Testing the BlackBerry Bold 9700 battery has been an interesting experience. I always thought consumer electronics manufacturers embellished their battery life expectancies in order to impress the buyer. In this case, RIM has actually slightly under-stated the Bold 9700’s battery life, and really proved themselves to be an honest company when it comes to their battery life marketing. Could we say the same for Apple? I challenge TIPB to do the same with the iPhone, and see if it can play 39 hours of music off radio and last 29 hours with heavy usage. Speaking of Apple…the BlackBerry Bold 9700 lasts longer than the best iPod.

Just look for yourself, the BlackBerry Bold 9700’s battery, lasts longer than that of the best iPod available.

In Part 1 of the BlackBerry Bold 9700 battery stress test, we threw RIM a bone and checked out the music playback with the wireless connections off. For the second part, it was important to test how long the battery would last given very heavy usage. During the 29 hours that the BlackBerry was on, it went through the following:

• About an hour of voice over 8 phone calls.
• 10 SMS messages received, 7 sent.
• 13 Tweets from UberTwitter, 9 of which contained a pic.
• Google Maps running the whole time and updating Latitude.
• About 8 hours of music streaming and playing via Bluetooth.
• Received about 30 emails and replied to around 15.
• The remaining time spent with all connections on and pulling data.

This is the first BlackBerry that I have been able to run more than 1 full day of usage without charging. There are definitely updates and optimizations made to the OS that make music playback more efficient, as well as general improvements to the device that make the battery last longer than any other BlackBerry. If you’re interested, I could do similar experiments with other BlackBerry smartphones. Anyone want to know about the Storm2 battery?

This BlackBerry test proves that the Bold 9700 has a killer battery.

Special thanks goes out to Slacker for white listing my account so it can be played in Canada. Now if only the lazy bureaucrats can get their act together, Canadians would have an awesome music device.

UPDATE: The Bold 9700 battery just died. The BlackBerry Cool official time is 19:22, exactly 29 hours. This is 29 hours while using the device heavily. Let’s see an iPhone do that!

UPDATE: 16:19 and 26 hours into the test, with 10% battery left. Part 2 of the test has sort of changed. It started off as a test of the music playback under more strenuous network conditions and has turned into a test of how long the battery will last under power user conditions. I’ve been playing music, tweeting, taking pics, using Google Maps, running several other apps simultaneously, making and taking calls and constantly pulling data from both Maps and Twitter. There was a break when I went to sleep but I left all the connections and apps running so it was still very much active.

UPDATE: 14:16, 24 hours into the test, and the battery is at 25%. Something I’ve noticed is that making calls depletes the battery much faster than anything else. I knew this intuitively but the test really made it obvious. Streaming music doesn’t seem to have much impact on battery life at all.

UPDATE: 10:40 went through the night and we’ve been back on WiFi, radio for a couple hours. At 30% and around 20 hours we’re definitely going a full day no problem.

UPDATE: It’s 02:29, 12 hours into the test. The batter reads 40% and I have been using a very decent amount of apps and data. Holding the BlackBerry Button, it shows the following apps: Messages, UberTwitter, Home Screen, BlackBerry Messenger, Media, Radio Companion, Setup Wizard (I switch devices a lot), Visual Voice Mail, Google Maps, Browser, Gmail and Phone. I’m going to give the updates a rest until around 8 AM.

UPDATE: It’s 23:11 and I have been out and about for the past 2 hours. During that time, I wasn’t listening to music but I was burning through data and the battery pretty fiercely. I was Tweeting pics, using Google Maps and calling friends. I’m not sure if this corrupts the test or anything, but I’m back at the office and on WiFi, streaming music on Bluetooth. At 55%, the battery is still going strong. We’re about 9 hours into the test.

UPDATE: 20:11 and the battery is at 65%. I’ve been using the device pretty intensely over the past 6 hours. On a normal day, I’ll probably use 20 minutes on headphones and the BlackBerry Media Gateway for 30 mins the odd time. So far, I’ve used about 5 hours of streaming Nobex on WiFi and Bluetooth, and another hour on radio and headphones.

UPDATE: The time is 18:14 and the status screen is telling me the battery is at 80%. By the looks of the meter, I would say it’s around 95%, but we’ll see. We are almost 4 hours on WiFi, taking in emails, BBM, and SMS, streaming music using Nobex and playing it via Bluetooth over the BlackBerry Media Gateway. Go baby go!

UPDATE: The time is 15:55, just over an hour into the test and the battery hasn’t budged, we’re still full bars. I’ve had a few BBM’s, and about 10 emails come in through WiFi, all the while streaming music using Nobex and playing it off the BlackBerry Media Gateway. Things might change if I leave the office and get off WiFi.

UPDATE: Okay we’re good to go. I have the Bold 9700, running all connections, using EDGE, roaming on the Rogers network and this bad boy is sucking in data like a Dyson vacuum. The time is 14:22 and we’re starting off on WiFi, at my office, listening to the Bold 9700 via Bluetooth on 7.1 surround sound. I know, it doesn’t make a difference that it’s 7.1 but it’s still cool. I also made sure to make the amplifier read Bold 9700. Oh yeah, and I’m running Nobex Radio Companion for the music because Pandora and Slacker figured out I’m Canadian. We’re full battery.

So it turns out the BlackBerry Bold 9700 can play music for up to 38 hours, as advertised (the BlackBerry Cool official time is just short of 39 hours).

It seems as though we tested the Bold 9700’s music playback in a similar way that RIM would test it. There might be a standard for such a test somewhere, and maybe the National Institute of Standards and Technology could comment.

Let’s get on to Part 2 because it’ll be much more interesting. Playing the Bold 9700 with the radio turned off is really throwing RIM a bone. It’s time to test the Bold 9700 under some decent Power User conditions. For Part 2 of “Stress Test: How long can the BlackBerry Bold 9700 play music?”, I’m going to use the device as a primary communication and music device. I think the following conditions would be cool:

• Radio On.
• WiFi On.
• American SIM and device roaming on Canadian Network.
• Streaming Slacker Radio during down time.
• Headphones On, Volume Full and Bass Boost On.
• When at office and home, connected via Bluetooth and playing to stereo (this is a personal shout-out to BlackBerry Cool Reader Caspan).
• Taking emails, calls and SMS.
• Taking advantage of GPS and maps when appropriate.
• I might even take a pic or two.

So take your guess, how long will the Bold 9700 play music under heavy usage conditions? Comment your predictions and we’ll see the discrepancy.

UPDATE: It’s dead! The BlackBerry Bold actually exceeded the marketing materials and died just short of the 39 hour benchmark.

UPDATE: It’s 1:12. There is 8% battery left and I used some extra juice to take a screenshot. Regardless, the BlackBerry Bold 9700 has been on for 36 hours and it seems like it will hit the 38 hour mark, as advertised, dead on. BlackBerry Cool reader Durbin007 deserves a hat tip.

UPDATE: 21:52. About 1/5th of the battery power left. The BlackBerry Bold 9700 has been playing music for 33 hours.

UPDATE: We are now almost 27 hours into the test and we still have 2/5 battery power.

UPDATE: We’re coming up to the 24hr mark and I have to say, this test is driving me slightly mental. If I were to design a new torture method, it would involve leaving loud music playing from headphones in the same room as someone for hours on end.

UPDATE: At 09:06 we’re about 21 hours into the test and the Bold 9700 is showing just a little over half battery. At this rate, it could be upwards of 45 hours to drain the battery completely.

UPDATE: It’s 20:32 EST, about 8 hours since we started and not even a single bar down. At this rate I won’t need to update until tomorrow.

UPDATE: It is 16:57 EST, a little more than 4 hours into it and we still haven’t gone through a full bar. Going to give it a while longer before another update.

UPDATE (14:26 EST): It has been 2 hours and we’re still running on full battery. This could take a long, long time.

So here’s the deal: The BlackBerry Bold 9700 has some battery optimizations that make it last so long it makes the Energizer Bunny look impotent. That, combined with some OS optimizations specifically tailored to the music player, means the Bold 9700 can play music for a long time.

But just how long can it play music on a single charge? Well I’m going to put this thing to the test. The test will involve 2 parts. The first part, will be playing music with the radio off and playing it directly from the SD Card. This will give us an idea of how long the battery will last, solely playing music without being interrupted by calls, emails and network searching. The second part of the experiment, will be playing the music from Slacker, to test the 9700’s ability to stream music while on the network. This will be an incredible strain on the battery but I have a feeling the Bold 9700 will surprise us.

So lets get started with Part 1 of How Long Will the Bold 9700 play music for?

Comment your predictions! Remember, the following conditions:

• Radio is off.
• Full battery charge.
• Full volume with headphones.
• No audio boost.
• No headset equalizer.
• Songs on continuous play so it won’t have any interruption.

The Bell Blackberry Bold 9700 has a new lock on it called the Service Provider (SP) lock. Both the original “Network” lock aka MEP2, and the new SP lock aka MEP4, are needed to unlock the Bell 9700 now. We’ve found 2 methods to do it and blogged about it on our site.

Through the eyes of a cell phone unlocker, it seems that RIM is always making an effort to tighten security on their new Blackberry devices. This time it has gone beyond RIM, with Bell and soon TELUS adding new locks on their Blackberry phones.

We like to call them “MEP4? locks instead the old MEP2 that we’ve grown so fond of. It has already been implemented on the Bell 9700 which has 2 locks – the network lock and the Service Provider (SP) lock. Unlock code developers, crackers and hackers are still in the process of developing a quick and “Instant” method for unlocking these MEP4 codes. Although we are able to unlock the Bell Blackberry Bold 9700, it’s interesting to see that RIM, Rogers and T-mobile are still using MEP2 codes for the Rogers Blackberry Bold 9700 and T-mobile Blackberry Bold 9700.

Perhaps Telus and Bell are doing this to protect their new HSDPA network? Or maybe they are passionate about retaining their clientele and keeping exclusivity of their handheld devices. Who knows? Regardless, we have discovered 2 methods to unlock the Bell Blackberry Bold 9700.

Method 1: Unlocking the Bell Blackberry Bold 9700 with IMEI & PIN#

Calculate the 2 unlock codes with just the IMEI and PIN #.

PROS:

• Can be calculated accurately within 24-72 hours.
• Incorrect IMEI and PIN submissions will result in a “Not Found” code instead of returning an incorrect code due to an incorrect IMEI submission.

CONS:

• Longer than normal process times.
• If your IMEI and PIN are not in the database, you will get a “Not Found” code even though everything was submitted properly.
• Very pricey compared to method 2.

Method 2: Unlocking the Bell Blackberry Bold 9700 with Blackberry Logger info:

Calculates the 2 unlock codes with a “Logger” that is read off of your phone with a third party program. This is the method we have adopted to unlock your Bell Blackberry Bold 9700.

PROS:

• Accurate codes are generated within 0-48 hours.
• A great way to accurately generate all the information from your Blackberry device to avoid errors in typing your IMEI.

CONS:

• Instant speeds are not available.
• Altered logs will create incorrect codes – do NOT alter when you send in your Bell 9700 logs.

The program to get your Blackberry log can be downloaded here. After getting your IMEI and MEP from the program, you can purchase your Bell Blackberry Bold 9700 unlock code. Simply enter the MEP under the “Model” section.

UPDATE: For those commenting, it’s not actually a virus/trojan. It’s a security feature called “Themida” which protects the software from being duplicated or taken apart. Certain Virus scanners say that its a trojan horse, but its nothing harmful whatsoever.

As the developer of one of the most popular business category apps on BlackBerry App World – “Call Time Tracker by momentem” – Terry has learned a lot about how to build a compelling app. In this article, he talks about how he spends his day, and there are some valuable lessons in this article for all app developers.

Terry writes:

After users download our app, they have to enter their email address to sign up for our free service. These days, most people are wary of doing that, so to overcome that our description on App World has to be sufficiently friendly and credible; the end result is that 70% of all downloads sign up for the service with a valid email address, which we believe is industry-leading.

The following day I send a welcome email to each new user, personally welcoming them and giving them tips and tricks on how to get up and running. OK, I don’t manually type them all, I use an email marketing package, but they are simple plain text emails, with no nasty trackable links, with my personal email address for them to reply to. People immediately feel they have a connection with our small company and they reply in large volumes. I am now addicted to receiving their emails every day.

I don’t push people away and ask them to fill in forms, they simply reply to my email and tell me what’s on their mind. They tell me what they like and don’t like, they tell me how they are using the app to make more money, and most importantly they tell me which features they would love to see added! I add the users to my database of “fans”, so that I can ask them later on to join beta tester groups and focus groups.

I also personally see every support request and every cancel form, so I feel the users’ pain as they work with our service. I personally follow up with as many support issues as I can, to ensure we have dealt with their request. They love that.

I literally spend 4 hours of every day engaging with our customers, and I can tell you that it’s the most valuable thing I could be spending my time on. I also spend time every day tracking our key metrics; downloads, sign-ups, the number of call tags being processed every day, email opt-outs, support issues, cancel reasons, and user demographics. I am constantly taking the pulse of our business which enables me to make fast and accurate decisions.

When we launched on App World, we found that the early adopters were eager to write in with enthusiastic praise. Then, as we moved into the early majority phase, they were far less engaged. So we had to change our techniques and we have now figured out how to get our new users to become equally excited over what we are delivering. Tweak the wording, measure the response, try something different, measure the response, over and over again, and because the app market is evolving the work is never done.

So, what has this time-consuming process of engaging with customers bought us?

• Our user reviews are among the best on App World and our average ranking is 4.5 out of 5; people write long useful reviews because they want to help me and because they feel an affinity to my company. Even if users are unhappy to begin with, we resolve their issues so they have no desire to bad-mouth us.
• Around 10% of all downloads are using our app on a daily basis, even months later, so we have proved that stickiness and loyalty can be earned.
• We all know how critical word of mouth is; many of the reviews say things like “I tell everyone I know about your great service” and many people have blogged avidly about us.
• We have learned so much about who our users are and how they use the app.

The fact that I spend 4 hours a day with customers is a nice problem to have. The acronym “AI” used to mean “artificial intelligence”, but based on what my team has learned in the past few months I think we are pioneers in the all-new world of “App Intelligence” !

I would be more than happy to receive emails from other developers on this subject …. and I will personally respond to them all

So far at the BlackBerry Developer Conference we have seen 3 games for the BlackBerry Storm2 using OpenGL. The first, Need for Speed Sprint by EA, was by far the most impressive. The game uses 10 years and millions of dollars behind EA’s 3D mobile graphics engine and it looks amazing on the Storm2. The others are by Concrete and Sega. Concrete is releasing PBA Bowling for the Storm2 and they have leveraged OpenGL to provide a slick-looking 3D bowling experience. Lastly, Sega gave a quick preview of Super Monkey Ball, which wasn’t demoed on the Storm2, but we were told to expect it.

So what other rich 3D games and content can we expect from the Storm2? Currently, there isn’t much but everything we’re seeing here at Dev Con is telling us that early to mid 2010 is when we can expect to see development take off. The problem lies in that having only one device with OpenGL support may not be enough to convince smaller developers to make great games that use these new features. It’s really easy for a huge company such as EA to make a 3D OpenGL game for the Storm2, regardless of whether the revenue will justify it.

Smaller companies like IUGO, that make incredible iPhone games, aren’t taking advantage of OpenGL for the Storm2, because it’s hard to justify the development costs. The new tools that RIM have announced at the BlackBerry Developer Conference are going to generally help development, but in the end we need more devices supporting OpenGL to make it worth it.

If you’re a Storm2 user and you’re looking for more games that use the features of the device, some larger companies such as EA will be around to satisfy your immediate needs, but early to mid 2010 is when this device is going to get really good.

So far we have seen:

RIM announce Adobe Flash support coming to BlackBerry

RIM announce OpenGL support and a host of rich content features

Since we have been talking consumer here at the Developer Conference, it’s impossible to not mention iPhone and competing platforms. With OpenGL support, multi-touch on the Storm2, as well as some new APIs that will help developers make more compelling content, there is a lot of pressure to not just “keep up with the Johnsons.”

The latest developments for the BlackBerry platform are going to help make apps more competitive with other consumer apps on the market, but BlackBerry is going to do them one better. Generally, BlackBerry is better for the the things you do 90% of the time, but it needs help when it comes to the things we do 10% of the time. This 10% includes rich 3D games, fun applications that drive hype over the platform, and “an app for everything” ecosystem.

So how exactly will RIM do them one better?

In-application transactions – While other platforms such as the iPhone already offer in-application transactions, RIM is going to incorporate carrier billing which could make the environment much more user friendly as well as lucrative for developers.

Now that RIM has announced they are offering an advertising service, we may start to see a wide range of free ad-supported applications. In conjunction with tools that make BlackBerry development easier, such as widgets, 2010 is going to see a big surge in app submissions for App World.

The BlackBerry Developer Conference has done a lot to give developers the tools they need to make apps that are more competitive with what other platforms can offer consumers. The BlackBerry platform has years of experience being a reliable and powerful platform for enterprise for years, and it’s the perfect foundation to build a great consumer experience. Expect big things to come from BlackBerry in 2010!

When we first posted impressions of the BlackBerry Curve 9700, we asked BlackBerry Cool readers what they would like to know about the device. We have taken some time to post more pictures of this device, and answer some of your questions.

Albert: Does the T-Mobile HSPA Bold support more than 1700 AWS band for 3G?

The BlackBerry Curve 9700 has the following network support:

• 3G (HSDPA) compatible
• UMTS: 2100/1900/850/800 MHz (Bands 1,2,5/6), 2100/1700/900 MHz (Bands 1,4,8)
• GSM: 1900/1800/900/850 MHz
• Quad-band support: GSM 850; GSM

Touchpro247: Turn the device on show some pics of the home screen. Show a pic of the about screen.

T-Mobile Curve: I’d appreciate info on the processor. Rumor has it that T-Mobile’s version will have the 8900’s processor, not the Bold’s. Thanks!

You should check out the Bold 9000 versus the Bold 9700 spec comparison sheet.

hassan: any one when it going to be released to the hole world ???? and if any one know how can i buy it with an unlocked virgin now and ship it to another country ?

This device is going to take a while to be released in countries outside of North America and Europe. We don’t have any details yet, but stay tuned.

canadian wireless hater: Does the browser still suck? How does it run with the 3G? Fast? And is the T-Mobile 9700’s 3G AWS or north american? Test shots with the camera please and thanks.

The browser is no different than any other browser running 5.0 software. It is basically the same browser as always, but with a little more support for different web content. I’m hard pressed to see any real differences.

Here is a picture taken with the Bold 9700. The camera is pretty decent at 3.2MP but nothing spectacular. It has a flash which really helps too.

Chris: What is the impression of the trackpad? Is it better navigating than with the trackball or even the trackwheel?

Check out the original post, it talks about the trackpad.

Ethan:
1) Battery. Does it use the same battery as the T-Mobile Curve 8900 (and original Verizon Storm)?

No it does not. As you can see from this pic, the battery looks like the Bold series batteries but according to the specs, it has been updated and gives much more talk time.

2) Charging. Still charge through the micro-USB port? (Thought I read somewhere that it’s back to a proprietary charger.)

Yes, RIM is still using micro-USB. It is now the industry standard and as far as I’m concerned, here to stay.

3) 3G. Any noticeable speed difference on T-Mobile, or does the browser’s crappiness make it irrelevant?

I notice that 3G helps when you’re browsing through YouTube videos and rich media content for sure. Also, if you download a lot of applications, you will really appreciate the 3G.

4) WiFi. Curve 8900 barely attaches to WiFi, presumably to save on battery life. New Bold any more aggressive about WiFi?

There are some issues regarding WiFi with BlackBerry devices and the fact that they turn it off to save battery life. Personally, I found it stayed connected to my WiFi signal loyally, but I will get back to this issue soon with something official from RIM.

5) UMA. Curve 8900 bad about switching between WiFi and Edge when on UMA. Any improvement when talking via UMA, especially when switching between WiFi and the T-Mobile network?

It took about 5 seconds for the device to log on to the WiFi connection and start up UMA. I have about 2 signal bars of UMA and the call quality is very decent.

Any more questions? Comment and we’ll answer!

The BlackBerry Bold 9700 is the latest update to the Bold series and it’s all the specs you would expect from a Bold device, slightly upgraded and in a smaller form factor. Like many of the devices we have been seeing from RIM lately, it is a hybrid device, combining the power of the Bold with the design of a Curve 8900.

The Bold 9700 from T-Mobile ships with OS 5.0.0.330, which is a welcomed update to the device. What is less positive about the launch is that the device doesn’t ship with the latest version of BlackBerry Messenger. The T-Mobile Bold 9700 ships with BlackBerry Messenger version 4.7.0 rather than 5.0 (this is based on the device I’m holding in my hand). Ideally, T-Mobile and RIM would have at least had a warning message of some sort that tells users where they can get the latest version of BBM.

Another preload on the T-Mobile Bold 9700 is the T-Mobile web browser called web2go. This preload really adds no value to the device and is likely related to some deal that T-Mobile signed independently of RIM. It’s a sub-par browser that isn’t even integrated into the native BlackBerry mail client. It would be great if T-Mobile stopped preloading these things and cluttering our homepage.

The Bold 9700 comes with a trackpad, which seems to be the new standard on BlackBerry devices. The trackpad makes navigation much smoother, and it will add to the shelf life of the device. No more cleaning your trackball or replacing it, the trackpad is here to stay.

As mentioned above, the Bold 9700 is reminiscent of the Curve 8900 form factor. While the keyboard is in the Bold style, with ergonomic and tightly packed keys, it is definitely closer to the 8900 in size. The Bold 9700 keyboard is quite tight and it seems as though this will be the defining feature of this BlackBerry. Users will either be attracted to the slim, tight, form factor, or they will look for a device with more breathing room such as the Tour or Bold 9000.

Overall, I would say this device is a great addition to the Bold product line, and you should ask yourself whether size matters. Personally, I don’t think the Bold 9000 needed to be smaller, but I know many users who didn’t like how it sat in their pocket. For those that want a smaller, more modern sized device, I know you’re going to love this BlackBerry.

Here are some quick points about the Bold 9700 to note:

• The Bold 9700 weighs 4.3 oz (122 grams) and is 4.3″ x 2.4″ x 0.55″ (109 mm x 60 mm x 14.1 mm).
• The screen is a 480 x 360 half-VGA+ display.
• Supports high-speed HSDPA networks for simultaneous voice and data usage, quick downloads and fast web browsing. Quad-band EDGE networks are also supported.
• Includes integrated GPS with photo geotagging support, plus built-in WiFi (802.11 b/g).
• Includes a microSD/SDHC memory card slot with a 2 GB card included (will support cards up to 32 GB), plus 256 MB of Flash memory.
• 3.2 MP camera able to record video, with flash, auto focus, image stabilization and digital zoom.

The Bold 9700 review is being compiled now, feel free to comment what you would like to see included in this review, and we’ll do our best to address your questions. Also, sorry about the lame pics. I took them with the Storm2 and they didn’t come out so good. I’ll have better pics soon.

Yes, the biggest improvement in the Storm 2 is the typing technology and the ease at which you can type on the touchscreen. Typing on the Storm 2 is a more reassuring feeling versus the 9530, and it is far easier than typing on other touchscreen devices such as the iPhone. Another huge improvement is the addition of WiFi.

But what about everything else? There are a host of small improvements on the Storm 2 that don’t get as much exposure but will provide you with a little added comfort.

The SIM card is easier to remove

The BlackBerry Storm2 has a little opening in the back of the SIM card slot that helps in removing your SIM card. On the Storm 9530, you had to use a technique involving pinching the top of your SIM card, pulling up slightly and pulling out. For someone who switches SIM cards a lot, this is a great little improvement.

The battery cover is easier to remove

Personally, I wasn’t elated about the battery cover on the Storm 9530/9500. The original Storm required you to lift two latches on either side of the battery door, and it wasn’t the most convenient system. The Storm 9550 has the same battery door opening as the Curve 8520, making it much more convenient to open.

There is a power button on the top

Where the original Storm had a lock button, it has been replaced with a power button. This is a nice change in that the button serves a dual purpose. It will put your device in lock/sleep mode and if you hold it down, your device will power off.

The convenience keys are rubberized

The new rubberized convenience keys have been showing up on all of RIM’s latest devices including the Curve 8520. Like the trackpad, this seems to give the device a longer shelf life and will go a long way to keeping your device pristine.

The Speaker is on the bottom of the device

If you do a lot of conference calling, or you enjoy putting people on speakerphone, you will really appreciate this new feature. Having the speaker on the bottom of the phone means you get much more clarity from your speakerphone conversations.

We’ll have more Storm2 content coming at you soon.

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.

Having used both devices for a while now, I thought I would put together a little video and some impressions about the relative typing experience on the Storm 9530 and the Storm2.

It’s obvious that the Storm 2 is a better typing experience, but by how much? In the above and below videos, I type the same sentence on both devices, not as any kind of proof, but just to give you an idea of how it feels. It’s this sensation and feeling of confidence that is the real difference between the devices. While the Storm 2, on average, seems faster, I would have to say that it’s the typing sensation, which is ultimately a feeling of confidence, that is the real difference.

Something that is very apparent in comparing the Storm2 with the 9530, is the huge typing improvement that comes with OS 5. With the latest software, the 9530’s typing experience is greatly improved due to RIM adding probability-based entry with advanced auto-correct. As you’re typing, you can get suggestions or change your settings to have the device auto-correct for you, making the typing experience much faster. With OS 5, there is much less separating the two devices in terms of typing experience.

As we all know, the Storm2 uses multi-touch which allows you to hold the alt key and press a number. The only problem is that while holding the alt key, you can’t really press the numbers beside it as effectively as you can press the numbers further from it. For example, holding the alt key means the numbers 3,6 and 9 are easy to press, but the number 7 is unresponsive.

Overall, I have to say that OS 5 has really closed the gap between devices in terms of typing. That being said, the improvements to the hardware such as the 3.25 inch, half-VGA glass display, makes the typing sensation much better. Typing on the 9530 has a bit too much give and the wiggle it does in the casing makes the typing experience a little off. But this has all changed with Storm2. The device is solid as a rock and after using it for some time, you’ll feel the difference.

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.

Preloaded: VZ Navigator by Verizon Wireless and Networks in Motion

Description: VZ Navigator is one of the few preloaded apps on a Verizon device that is actually very useful. The app takes a little while to find a GPS signal, but I find the delay to be pretty standard. One of the great things about this application being on the Storm2, is that the large, high resolution screen makes it easy to read maps. The speakerphone on the Storm2 is fairly loud too, which makes audio directions easy to follow.

Alternatives: In App World, Telenav is one of the best applications but sadly it’s not available for the BlackBerry Storm2. Personally, I would be happy sticking to VZ Navigator for the time being, until some of the other companies catch up.

Preloaded: V CAST Music by Rhapsody

Description: The V CAST Music app is one of many music applications that carriers load onto your device and it charges way too much for what it offers. If you want music on your device, just side load your personal library. It’s incredibly easy.

Alternatives: As for a third party music service, I would love to recommend the 7digital music service, but at the time of writing this, it is not available for the 9550. The App World product page lists it as available for the 9700, but no Storm2 love. Looks like you’re going to have to stick to side-loading.

UPDATE: It turns out that the 7Digital app is available for the Storm2, it just hasn’t worked its way out of App World’s web cache yet. So feel free to download this application as an alternative to V CAST.

Preloaded: V Cast Song ID

Description: V Cast Song ID tells you what you’re listening to. Just play the song for the app and it will analyze the song and search the database for a match. Personally, I found it rarely works.

Alternatives: Again, I would be happy to recommend Shazam, but at the time of writing this, it is also not available in App World for the Storm2 9550. Unless BlackBerry Cool readers can find something else, you’re out of luck.

Preloaded: VzwTones by RealNetworks

Description: VZW Tones, like V CAST music, is not giving you any value for money. Again, I’m not saying you should illegally download music and side load it, as cheap as that is, I’m saying there is a more economical way of getting ringtones.

Alternatives: This is one area where the BlackBerry Cool store actually offers some great applications for the Storm2. MP3 Ringtone Creator ($6.95) and Business Professional Ringtones are two examples. If you’re looking for mainstream artists, you’ll have to refer back to the V CAST Music alternatives.

Preloaded: The Sims 3 and Tetris

Description: Both of these games come preloaded on the Verizon Storm2 and they definitely aren’t the best games available. In what was probably a big cash deal, EA seems to have bought the exclusive rights to the gaming section, leaving no room for what are much better games.

Alternatives: Games available for the Storm2 in App World include Flight Path (FREE), Pixelated Plus ($2.99), and Parking Lot ($2.99). The BlackBerry Cool store has some great content as well. We sell Berry Wars ($1.99), Jewel Breaker ($1.49) and Nintaii, one of the few Storm specific games out there ($4.99)

Preloaded: Slacker Radio

Description: Like the VZ Navigator, it’s almost surprising when you find an application that you like come preloaded on a device. Slacker is a perfectly good radio player for the Storm2 and I would recommend trying it out.

Alternatives: Also worth considering is Nobex Radio Companion ($3.99). With over 4000 radio stations from around the world, it’s definitely worth trying.

Preloaded: City ID

Description: City ID is a very basic app that for free, will display the city and state for a number you enter. For $1.99 per month, City ID will display the City & State of an incoming call.

Alternatives: Ideally, you would download Poynt for the Storm2, but as of writing this article, it is not available. What is available for the Storm2 is Privus. For $5.99 per month, Privus gives you true caller ID. It’s more accurate than traditional caller ID as it gives you the name of those not in your Address Book.

Other apps that come preloaded on the device include:

• MySpace by RIM
• Yahoo! Messenger by RIM
• Google Talk by RIM
• AOL Instant Messenger by RIM
• Windows Live Messenger

As I have received this device just before launch, I can’t be 110% certain that my device looks exactly like yours, but I’m fairly positive. For example, I can’t be certain if it’s just my device, but it seems as though BlackBerry App World finally comes fully preloaded with the device. Before, App World was a web link, or totally non-existent.

Also, the Verizon BlackBerry Storm 9550 I have here did not come preloaded with BlackBerry Messenger. This is incredibly strange and it may just be the device I have on me. If you purchased the device today, let us know. Did it come with BBM?

UPDATE: I’ve just learned that while the review unit I’m using is using final software, there are a few apps that will be preloaded at retail that are not on my unit. They are:

Preloaded: Bing

Description: Bing is the search engine by Microsoft; the Ballmer answer to Google. In fact, Ballmer has even called Google out, saying: “We’re going to do things that surprise [Google], and they’re going to hustle to catch back up and copy us.” Bing is actually a pretty decent search tool, and it would have been nice to have this preloaded on the device to compare with Google.

Preloaded: V-Cast Video

Description: The V CAST Video service offers some semi-brands including the Comedy Network, Adult Swim, ABC News, ESPN, NBC etc. While the branding sounds good, the content itself is mediocre. The service costs $10 a month and you don’t get any full episodes of your favorite shows. Even though the Verizon website says you can watch full games, a Verizon rep told me today that this isn’t the full truth. You may get some games in full, but the vast majority are only in clip form.

Alternatives: At this point, there is really nothing better than YouTube. Until the major broadcasting companies see value in bringing full quality content to your device, we’re stuck with clips. If we’re going to be watching clips, just stick to YouTube, it’s free and probably has more clips than Verizon will ever have.

Preloaded: Visual Voicemail

Description: The Visual Voicemail application from Verizon is a welcomed feature. The service costs $2.99 (not positive on the price, their website isn’t the easiest to navigate), making it a decent add-on to your plan.

Alternatives: PhoneTag is a really good premium voicemail service. The voicemail gets transcribed and sent to your email inbox, making it an effective way to check and prioritize your mail. It’s much more expensive ($9.95 per month) than the Verizon Visual Voicemail, but it also provides a little more value.

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).

ChangeWave recently conducted a survey with a relatively small sample size, only 4,255 respondents, and from that they have extrapolated some data about the smartphone industry and buying patterns. Since the survey sample is so small, and we can’t be sure of how representative the sample is of the total North American market, we should obviously take these results with a grain of salt.

RIM’s current market share stands at 40%, which is slightly down from the previous survey. Apple has seen a tremendous gain in market share, but still lags behind RIM at 30%. The Palm Pre is relatively insignificant at 7%.

ChangeWave’s predictions for the next 90 days are based on what their respondents planned to purchase in the coming months. Thirty six percent of respondents said they will purchase an iPhone, and 27% said a BlackBerry. Again, Palm is fairly insignificant at only 8% saying they will purchase the Pre in the coming months.

The ChangeWave survey is probably off in terms of exact numbers, but it seems to touch on a fact: BlackBerry is losing market share to the iPhone, and churning out devices that aren’t bringing anything new to the industry. With all the smartphones that RIM manufacturers, it is doing a great job of saturating the market with enough devices to cover the wide spectrum of users, but they seem to have given up on creating something entirely new.

What is needed from RIM is a move forward, rather than sideways with their devices. I have heard Mike Lazaridis talk about how marketing kills innovation, and that is exactly what seems to be happening at his own company. The Bold 9700 isn’t innovation, it’s just marketing. You’re taking the same device and repackaging it. The same applies to the Tour 9630 and the Curve 8900. The only device that seems to have any innovation this year is the Storm 2, which has gone a long way to improving the way we type on a touchscreen device.

From a software perspective, RIM did a nice job with OS 5 and the recent implementation of widgets, but that may not be enough. The market is moving fast and with RIM eating an increasingly larger share of the consumer market, they’re going to have to start launching more software features that appeal to this demographic.

I have to say, Verizon made my day/weekend with their official BlackBerry Storm 9530 OS 5.0.0.328 update. While I am not using the latest OS build on a Verizon 9530 (actually TELUS), installing it on any 9530 is very easy.

If you’re a Verizon customer, you can simply grab the update from Verizon and install it like you would any OS. If you’re on another carrier, you have to remember to delete the vendor.xml file, allowing you to use the OS update for your carrier. You will find the XML file at:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Research In Motion\AppLoader

The first thing you will notice about this update is that the transitions between portrait and landscape have been improved. While the transition is still not perfect, it is definitely better. I personally really enjoy the use of scaled transitions between screens. It’s a subtle difference yet it makes everything easier on the eyes.

There are a host of cosmetic changes in OS 5. For example, lightly tapping an icon gives it a fading blue light, a small enhancement to the previous highlighting technique. Also, leaving your finger over a message subject or name, will now produce a light blue loading bar that will search for the respective field. Before, it was more of a sparkle wipe. Again, these are all very minor, but still something a BlackBerry enthusiast would notice.

There are also a few improvements in the way you make phone calls. You can now call someone much more easily from the SMS screen. Simply press the menu button and the call feature appears. You can also press the “call” button and a message screen pops up asking whether you would like to call the contact. The only thing RIM hasn’t implemented here is the ability to press the call button while not inside the message body. Pressing the call button in the SMS folder brings you to the dial screen. Much like pressing it on the homescreen.

While the load time for the device doesn’t seem to have improved, the loading bar has. Before, the loading bar seemed to jump, whereas now it seems much more gradual.

Storm users will particularly like that the camera is now blazing fast. There is almost zero delay when taking a picture. From the time you press the camera icon, to the time the picture is saved to your media card, is a matter of maybe 1.5 seconds. Before, it seemed this process would take around 3 seconds.

This isn’t the first time we have seen OS 5, as we have seen it on the Storm2 prerelease device we had in-house. There have also been a great number of OS 5 leaks circulating which give you a preview of what it will look like. In the end, it’s best to wait for the official release as it means all your third party apps will work smoothly, and you can be more certain it won’t brick your device.

The above impressions are more geared towards the 9530, but all BlackBerry devices running OS 5 will see improvements. You can expect the following to be rolled out on all BlackBerry devices before 2010:

• Threaded SMS.
• When sending pics, you can resize individual photos to 1024×768, 800×600 or 640×480 is given.
• Flag emails for follow up. You can even change the properties of your flag, with the ability to define colors and the priority.
• Calendar can now accept conference call information, allowing you to dial straight in.
• RIM has updated the Maps application to render around two times as fast as they did in the past. In addition to this, scrolling around and zooming in should no longer result in lagging.

Download OS 5.0.0.328 for your BlackBerry Storm 9530 today!

I have been using BlackBerry Messenger for some time now to organize projects around the office, and I have to say, it is providing some serious competition to my previous solution, Basecamp by 37signals. With the latest updates to BBM, the BlackBerry is an even better tool for SMB (Small to Medium Business).

While BBM doesn’t have all the functionality that Basecamp provides, it does address some core features and it is a solid platform on which to collaborate. Here is a quick guide to using BlackBerry Messenger to run your small business:

First, you need to set up your BlackBerry Group:

• Create a BlackBerry Messenger Group for your organization. Do this from the original BBM app.
• Make sure to use the coffee mug icon as it’s strictly business.
• Add all your employees to the group.

Now lets go through the Group Activities and see how each can help your small business stay organized:

Members
This is where you add all your employees. Make sure to add everyone.

Chat
This is a great place to discuss general business at the company. This is also where you can go to tell everyone to stop leaving garbage in the lunch room as “it’s a pain in the butt for Marina but NOT FOR THE RATS!”

Pictures
While I haven’t been using this too much, I have found it’s a good place for leaving screenshots. This is great for software companies as you can share screens of a beta, or inspiration screens from other products.

Lists
This is where the bulk of business gets done. From this menu, you can create lists based on projects within the organization and assign tasks within these lists. Tasks are called Items and can be assigned a priority, deadline and category. You can also discuss items in your lists. This is a great feature for having a general discussion about a particular project, or Item. An example would be:

Item: Create proposal to renovate office space and rent
Category: Planning
Assign To: John
Priority: Normal
Due: November 20th, 2009
Status: Pending

Comment: Posted by John: I think we should target artists for this particular space.

Calendar
No business is safe without an integrated calendar solution. Once all the lists have been created, set expectations in the calendar and mark important dates for the company. By sharing this with the group, you can ensure that everyone is on the same schedule and keeping pace.

As you can see, BBM provides an efficient way to communicate with your organization, while providing some key elements to running a business in this new economy. BBM makes for an efficient and flattened organization structure, which can go a long way to helping you run your small business.

What features would you like to see added to BlackBerry Groups?

The new BlackBerry Storm 2 9550 by Verizon is shaping up to be the BlackBerry touchscreen device we’ve all been waiting for. I remember back when Mike Lazaridis was taking criticism for the original Storm and his response was “sorry it was the number 3 selling smartphone in North America. I wish it could have been number 1.” Well this is the second time out the gate and they definitely have it right this time.

Will sales of the Storm 2 beat the original Storm? If the hardware is the deciding factor I would say yes. But what about all those who have bought the original Storm? How many will upgrade? How many new touchscreen BlackBerry users will this device convert? These are all questions that will have to wait to be answered until after the device launches, which we expect to happen in early November. Some are suggesting late October and this could also be true. We’re seeing a lot of leaks happening which means we are approaching launch date. Until then, lets take a look at the pre-release version of the Verizon BlackBerry Storm 2 aka 9550.

Something to keep in mind about this article is that it’s about a pre-release device. While the form factor will remain, it’s hard to say what will happen to the software. Also, it’s difficult to say what iteration of 9550 I have in my hands. I have heard rumors that the Storm 2 has gone through over 8 iterations as the RIM continually improves on the touch interface and the end user experience.

As previous leaks have mentioned, the latest BlackBerry Storm 9550 has some technology under the hood that makes for a much better typing experience. While the first BlackBerry Storm had a single contact point, the latest BlackBerry shows four contact points, dispersed equidistant to each other across the touch screen. It’s just speculation but this is largely what makes the typing experience so much better on the Storm 9550.

The touchscreen is really what you first fall in love with about the device. With my original Storm, it had a bit of a shake to it, and it felt a little loose in its casing. The BlackBerry Storm 9550 doesn’t have this in the slightest. The screen is a rock solid piece of glass, and pressing the screen really gives you a feeling of confidence.

As you can see from the pictures, the outside of the device has had some significant changes. The major change is obviously the Call, End, Return and Menu buttons are built into the screen, rather than being separated. While using our pre-release device, I found that at first the keys were slightly unresponsive, but a battery pull really helped. Because these buttons are now, and I’m assuming here, driven by software rather than physical keys, much of their stability and usability are dependent on your device’s performance. Again, this is one of the downsides of reviewing a pre-release device, you’re trying to comment on something that isn’t a finished product, so there’s really no telling if it will be like that when it launches. Other form factor changes include the side keys which are now rubber. This adds some durability to the device.

The typing experience is definitely improved on the BlackBerry Storm 2. Once you pick up the device and start typing, you can feel yourself getting to speeds that are closer to that of the QWERTY devices. It is really apparent that the new multi-contact point system means you can be pressing keys much faster and the device has no problem recognizing the letters. While I was making mistakes, it was a huge leap over the Storm 1.

When we first posted about the Storm 2, we asked BlackBerry Cool readers what they would like to know about the device, many readers asked questions that we simply can’t answer such as exact release dates and carriers, but there are a few we can address. Many readers wanted to know about the battery life. I really can’t say this battery is a huge improvement in any way over the original Storm. I was able to use the Storm 2 for an entire day without fully draining the battery, but any power user will tell you that regular battery charges are common for a BlackBerry.

The camera on the BlackBerry Storm 9550 is a standard BlackBerry camera. It’s a 3.2 megapixel camera, and the video quality seemed about the same. The pre-release Storm 2 I was using still had the camera lag that I experienced with the Storm 1, but it was slightly better. Camera lag is one of those issues that will certainly be addressed when the device officially launches, and being a software issue, I can’t say anything for certain about it given this isn’t the final version of the device.

The media player is slightly improved on the Storm 2 which is great considering this will be a device heavily marketed to the consumer space. If you use the speaker often, you’ll like the fact that the speaker is located at the bottom of the device, meaning you get better sound quality as it sits on your desk.

As you can see from the above picture, this device is using OS version 5.0.0.164. I can’t say for sure if this is the OS that the 9550 will have when it launches, but there are some decent improvements that I can see already. One of the most obvious changes is that the device finally has threaded text messaging. There are also some minor changes such as menu transitions and the overall responsiveness of the device has been improved. Switching from portrait to landscape was completely seamless and there was almost zero lag.

When RIM acquired Torch Mobile, it became official that they were developing a WebKit based browser and that we can expect a browser comparable to other smartphones such as the iPhone. It is really too bad that we aren’t getting that browser on this device, because the Storm 2 could have greatly benefited from it. While the browser was slightly better, it wasn’t anything spectacular. I really appreciated the ability to browse over WiFi, even though the device has 3G. As we mentioned before, the device now has multi-touch support, which is great for things such as copy and paste, but I was really hoping to be able to zoom in and out using two fingers as per the iPhone. Again, being a pre-release device, this may come when the device launches, but I doubt it. This sort of functionality will likely come with the WebKit browser that’s in development.

Overall, this device makes for a much more solid touchscreen smartphone experience. So many of the issues that I had with the Storm 1, which were all software related, have largely been addressed. What’s really positive is that this device isn’t even a finished product, and it already feels like a winner. Once we get closer to launch, we’ll see even more software improvements, which go a long way in making the end user experience better.

We’ll continue to post about the Storm 9550 and get around to answering more of your questions about the device. As we draw closer to launch, we’ll probably get our hands on an updated Storm 9550 which could prove to be even more solid than the one we’re using now.

Although it seems like an eternity, the BlackBerry Storm has only been for sale for almost a year.  RIM went back and reworked with mechanics of their touch screen and cooked up a new(er) operating system. 

Now, we at BlackBerryCool.com have gotten our hands on a pre-released 9550.  Yes, the screen rebound is much better, thanks to the shortened travel distance, and we’re enjoying the more responsive keyboard.  Both of these aspects have been significantly improved. 

Instead of writing a review of a pre-release device, we’d like to know what burning questions you have about the device.  We’ll work to answer them.  Again, considering that this is a pre-release device, there are still bugs, quirks and gremlins clearly running wild. 

So drop us a line on what you’d like to know and we’ll do our best to answer your questions!

RIM’s 2nd quarter fiscal 2010 financial results conference call began at the close of the markets, at 5pm, Thursday, September 24th, 2009.

Before we begin a breakdown of RIM’s 2nd quarter fiscal 2010 financial results, there are a few BlackBerry Cool articles worth reading:

Rearch in Motion’s 1st Quarter Fiscal 2010 conference call

Lessons for App World – Keep your Market Open For Developers

App Store Numbers are Deceptive – Beware of Bulk Apps RIM

Improving the App World Experience

RIM vs Carriers – Balsillie and Lazaridis Strategies to Push App World

The reason these links are important is because RIM talked a lot about how BlackBerry is becoming “mainstream.” This is because RIM is seeing a tremendous growth in the consumer market. It’s not that the enterprise market is shrinking, but that the consumer market growth is so large, it is basically overwhelming the enterprise market.

As per usual, Jim Balsillie took the call and updated investors on the 2nd quarter for the fiscal year ending 2010. Revenue was very strong at 3.5 billion, up 37% from last year.

This quarter saw 2 new smartphones introduced to the market, the BlackBerry Tour 9630 and the BlackBerry Curve 8520. While the Tour was an important addition to the BlackBerry lineup, it was not the focal point of the conference call. The BlackBerry Curve 8520 was the center of attention during this quarter’s report.

Net subscribers for the 2nd quarter were at the lower end due to the nature of the devices released. The Tour in particular is an upgrade device and not necessarily a device that brings new subscribers. The 8520, on the other hand, is the ultimate device for bringing in new BlackBerry subscribers. The device appeals to consumers as well as international users, due to the low price point. BIS users have steadily increased, and RIM’s customer base is seeing over 80% come from non-enterprise subscribers.

This doesn’t mean that RIM has forgotten about enterprise users. Keep in mind that enterprise is what provides RIM with a competitive advantage and while consumer may become a larger share of revenue, enterprise is still crucial to the brand. The BlackBerry MVS system as well as some upcoming enterprise features will help stimulate a steady growth in enterprise users.

One of the more interesting discussion points surround this conference call was the focus on the international component of RIM’s business. About 1/3 of RIM’s new subscribers were located outside of North America. With 9.2 million devices expected to ship in the 3rd quarter, this will likely come from North America as these devices are in the higher end of the price and feature spectrum. On the other hand, this figure of 9.2 million will become significantly increased in future quarters when RIM launches more low end devices that appeal to an international market.

ASP, or average sale price, is another focus of RIM’s conference call. Many of the investors who called in with questions wanted to know more about this. RIM continues to lower the ASP while marketing campaigns and great partnerships with carriers further lowers the cost of owning a BlackBerry. Jim Balsillie hinted towards some upcoming “integrated marketing campaigns” which sounds interesting, but is too vague to comment on.

As previously mentioned, the Curve 8520 was the focal point of this conference call. The Curve 8520 for GSM networks is the first with the touchpad and is the first BlackBerry to offer the standard BlackBerry services at a pricing point that is more “international.” In Europe and Latin America, the 8520 has seen incredible sales because its pricing point makes it competitive in local markets. Latin America has seen double digit growth!

The 8520 exposes the new face of RIM which is an international company. More so than any other quarter or year, RIM is seeing sales of BlackBerry devices all over the world. Countries such as Indonesia, Thailand, Venezuela and Mexico, are all purchasing the 8520, the affordable BlackBerry.

Not only is the 8520 exposing an international side of RIM, but it also brings to light the fact that RIM is becoming increasingly a consumer smartphone manufacturer. As the smarpthone industry progresses, we’re seeing the line blur between enterprise and consumer, and a device that has been traditionally meant for business users, is now a device for the average user.

Back to School promotions were very effective due to this shift. Back to School during this fiscal quarter have been the most successful yet. In France, 3 carriers had a special rate plan and a lower pricing point for the 8520, making it more attractive for a larger market. Students are a real opportunity within the consumer market, and RIM is reaping the rewards of this consumer/enterprise split.

We can all agree that a smartphone is nothing without a solid developer community. RIM knows this and has invested heavily in their developer community. It seems RIM believes web application development is the future of smartphone applications, and the developer community is being given tools and resources to help further this type of development. According to Jim, web application development brings together the best of Java and the best web development.

In terms of popular applications, social media is on top. BlackBerry users have downloaded over 20 million social network type applications including MySpace and Facebook. Second in line came radio applications such as Slacker and Pandora, which have seen over 7 million downloads.

The news about the Torch Mobile acquisition was minimal, and RIM only mentioned that the acquisition would be beneficial for developers and provide a platform that was on par with the market. Something that has not been mentioned, is that RIM has bought into the development of Webkit. By purchasing Torch Mobile, RIM now owns developers who are part of the core contributors to the open source technology that drives much of the smartphone web browsing technology. If they wanted to, RIM could leverage these contributors to insert code into the open source platform that was beneficial to the BlackBerry platform, but not necessarily to the other smarpthones. This is purely conjecture on the part of BlackBerryCool.com and was not part of the conference call.

We’ll bring you more on the questions posed after the RIM 2nd quarter fiscal 2010 conference call soon. Feel free to comment your thoughts and opinions about RIM’s situation in the 2nd quarter, and we’ll discuss.

The research behind iPhone and BlackBerry comparisons that is making its way into the mainstream media is almost always flawed. The media loves to talk about the prolific nature of the iPhone and how technologically advanced its users are, while almost implicitly ragging on BlackBerry.

A recent study claims that iPhone owners are much more likely to download apps and get involved with social networking than their BlackBerry-owning counterparts.

The study shows that about 72% of iPhone users are likely to have downloaded at least 10 third-party apps, but 73% of BlackBerry users have picked up five apps or less. The researchers add that iPhone owners are more willing to buy their apps than BlackBerry owners.

When it comes to downloading third party apps, this study failed to recognize that bulk apps, shouldn’t be recognized as multiple applications. They are essentially the same app, templated and replicated by changing a few small pieces of data. This is where RIM shines in that App World isn’t filled with the same amount of useless garbage.

With regards to social networking, the researchers found that roughly 71% of Apple users have a Facebook account versus 44% of BlackBerry users. Twitter follows a similar trend with 26% for iPhone versus 15% for BlackBerry.

Social networking discrepancies is a demographics issue, not a device issue as the research implies. While BlackBerry is moving its focus to the consumer market, it still has years of enterprise users behind it and this could be skewing the numbers. In the end, we all know that the BlackBerry is an incredibly powerful social networking tool. Whether or not the older BlackBerry demographic is using these services is another matter.

One element of the research that I find particularly flawed, is the research that says 83 percent of users prefer apps that cost below $5. This is a consistent mistake that researchers make. They think that just because you have asked someone what they want to pay for something, that that information is somehow valuable. The truth is that everyone wants to pay the minimum, and if possible, get it for free. The reality of the situation is that if your app is well designed and provides a tangible benefit to the user, the $5 benchmark is meaningless. Just look at TetherBerry, it’s a $50 application that is one of Mobihand’s best sellers.

Yesterday’s article had a great response from BlackBerry Cool readers, and it’s important to follow up with some points to consider. Special thanks goes out to Peter Werry from Multiplied Media for help with the article.

On RIM and the Consumer Space

It’s important to note that the consumer space is getting an incredible amount of internal focus at RIM. This is evidenced by the fact that RIM refer to themselves as “BlackBerry” rather than “RIM” at trade shows, they release numerous updates for App World, and they have expanded the BlackBerry Developer Conference to almost twice what it was last year. Last quarter alone, we saw RIM nearly double their total sales in the consumer space. All signs are pointing towards the consumer space being a key market for the smartphone industry and RIM isn’t about to ignore it.

On Security and the BlackBerry Browser

In everything they do, RIM never forgets that security and reliability are the key to a successful enterprise product. However, just because there needs to be a focus on those two features doesn’t necessarily mean the browser and other aspects of the device have to suffer.

RIM has made public comments about their intentions to improve the browser. TD recently released a speculative report on the subject as well. While security and reliability no doubt remain a key focus of the platform, RIM has made obvious moves towards improving their browser and making it more consumer focused. This is evidenced by their acquisition of Torch Mobile for their WebKit software. We could all agree that RIM’s browser tends to fall short in the consumer world, and we can be fairly confident they will be able to bring it to a level that will make them an industry leader in the mobile browser space once again.

On the Issue of WiFi and Pricing

In yesterday’s article, it was suggested that WiFi is left out as a feature on some devices in order to allow for price flexibility. The truth is that it can actually become more costly for RIM to create two versions of a device, one with and one without WiFi. This is because of the costs associated with developing for different hardware configurations, and the administrative costs of treating them as separate entities. The decisions to go with or without WiFi are mainly driven by the carrier. Generally, RIM is very constrained by carrier demands.

On the Topic of App World

A few BlackBerry Cool readers have been very adamant that App World has essentially been a development disaster. The theory is that management got freaked out that they were missing some huge opportunities for growth and they pushed the application to release before it was ready. RIM has done a good job of upgrading App World to fix the bugs, but much of this should have been happening before launch.

The question for the future is: will RIM step up its game as it has been doing so far to meet the consumer market demands?

RIM may have to essentially re-write most of their key components, and expose much more of the device capabilities to 3rd party developers. Eventually, it’s all going to come down to which device has the best apps, the best network, and the best device capabilities. Look to the first quarter of next year to see if RIM will continue to lead.

Wired recently published an article entitled “5 Things RIM Needs to Fix in its BlackBerries[sic].” The article is a great read, but I’d like to address a few issues with what Wired thinks RIM needs to improve.

The article goes on to highlight the following 5 areas where RIM needs to improve:

• Browser
• Touchscreen
• App Store
• WiFi
• Desktop Software

Overall, I’m going to wholeheartedly agree with the list. RIM can always be improving every aspect of the BlackBerry platform and the company has plans that extend well beyond our current gripes.

Generally, the article missed out on explaining how RIM came to lack the features requested in the article, and how they must go about improving the situation.

It’s always important to note that the BlackBerry platform wasn’t founded on being a consumer device. RIM fell into the consumer market almost by accident. As more consumers adopt the device, the company is now faced with satisfying two, almost mutually exclusive markets.

Take for example the browser; highlighted in the article as being something sub-par and needing improvement. You can’t disagree with this but again, why are we here? The BlackBerry platform has always been focused on delivering totally secure communication for enterprise, and the browser was secondary to this focus. While it’s possible to update this browser and offer more functionality such as the ability to download files from the browser, there is a lot to take into consideration, not just the user experience. With each feature addition, you have to asses the security risks associated with said feature because it’s paramount to the brand.

The same argument applies to many of the other items on the list. App World, the touchscreen interface and the desktop software are all features of the BlackBerry platform that are lacking from a consumer perspective. But again, we’re moving from enterprise to consumers and the enterprise is still the most important market. Do you think government organizations with 50,000+ BlackBerry devices and an IT administration department controlling device policies care about a multitouch Storm? No, they care about a secure smartphone platform, and in this respect RIM is the best in the industry.

Another issue the article mentions is WiFi. The author asks: “why doesn’t the company have Wi-Fi in all its devices?” While there are probably a lot of reasons why, two come to mind and I’m surprised the author didn’t point them out.

1) Price: Offering WiFi significantly changes the price point of a device and RIM needs to be able to offer a wide range of prices to satisfy various markets. This is why the Curve is the number 1 selling smartphone in North America. The device comes in many iterations with varying prices for every type of user.

2) Carrier relations: When the user is on WiFi they aren’t burning through data and when they aren’t burning through data they aren’t spending more money. There are clearly deals going on at the executive level to stop certain devices from having WiFi because it’s good business for the carrier. You have to play ball with the carriers to get your product out there.

Overall, the article was great but writers are quick to forget where RIM is coming from, and where their allegiance lies. The consumer market is new to them and rest assured they’re getting there, but enterprise is what made this product great and they aren’t about to compromise the founding principles of the platform.

Read the Wired article for yourself.

So it seems as though 2009 will be the year of the upgrades. The following devices are rumored to hit shelves before 2010:

• The BlackBerry Onyx aka Bold 9700
• The BlackBerry Storm 2 9520
• The BlackBerry Essex
• The BlackBerry “Striker” 9100 (rumor probably has the codename wrong)

Lets take a quick look at each device, so you can see why 2009 should be dubbed “The Year of the Upgrades.” While these devices haven’t launched yet, and nothing is final, there are a variety of features that I would like to see ship with these devices, to truly add a great leap forward element for the device.

The BlackBerry Bold 9700

The BlackBerry Bold 9700 is essentially the Bold 2. It’s a slightly improved version of the Bold spec wise, but also in form factor. The Bold 9000, while it is in my opinion the flagship device of RIM, is a little bulky for today’s standards. The Bold 9700 addresses this and packs everything into a smaller form factor with minor improvements. Like all the devices I’ll describe, they are really great additions to the RIM product line, but we’re not seeing anything too revolutionary. I would definitely recommend this device to a Bold owner, but I would also like to see RIM raise the bar just a little higher.

My recommendation: For each device, add a feature that appeals to the target market of that device. The Bold 9700 is clearly aimed at the enterprise market, and therefore I would love to see the device ship with a feature that would appeal to the CEO and VP level users. This feature should have been a front facing camera. A CEO should be able to have a video conference with employees or clients on the go and a front facing camera would enable this. In general, a CEO on a BlackBerry 9700 should feel ahead of the competition and have access to a mobile office.

The BlackBerry Storm 2 9520

The BlackBerry Storm 2 is a huge improvement on the BlackBerry Storm 1. The device is faster, more responsive and the new touch interface makes typing much easier. Also, the multi-touch functionality adds a lot of potential for developers. That being said, it isn’t a huge jump from the Storm 1. Users who purchased the Storm 1 when it first launched, should have been purchasing what will be the Storm 2.

What it should have shipped with? OpenGl support. The Storm 2 is the ultimate consumer device and consumer apps are going to get bigger and graphically more intense. With a OpenGL support, developers can create new and innovative applications as well as creative user interfaces.

The BlackBerry Essex

The BlackBerry Essex is the Tour 2. The updates to the Tour include WiFi as well as a Curve series style keyboard. Again, this device is a great addition to the product line, but it could have shipped with a feature designed to really drive sales.

The Tour is a World Phone and a consumer device. The target market for this device is therefore somebody who loves rich media on their device, but also travels a lot. The recommended feature for this device is therefore an internal compass. While a BlackBerry has the ability to calculate True North using GPS, you have to have certain inputs in order to do so. With direction, longitude and latitude, you can calculate True North, but this creates some barriers for developers. An internal compass would allow for augmented reality applications, which would come in handy for the traveling consumer.

The BlackBerry 9100 “Striker”

While nothing is really known about the 9100, we’re expecting updates shortly. We do know that this will be the updated BlackBerry Pearl and I can bet you that, like all these other devices, it will be slightly upgraded in terms of performance as well as form factor, but nothing to really brag about.

While I can’t be certain because again, this device hasn’t surfaced, I can guess that it won’t have a tremendously better camera. This is the recommended feature for a BlackBerry Pearl user. A Pearl user target market is a consumer who likes a small and compact form factor. This user would benefit tremendously from a really nice camera and video setup. A camera setup much like the N97 would be a welcomed feature. The Pearl 9100 would ideally come with a 5 MP, 2592×1944 pixels, Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus, LED flash, video light and VGA at 30fps.

So there you have it. All the devices we will see in 2009 are updates of previous versions without anything absolutely major included. The above are my recommendations for features that would really drive home the launch of each device and get the community excited. Again, while none of these devices have launched and things can and likely will change come launch date, I seriously doubt anything I’ve mentioned will be coming soon.

The developer community around the iPhone is fairly different from that of the BlackBerry developer community in that iPhone developers have OpenGL at their disposal, allowing them to create visually rich applications, as well as as the marketplace and demographics are slightly different. While the BlackBerry Storm is capable of running OpenGL hardware-wise, we have yet to see the API’s unlocked.

Lets assume for a moment, and this might be a crazy assumption, that BlackBerry had OpenGL API’s (possibly with the Storm 2?), and that any iPhone app you see could be ported to BlackBerry. For this to be true, we would also need to see device memory increase, as well as perhaps a built-in compass.

With those assumptions, and there may be a few more, what applications have you seen for iPhone, that you would like for BlackBerry? Or rather, what are your favorite iPhone apps that aren’t available for BlackBerry?

Here are some that I would like to see, and they’re mostly for entertainment. I’m sure there are a ton of apps out there in various categories so share what you find.

Birdhouse
“Ever think of something for your Twitter that you don’t want to post right away? Birdhouse is the perfect place to put it.”

OldBooth
“Have you ever wondered what you’d have looked like in another era? How about your friends? Be a lady from 20s or a funky hairy hippie. Now you can turn into in the fastest way ever.”

Yelp Augmented Reality Easter Egg feature
“Download the new Yelp app (came out yesterday). So you shake your iPhone 3 times. That activates a feature called Monocle. A message should come up if you activated it. A blue box will come up saying “the Monocle has been activated.” It will create a button in the top right corner. Now you should be able to look at the bars, restaurants, etc. Only works on iPhone 3GS.”

Ocarina
“Ocarina is the first true musical instrument created for the iPhone. Both experts and beginners will be amazed by this innovative player. Ocarina is sensitive to your breath, touch and movements, making it even more versatile than the original.”

TapTapRevenge
“Tap Tap Revenge is a rhythm game similar in concept to games like Phase for the iPod, or the console titles FreQuency and Amplitude, all developed by Harmonix, which also makes Guitar Hero and Rock Band.”

Google Earth
“Hold the world in the palm of your hand. With Google Earth for iPhone and iPod touch, you can fly to far corners of the planet with just the swipe of a finger.”

Crayon Physics
“Crayon Physics is a 2D physics puzzle / sandbox game, in which you get to experience what it would be like if your drawings would be magically transformed into real physical objects.”

iEmoji
The Japanese are really into Emoji and it’s a fun way to make your SMS and BBM messages more fun. With iEmoji for BlackBerry, you would have access to a much broader range of cartoons to express yourself with.

Real Racing
“This new racing game is looking to add even more content to the racing genre for the iPhone and does this wonderfully.”

MouthOff
“MouthOff is a simple mouth simulation app for the iPhone. The idea behind the app is to provide a silly way to express yourself.”

Here at BlackBerry Cool, we have had our share of pre-release BlackBerry devices in the office. While it’s fun to play with the device and get an idea of the form factor, the software hasn’t been through the requisite testing and is usually very buggy. The OS is generally outdated and overall, it’s a very limited version of what you will get when the device comes to market.

A company on eBay is currently offering two pre-release BlackBerry devices: the BlackBerry Storm 2 and the BlackBerry Bold 9700 (listed as the BlackBerry Onyx).

The above image is a screencap of the BlackBerry Bold 9700 listing and it shows just how ridiculous this listing is. The image shows the 9700 with a trackball. We know the device will be shipping with a trackpad and if you were to purchase this device you would be seriously missing out. Currently, the item’s highest bid is at US $1,625.00.

The BlackBerry Storm 2 is currently bidding at US $1,125.00 and it’s looking like it might be a scam. While the seller has a great seller’s rating, the item uses a picture from Engadget. The only other image attached to the auction looks like a mess of wires. If the user was serious about this sale, you would think they would take the time to post a proper picture as in the case of the 9700 listing. Again, with this purchase you are going to miss out on what could be a great device. A touchscreen BlackBerry such as the Storm 2 will have to go through an incredibly rigorous testing period as the accelerometer and new UI adds more levels of complexity. Buying this device before it’s ready for market will be a complete waste of your hard earned money.

I’m not even going to link to the eBay auction out of principle.

Recently, RIM acquired Torch Mobile in a move that made their plans to update the native BlackBerry Browser public. This is leaving BlackBerry users wondering how third party browsers such as Opera, will compete.

Dennis Bournique of WAPReview has some great insight into this acquisition and what it means for Opera. While it is great that BlackBerry will be updating their browser, there is always room for improvement and this is where third party browsers such as Opera Mini will always be complementary to the BlackBerry platform.

First of all, Opera has consistently built what I consider to be better mobile browsers than any of the Webkit implementations. For example, I have never seen a Webkit based mobile browser where the cache worked properly, pressing the “Back” button always seems to reload the page, wasting time and network resources. The Webkit based browsers I have used also generally did not have a fit to width option and dedicated page up and page down keys, features that are standard on Opera browsers and are critical to browsing effectively on mobile. Opera mobile browsers also tend to be faster than Webkit based ones. Opera Turbo, which combines the speed of server assisted browsing with the security of the end to end encryption provided by direct browsing, will raise the bar even higher. I expect that Opera will continue to offer better alternative browsers on all platforms and by doing so will be able to monetize the various Opera products effectively with sales and search engine deals.

I highly recommend reading WAPReview’s take on the Torch Mobile acquisition.

Recently, we learned that the Rogers HUP was going to extend to all devices, and not just smartphones. Our friend RogersDude69 has broken down a brief history of how the Rogers HUP has become increasingly stringent and is making it really difficult to get a new device.

When will the madness end? Rogers needs to realize that having customers upgrade their devices will mean bigger bills and more money for them in the end. Also, as a general note for doing business, you should never tell your customer that they can’t buy the product. Make concessions and get the product in the customer’s hand. Here is a little history of how the HUP is quickly becoming obsolete:

2006-2007

• You had to wait 2 years to upgrade. 
• You could ‘upgrade early’ and pay 10 dollars per month until you reached 24 months.
• Prices for phones for existing customers were slightly similar to old customers.

Example:
Situation: A customer wanting to upgrade to a BlackBerry Bold 9000 from an old BlackBerry 8310 that he has had for 14 months.
Result: The customer would pay $299.99 (new customer rate, 3 year renewal cost) plus $100 early upgrade fee.

2007-2009

• You had to wait at least 1 year, and the price of the phone was on a tiered system. The tiered system works in that if you pay Rogers more money, you get a better discount.
• Customers who were paying Rogers $1201 before tax on the their wireless bill only, would get the best discounts. This figure was an internal-only dollar amount that reps would check to see if they could give the customer a deal on their upgrade.

Example:
Situation: A customer wanting to upgrade to a BlackBerry Bold 9000 from his old BlackBerry 8310 that he has had for 14 months.
Result: He would pay $299.99 (new customer rate, 3 year renewal cost). He would have to pay more if his bills were less than $100 a month, and therefore not making the $1201 benchmark figure. I think we can all agree that this is unlikely for a BlackBerry user, as we spend the most on our bills.

Feb 2009 – August 21 2009  (smartphone customer change)
Situation: A customer wanting to get a BlackBerry Bold 9000 from his old BlackBerry 8310 he had 14 months ago.
Result: He wouldn’t be able to, and would have to purchase the phone outright for $649.99

August 21 2009

• All customers now must wait 2 years before getting a new handset.
• No Early Upgrade fees can be applied.

What does this mean?

Customers won’t be able to get new phones for 24 months. In this industry, customers generally replace their devices every 18 months, so Rogers is going to have an incredibly difficult time with customers until the rules are changed.

Most likely, Rogers will implement a new Early Upgrade fee, to be applied in the coming weeks. Rogers doesn’t have any commitments with their upgrade program, because it’s not on their contract that you sign. On the other hand, customer sales reps have been promising their new subscribers a new phone ever year, which is simply a lie.

Things are getting pretty heated between Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk and Jim Balsillie.

Recently, Balsillie was rejected as a potential owner of the Phoenix Coyotes by the league’s governors because he was deemed to be lacking “good character and integrity.” Jim responded by suggesting in a document filed to the bankruptcy court that “the NHL has long tolerated indicted and even convicted criminals among its ranks.”

The Melnyk and Balsillie trouble started when Balsillie singled out Melnyk, who was fined $1-million for alleged violations of the Canadian Securities Act and ordered to step down as director of his company, Biovail, for one year. Sound familiar?

Both Mr. Melnyk and NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly fired back at Mr. Balsillie. “I have watched with some dismay Jim Balsillie’s fall from being a deserving business icon to what now appears to be a desperate man willing to say anything or do anything to buy an NHL franchise,” Mr. Melnyk said in a release.

“In a recent legal filing, he dragged me into his hurricane of legal filings and panicked pleas and cited me as someone who is lacking the personal integrity to own the Ottawa Senators hockey franchise. I’ve tried to reach Jim through his office to find out why he would say something like this about me — we barely know each other– but I’ve received no response.”

“I will say in response publicly that his willingness to drag down anyone he can get his hands on along with him is discouraging and saddens me. Jim and I both found great success in our Canadian businesses. And that is where the comparisons stop.”

Balsillie also took aim at Bruce McNall, owner of the LA Kings, who was sentenced to almost six years in prison for defrauding several banks of more than US$236-million.

While it may be a good strategy to point out the inconsistencies in what the NHL is saying, it’s my personal opinion that Balsillie should have simply focused on the good he does, rather than the bad things others have done. Balsillie has a plethora of ventures that are indicative of a businessman with character and who invests in the country and institutions that brought him success. Here are just a few from his Wiki:

• In 2000, Balsillie provided $10 million of personal funds towards the founding of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, adding to the $100 million already contributed by fellow RIM executive Mike Lazaridis.
• In 2002, Balsillie founded the Centre for International Governance Innovation with $30 million of personal funds.
• In 2007, Balsillie donated $50 million to the University of Waterloo, Wilfrid Laurier University and the Centre for International Governance Innovation as part of a $100 million initiative to create the Balsillie School of International Affairs.

Sure, Balsillie has made some aggressive business moves and does leverage the media to get what he wants, but none of this suggests a man who lacks character.

[Via]

BGR is saying that it’s pretty much confirmed: Research In Motion is planning on integrating full Flash and Microsoft Silverlight support into their BlackBerry web browser.

Simon Sage was good enough to point out that around 6 months ago Mike Kirkup confirmed Flash would find its way to BlackBerry sooner or later and while it’s interesting that Silverlight will be part of the equation, the idea that Flash will come to BlackBerry in around a year can be easily deduced from simply keeping up with the industry.

The news is likely based on an inside tip relating to the known fact that RIM is planning on updating its BlackBerry Browser in order to be more competitive with the other smartphones in the market. This is common knowledge as anyone following the industry knows that BlackBerry gets a lot of criticism for not producing a browser experience on par with the likes of iPhone. If you hear the Internet complaining about a BlackBerry feature, rest assured the 10,000 employees at RIM have heard and are working on it.

While it’s nice to get affirmation that RIM is planning on updating its browser, the following could just as easily be deduced:

1. It’s pretty much confirmed that RIM will be launching a device with more than 1GB of on-board memory.
2. It’s pretty much confirmed that RIM is working on a new media player for future consumer devices.
3. It’s pretty much confirmed that the next generation BlackBerry processors will exceed 1GHz.

On a related note, Skyfire should be coming out with a beta before any of this can be confirmed. BlackBerry users should be able to enjoy Flash well before RIM updates the browser.

Regardless of how you may feel about the iPhone as a productivity or enterprise tool, it has done wonders for encouraging mobile software consumption and educating users about what is available to them.

Analysts are saying that the mobile games industry grew in North America by nearly 19 per cent in 2008, and PriceWaterhouseCoopers projects the market will grow from $858 million in 2008 to $1.3 billion in 2013.

Developers are having great success with mobile gaming in the App Store, but BlackBerry App World isn’t seeing the numbers just yet. Companies like Top Hat Monocle, are seeing excellent download rates in the App Store on their casual games such as Hopple, which has been downloaded more than 80,000 times.

So why doesn’t BlackBerry App World see similar success? Two factors stand out: hardware and marketing.

Hardware – A touchscreen has proven itself to be the best interface for mobile gaming. It lends itself to creative casual games that are easy to play and have a short learning curve. For a new market such as mobile gaming, this simplicity is really key to a fun user experience. For BlackBerry, we only have the BlackBerry Storm, and very few developers are making Storm exclusive games that take advantage of the touch interface and accelerometer. BlackBerry needs more developers such as Nickel Buddy, who are ready to go out and make a good Storm game. Side note – this game is available for trackball devices, but it was originally developed for the Storm and then ported to trackball. Most developers will work the other way because the revenue potential is much greater for trackball devices.

Another element of the hardware that needs to be improved for the gaming market is the amount of available on-board memory. Some iPhone games are exceeding 100MB and delivering stunning graphics and console-like play. Until the BlackBerry gets more on-board memory, we probably won’t see a game of this caliber.

Marketing – The most memorable BlackBerry Storm ad, involves showcasing all of the consumer features available with the Storm. The ad goes on to describe the social networking features, camera, video etc. and it doesn’t even mention gaming. This is compared to a popular iPod advertisement that prominently displays the gaming capabilities of the device and how fun the device can be. While the ad is for an iPod, everybody knows that the functionality is also embedded in the iPhone. RIM could have really helped the gaming industry by showcasing that a BlackBerry isn’t just a productivity device, but that it can be fun too.

Another element of marketing that can be improved is directly related to App World itself. On an individual title basis, it’s very difficult for a company to differentiate their title and gain exposure. There’s so much in there (and for free) that any one game isn’t going to sell exceptionally well. Moreover, the performance is greatly affected by what RIM decides to put in the featured titles list. It isn’t clear how one goes about getting in the coveted carousel, but it can make or break an app’s success. On top of this, while it may not be directly a marketing issue, having only the one payment option, PayPal, immediately limits your consumer base. As soon as they incorporate credit card and direct billing we should see a huge increase in sales.

While gaming is often ignored in the BlackBerry space, it’s a growing market that deserves more attention. BlackBerry games don’t have to be simple card games or Tetris-style puzzles, they can be engrossing, full featured, console-style games. The device is powerful enough to do it.

Have you bought a BlackBerry game that you like? Comment and share!

Recently, we posted an article about the “The BlackBerry Curve 8520 setup guide and tips and tricks”. One user responded saying:

“I’m the target audience for this post, never having used a Blackberry or any sort of smartphone, so this has all been very helpful. I’ve been really impressed with the Curve so far; despite this being unfamiliar territory for me, everything has been intuitive and easy to use.” (Head over to the article to read the full comment.)

We decided to follow up with this user and interview them about their first BlackBerry.

BlackBerry Cool: What your mobile life like before BlackBerry? What phones did you own that you liked and what has cell phone use meant to you up until now?
Matt: BlackBerry is the first smartphone I’ve used, prior to that I was using simple Nokia and Motorola phones several years old or more, so pretty much the only function I was using them for was simply as a phone.  I can’t say that I particularly liked any of them more than any other because what I expected from them was so basic.  Basically a cell phone for me was just that–a phone I could take around with me, and nothing more. 

BBC: So I see your first impressions are that you like the productivity element of BlackBerry, how has this impacted your life?
Matt: I’m the sort of person who’s always writing to-do lists, trying to mentally organize all the things I need to do, and striving to make the most out of my time.  So naturally the included PDA-style functions like the calendar and notifications are really helpful for me.  Beyond that, I’ve been filling up what used to be downtime doing things like cooking or walking my dog by doing something productive on my BlackBerry–responding to emails, paying my bills, jotting down some notes, or catching up on news.  I don’t usually spend much time on my computer, and when I do I often tend to avoid doing some of the things I know I should be. Now that I’m connected to my mailbox and the internet, all the time, I find I’m being way more proactive and timely when responding to emails and the like.  

BBC: What made you want to get a BlackBerry?
Matt: I have some friends who are obsessed with their BlackBerrys and rave about them to anyone who will listen, so I was already curious.  That combined with the reasonable price point made it a sure thing. 

BBC: How did you find the setup process? What was relatively easy or difficult about it?
Matt: It was really intuitive.  I never needed to glance at the manual, which was great.  I get really frustrated with bad UI/software, and thankfully there’s never been a moment I’ve wanted to throw the BlackBerry at the wall.  On the contrary, I’ve been consistently impressed with how fast and easy it is to get going with any app or function on the phone.  The phone almost always knows what I want to do, I hit the BlackBerry button and usually the option I want is already selected for me.  It’s really been a breeze, which is saying a lot when you think about how many bad, byzantine UIs/apps there are out there.

BBC: What do you think of the iPhone? What do you think the advantages of owning a BlackBerry are versus an iPhone?
Matt: Pretty much my whole family and many of my friends own iPhones, and while I appreciate the slickness of the iPhone, I’m convinced now that its appeal is largely aesthetic.   No one I know really uses the iPhone for anything useful.  Most of the apps I’ve seen are really gimmicky and silly–nothing I’d want to use more than once.   I feel like that while I’m constantly using my BlackBerry to get things done, my friends are basically just goofing off on their iPhones.  For me the BlackBerry is the winner when it comes to versatility, depth, and usefulness.  

BBC: What aspects of the BlackBerry experience could be improved for you?
Matt: Although websites like yours are great resources, I’d appreciate something on the phone itself like a tip function or wizard.  That is, if the phone determines I’m doing something inefficiently, I’d like to see it offer me a suggestion, or just provide a useful tip that new users might not know about so that we can get into the meat of the features even faster.

BBC: Any more overall thoughts and impressions about your first BlackBerry?
Matt: I’m just excited by the fact that I’m still only scratching the surface of things I can do with my phone.  And whereas before I’d get annoyed with people distractedly conversing with me while fiddling with their BlackBerry, now I totally get it.