Wednesday, August 20, 2008

30 Days of Frustrations with a Blackberry - Day 5

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"Forced to use up your main memory quickly"

Here's one I couldn't believe when I first found it out: The Blackberry has very little use for an additional memory card. In particular, the latest devices have the ability to use Micro-SD cards which go into a convenient (not really) location above the removable battery.



Now, Micro-SD cards come in some decently large sizes, and you can get a 2GB one for less than $50. That being said, you'd think this would be a good addition to a Blackberry, right? Nope.

The simple fact: The Blackberry doesn't allow any applications to be installed and/or run from the memory card. Yep, that's right. Every app you install onto your Blackberry must be installed into its main memory, taking away what little it has to start with, and inevitably causing something known as the dreaded 'automatic clearing' feature I'll discuss in a future blog.

So what does that leave your micro-SD card useful for? Storing video and music, and possibly a document or two. You could also store pictures I guess, but with my 8830's inability to receive MMS and the lack of a camera, I'm not likely to have many of those.

So far, I've found the micro-SD card useful for ringtones and that's about it. I have a 2GB card, but in reality I could have used a 64MB card and been just as well off, since it's just about useless.



Current disposition: Since I'm a traditional power user who likes to use third-party apps to enhance my smartphone, I
still HATE Blackberries.

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Posted in by Eyes`Only, the developer of DoitFast4U.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

30 Days of Frustrations with a Blackberry - Day 4

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"Stuck with the default fonts"

To continue on the subject of Day 3, The today screen themes actually have some pretty decent fonts in them. Unfortunately they are only available on the Today screens. Seriously. When you actually go to read an email, or SMS message, you have the choice of one of eleven built-in fonts. And to make matters worse, there's not a single one of them that make you think "OK, now that's a great font!".

For instance, here's an example of one of the 'better' fonts available:



And here's another:



So, does it seem like I was exaggerating? Yeah, I think not.

To make matters worse, most of the fonts are quite large even at the smallest size, which makes reading emails and SMS quite a chore. You don't get to see much of the message on the screen at once, and have to continuously scroll down in order to read any message more than a few lines long.

I've searched on the forums for a solution to this, and it has been declared by some pretty knowledgeable BB users that there is absolutely no way to add additional fonts for use in the email/SMS/MMS apps. BB users are stuck with what they were given, and that isn't much.

Current disposition: Since I love to read legible type, I
still HATE Blackberries.

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Posted in by Eyes`Only, the developer of DoitFast4U.

Monday, August 18, 2008

30 Days of Frustrations with a Blackberry - Day 3

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"Rudimentary Today Themes"

As anyone who has had the pleasure of using a WM device knows, the Today screen is one of the most useful features of a smartphone. To summarize: Using the today screen, you can see all the information you need 'at-a-glance' without having to click anything on your phone. In the WM world, there are many wonderful applications to take advantage of the extreme ability to customize your today screen and view whatever you want, even adding the ability to see information about other applications you have installed.

For instance, here's some screenshots from one of the most popular Today-enhancement applications, known as SPB Diary.

As you can see, there's a plethora of information available, especially given the ability to use multiple tabs on the left. You can even answer emails and SMS or mark tasks completed all without leaving the Today screen!

Now let's look at the Blackberry. You have a choice of three types of themes.

Icon Themes

Zen Themes

Today Themes

The Icon themes are just ridiculous to me, since you can just click the 'option' button a a Blackberry to display the same thing from any other theme page.

The Zen themes are anything but 'zen' to me, since it just looks like an icon theme that only has 5 items on it. It tells you what each item is when you are on it, but how useless is that?!

So that leaves us with Today themes. What you see is what you get. Seriously. I've even downloaded the developer's kit and made some of my own themes trying to incorporate more items onto one page. No go. You can put different things there, like SMS messages and whatnot, but trying to put 4+ items on the screen results in the bottom ones disappearing. And as for that ridiculous 'applications' icon on the bottom-- It is permanently there.

(Note: This is accurate information about the 4.2 and earlier today screens, the 4.5 actually adds some more ability, but not nearly as much as a stock WM device)

So yeah, the Today screen is seriously crippled on the Blackberry. You can try to enhance it, but your attempts will only be semi-successful, and your end-result will be less than satisfactory if you're used to a WM device.

Current disposition: Since I love to use Today screens, I
still HATE Blackberries.

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Posted in by Eyes`Only, the developer of DoitFast4U.

Friday, August 15, 2008

30 Days of Frustrations with a Blackberry - Day 2

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"Address Book from the 80s"

One question: Did the developers of this feature have absolutely NO vision? The look of this app is like something you'd see on a non-smartphone, such as a Razor or Nokia. Heck, they probably have better looking address books.

For those unfamiliar, here's a nice looking Contacts screenshot from a WM5 device:


And here's a screenshot of the primitive looking Address Book on a Blackberry:


I mean, wow, do the developers live in houses with stark white walls and no pictures on the walls?

I had the occurrence today where someone asked me for another person's phone number. I had to open this atrocious looking app, then actually click on the person's name to see the info. Sure, it's not that much extra work, but it *is* extra work. And aren't we supposed to be working smarter not harder?

There's not even a chance for a resolution to this one, I think. The OS doesn't allow for customization of the Address Book in the slightest.

Current Disposition: I HATE Blackberries

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Posted in by Eyes`Only, the developer of DoitFast4U.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

30 Days of Frustrations with a Blackberry - Day 1

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Well it finally happened-- My work forced me into using a Blackberry 8830, much to my dismay.

Let's start with some background-- I started as a Palm OS smartphone user. I had the Kyocera QCP 6035 to be exact, and loved it. As things progressed, the Palm OS got less and less stable so after going from the Palm 600 to the Palm 650, I migrated to Windows Mobile with the Palm 700W.

That being said, I couldn't have been happier with the Windows Mobile OS. Although not 100% stable, it was far more stable than my Palm 650, and I was in heaven. I had all the convenience of countless apps, touchscreen, and compatibility with MS.

Fast forward to 2008, where my company decided to move to a Blackberry-only directive. They like the ability to remote wipe the BBs, and the enforcement of having to authorize all BBs that will be on the network. Nevermind the fact that as the Exchange Admin for our organization I have repeated mentioned Mobile Admin 2003, an MS app that does the same thing for free.

So now I'm stuck with a Blackberry, a bit of disappointment, and a very eager and inventive mind. I'm determine to make the most of my plight, and enlisting the help of others to do it.

My plan:

Each day I will post a frustration I have found while using my Blackberry (most of which didn't exist on the Palm 700W) and see if anyone can correct me, agree with me, or enlighten me to the solution to my issue.

Also, at the end of each posting, I'll show my current disposition, and we'll see if it ever changes from its starting mode of "I HATE Blackberries".

30 Days of Frustrations with a Blackberry - Day 1

The Issue: "Reconciliation with E-mail"

I'm using the Enterprise e-mail feature with an Exchange 2003 environment. When I'm at my desk with Outlook opened up, I will constantly delete and move e-mails from my Inbox.

When I go to my Blackberry, it shows me on my "Today screen" that I've still got new e-mails, even though I've already read and deleted these in Outlook. Even when I open Messages, the list of emails on my Blackberry does not match the actual list showing in my Outlook.

The only way I know to make them synchronized is to click Options > Reconcile Now. Am I really resigned to doing that at the beginning every time I open Messages??!

Current disposition: I HATE Blackberries.

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Posted in by Eyes`Only, the developer of DoitFast4U.

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