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Blackberry Thread...

Posted: 18 Oct 2011, 10:59
by Anakha56
http://mybroadband.co.za/news/cellular/ ... duced.html
BlackBerry BBX introduced

BlackBerry BBX, the next generation mobile platform for BlackBerry devices, was introduced at BlackBerry DevCon Americas 2011

BlackBerry BBX, the next generation mobile platform for BlackBerry smartphones and tablets, was introduced at BlackBerry DevCon Americas 2011 today.

“BBX combines the best of the BlackBerry platform and the best of the QNX platform to connect people, devices, content and services,” Research in Motion (RIM) said in a press statement.

Development environments supported by the BBX platform include HTML5 with BlackBerry WebWorks, Adobe AIR, Native C/C++, and the BlackBerry Runtime for Android Apps.

Apps built today for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet will also run on BBX.

“Specific details regarding BBX products and availability will be provided at a later date, so stay tuned for more information,” said RIM.
Right now we are arguing over k/b's have fun!

Re: Why the Blackberry outage was a good thing...

Posted: 18 Oct 2011, 11:04
by Hman
I doubt it. South Africans don't need Blackberries to be dangerous on the roads.

They are Africans not Africant's

Re: Why the Blackberry outage was a good thing...

Posted: 18 Oct 2011, 11:26
by KALSTER
Blackberries suck, which is why it was a good thing.
They are Africans not Africant's
Once Upon a Time in Mexico reference!

Re: Why the Blackberry outage was a good thing...

Posted: 18 Oct 2011, 11:35
by Hman
KALSTER wrote:
They are Africans not Africant's
Once Upon a Time in Mexico reference!
:P

Re: Why the Blackberry outage was a good thing...

Posted: 18 Oct 2011, 13:16
by THE_STIG
KALSTER wrote:Blackberries suck, which is why it was a good thing.
+1000000000000

Re: Why the Blackberry outage was a good thing...

Posted: 18 Oct 2011, 13:32
by Stuart
THE_STIG wrote:
KALSTER wrote:Blackberries suck, which is why it was a good thing.
+1000000000000
On what amount of actual hands-on experience with Blackberry smart phones do you base this assessment?

Re: Why the Blackberry outage was a good thing...

Posted: 18 Oct 2011, 13:40
by THE_STIG
Who me or Kalster?

I see Blackberry users constantly cursing the fact that their phone has frozen for no real reason. Also most Blackberrys have no touch screen and in todays world a smart phone with no touch screen is a "stupid phone"..........oh yes and some dont even have 3G

Re: Why the Blackberry outage was a good thing...

Posted: 18 Oct 2011, 13:52
by rustypup
THE_STIG wrote: no touch screen and in todays world a smart phone with no touch screen is a "stupid phone"........
for the sake of all that is cute and furry, i will stab with a blunt instrument the next person i meet who insists, in the face of all evidence, that touch-screens are superior to keyboards... only the terminally dimwitted marketing-victim would do so.

i don't care what brand of phone you happen to have tied your fragile ego to. touch-screen interfaces are backward....

i heard earlier that RIM is looking to offer free apps in lieux of an apology :lol: .... frankly, >8 years of uninterrupted service - they're due a hiccup or two...

the over-dramatic whining that resulted was hilarious... :roll:

Re: Why the Blackberry outage was a good thing...

Posted: 18 Oct 2011, 13:53
by KALSTER
They are expensive for what you get imo (same with iPhones). I had the opportunity to play around with my boss's 9300 Curve and it was not a pleasant experience and had too much trouble getting it to work as a modem on his laptop. I'll almost choose my old Nokia 9300 Communicator over that thing. To me it is just a frustrating experience. Can the Blackberry OS even stand up to Symbian? They had their day and for that time, they were great. Not so much any more imo.

Re: Why the Blackberry outage was a good thing...

Posted: 18 Oct 2011, 13:58
by THE_STIG
rustypup wrote:
THE_STIG wrote: no touch screen and in todays world a smart phone with no touch screen is a "stupid phone"........
for the sake of all that is cute and furry, i will stab with a blunt instrument the next person i meet who insists, in the face of all evidence, that touch-screens are superior to keyboards... only the terminally dimwitted marketing-victim would do so.

i don't care what brand of phone you happen to have tied your fragile ego to. touch-screen interfaces are backward....

i heard earlier that RIM is looking to offer free apps in lieux of an apology :lol: .... frankly, >8 years of uninterrupted service - they're due a hiccup or two...

the over-dramatic whining that resulted was hilarious... :roll:
What I should have said was that a phone with only a keyboard is rubbish. There are lots of phones that have both a qwerty keyboard and a touch screen. Trying to browse the net with just the little arrow keys is seriously frustrating, you need a touch screen for this or a mouse but phones dont have mice

Re: Why the Blackberry outage was a good thing...

Posted: 18 Oct 2011, 14:04
by KALSTER
There are lots of phones that have both a qwerty keyboard and a touch screen. Trying to browse the net with just the little arrow keys is seriously frustrating, you need a touch screen for this or a mouse but phones dont have mice
Enter the Nokia E7, Motorola Droid 2, etc. If the Samsung Galaxy S II had a hardware keyboard, I'd marry it and become a hermit (with a solar panel charge station).

Re: Why the Blackberry outage was a good thing...

Posted: 18 Oct 2011, 14:09
by THE_STIG
Yea but who is going to purchase a Nokia smart phone, Nokia have lost touch with the world. Their phones are very boring and still feature the same old OS and yes Nokias are reliable but they are just so bland. The Motorola looks good but I just hope it does not suffer form non existent battery life like Motorola's of old did

Re: Why the Blackberry outage was a good thing...

Posted: 18 Oct 2011, 14:13
by rustypup
THE_STIG wrote:There are lots of phones that have both a qwerty keyboard and a touch screen. Trying to browse the net with just the little arrow keys is seriously frustrating, you need a touch screen for this or a mouse but phones dont have mice
a phooooone... not a pc or laptop... a phone. i felt it necessary to point this out because we've apparently lost the ability to distinguish between this and the branding bull by-product that is cellular telephony...

i care about browsing like a i care about malema... if it offers me 3 days of battery life and the ability to make calls without invoking the names of several deities, i'm done.

never-mind the fact that these things have all the longevity of a discounted gerbil...

Re: Why the Blackberry outage was a good thing...

Posted: 18 Oct 2011, 14:18
by Stuart
THE_STIG wrote:I see Blackberry users . . .
So . . . no hands on experience then? Do you also have strong feelings about training bras?
KALSTER wrote:Can the Blackberry OS even stand up to Symbian?
Frankly, I'm not sure they're too bothered to try. BB caters for a specific market, and that market is not generally the one that wants to download super advanced apps to start the braai remotely on a Sunday afternoon, or that wants to spend hours browsing the Internet and watching full HD YouTube videos.
THE_STIG wrote:Trying to browse the net with just the little arrow keys is seriously frustrating, you need a touch screen for this or a mouse but phones dont have mice
Again, you're assuming that the average BB user buys a phone in order to surf the net with. You're wrong.

Look, I have moved on from BB personally and the way I use my phone I don't exactly mourn the absence of my Bold. That said, I'm slow to say that my iPhone is superior to my BB in every way imagineable. Even since switching personally, I have actually advised some people who have asked me to go with BB rather than Android/iOS. It really depends on your needs. And I find it laughably sad how many people who have never touched a BB have firm convictions about how much they suck.

Re: Why the Blackberry outage was a good thing...

Posted: 18 Oct 2011, 14:27
by KALSTER
Their phones are very boring and still feature the same old OS and yes Nokias are reliable but they are just so bland.
Well, I don't care much for looks or even weight to be honest. I bought a TPU cover as soon as I got the phone and now you'd probably find it even more ugly. The E7 works fine and can do pretty much everything the Android phones can, plus some they can't (Can you plug a flash drive into your Android?). My only complaint atm is that it only comes with Flash 3.0, while the Android phones come with Flash 10.0 atm, also the lack of auto focus on the camera.

But, as we can see from Rusty's last post, it largely comes down to what you use the phone for and personal preference. On a spec by spec basis, the Blackberrys fall short imo. The E7 lacks some of the high hardware specs, but the Symbian OS actually makes it a bit of a moot point, as it requires less processing power.

Re: Why the Blackberry outage was a good thing...

Posted: 18 Oct 2011, 14:28
by THE_STIG
Stuart wrote:So . . . no hands on experience then? Do you also have strong feelings about training bras?
No but I am forced to listen to BB users complaining all day long and then suddenly being all smug about their free internet. But I have used the camera on one once and it was rubbish. I have never been a fan of cell phone cameras and have always said that if you want a camera go out and get a real one, but as far as cell phone cameras go the one on that BB was rubbish :|

Re: Why the Blackberry outage was a good thing...

Posted: 18 Oct 2011, 14:42
by rustypup
so... your actual complaint is about the number of dimbulbs complaining about their phones? :lol:

while BB camera's are surprisingly shoddy... for a phooone... BB offers extensible, (secure), storage, encrypted comms, NTLM plugin and remote management features no other units can match.

in the corporate world, nokia comes closest to offering similar...

the rest are exactly what they advertise them to be... over-priced, disposable, toys for ADHD afflicted tech-addicts ...

for the record, version ~4/5 of the BB OS on the 8520/8900 had a hiccup around the missed call list which causes the freezing, (clearing the missed call log would temporarily resolve it)... simply updating the OS sorted it permanently.... shocking, i know... who'd have thunk it...

Re: Why the Blackberry outage was a good thing...

Posted: 18 Oct 2011, 14:44
by Stuart
THE_STIG wrote:
Stuart wrote:So . . . no hands on experience then? Do you also have strong feelings about training bras?
No but I am forced to listen to BB users complaining all day long and then suddenly being all smug about their free internet. But I have used the camera on one once and it was rubbish. I have never been a fan of cell phone cameras and have always said that if you want a camera go out and get a real one, but as far as cell phone cameras go the one on that BB was rubbish :|
Again, no one who puts any thought into their upgrade and ends up getting a BB has the phone's camera very high on his list of priorities.

There is a HUGE difference between "Blackberry does not suit my needs/preferences" and "Blackberry sucks." By the same token I can say that iPhone sucks because of poor battery life and heavy data usage.

Most PCF members have come to terms with needing to use WiFi to keep data costs down and charging their phone every 24 hours or more. Those who are not happy with those compromises, but who want a phone that does decent messaging and can access the Internet without breaking the bank will do well to consider BB.

When I was using my BB I never once switched my WiFi on. There was no need for it, and leaving it off conserved battery life. I tried leaving WiFi off for the first month after I switched to iPhone. It was a joke. This month I finished my 250MB data bundle on the 14th, and had to top up to keep me going for the rest of the month. And that is with WiFi permanently on at home and at the office.

Also, I charge my phone probably every night. Or, at least, if I don't charge it at night I have to charge it during the day the next day. My BB easily gave me three days battery life.

And, personally, I find that the BB handled email better than the iPhone.

Re: Why the Blackberry outage was a good thing...

Posted: 18 Oct 2011, 14:49
by KatrynKat
just me being curious, and not trying to start anything, but then why did you switch to the iPhone permanently?

Re: Why the Blackberry outage was a good thing...

Posted: 18 Oct 2011, 14:59
by D3PART3D
// I have to ask, as dangerous as it may be. Why all the love for hardware keyboards? They either add unnecessary bulk or limit screen size. Vibration is used really well on on-screen keyboards to give the keys a tactile feel, predictive text software and the spellcheckers are good enough that typing errors don't really matter in the rare instances that they occur, and the keyboard can be improved without needing to buy new hardware. All you need is a software update.

Hardware keyboards save battery life and maybe shave 5 minutes of error correction time yearly. I'm missing something, aren't I?

:run4hills:

Re: Why the Blackberry outage was a good thing...

Posted: 18 Oct 2011, 15:12
by Stuart
KatrynKat wrote:just me being curious, and not trying to start anything, but then why did you switch to the iPhone permanently?
Part of the reason was simpler synchronisation with my MacBook. The BB didn't play so nicely with the MacBook. That didn't last too long though, because, as it turns out, I hate my MacBook. :lol:

But I have benefited a great deal from the larger screen. Unlike rusty, I don't ONLY use my phone as a phone / business tool.

For example, I use Tapatalk quite a lot and the app on the iPhone is vastly superior to the BB's poor excuse of the same app.

Kindle is another app that is far more pleasant on the iPhone than the BB. To be fair, I use the Kindle software on my iPad more than my iPhone, but there are plenty of instances in which I end up in a longer than expected bank queue or something with no iPad in sight, and then the iPhone comes into play.

I also use the Tom Tom navigation software on my phone, and again this makes the iPhone a no brainer. I have a stand alone GPS, but it's five years old, doesn't offer map updates and, frankly, it doesn't know that some roads exist! When face with the option of purchasing a new GPS or getting Tom Tom Southern Africa on my phone, Tom Tom seemed like the better option.

Of course, the iPhone is a good partner for the iPad. Here, again, rusty would not benefit, given that he's still struggling to make the transition from scrolls to books, much less tablets, but for me it makes good sense to pair the two devices.

Re: Why the Blackberry outage was a good thing...

Posted: 18 Oct 2011, 15:13
by Anakha56
Image

Re: Why the Blackberry outage was a good thing...

Posted: 18 Oct 2011, 15:14
by Stuart
D3PART3D wrote:predictive text software and the spellcheckers are good enough that typing errors don't really matter in the rare instances that they occur
http://www.damnyouautocorrect.com/

Re: Why the Blackberry outage was a good thing...

Posted: 18 Oct 2011, 21:27
by THE_STIG
D3PART3D wrote:// I have to ask, as dangerous as it may be. Why all the love for hardware keyboards? They either add unnecessary bulk or limit screen size. Vibration is used really well on on-screen keyboards to give the keys a tactile feel, predictive text software and the spellcheckers are good enough that typing errors don't really matter in the rare instances that they occur, and the keyboard can be improved without needing to buy new hardware. All you need is a software update.

Hardware keyboards save battery life and maybe shave 5 minutes of error correction time yearly. I'm missing something, aren't I?

:run4hills:
I personally prefer a hardware keyboard because I find it easer to use and more convenient. But on screen keyboards are much better than they used to be and are actually not bad. They also allow you to have a larger screen but that will ruin battery life.

//Back to the original post. I am not sure if the lack of BB services was the cause of the decreases but if it was I dont think it would have the same affect here. Most of the people who cause the accidents here do not have BB's but some cheap Nokia's(ie Taxi drivers) and the cause of accidents here is not talking on cell phones but general reckless diving.........and unroadworthy vehicles

Why the Blackberry outage was a good thing...

Posted: 19 Oct 2011, 06:50
by Stuart
It actually wouldn't surprise me to hear that there WAS a decrease. Not an eradication, but a decrease nonetheless.