The Blackberry Bold 9700 & Blackberry 9000 Review

Blackberry Bold to get Blackberry 6.0 OS 6.0 Soon

According to way too many sources to count, the Bold 9700 blackberry will be getting Operating system 6.0 in good time. Yes, we’ve been hearing this for way too long. However, Tmobile I believe leads the pack in this arena. Fact is though, that there’s a surprising undertone or other peice most in the media aren’t revealing…

Fact is that Blackberry Bold 9700’s run Operating System 6.0 FASTER than a Blackberry Torch. Apparently, because it doesn’t use up ram and processor cycles using the touch screen, it’s faster and even has a longer battery life. Go figure. Your Bold 9700 may have a much longer lifespan than the Bold 9800 or any previous device to market thus far. However, I’m sure the crackberry addicts will be crying over the Bold 9700’s 256MB memory compared to the 9650 and 9800’s apparent 512mb memory which i’m sure will show differences in usage right away.

Rogers finally reveals the official release date

Despite many posting about how Futureshop was showing a Blackberry Torch in their systems for September 14th (which had me salivating) the Rogers Redboard just recently announced that they’re going to start carrying the device for a 3 year contract for $199 on September 24th. This is a kind of sad price in my opinion as I really felt it would be a better deal at $99 or similar. I think AT&T in the united states was cheaper.

Regardless, I think i’ll be one of the first people to order one of these devices when they are available out here. Above all one of the few devices with an easy to use easy to type on keyboard, and a web kit browser in a super compact convenient style, there’s now more reviews about the torch than one person can easily count and yet there’s till coming out every day with one recent review by a busy mom who uses the productivity tool to further her organization skills.

There’s been reviews from the point of a business man, and of course the standard engadget, gizmodo and other type boy genius reviews.

There was also a review smashing the major new features of the phone stating that most of them weren’t very useful from a crackberry blogger, but overall… The response to the phone has been mixed. Some are finding The blackberry torch to be a very practical and well designed simplistic device they absolutely love while others are showing their lack of content for the processor (same one as a bold 9700) and the lack of OpenGl thus making it a non-gaming platform and a few other features that were missing as well.

The display was a bit disappointing with a lack of higher resolution, but the truth is overall it’s still a very practical device and much easier to use than an iPhone or any other android when typing. A close similar would be the motorola charm which I am anxious to test. However, with my testing on the Google Nexus One, it’s an obvious fact that no matter how well Motoblur was designed, the Gmail functionality will still be slower and less enjoyable than a blackberry and there’s still nothing in comparison to Viigo RSS reader for the Android phone to date.

Could FM Radio be coming to the Blackberry?

According to Ars Technica, a blogger :

Music labels and radio broadcasters can’t agree on much, including whether radio should be forced to turn over hundreds of millions of dollars a year to pay for the music it plays. But the two sides can agree on this: Congress should mandate that FM radio receivers be built into cell phones, PDAs, and other portable electronics.

This means it’s quite possible that if congress does approve such a move, Blackberries and other devices would be forced into putting an FM receiver on every device.

While I think that would be an exciting move, it would still not knock out the market for streaming online media services, podcasts and other such features. It would, however create an entirely new antennagate issue. With platforms like Android, iPhone4 and Blackberry Torch already on the market, such a move would take until mid 2012 or longer to see any kind of widespread adoption.

“As regards the chip, this is a key issue for the radio industry,” musicFIRST told Ars today. “musicFIRST, too, likes FM chips in cell phones, PDAs, etc. It gives consumers access to more music choices.”

The Consumer Electronics Association said: “We would argue that having radio capability on cell phones and other mobile devices would be a great thing, particularly from a public safety perspective. There are few if any technologies that match the reliability of broadcast radio in terms of getting lifeline information to the masses.”

Rogers to carry the Torch 9800 in White

Rogers Wireless in Canada is rumored to be the only carrier stocking the Blackberry 9800 “torch” device due out this September in the color white. While we’ve seen this device in the wild sporting black, red and teal… This is the first news of the color white!

Reports are coming in now that the device is not seeing stellar sales like we expected. This isn’t the greatest news as the success of RIM and the entire Blackberry line as a top competitor hinges on this innovative device increasing sales and excitement to the Blackberry brand.

Many reviews have noted, however that RIM’s Blackberry Torch 9800 isn’t anything incredibly shocking. Sporting the touch screen with the webkit browser is nothing the industry doesn’t have on the market already with Android and iPhones already having both for quite a long time already.

RIM may have succeeded in having the first mobile phone with tactile keyboard and capacitive pinch zoom touch screen, but they have lost significant ground with the lack of a speedier processor, higher resolution screen and better camera capabilities.

This doesn’t leave RIM out of the race entirely…

One thing that consumers may not realize is the touch screen market and market for cell phones of entertainment is much different than that of the business needs for cell phones. Blackberries are notably up to 8x faster to type on. Your fingers develop muscle memory as they feel the buttons while typing – thus allowing it to be possible to wind up to 60wpm typing email responses on a blackberry.

This simply isn’t possible with a touch screen device as we’ve seen. The device may not have the greatest multimedia features and the largest crispest and sharpest screen – but there’s no question blackberries do business better than any other device.

~sonic~

Torch Accessories are starting to show up

Pretty cool to see some of the odd and interesting Blackberry Torch accessories that are coming out…

Look at this one here where it docks on it’s side, likely could display it’s clock in landscape mode. Strange?

Blackberry Curve 9300 at Rogers

Kinda interesting news, the Blackberry Curve 9300 has come available at rogers… I’m beginning to wonder why RIM makes the curve series… I guess college students don’t need much out of a phone…

They have gone to the full 624mhz processor in fact it feels like RIM is stuck on this processor and never seems to use any faster than this. This however, is yet another device incapable of OS 6.0 as it doesn’t quite meet the ram requirement.

I’m a big fan of lots of what RIM has in their devices, but you’d think you’d want things moving forward not backward.

Resolution is still 320×240 – Much like the 8530 and 8520 Curve’s.

Still 2 megapixel camera, still has no flash. It does have GPS though, but still it seems like a tiny upgrade to the curve line to call it a 9300 series when it’s really an 8530 with 3G internet access. It may recieve a limited version of 0s 6.0 at some point, but with only 256mb of RAM, it’ll be slower than a Torch or Blackberry Bold 9650.

Blackberry 8530 Temporary Phone

Well – I couldn’t stand the android Google Nexus One any longer, so I decided to move back to Blackberry. However, I didn’t want to shell out a ton of money for a Blackberry Bold 9650 something or other, so I got a cheap Blackberry Curve 8530 temporarily.

If money were no object, a Bold 9650 would have been a much better choice… With slightly more ram than a Bold 9700, it’s slightly bigger and the higher resolution screen would have been brilliant.

The Curve’s lower resolution screen makes some text hard to read and certainly feels like there’s not as much screen real estate. The lack of 3G is pretty noticable when trying to open websites, but OS 5.0 itself runs quite nicely on it (using the Wind download).

Overall, it’s a nice calendar and email tool where I can actually type on buttons (Sheah, buttons! not glass!) and get something done.

What’s driving me nuts and why I’d say stay away from this if you have the budget for something $100 more.. is the sound it makes when your typing, the battery door seems to have that styrofoam plasticy squeel when you squeeze the unit as your typing which makes it sound very cheap. It also feels too light to be taken seriously.

Happy to be back in Blackberry Land.
Until Next time,
Dan

Blackberry Torch Release Date Rogers Canada

Photoshopped for Fun

Rogers has now officially announced they will be carrying the flagship device “Blackberry Torch” in a post on their blog. They state the words “In the next coming weeks” as their timeline, but sources say August 14th is the official date of release.

This will be a shining moment for RIM history. It’s certainly not the competitor the company needs to remain in the hearts and hands of consumers against threats like the iPhone or the Android platforms but it’s the very next best thing.

Blackberry devices were not really designed to be entertainment devices and so they’ve never shined in that space. This device doesn’t change any of that for a moment as It’s strengths are still in business mobile and business communications.

The glaring differences between this smartphone and other smartphones in the competing markets are the lack of support for 3d gaming, the lower resolution screen and the lack of HD capable features. The Blackberry Torch has a screen incapable of doing any kind of HD video and it’s processor and graphics are also incapable of these things.

All those things considered, Blackberry is still a far better business mobile device than an iPhone or Android phone. While you *CAN* Conduct business on an Android or iPhone, you’d find yourself quickly becoming frustrated over the pure convenience of a Blackberry with push email, enterprise calendar and such.

The Torch adds in some of the features we’ve loved about iPhone and Android that you miss when joining the Blackberry team. Things like Pinch Zoom, a Webkit browser, more integrated social features and an on screen keyboard. This odd device sports both a Blackberry physical QWERTY keyboard as well as a touch interface. It also has the famous trackpad.

Crackberry and other sites are already showing the shock of just how fast this device really is at doing all it promises. What surprised me was the Video Crackberry released where they show the CPU use of the device running several programs and not wavering. Something’s been done to optimize that 624Mhz ARM chip that Research In Motion is so famous for using over the years.

This device was a real chance for them to move into higher end processors and yet they’re showing without a doubt that this chip and this platform certainly still have a ton of life left in them.

Update: I talked to some Official Rogers representatives yesterday and they confirmed a September launch is more likely… 12-14th range.. first week or two. <sigh>

~Sonic~

Blackberry Torch 9800 vs Blackberry Bold 9700

Well, I should be posting on here more often so forgive me that I haven’t had much time lately. The most exciting thing ever is that the Blackberry Torch (might as well be the Bold 9800) is coming to Rogers in the next few weeks. I’m hearing rumors of August 14th 2010.

What’s new and special and how does it compare to the Bold 9700?

For starters, it is a touch screen, slider phone with a keyboard as well. That’s odd isn’t it? Full specs are available here.

The 9800 is a hint wider and basically shorter than the bold 9700 slightly. It has twice as much memory and about 4x as much onboard storage (4GB).

The big feature though is Operating System 6.0 with the webkit browser. This is what we’ve all been waiting for is a descent web browser to compete with the rest of the phones on the market (iPhone and Android clones).

The Torch does have a slightly shorter battery life according to manufacturer spec. The 5.0 mpix camera certainly does help bring it in line with other devices on the market as that’s what the average smart phone carries today.

Another major notable difference is the Blackberry Torch 9800 supports Wireless N. While it remains to be seen if that’s any major benefit as most routers are still operating on Wireless G technology and smartphone memories (Flash memory) do not support speeds that high in some cases for local network transfer… It should help with future expansion and ad ons.

Will OS 6.0 be made available for the Bold 9700? My short answer is likely not entirely. Not as we know it on the phones launched with blackberry 6. A reduced feature set is likely though. The Bold 9700 only has 256 mb ram so it’s not likely to run the same as it would on Native os 6 devices.

You can bet this will be my next phone though.

Android Vs Blackberry – The Real Truth

Why did I stop posting here so frequently, why did I stop blogging about blackberry fior ages, and where did I go? What stopped me from the juicy world of Bberries?

I confess I waltzed over to the dark side for a while. No, not iPhone, not quite that dark, what I mean is Google’s Android, and particularly the Nexus One…

Here’s my blog post on my other blog with the Nexus One unboxing and the Bold 9700 De-throning.

Why Did I leave the Blackbery World?

Well, it basically can be summed up by my frustration of the first news of the WebKit browser for Blackberry that’ was dangled in front of our faces way back when. It was then I realized (consuming 200+ RSS feeds per day) that my browser was stupid sluggish and annoying and anytime I had to view a webpage or check my bank balance or do anything on my phone that it was incredibly frustrating. It made 3G look like a nightmare, it didn’t properly support CSS, my blog and even my all time favorite Sphinn.com looked retarded as you couldn’t see how many times a thing had been sphunn.

I missed the size of my Bold 9000’s screen. It was larger but way easier to type on and I really didn’t appreciate the smaller size. Even though I did eventually reach my Bold 9000 typing speed on the 9700, I still longed for a larger footprint…

What I Like About Android/The Nexus One…

What I do love about the Nexus One is it’s large and very crisp AMOLED screen. It’s absolutely vibrant and video and web pages do jump right off the screen. I also love the recent Froyo update that lets me tether my laptop to it via wifi and way easier than the Blackberry’s USB tether that takes a bit of setup to get going…

I love the pinch zoom and flash support to watch videos on CNN if I choose to… However I rarely do watch a CNN video as usually when I’m bored and want to view online content on my mobile, I do not wish to share it with others and rarely remember my headphones…

The camera is much better, higher resolution and takes incredible video too. The 3d gaming and 3d rendering ability of course rivals a Blackberry, but I don’t honestly have time to play games. I’m no kid of course. I love being able to search using my voice and even type emails by simply speaking them into existence. Very handy on the road.

The level for leveling things is quite cool and so is the Google Analytics app that I use to show all my websites from my home screen and how each is doing… One thing that’s very comforting is how this website (theboldreview.com) continued to get MORE and more traffic as I abandoned it. (sorry guys!).

Viewing PDFs and reading ebooks on a Nexus is a bit slow, but much faster than a Blackberry… But… WITH ALL those wonderful things… I’m probably coming back in August… To Blackberry world…

What I hate About Androids and The Nexus One…

It pays to be a practical person. In your personal life and in your finances, in your religion (me being a lover of Christ Jesus) and in everything. Spending your money wisely and not foolishly on entertainment and buying devices that make your life easier… not neccesarily funner.

If your a busy Dad like me who works a computer job (namely online marketing consultant) who really uses a cell phone for.. Uh, you know.. CALLING PEOPLE?!?! and using the calendar and email feature… Androids will drive you nuts!

If you plan to game, surf the web all day and take pictures, I’d be willing to say the android is a better phone by a long shot, but that’s where the horses stop.

The BAD:

• Speakerphone is so quiet I can’t hear it in loud settings
• Gmail takes several minutes to refresh (VERY noticible)
• Dialing while driving isn’t easy
• Typing on it (even after months of practice) is still frustrating… I’d rather wait till I get back to the office and that’s not good!
• The calendar app isn’t the most enjoyable experience
• RSS feeds take forever to load (i’ve tried 8 different ones) just to keep up on industry news.
• Battery life is horrible unless you get an extended battery like I ended up doing.
• The phone app lags and takes time to update your “call log” to call people back if you just missed a call and wonder who it was or wish to call them back.. (sucks if you say.. run a business??)

These seem to be all dealbreakers for me.

They’re all pretty much critical uses of a business line. Business phones should really do 4 key things super well. If they can make coffee, or scramble eggs I REALLY DON”T CARE, but they should do these 4 things well:

• Manage a web-sync calendar
  Your virtual assistant or secretary should be able to add to your calendar and or at least have a web backup in the event of device failure. It should take seconds to type or add notes to yourself to stay up to date and stay moving forward on your goals as you remember to schedule them in. If you can’t add a calendar entry at lightning speed as your dodging in between real work and appointments it becomes a thorn in your side.
• Manage Email
  Don’t really need to explain this one do I? Check email, fast. Push emails to me, fast! Read emails, fast. Respond and type out meaningful short responses.. FAST!
• Manage Contacts
  It’s not what you know… It’s who you know.. And how fast you can dial their number when you need them. A one time blackberry user can dial a contact faster than a practiced Android User. I guarantee that. Typing 3 letters and going straight to phone to face and yacking to your next phone meeting is KEY importance. Redialing missed calls, FAST… key importance for Business, am I right?
• Access Complete Websites
  This is ONE area where Android excels and blackberry is left in the dust on. You need to quickly research something, and be able to see and view the entire website properly.. A blackberry won’t do it. Sorry, but they won’t. Opera’s too slow, Bolt is annoying (and slow!) and the stock viewer is fine if the website’s mostly text!

It appears Blackberry is about to fix this on August 15th 2010. They plan to release the Bold 9800 (or at least I hope they call it that!) When they do, that phone will be the phone we dream of. Rogers has officially announced on Twitter that they plan to release it sometime near the end of august… If anyone needs any birthday Ideas, my birthday is August 28th…

The Blackberry 9800 will come with a WebKit browser capable of the full web experience (no word on flash support, but I suspect that will be there) and a querty keyboard AND a touch screen with multi-touch. It should effectively solve all my concerns and be the top business phone of 2010.

Is it an iPhone 4 Killer? PSH! NO!!! Is it an Android Killer? PSH! no…

But, is it the world’s best business phone? It should be if all reports are correct. iPhones, Droids, Samsung Galaxy, Waves, Nexus Ones.. They’re all toys. No real world business can effectively run on these things, at least not yet. Android is still a young platform that’s never been enterprise tested and iPhone while entering a more polished state on their iOS is still being designed by designers and not real world in the field profitable business owners.

I don’t see Blackberry Ever selling devices at the volume or rate that iPhone or other smartphones do, but regardless there are people who will NEVER live without their blackberries… As you can run a real business with one.

All the best!
Daniel J Deyette