Comments on: Special Bacon on BlackBerry: The Curse of the Black Pearl http://www.blackberrycool.com/2006/09/07/special-bacon-on-blackberry-the-curse-of-the-black-pearl/ The voice of the BlackBerry community. Sat, 21 Nov 2009 03:42:37 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Bacon on BlackBerry: Multimedia | BlackBerry Cool http://www.blackberrycool.com/2006/09/07/special-bacon-on-blackberry-the-curse-of-the-black-pearl/comment-page-1/#comment-201563 Bacon on BlackBerry: Multimedia | BlackBerry Cool Fri, 02 Nov 2007 12:11:21 +0000 http://www.blackberrycool.com/2006/09/07/002252/#comment-201563 [...] BlackBerry 8120 for a few weeks now and I’m impressed. I threw a 2GB microSD card in the side (finally), loaded up some MP3s (Foo Fighters, Billy Talent, Linkin Park, Fall Out Boy, etc.), threw another [...] [...] BlackBerry 8120 for a few weeks now and I’m impressed. I threw a 2GB microSD card in the side (finally), loaded up some MP3s (Foo Fighters, Billy Talent, Linkin Park, Fall Out Boy, etc.), threw another [...]

]]> By: JL http://www.blackberrycool.com/2006/09/07/special-bacon-on-blackberry-the-curse-of-the-black-pearl/comment-page-1/#comment-98685 JL Wed, 14 Mar 2007 19:35:37 +0000 http://www.blackberrycool.com/2006/09/07/002252/#comment-98685 To #11, there is no limit on the card that can be used with the Pearl. 1GB, 2GB whatever works just fine. See bottom of this link: Peace. To #11, there is no limit on the card that can be used with the Pearl. 1GB, 2GB whatever works just fine. See bottom of this link:

Peace.

]]> By: Bacon on BlackBerry http://www.blackberrycool.com/2006/09/07/special-bacon-on-blackberry-the-curse-of-the-black-pearl/comment-page-1/#comment-46981 Bacon on BlackBerry Tue, 19 Sep 2006 20:56:24 +0000 http://www.blackberrycool.com/2006/09/07/002252/#comment-46981 The Pearl only supports microSD cards up to 1GB in size anyway so there's a limit that will exasperate the swapping of cards. The Pearl only supports microSD cards up to 1GB in size anyway so there’s a limit that will exasperate the swapping of cards.

]]> By: Bacon on BlackBerry http://www.blackberrycool.com/2006/09/07/special-bacon-on-blackberry-the-curse-of-the-black-pearl/comment-page-1/#comment-46979 Bacon on BlackBerry Tue, 19 Sep 2006 20:47:40 +0000 http://www.blackberrycool.com/2006/09/07/002252/#comment-46979 ... also, the largest microSD card I see right now is 1GB for $70 US. I think there's 2GB available but only from SanDisk so they'll be expensive. … also, the largest microSD card I see right now is 1GB for $70 US. I think there’s 2GB available but only from SanDisk so they’ll be expensive.

]]> By: Jamison Banks http://www.blackberrycool.com/2006/09/07/special-bacon-on-blackberry-the-curse-of-the-black-pearl/comment-page-1/#comment-46137 Jamison Banks Mon, 11 Sep 2006 19:17:36 +0000 http://www.blackberrycool.com/2006/09/07/002252/#comment-46137 As a cellphone carrier employee who troubleshoots blackberries for a living, I can say road bump, but a major one. Most of our customers love card slots, and if this is truly buried in the device to the point you have to take the battery out . . . that's asinine. The Treo, most pocket pc's, etc can directly plug the card in without pulling thye battery, let alone powering off the unit. What was RIM thinking here? As a cellphone carrier employee who troubleshoots blackberries for a living, I can say road bump, but a major one. Most of our customers love card slots, and if this is truly buried in the device to the point you have to take the battery out . . . that’s asinine.

The Treo, most pocket pc’s, etc can directly plug the card in without pulling thye battery, let alone powering off the unit.

What was RIM thinking here?

]]> By: olly http://www.blackberrycool.com/2006/09/07/special-bacon-on-blackberry-the-curse-of-the-black-pearl/comment-page-1/#comment-45611 olly Sat, 09 Sep 2006 20:04:04 +0000 http://www.blackberrycool.com/2006/09/07/002252/#comment-45611 I've owned a ton of phones with memory card slots (most of mine in the laast 3 years actually), and I can't honestly say that I have swapped cards out more than a few times here and there. Hell, even on the N-Gage all those of us that loved it did was buy a big ass card, put 20 cracked games on it, and never swap it. For 99% of people, it's not that great of inconvenience. Can't wait until Tuesday, ready to get my Pearl! -olly I’ve owned a ton of phones with memory card slots (most of mine in the laast 3 years actually), and I can’t honestly say that I have swapped cards out more than a few times here and there. Hell, even on the N-Gage all those of us that loved it did was buy a big ass card, put 20 cracked games on it, and never swap it.

For 99% of people, it’s not that great of inconvenience.

Can’t wait until Tuesday, ready to get my Pearl!

-olly

]]> By: Luke http://www.blackberrycool.com/2006/09/07/special-bacon-on-blackberry-the-curse-of-the-black-pearl/comment-page-1/#comment-45603 Luke Sat, 09 Sep 2006 19:12:08 +0000 http://www.blackberrycool.com/2006/09/07/002252/#comment-45603 The SD card location is going to be a problem for me. And I feel your pain on the Sim cards. I'm a very frequent business traveller and all my information is on the blackberry. I swap sim cards 1-2 times a week depending on the country I'm in and waiting the 10 plus minutes it takes for my blackberry to boot can painful when you want to call someone who is picking you up from the airport. It's rather annoying. The 7130c is much better in this regard than the old 7100. I have over 2000 contacts in my phone so that probably makes a huge difference. The SD card location is going to be a problem for me. And I feel your pain on the Sim cards. I’m a very frequent business traveller and all my information is on the blackberry. I swap sim cards 1-2 times a week depending on the country I’m in and waiting the 10 plus minutes it takes for my blackberry to boot can painful when you want to call someone who is picking you up from the airport. It’s rather annoying. The 7130c is much better in this regard than the old 7100. I have over 2000 contacts in my phone so that probably makes a huge difference.

]]> By: BlackBerry Cool » Special Bacon on BlackBerry: Black Tahitian Pearls http://www.blackberrycool.com/2006/09/07/special-bacon-on-blackberry-the-curse-of-the-black-pearl/comment-page-1/#comment-45358 BlackBerry Cool » Special Bacon on BlackBerry: Black Tahitian Pearls Fri, 08 Sep 2006 19:28:53 +0000 http://www.blackberrycool.com/2006/09/07/002252/#comment-45358 [...] Cameras on phones is a pet peeve of mine. Without turning this into a rant on camera phones, I will just note that I now, technically, cannot take my BlackBerry to the gym as cameras of any kind are prohibited in the locker room. So for me, the camera is one of the two big downsides of this device. The other downside (as you may have guessed from “The Curse of the Black Pearl”) is the microSD slot location. [...] [...] Cameras on phones is a pet peeve of mine. Without turning this into a rant on camera phones, I will just note that I now, technically, cannot take my BlackBerry to the gym as cameras of any kind are prohibited in the locker room. So for me, the camera is one of the two big downsides of this device. The other downside (as you may have guessed from “The Curse of the Black Pearl”) is the microSD slot location. [...]

]]> By: Bacon on Blackberry http://www.blackberrycool.com/2006/09/07/special-bacon-on-blackberry-the-curse-of-the-black-pearl/comment-page-1/#comment-45341 Bacon on Blackberry Fri, 08 Sep 2006 14:49:06 +0000 http://www.blackberrycool.com/2006/09/07/002252/#comment-45341 Thought: regarding the simulators, they only go so far. I have dozens of simulators for various devices and OS versions. They don't simulate the performance characteristics of the devices or network latency (for multiplayer games) so we still have to do a lot of work on the actual devices. Thought:

regarding the simulators, they only go so far. I have dozens of simulators for various devices and OS versions. They don’t simulate the performance characteristics of the devices or network latency (for multiplayer games) so we still have to do a lot of work on the actual devices.

]]> By: Bacon on Blackberry http://www.blackberrycool.com/2006/09/07/special-bacon-on-blackberry-the-curse-of-the-black-pearl/comment-page-1/#comment-45339 Bacon on Blackberry Fri, 08 Sep 2006 14:30:36 +0000 http://www.blackberrycool.com/2006/09/07/002252/#comment-45339 Thought: regarding the SD card sizes, if manufacturers (not just RIM) want to put MP3 playing and video playing capabilities on thier devices, then what do they expect people to use them for? If it's only the occasional MP3 file or ringtone, then no memory expansion card is needed. If it's for playing MP3s as an MP3 player, then they need to accomodate the most frequent use case for an MP3 player of that size. Everyone I know that has an MP3 player that's bigger then a memory stick in size (physical dimensions) has one with 4-20GB of space on it. A smartphone is bigger then many hard drive based MP3 players, if I'm willing to cart around a big device it needs to accomodate the big device use cases. In this case, lots of MP3s/video. Otherwise, remove those features and make the device smaller/cheaper. Thought:

regarding the SD card sizes, if manufacturers (not just RIM) want to put MP3 playing and video playing capabilities on thier devices, then what do they expect people to use them for? If it’s only the occasional MP3 file or ringtone, then no memory expansion card is needed. If it’s for playing MP3s as an MP3 player, then they need to accomodate the most frequent use case for an MP3 player of that size. Everyone I know that has an MP3 player that’s bigger then a memory stick in size (physical dimensions) has one with 4-20GB of space on it. A smartphone is bigger then many hard drive based MP3 players, if I’m willing to cart around a big device it needs to accomodate the big device use cases. In this case, lots of MP3s/video. Otherwise, remove those features and make the device smaller/cheaper.

]]> By: Thought http://www.blackberrycool.com/2006/09/07/special-bacon-on-blackberry-the-curse-of-the-black-pearl/comment-page-1/#comment-45204 Thought Thu, 07 Sep 2006 17:11:54 +0000 http://www.blackberrycool.com/2006/09/07/002252/#comment-45204 Have you tried using the simulators provided at BlackBerry's Development website instead of having to swap hardware multiple times per day? This way you could use the simulator to test the games on any handheld and software combination you wish all but eliminating the final test stages where you would probably rather use hardware for verification. *************************************** http://www.blackberry.com/developers/downloads/simulators/index.shtml BlackBerry Email and MDS Services Simulator Package The BlackBerry email and MDS Services simulator package can emulate certain aspects of the BlackBerry Enterprise Server. When used in conjunction with a BlackBerry device simulator, users can simulate browsing web content, sending and receiving email or application data traffic. Using this simulator package can assist in application development and testing, and the package itself is ideal for training or for use in sales presentations. Have you tried using the simulators provided at BlackBerry’s Development website instead of having to swap hardware multiple times per day?

This way you could use the simulator to test the games on any handheld and software combination you wish all but eliminating the final test stages where you would probably rather use hardware for verification.

***************************************

http://www.blackberry.com/developers/downloads/simulators/index.shtml

BlackBerry Email and MDS Services Simulator Package

The BlackBerry email and MDS Services simulator package can emulate certain aspects of the BlackBerry Enterprise Server. When used in conjunction with a BlackBerry device simulator, users can simulate browsing web content, sending and receiving email or application data traffic. Using this simulator package can assist in application development and testing, and the package itself is ideal for training or for use in sales presentations.

]]> By: moog http://www.blackberrycool.com/2006/09/07/special-bacon-on-blackberry-the-curse-of-the-black-pearl/comment-page-1/#comment-45203 moog Thu, 07 Sep 2006 17:02:36 +0000 http://www.blackberrycool.com/2006/09/07/002252/#comment-45203 Irrelevant. As you said, 2G MiscroSD cards are cheap. If you have need for more than 1 card, you likley want more than 4G combined memory anyhow and will opt for an iPod. This is in a totlaly different market from the N-Gage with a completely different focus. Irrelevant. As you said, 2G MiscroSD cards are cheap. If you have need for more than 1 card, you likley want more than 4G combined memory anyhow and will opt for an iPod. This is in a totlaly different market from the N-Gage with a completely different focus.

]]> By: Thought http://www.blackberrycool.com/2006/09/07/special-bacon-on-blackberry-the-curse-of-the-black-pearl/comment-page-1/#comment-45202 Thought Thu, 07 Sep 2006 16:58:08 +0000 http://www.blackberrycool.com/2006/09/07/002252/#comment-45202 Minor bump in the road: the N-Gage was marketed as a gaming device/cell phone. The main feature differentiation was its ability to play games. Playing games requires more swap out of cards than other utilities. The Pearl is much more, and while it will be an inconvenience to swap out memory cards, that will occur less frequently for the average user than it would for a gamer. Most will be able to fit all they need on one memory card, and still have space left over. Sure, there will be power users that as you say, might want different cards for different types of music, but that will be a small percentage of the overall market. Most will load up a relative few songs, some pics, some files, etc. on one card and be happy with that. I've used a Treo as well as BB's, and I know that I thought that having the memory card slot on top would be so great because of the easy swapability. Yet I found out that I didn't need to swap out cards very much at all. One large capacity memory card was sufficient for me for 90% of the time. Minor bump in the road: the N-Gage was marketed as a gaming device/cell phone. The main feature differentiation was its ability to play games. Playing games requires more swap out of cards than other utilities.

The Pearl is much more, and while it will be an inconvenience to swap out memory cards, that will occur less frequently for the average user than it would for a gamer. Most will be able to fit all they need on one memory card, and still have space left over.

Sure, there will be power users that as you say, might want different cards for different types of music, but that will be a small percentage of the overall market.

Most will load up a relative few songs, some pics, some files, etc. on one card and be happy with that.

I’ve used a Treo as well as BB’s, and I know that I thought that having the memory card slot on top would be so great because of the easy swapability. Yet I found out that I didn’t need to swap out cards very much at all. One large capacity memory card was sufficient for me for 90% of the time.

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