Blackberry Bold - both sides of it for me
So, I got myself Blackberry Bold 9000 (AT&T) to check it out. Needless to say that I was really itching to do so, and I was really happy to get it in my hands for the "real life" use. By the way, I found out that there are quite few phones selling on Craiglsist for 450-500 (w/o tied to contract), but there is no really sense in buying those as Amazon and Wirefly sells for exact same money (new, in boxes, and with warranty).
It's just an amazing phone. The keyboard is great. iPhone can just dream of getting close to that thing. Keyboard is just ultra comfortable. The screen is great. UI is not so nice, but usable, not a huge problem. The form factor, shape, and everything about this phone's design satisfies me 120% - if not more.
The configuration of it takes time. iPhone, being a consumers phone, is much more helpful here, and really expect any dumb user to get along with it pretty fast and nicer. But it's okay, I really do not mind that.
It is really awesome to have photo camera with flash -- wow! even if 2M camera does not make like photo studio-quality photos (obviously, duh!), it does the job pretty well. Again, the UI is so-so, but you can get used to it.
Now, GPS. I was not able to try GPS in the full power there, as default "GPS thing" requires installation of AT&T Navigator, which is a trial service for 30 days (as I recall), and then $9.99/mnth (something like that, don't remember really). Which is not something I need or what. But, I did try http://m.google.com/apps which installs nice Google Maps application auto-integrated with Google Latitude and I believe it does use integrated GPS unit. Worked pretty well for me. Bad thing - it does not come by default, but at the end - it's basically the same stuff as iPhone has -- it has Google Maps, and Blackberry Bold has it too! so they are equal.
Offtopic: At this moment I should point out that for Java developers I can compare it to Eclipse. It has tons of everything, very productive and nice, and really helpful, does great job, but damn, you do have to have nerves and patience to set it up properly with all those plugins and add-ons :-)
Let's continue, though. Something what I would need - is synchronization for my contacts (address book) and calendar with Google Apps. iPhone can do it via Google's-Exchange-kind of synchronization. Works fine. With Blackberry one can use http://m.google.com/sync and it installs this piece of software which does the same job. Flawlessly. Perfectly. My only complains are about Google's part here (which does the same not-so-nice things on both devices, like missing photos/notes (sometimes), etc.). But it's fine, nothing critical for me here.
So, let's go ahead. I am almost in ecstasy having *everything* I need with this great device. The last part left is mail - but what can get wrong? Blackberries are well know for their awesome email support, aren't they? This is what I though, and man, how was I wrong. But here is my story.
Setting up email service on Blackberry is different from usual. First you need BIS - Blackberry Internet Service - for AT&T you can go here http://bis.na.blackberry.com/html?brand=mycingular and register there, or you can do it from the device. Basically, it's Blackberries thing where you add your personal email accounts and it retrieves all the mail, sends you push notifications within 60 seconds of message delivery and some other magic. Worked perfectly with my Google Apps account. Fast. Every mail delivered right away. A-w-e-s-o-m-e! And so much pleasure working with the email. Nice, comfortable, very different from iPhone, but very very comfortable for me.
I was so happy at this point. I though I am ditching my iPhone and getting rid of it with easy soul. But not so fast. What is the problem? Well, I couldn't see my folders (labels). I though okay, probably I did configure something properly, besides it told me that I need Enhanced Google Plugin, so I went http://www.blackberry.com/gmail. It claimed it will allow starring/labeling messages and that worked fine, actually. But I also needed browsing through my existing labels, though was not able to figure this out, but at least it claims it can do that (not exactly that, but "searching", which may work, but I couldn't find out how do I search by label?) Probably it can, I wouldn't argue. But it is also limited with http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/22/enhanced-gmail-plug-in-for-blackberrys-arrives-but-only-syncs-o/ syncing only one way! What the heck? No, really?
Why it cannot just give me old fashioned IMAP support? And after crawling the Internet trying to find an answer how do I configure IMAP properly, I see that *it is not possible*. And the reason is that BIS does not support full IMAP. It supports "kind of IMAP", which is more like POP. Whaaat? It's 2009, IMAP has been around for many years -and it cannot support it? Cannot support folders there? Cannot support normal IMAP interaction? How comes? What, business customers are using all POP3? Really?
Sum it up? Prepare it will sound like a huge disappointment ;-(
* No IMAP folders view - like *at all* - and of course no folders managements/whatsoever.
* If you had something in folder (say Inbox) before configuring email on your Blackberry - you cannot see it
* Search is there, but you cannot do search by label, so that does not make it possible to see contents of any label
* If you did change something with your laptop, Blackberry will not see it - like labeling, starring, archiving
* You default "Messages" view will *show* all messages (even if they archived). Actual "Messages per mailbox" will *hide* them.
* You cannot manage labels from Blackberry
* You cannot view HTMLs. Well you can. But I would argue "this" can be called HTML.
But, as it comes out, there is a possibility to get those problems solved with BES, http://na.blackberry.com/services/server/exchange/ which is a hosted solution and you can use Google Apps Connector http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2009/08/google-apps-connector-for-blackberry.html to make it all work, but as you can see you need to have your own server for it, which I believe also has to be a Windows server. Don't know if you need to ask AT&T to do something about allowing you to access BES (Because BIS is handled by them). Nah, why would I want that and get into all this headache? Just because there are no other way of doing that. Screw that.
Crazy. Yes, I also did try http://m.google.com/mail and http://www.logicprobe.org/proj/logicmail but they are not even close to what I need. Those are just applications, and they are so-so, definitely not productive in heavy use. They are separate from the phones messaging system (which is good, in terms of beep-ing/status-ing and message operation), and they seem to like working with your IMAP boxes without caching/saving anything on the phone. That means every time you access Inbox, it takes a while. On 3G. Or Edge. But it takes time. Productivity - is going down south.
Unfortunately, all this makes Blackberry unusable for me. Literally, and the problem is that I do a lot of emailing. As much as I loved the phone, and tried to find an excuse for myself to use it, leave it, and make primary for me -- I simply couldn't afford not having normal email.
I've also experienced hangs from time to time. The only way to recover from them is to remove the battery. Call AT&T for help and the first thing they suggest is the battery removal trick. It reminds me of the Microsoft three finger salute.
Also, if you want to do any software development , beware of the following "gotchas":
1. Deleting a program on the BlackBerry from the Desktop Manager sometimes causes the BlackBerry to hang (I'm using a Bold). You then have to remove the battery to get it working again. But be sure to disconnect the cable between the BlackBerry and the PC. If you don't the reboot can hang.
2. You can't replace a program if you want to update it. You have to delete it first. Now see bug 1.
3. What's this nonsense of a Java development environment that only works on a PC? What kind of Java development team would do that?
4. Deleting a program file on the BlackBerry from the desktop manager takes an inordinate amount of time, not counting the hang (bug 1) or the reboot (bug 3).
5. The SignatureTool silently fails if the application being signed is not on the C drive. The app doesn't get signed, but there is absolutely no indication that this happened. Only when you load the program onto the BlackBerry and try to run it do you get an error message that tells you the app is not signed and therefore can't be run.
6. After installing an app the desktop says it will "Wait for device initialization" and explains it is "Connecting to device (This task might take up to 30 minutes to complete.)" No other word for this behavior other than "bug". Incidentally, this worked once, and since then reliably crashes the BlackBerry. The only way to recover from the crash is to disconnect it from the PC and pull the battery out. By the way, you MUST disconnect from the PC or the battery-out battery-back-in won't reboot the device.
7. Code signing is not supported under Java 6.
8. Aborting a hung operation results in a report that the operation completed successfully. For example, as in item 1, above, the BlackBerry hangs, then the desktop app hangs waiting for the delete operation to complete, which, of course, it doesn't, since the device is hung. So you click on "Abort" or "Cancel" and the desktop program reports that the operation completed successfully.
9. To test a program on a BlackBerry requires the code to be signed. Each time you compile you have to re-sign the app, and the signature tool has to contact BlackBerry servers as part of the key validation. If the servers are down, you're hosed. In the last three months the service has been out twice that I know of, and for multiple hours each time. Calls to technical support result in the response "we will get back to you in 2 to 3 business days." COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY UNPROFESSIONAL AND UNACCEPTABLE! Like saying "Oh, your phone service is out? We'll get back to you in 2 to 3 days."
thanks again.
I still should say I really like the form factor and the design and the keyboard. But is it really worth all the headache which goes with the "package"?
Of course, if all you want to do is talk and do email, then the BlackBerry is OK. But that's not where the industry is going. I think you really want the Internet in your pocket (and the apps, and the synchronized contacts, etc.).