Ok, because all the spamming/flaming going on in the other threads, here is the thread where comparisons of the two products should be made. It is not fair to either developer to clutter their thread with another product. Ezainny and ani created those threads for product feedback and not to read about another's product. So here you go, put your comparisons and arguments for one program over the other here.

Thanks trevor. Refreshing to see a rational view on the situation. Thanks again.

I moderate on another cell phone site (Howardforums.com) so I have a tendency to try to stop online arguments. I guess it has rubbed off a little here.

Have to say that even though I've purchased SmartView, this version of Empower seems, to me at least, to perform better. I don't use multiple accounts so I can't judge how well it handles replies, etc. For now, though, the navigation keys seem to perform well, it appears "faster" (I don't get the percentage fuel guage) and, when reading an email, hitting escape doesn't back you out of the program so you're facing the same email but without SV, but right back to the message list.

I'm sure both developers will keep working but, for now, Empower seems to be heading in the right direction.

Empower is faster; however, I find the formatting system of Smartview more appealing. I understand Empower is still beta; but for me, Smartview just works better.

At least 3 of every 5 emails I open with Empower drop back to the standard BB view. Maybe because they are too large for now??

Jut my two cents.

ok.

Empower-

pro
Free
Very fast
Small

con
still beta
1 or 2 minor bugs

Smartview-

pro-
completed(mostly)

con-
not free
slow (loading of images and HTML takes a while)
did i mention not free?

see the big thing that empower will have over smart view is it's size and THE FACT THAT ITS FREE. people dont realise, its the SAME PRODUCT - one is free, and the other is $25!

Not Free

ooohhh - Math major

Free isn't always good...

ramble was free and look what issues we had with it

Forgive my noob of a question but is one of these more secure that the other? For me that's a major issue.

I don't think security is an issue here. Smart view I know just "interprets" the html and outputs it in a better looking form. No information is sent, only recieved (pictures). You should be fine security wise. I would assume empower works in a similar fashion.

To me, I will not compare a beta product and a completed product side by side. Not now.

Also, I will not determine a product as good or bad just because it costs you $25 for the program and another is so good just because it is free.

Some people do it for fun, some people do it for a living. Everyone love free lunch of course, but whilst you are enjoying your free lunch, you gotta think of the other people who are trying hard to buy themselves a lunch with their hard earn money.

So, there, everything has its pro and con. Whilst you are praising something that you like so much, please do not step on something that you dont like or dont agree with.

For me its this.

Empower:

Pros:
1. Fast - I don't have to wait for html to render when i open an email.
2. Very lightweight - 27kb or something.
3. Tighter integration with native email - I can delete from "mailbox and handheld" as well as handheld. So i can reconcile deleted items later. Also most of my native functions work.
4. foreign language packs work fine.

cons -
1. still in beta development.

Smartview:
Pros
1. supports background colors. more options for settings.

cons
1. Slow - i had to wait for sometime before the html showed, at times upto 5 seconds.
2. Some of the functions didn't work for me.
3. Okay, this last one is not related to me, but just so that i mention - it is not able to display correctly on devices with foreign fonts installed.


As you can see, I didn't include price (SV charging $25, Empower free) in my comparsion. Have compared the features, price is an individual issue so that is not a feature comparision..

Overall, i think empower is pointed in the right direction - they talk about folders, and spellcheck and other things.. so i think they have a longterm view..

Hmmm, Empower didn't render HTML images for me, while SmartView did.

Several people captured certain highlights, but so far my vote is for SmartView.

Thanks for the info. I didn't know if the emails went through another set of servers first before they were delivered to the BlackBerry itself which in my opinion isn't very secure. From reading about Smart View I can see that it doesn't go through another set of servers but didn't ready anything about that when I looked into empower.

Currently I really like the fact that empower is faster than SmartView and though it's in beta I am sure the little issues will be resolved once it's final release. I prefer the performance of empower and at a cost of $0.00 you can't go wrong. The extras such as spell check and folder is nice also as it really enhances the overall BlackBerry user experience.

Tried both Smart View and Empower, keeping Empower for its simplicity, speed and displaying of foreign fonts/language installed. I did not realize Empower is free.

In this case, it is!

Empower has color BG now!

so was ramble when it hit the market was best thing since sliced bread. Then nothing it just is what it is no updates no nothing. This thing just came out you have to give it a chance to either fail or succeed. A few days is not what I call tried and true software.

Can someone thats good with computers maybe post comparison pics ? Inbox, same email displayed, options, etc... Something like that.

Good idea ;)

Yep, very good idea to compare the screenshots of a beta product with a finished product. Kudos..

And how do we plan to compare the speeed of Empower with SV?

Since Ramble was bad, so is Empower? Just because both are free????

Very innovative line of thinking..

What abt Google, Firefox, Apache, Wordpress ..

Not to come off as a total jerk, but why? Just load them up and see first hand. Easy to do. Plus you see what it looks like on your screen and not what your PC shows the colors as.

They will do no harm and can be deleted very easy if you don't like them.

Why not?

I would love to see a few screenshots of the same email in both programs.
Some people don't like installing / uninstalling programs over and over, or are even able to Just a simple request ..

*why?*

Just like free programs, it's a nice thing to do heh.

LOL. Must be getting hard to install and delete a program these days. Setting up a program must be just awful then.

.. I think you missed the point. It is not hard for maybe you and I and most people on this forum, but for some people or even people that are new to BB's they want to know what applications they should download without having to download every single one and compare them themselves. That is kind of the point of the forum, for people to help each other out and request things to do.

no my point is free isnt always better. Ramble was a great product when it released everyone who had a bb had it installed then the support just quit.

Google makes money off of advertisers so it can always be good. I never used the others so cant comment on them.

After trying the beta Empower, I am on the longer-trial version of SmartView. So far...even for the $25 vs. free issue...for me, SmartView is the winner.

No, not as fast to open as Empower, but I like the display better and there are more options to play with and personalize. And, having to press the return key twice is not a big deal to me. I just like SV better...so far.

....

Google was free for full 2 years before they started showing ads. But it was great from the day it came out.

And how do you know guys at Empower don't have any such plans.

Look I like free as well as the next guy, and I hope the guys do well. I use several free apps on my 7130e. I think free or cheap is always best, but everytime I use the cheapest I always get burned.

You don't have to hit the escape key twice to get back to your list of messages, what I do is press the escape key a bit longer (1.5-2s?) then it escapes back to list of messages from the smartview version of the message.

Dont even respond. People like that thrive on attention and a few immature ones are found lurking on every broad. Just ignore or add to your block list and they will go away.

(I'm not agreeing/disagreeing with any of this thread, clarification only)

Google is a service provider and is not free - you 'pay' via the ads. This could be compared to the Viigo or PicoNews servers (in a loose way), but not really with a standalone app/plugin.

Apache, Firefox, Wordpress, ThunderBird, FileZilla, TightVNC, OpenOffice, etc. are first and foremost Open Source, which happens to be free (as in beer and speech) - there is a large distinction between Freeware (as in beer only) and Open Source, mentally and logistically they have two different purposes and schools of belief, although there is overlap, of course. Trying to use the two types as comparative examples against each other is not equal or fair.

Gratis versus Libre - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Yep, there is really no connection between the two; Free and Open Source, they relate to two separate attributes of a product.

Open Source pertains to source code, a code that is open to the world by different type of licenses (GPL, LGPL, CC, Apache, etc) Free pertains to the price tag. Open source, by definition, is just that - open source and may or may not necessarily be free. Many free products are NOT open source, and many open source products are NOT free.

I tested Empower and I did not like it. It is because 8 out of 10 times it will go back to my default BB email client. For the Smart Viewer, I can just trigger to display a neat format whenever I need / want to.

Agreed. SmartView is cleaner and just a generally more "polished" program. Can't really quantify it better than that, but I'll pay $25 for that. Once he solves the "delete from mailbox and handheld" option from the SV view "issue", I'm in.

--Mav

100% agreed. That is the only "issue" that I would ask to be fixed prior to me plopping down my $25. And, if it could not be done...I would probably still pay for the program anyway.

After a couple of days into my "trial"...I can't see going back to my old BlackBerry way of displaying mail. I am totally spoiled...

I consider myself a pro salesman...and I have been totally "closed"!!

Kind of funny comparing a beta app only in testing and a released product. Shame.