In our first series of posts comparing the BlackBerry Storm 2 (Storm2) and the Storm 9530, we’re going to compare the relative typing experience.
I have been using a BlackBerry Storm for some time now, and while the typing experience is incredibly slow compared to something like the Bold, it’s not a fair comparison. A more fair comparison would be with the other touchscreen devices on the market.
Today is the first day of owning a BlackBerry Storm 2 and as with every BlackBerry, you can get apps preloaded, from App World, and from third party stores such as ours.
In general, carriers do a fairly bad job at preloading your device with applications that are useful. Alternatively, there are a ton of great apps in App World and elsewhere that anyone can download. So let’s take a look at the state of the apps for the Storm2 at launch. Click through to see what is available for the Storm2
Former BlackBerry Cool EIC Douglas Soltys sat down with BlackBerry Storm2 Product Manager Yasser Mirza, to talk about the device and what went into it.
It must have been a nerve racking experience to be the manager in charge of developing the follow-up to the Storm 1. Even though many users liked the device, it got some really bad Internet mojo and RIM really needed a good followup.
My favorite part of the interview is where Yasser talks about how fast he can type on his Storm2. “I can actually type faster than a QWERTY keypad BlackBerry smartphone. No joke! I’ve clocked in typing “the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” at 10 seconds, which is 60wpm.” Apparently RIM employees are always doing speed trials.
I have loaded the official OS 5.0.0.328 on my BlackBerry Storm 9530 and my themes are broken. There has been some buzz about this in the forums and I’ve tested the theory using an Elecite theme on my Verizon 9530.
What happens when you load a theme with the latest official OS 5 build, is very worrying. If you go into landscape mode from the homepage, and scroll, you get the dragging window effect (see the above screenshot). Also, some of the buttons in my theme, such as the “media” button, no longer work.
The Verizon BlackBerry Storm 2 is shipping tomorrow with OS 5.0.0.320 (according to the device I’m holding in my hands now) and now I’m worried the whole themes business is crushed for Storm users.
Stay tuned as we test this themes bug on the Storm 2.
The white BlackBerry Bold 9000 dummy units have arrived at Rogers and we’re expecting them to go on sale in the next couple of weeks. We’re being told that there are only about 20,000 units total for all of the Rogers network so if you want a limited edition BlackBerry, this might be the one to go for. Another pic of the Bold 9000 in white after the jump
It seems the economy is starting to pull itself back together as consumer buying plans are at record levels this holiday season. The three major smartphones being discussed this season are Apple’s iPhone 3GS, the Palm Pre and RIM’s latest (Storm2 and the 9700).
