry Bold. Ben desperately seeks an iPhone. Toni's already got one. Will's iPod Touch had him at hello. So like a true poser, I upgraded my own BlackBerry, getting a Bold, too. Thanks, boss.
I've used Palm Pilots, first-generation iPaqs, Windows Mobile smartphones, and even the Newton - all of which were disconnected, not Internet-aware applicances. But today's a whole new ballgame. I had been running the 8830 World Edition for about a year, so I was stoked about going the 3G route, being able to do some high-end mobile data things over a true broadband network. Like surfing without waiting, leveraging multimedia and perhaps some custom development.
Here's a snapshot of the last 40 hours since I brought the new baby home:
- I'm very impressed with v.4.6 of the BlackBerry OS. Really nice UI, very logical layout, snazzy icons and quick execution of programs. The darker, transparent paradigm is sexier that the bright motif used in earlier versions. That said, installing apps takes notably longer than with earlier versions.
- Immediately upon leaving my wireless carrier's office after the upgrade, I went grocery shopping at Kmart, so while strolling around for deoderant and fabric softener I was downloading Twitterberry, browsing sports scores, plotting myself on Google Maps, accessing my RSS feeds and uploading photos. That's the kind of mobility I've always hoped for - not the annoying cradle-synching crap.
- I'm likewise enjoying using RIM's default browser, as I hated the previous version, going for the quicker Opera Mini 4.2, which zipped over 2G networks.
- Awww nuts...Pandora doesn't work yet for the 9000 Series.
- For my money, the BB's one unbeatable quality - extraordinary battery life - doesn't disappoint. My phone can be on "Low Battery" status for hours, even during periods of heavy talk time and data use, and it maintains a charge. I can get 2 maybe 3 days of consistently heavy use between recharges.
- I'm looking forward to using the on-board digital (video)camera to post to my Flickr photostream.
- My default text message tone is a polyphonic bird chirp by Stewart Copeland...as in the drummer of The Police??? Awesome!
- The device now takes about 2 minutes to boot-up, which struck me as odd.
- The clock now dually functions as a countdown device and a timer...something that I'd have to download apps for in the past. Good looking out, RIM.
- The backlight now gracefully dims instead of just cutting off after a predefined period.
- The new "Bedside Mode" which launches the clock app is a nice touch.
- Good grief, the speaker is L-O-U-D. I've got my 80's metal ringtones enabled, and this afternoon Testament's "Disciples of the Watch" went blaring out during a meeting.
- I haven't been able to get Qik to work...the connection just hangs. This really pisses me off. I really hope this isn't a "not available on Guam" thing. Streaming live video of my handset that can be embedded would be unbelievably cool.
- The 3G network I'm on doesn't always maintain connectivity. Possibly because I sit snugly between a cornucopia of satellite dishes, radio transmitters and broadcast equipment all generating enough RF to jam most modern radar, my smartphone's rolls over to 2G GSM rather than go 'no signal' when it loses 3G ability. This would normally be fine, except it often leaves me dead in the water.
Overall, this is a wonderful phone. Not an iPhone (which technically speaking can't legally be sold out here), but really cool nontheless.
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