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BlackBerry Bold 9700 – first impressions
0750 days
Just got a Bold 9700 in order to replace my first Bold, the 9000, which underwent 3 serviceinterventions in the last 3 months in order to clean the trackball. Each and every time the service offered to replace my 1. 3 years old Bold with a brand new one. When I asked why, they said RIM forbids them to fix anything hardware on the Bold, they are required to exchange them with a brand new one in case of warranty, of course.
Because I had (have) more than 35 paid apps on it (oh, maybe 20% of them were won by commenting on different forums and blog-posts!), I refused to allow them to exchange it and insisted on the cleaning every time. By the way, the BlackBerry developers use the PIN excuse to double-charge the customer: if I like to change my phone every 3 months and I need MY application, paid by ME, why would you, the developer refuse to do so? Am I paying an annual subscription to your application? Funny, it’s not mentioned anywhere! Anyhow, that’s another issue; Mobihand changed my PIN and allowed me to install them all, no problem, by the way, great service! But then, at some point, the screen started to act-up. I thought it was the OS and I was planning to do an update anyway; I did it, went to .304 but the problems got worse: the screen would go all white or depending on I-don’t-know-why, would go to transform itself in thousands and thousands of tiny pixels of all colors! Other times, I’d find all kinds of artifacts on the screen, all kinds of shapes and sizes. I looked it up and surely, it’s a common fault with the screen – it tends to die at some point. So I went to 9700.
To cut to the chase: I just have it since Saturday but in all this time I never let it out of my hands. So far, so good (some of the first impressions are compared to my last Bold, the 9000):
PROs:
- smaller form-factor, as asked by the large portion of non-Blackberry users.
- better screen, higher resolution : 480 x 360, 2.44 inches vs 480 x 320 on the old Bold, 2.75 inches.
- feeling very solid overall, better materials, better built – no squeaking of the back cover and no dodgy back cover lock.
- the optical pad – wins against the trackball hands-down
- OS 5.0 is a bit better, faster and packs some extras like HTML emails (which I still fail to see; the 9000 also has HTML but I didn’t see any HTML email, so I guess it’s my lack of BES?!) and vibe&ring at the same time, more options when customizing the calls, signals, etc.
- all my 4.6 apps are working on 5.0 without a whim.
- more ROM (256 MB) at the same RAM 128 MB but this makes it snappier and quite stabil : no resets or slowdowns.
- decent camera, 3.2 MP with AF vs 2 MB without AF in the Bold 9000.
- battery life seems almost double vs the Bold 9000 in my own experience.
- micro-SD of 2 GB included in the original package
- the pouch is awesome to use unlike the old one; I never used it because at some point I had troubles removing it, in order to reply to phone calls!
CONs:
- due to smaller size, the keypad seems a bit crammed and I’m sure my learning curve will span much longer than the one day needed with the original Bold
- not so much improvement in OS 5.0 – I’d like to see a bit of a difference in U.I but I guess Java doesn’t allow them to play too much with the U.I
- the only real customization of the screen comes only from a theme, which means you’re depending on developers’ creativity
- only 256 MB of internal capacity vs 1 GB on the Bold 9000 – nobody was using that anyway because they were too afraid it will slow down the phone (which never happened, by the way!)
- linked to the CON above, when transferring data from the 9000 to the 9700 by the means of the (in)famous Desktop Manager, you’ll run into trouble because 256 MB aren’t enough; I deleted everything big I could think of and still got an “not enough space” error
- the change of the connection/charging port from MiniUSB, which is highly common to the new, all-manufacturers-will-use-it MicroUSB means I need to change all my accessories and that means extra cash spent.
That’s it for now, more in the following weeks. I can’t really put my finger on this, but I have a good feeling this phone will sell very, very well.
The new BlackBerry Bold 9700 – a worthy “bold” replacement?
2754 days
As mentioned last night, I was lucky enough to get my hands on one of the few, first-batch Blackberrys Bold 9700 to arrive at Vodafone Romania. The timing is completely wrong, as I was in the middle of testing the leaky 4.7 OS…or might be one of the applications I am running constantly; I wasn’t able to find out for certain because my 1.5 years old Bold 9000 started acting up – the screen is slowly dying.
So I had to start reinstalling all the free applications I could find: Weather Bug as I know it is no longer free, the App World has now two modules and I had to use a hack to install it, so I can use it in my country (not available officially), the L 10 icons theme with the Today plug-in is not available for 9700, as well as quite a few other programs. I also lost a few applications I won in the last year for my first generation Bold, applications I have to pay to replace. I also had some nice surprises: Seesmic for Blackberry ( a heads-up already, as I used this application for Android already) and a newer, better weather app, namely BeWeather Free (great visuals!!)
Overall, I think it’s a win-win situation: more RAM, a smaller form factor, a better screen, the optical track-pad, the 3.2 MP auto-focus camera and a better build quality. On OS side, the new 5.0 version brings HTML to email messages and improvements on “signaling” side; no need for BerryBuzz anymore for example.
Looking forward to see how it works in the future and I hope to be able to conduct a series of tests in order to find out if some of the apps leak or if the 5.0 is the future. Other than those, this is evolution.
Why is my BlackBerry leaking memory? – take 2
0754 days
This was supposed to be another part of the many tests in order to see what’s leaking on my BlackBerry Bold. I did it but for a shorter period of time than planned because I’m switching over to BlackBerry Bold 9700 a.k.a the Bold 2. Up until now there was no indication that any of the “always-running” applications are leaking, but I’ll never truly know as I stop testing. I am pleased to know that SocialScope and DexRex are not leaking (no impact on RAM while I stopped using them) because I plan to install them on my new 9700.
So this is waht I found out from “take 2″:
Day 1
07.30: 31.28 MB at start-up. Social Scope closed down, iCallManager Light (call filter), Mobile Data Alerter, Dexrex SMS Back-up deleted (that’s why I get the extra space when compared to the 1st test. UberTwitter is not always online, just when I use it and then shut it down. PodTrapper is auto-starting in order to retrieve the latest podcast.
09.24: 24.61 MB – PodTrapper.
13.52: 20.17 MB -UT on. Later on, Yahoo Messenger and Amaze GPS.
Day 2
09.10: 14.82 MB.
17.57: 11.45 MB – UT, PodTrapper running.
Day 3
22.30: 3.22 MB
63 hrs and 21 minutes of running time. Reboot. Had to reboot because the Auto Stand-By is not working anymore…again. It seems that it needs more than 3.22 MB to be able to function.
From what I gathered up until now, the leaking is definitely coming from the OS. Java is old and slow. Hopefully more RAM will make a difference because the 9700 is going to the get the same testing treatment when I finish loading up the 3-rd party software.
Let’s see what’s changed in version 5.0!
Why is my BlackBerry leaking memory?
1762 days
I start this experiment to find out what leaks my Blackberry Bold’s memory. Except for the ones mentioned below, I run SocialScope all day long. So, is it the OS itself or one of the apps I run 24/7?
It will take more than one experiment (I need to run this every time I take out one of the apps from the list, and that will take at least 2-3 days every time.
This is purely a fun undertaking, at this time the Blackberry leaks are already legendary. They’ve tried their best at holding them at bay, even made a tool available to developers in order to improve Blackberry applications performances: the developers probably don’t use it or Quality Control is not all that important once you sell the app.
Day 1 :
29.01 MB at start-up. Social Scope closed down, iCallManager Light (call filter), Mobile Data Alerter, Dexrex SMS Back-up. UberTwitter not always online, just when I use it and then shut it down.
12.13: 21.77 MB Some SMS’ sent and a couple of emails. And of course, Doc2Go to help me write this down.
20.00: 17.86 MB No usage whatsoever, except for a few calls.
22.53: 17.38 MB SMS usage.
00.53: 19.10 MB UT on.
Day 2:
10.20: 14.88 MB No usage.
10.40: 17.24 MB UT and PodTrapper used.
19.20: 11.62 MB Yahoo Messenger and PodTrapper.
Day 3:
01.50: 9 MB PodTrapper, some games and UT from time to time.
09.05 – 9 MB – Emails.
22.00 – 2.40 MB – Emails
Day 4 :
09.26 – 3.13 MB – PodTrapper
17.00 – 2.8 MB – Email and UT usage (not on all the time).
Stand-by: 78 hours and I have to reboot because it won’t go to stand-by anymore (I use Auto-Stand-By). I have to say I am impressed with the OS stability. Other than the stand-by issue (I could always lock the keyboard which I never do) the phone doesn’t lag,responds quickly to commands, everything works as it should be, as it runs at boot-time with 29 MB of RAM.
As I write this post, I can’t help but noticing how much the OS was improved; I currently run .304 and I started with .147 when I bought the Bold. Since then, the OS had at least 10 revisions (I upgraded only 3 times) and it shows in stability,smoothness and overall improved performance. I still use Quick Pull Lite daily just to make sure I won’t have a problem, but only because it’s automatic and carries the task before I wake up, so no waiting around for me.
As for the leaking, it lasted more than expected, so for now I am not sure this is the way the OS is behaving. I’ll see in the next week or so.
ÜberTwitter Beta 6 is out!
2765 days
In December 2009 we had a leaked version of Beta 6. It was somewhat unstable and I didn’t like the new bubble-style time-line, so I didn’t use it. But like the title says, the official version was released yesterday and I had to try it out, even if I rely entirely on SocialScope, in my opinion the best Twitter client for Blackberry, today still in a state of in closed Beta.
Because @Cr0bar cast some doubt over SocialScope’s ability to function, I decided to test UT Beta 6 extensively and shut down SocialScope (more details in the next few days). If it turns out that SocialScope is leaking memory, I’ll switch to UT or Seesmic – I had to test that one anyway, I didn’t have the time to do it because when I do, I wanna do it properly.
Ok, back to UT: as the developer says, the Beta 6 brings a lot of improvements as follows:
- Lists, Lists, Lists!!! – You can create, delete, subscribe, add members, view members, all the functionality you would expect of an Über mobile client!
- Find People – You can search for people, just like the ‘Find People’ link on Twitter’s home page.
- New Icon – We love it!
- Über Bar – We couldn’t resist the name! This is a tab bar at the top of the screen, the neat thing is that you can add your own tabs! A list can be a tab, users timelines, and soon saved searches
- Retweets – We support the old method and new method, you decide!
- Update Twitter Profile – Yes, you can update your Twitter profile directly from your phone.
- Profile Picture – We have heard you, upload a picture for your Twitter avatar right from your phone!
- Report Spam – One menu selection to report a tweet as a spam.
- Twitter Geo-Tagging – We provide support Twitter’s new geo-tagging capability. You can decide whether to use myloc.me URLs, Twitter Geo-Tagging, or both!
- Friend Picker – Type ‘@’ and a list of your friends automatically pops up allowing selection
- Larger Avatars – Click the profile picture, and view a larger version! You can even email that larger version!
- TwitLonger – Yes, you can tweet MUCH longer tweets now, thanks to the folks over at TwitLonger.com, we have fully integrated this capability into both sending long tweets, and automatically retrieving long tweets. We love it!
- What The Trend? – Ever wonder why certain topics were trending or what they meant? No more! We have integrated with the folks over at WhatTheTrend.com to allow you to see the explanations for trending topics, and also for you to provide your own explanations!
- Choice of timeline layout – Choose the new ‘bubble’ layout or the original ‘bar’ layout.
- Verified Users – We show a small blue check-mark icon in the timeline to denote verified users
- Network Connection Logic – We re-worked the network connection logic, things should be alot smoother.
It’s available for download here and I also post some screen-shots.
Some comments:
- I love the new tab system (OK, it looks a lot like SocialScope) but in the end, if SS is leaking memory it’ll make the transition easier (back) to UT.
- The new logo is nice but I can’t decide which one is more beautiful; I also liked the old one, especially its color.
- When I tried to set up the Geotagging feature I received an error, as seen in one of the screenshots; I had to move on.
- I appreciate the possibility of choosing which kind of time-line I see, I don’t like the bubble-style, as I mentioned earlier.
- Why not allow as to upload on Twitpic? I use it for a long time ago and I like the service.
- I appreciate the possibility of choosing what kind of RT I can use; I don’t really care but the option is there!
- Having the ads always (or most of the times) on top is a pain. It didn’t bother me on the last version but I hate it on this one; it ruins the whole experience.
Blackbery App World and other annoyances
0789 days
Every time RIM does something, it’s incomplete. I, as a customer, am entitled to receive all they can offer AND something extra. Whenever I feel like I need something more, I am very vocal about it towards RIM: I write them, I post on Twitter, on forums, I do everything in my power to make sure RIM will receive my requests. Most of the times, my requests are really, really simple: I need a “Today” plug-in on the home-screen, so I’ll be able to see all my appointments for the day. Not possible. People make themes adding the “Today” screen but RIM didn’t even managed to change the date format: all my appointments are in the format MM/DD, totally different from the one in my country, which is DD/MM/YY.
There are lots of people asking for years for a decent browser. All Blackberry users agree the original browser sucks. Many go an extra-mile and use ONLY Opera Mini or Bolt. No original browser for them, this is how bad it sucks. For years RIM kept on adding an absolute useless tool to all its smartphones while turning a blind eye to customer requests. Personally, I use it all the time and it suits my needs very well. It would need tabs, like other mobile browsers. And Flash. Theoretically, it took RIM a few good years to do something about the browser issue: it bought Torch Mobile. Hopefully, it won’ t take them another few years to put it on our smartphones. And then there is the App World. A source of major frustration for the Blackberry community. As always, a good idea will end up being copied more or less by all the players in the market.Apple started a revolution by centralizing all applications under one “roof” and after hitting gold, everyone wanted to get the lion’s cut. And because RIM doesn’t have Apple’s resources, they’ve cooked a half-assed idea: they made the “store” but only available to a handful of countries. Hey, the hell with the rest. The “accepted” ones were the ones where the cash is. The hell with the rest. Once in a while they fix up a few bugs (there are a lot!) and keep on increasing the application size – it’s already at 1 MB and it’s becoming more and more laggy. This guy has a point.It was one of the most important reasons I had to remove App World; it took the application three full seconds to open a sort list. Plus I’m not in a fortunate country, so I couldn’t buy anything – I needed it for the free applications.
Of course, we have the limitations imposed by RIM in the OS: you can’t create a program to automatically switch the profiles IF the phone is locked or holstered. Why not? Rim limitation. You need to close down the browser, the Blackberry Messenger? Tough luck – RIM limitation. Trying to install applications on the memory card? Don’t, cause it wasn’t implemented by RIM. Wanna receive a picture through Bluetooth without having to go to Media, push the BlackBerry Button, check “Receive through Bluetooth”, accept the file, chose where to save it and so on, even after you marked the sending device as “trustworthy”? You can’t, RIM limitation. A full screen picture of the incoming caller on the screen?Noooo! It’s obvious why these things happen. There are some reasons. Quite a few actually. RIM is afraid its devices will become more unstable if they open up to developers. Which means there will be a lot more complains. A lot of people are complaining already about the short battery life, they complain about the memory drainages and about the lack of RAM. By opening up the OS, RIM would surely give up the last piece of control it has over the system without benefiting from it and would exacerbate the aforementioned issues. Another reason would be that the Java OS language is quite old and slow, and adding more functions (or tweaking the existing one) would surely slow it down. For me these should be the first things they need to do. And they’re slowly working to remove some of the limitations. We can see it with every new OS version and with every new Blackberry model hitting the market. But it’s going slow, painfully slow, while RIM doesn’t focus on it. They just make small changes as they go along. Frustrating. They can’t realize (after 10 years of business!) that the Blackberry users are special users, power-users making or breaking the deal (buying the device) based on EXACTLY these “little” missing features. I guess I’ll have to keep on relying on Mobihand for my free trials, freebies and application buying. I still haven’t lost my faith in RIM! Don’t let me down Blackberry, Android is waiting around the corner!
