Mobile gadgets running Blackberry & Android OS'
Posts tagged gsm
Switching is happening all over again.
Jul 9th
In February 2009 I left the Symbian UIQ 3.0 O.S for BlackBerry. Of course, some of my friends knowing me and using more or less the same Symbian platform ( UIQ 3.0 and/or S40, S60 Nokia) were skeptical: “BlackBerry is a professional platform, a closed and rigid environment, no way you can thrive under that rock” they said. What they didn’t know is that at the time R.I.M already decided to go forward with the plan to conquer a new kind of customer with the multimedia phones: the much-debated Storm 1, the Bold 9000, eventualy the Javelin and the Tour later on. Platforms are becoming more and more multimedia and social cause that’s where the money is today.
And that was exactly what made me go first BlackBerry and now, Android: while the UIQ 3.0 was great and rich in applications (O.K, maybe not so rich by today’ standards or by iPhone/Android markets standards), it lacked the new applications for the social media. The only reason I kept it until February 2009 is the hacking community. They “developed” the O.S much more than Symbian itself did and a lot more than the developers did. While BlackBerry had all these applications, it lacked the diversity one enjoys on Android and iPhone. In BlackBerry’s case, the developers deserted the booming wonderful community formed around R.I.M’s products. Or maybe I am wrong; I know there aren’t many developers pushing-out BlackBerry applications. The applications themselves are rare and expensive. The price is the main issue: while an average app for Blackberry is 2.99$ (price imposed by BlackBerry App World) , the others go as low as 0.99$. This happens EXACTLY because there aren’t many developers (anymore) and the remaining ones they profit on the fact that the demand surged. But even with this situation, the BlackBerry users aren’t benefiting much. For almost 2 years I look for a working Call Filter aplication. Because I was paying for it, I asked for a few features (existing already on Symbian S40 and UIQ 3.0 for years!) like:
- accept all calls
- reject all calls
- accept phone-book only
- drop unwanted calls and/or mute the ringer
- reject Black List numbers and accept White List numbers
- automatic profile switch based on time schedule
And that was about it. All of the above were supported by other applications, most of them free or charging very little money. And I’ve tried half of those while using the Sony-Ericsson P1i and afterwards, even on BlackBerry. On BlackBerry, I couldn’t find a satisfactory application. Most of them are very basic and extremely expensive – 19,95$ I had to pay for mCall Manager Light (sic!), the only one working as it should but without the scheduling. After I updated from 4.7 version OS to 5.0 OS, the app stopped working and when they did update it (3 months later) it wasn’t working properly anymore. This experience sums-up all my experiences with BlackBerry applications.
And then there is the support issue: being so fragmentary as it is, the BlackBerry application market is divided between some developers interested in keeping the customer happy and the rest. The rest don’t give a shit about the customer. It’s enough if you buy it once and never comeback ever again, 10$ from each customer is more than enough for a single application. I bet there are a lot of “developers” hitting the market only once with one single (bad) product and then move on to another platforms; from what I’ve been told developing for BlackBerry is neither cool or money-rewarding.
And now it’s time for a new challenge: the Android O.S. I’ve been playing for a few months with a T-Mobile Pulse but in order to enjoy the full-power of the new O.S, I had to go full way. And I chose the HTC Desire
. While it lacks stamina ( my usage will kill the battery in just a bit over 5 hours!), I have faith in the platform and its ability to deliver a better product later on with rooting, custom ROMs and Froyo later on.
Motorola Charm – soon on T-Mobile network
Jun 28th
The 1st truly keyboard Android device! Hope Motorola will ship it to Europe, too, diff’rent name and all! Motorola Charm.
Rooting the HTC Desire
Jun 16th
If you look over the Internet rooting is everywhere! Rooting an Android device used to be simple. Easy. You’d download a file, you’d unzip it, copy it to the phone and that was that. Well, not anymore. Nowadays you need to do a lot of workarounds. You need to find the right versions, due to the Android fragmentation you need to look for them on Internet, you need to learn how to do a Goldcard and other things – I only got to the Goldcard business! 
I need to root my Desire in order to gain access to simple things like screenshot application, the ability to increase the sound volume on the headset and especially on the speaker – I like my podcasts and I can’t hear them at all when playing it thru the speaker. And that’s about it. Just for that. It’s not much and it should be default but it’s not. There are other advantages, too:
- you can uninstall all the Google crap that comes with the phone: Gmail widget, stocks, Peep Twitter client, Sense U.I, clock widgets.
- you can install another ROM: lighter, faster and less crappier; with or without the Sense U.I .
- you can get full access to the O.S.
- edit system files.
- relocate apps cache and the apps themselves over the SD.
Taking into account it’s some time since the Desire root emerged improvements are surfacing. I just tried a safe-fail method ( usually once you start there is no turning back) and….it failed, of course. I was expecting this. There are just too many variables. But I will try again.
The benefits are huge for an Android geek.
(HTC) Desire vs. (BlackBerry) work, as in Bold 9700
Jun 14th
I knew I should wait some time before checking out another OS while using the BlackBerry. And I did for almost 2 years. But now the OS’ are refreshed much faster than years ago when I needed to wait more than a year to get “the next smartphone”. And now Android is on the high horse despite the rise of Apple’s OS No.4 and the new iPhone. While I never considered getting an iPhone, it was exactly why I didn’t, because of the lack of certain features like multitasking and easiness of using the sync features (read I hate iTunes). To make matters worse, I consider myself a power-user which means battery has to be strong and in iPhone it wasn’t. I still think it’s gonna be weak in iPhone 4 although they show faith in improved battery life.
And talking about battery life, that’s what’s keeping me in defecting to the Dark Side. No, not that D.S , the iPhone, but the other D.S – the Android platform as a whole. See, I live in a city. I work in an office full of power outlets, employing a laptop full of USB ports, I drive a car with multiple (Mini and Micro) USB connections&chargers but still can’t get enough juice for my newly acquired Desire. As I said before, the today’s battery technology is not up to par with smartphone usage around the world. There are going to be advancements like the fuel-cell but taking into account they’ve started research a long time ago, I can assume it’s gonna be another couple of years until it’s gonna be feasible and economically viable. So, what’s to do until then?
Google pushes Android towards the masses to be used with simpler phones, too. I think they never thought that the producers will be using the platform for smartphones only but rather to give the producers the ability to step-up the “features” game in the market, to provide them with the necessary tools to improve user experience thus shaping the tastes of customers and driving up the consumption by doing that. Apple did it with the iPhone, why Google couldn’t do it taking into account the huge audience? Simpler smartphones or entry-level smartphones like T-Mobile Pulse I used , LG Ally for Verizon network or Samsung Jet are designed to replace the small, inexpensive but featureless Nokias and Samsungs in those networks. By selling those to Average Joe, they’ll never have the “flat-battery-in-4-hours” issues they encounter in power-users usage but this doesn’t mean that the producers and networks aren’t aware of the sad situation we’re in.
Instead of an epilogue, I will ask this: how can one compare apples with BlackBerrys especially when we all know that forest fruits are so appealing and have so many “vitamins” over them apples?
Had a play with HTC Desire
May 15th
Today I was finally able to play a little bit with Vodafone’s HTC Desire. I could’ve done it in a Vodafone shop but usually those smartphones are right out of the box and have no Internet connection, no apps, media, nothing. Everything you can find on shelf is usually dummy.
So I used the UI ( Sense U.I 2.1), some apps and saw how the battery depleted 10% in about 20 minutes to half an hour of usage. The screen is superb (though useless outside), the U.I and the processor are extremely fast. The manufacture quality is top notch!
One thing I noticed is that the phone is getting VERY hot for the light usage I’ve made. Not good for prolongued usage.
All in all a nice phone which sets the standard very high for other smartphones.
A week without my BlackBerry Bold 9700
Apr 27th
Inspired by a search I did out of nowhere, I decided I wanna try to live without my BlackBerry Bold for a week and…use my T-Mo Pulse Android OS instead! I will continue to use the BlackBerry to receive my work phone calls but that should be it. I’ll also use it to send/reply to some of my work emails but will try to do so as little as possible.
I know there are some disadvantages:
- the lack of physical keyboard will slow me down when writing.
- the lack of work emails will be a definitive minus as I can’t find a good Exchange client; should be free, like the one I use in the BlackBerry.
- the battery life which is horrible in Android devices, on the Pulse included.
There are also advantages:
- the Pulse’ so much better for multimedia.
- the touchscreen is better for “on-the-fly usage” especially on apps not requiring data input.
- a LOT of applications to use and get accustomed with in a short period of time.
I just don’t know if i should update the blog regarding the way the things are going daily, or to write a single post after a week. What do you think?
