I have both the Blackberry Bold and the iPhone 3GS. To me they are both great devices, but they are different. Blackberries are more for productivity and emails, while the iPhone is more for leisure and the Safari browser beats every other browser on any device.

However, I just recently noticed one major shortfall in the iPhone: no push email. At best, the iPhone can set to fetch email every 15 minutes. With Blackberry you get email immediately. It is pretty cool to send somebody with a Blackberry device an email and get a response back in a few minutes. I wonder why Apple doesn't have such a basic feature.

What else does the Blackberry have that iPhone does not have?

Also, to be fair to our iPhone users: what improvements can RIM make to compete with some of the iPhone features?

Actually, BIS polls for emails every 15minutes, so it is basically the same as the iphone.
The only exception is yahoo which is instant and gmail is more like near instant.
This is for other email addresses obviously, the @carrier.blackberry address is instant.
But it isnt recommended for use.

There are hundreds of threads on this. Seriously...








Ohh and a physical keyboard as well as a removable battery

Hate to disagree with you Midnightdraven, but if an IMAP mail server provides support for it (IMAP IDLE), the BIS can detect new email in real time and push it to the Blackberry almost instantly. Since I run my own mail server, I support that and get mail from my mailbox every bit as quickly as from GMail or even the Webmail carrier address.

Without that support, you are correct, the account is polled every 15 minutes.

Ok, that makes sense.
Hotmail and most ISP email accounts don't support it.
Lots of ISP accounts dont even support IMAP.

Does the iPhone integrate with a corporate BES to give you global address lookup yet? I know they've planned to update the iPhone and make it capable, but the last version I played with (and dropped like a smelly cat turd) didn't have this capability.

My buddy with an Iphone pays $100 a year for push email

I'm sorry but this topic is a big "who cares".

Get and use whatever device(s) work for YOU in your particular situation. It doesn't matter what "someone else" heas.

He pays an extra $100 per year, on top of the normal monthly iPhone plan?

I believe he is referring to MobileMe...

Apple - MobileMe - Your iPhone, Mac, and PC. In perfect sync.

I am.

I do actually like the Idrive that he also gets. Makes sharing larger files pretty easy - you just send them a link. Give them the password and they download the file.

But, you can use SugarSync to do the same with Blackberry (2 gb storage is free)

We have class. ;)

For what improvements RIM can make: How bout customer service, not just from RIM but carriers too. Its such a hassle to call RIM or you carrier about a problem with the blackberry. But with the iphone, its simple: go to the apple store and they will either fix it or give you a new one. For example, my cousin had a problem with the iphone, went to the apple store, even after 30 days of purchasing it, they gave her a brand new iphone because they were unable to fix it. Now that is customer service. Now lets say you call RIM, they'll ask you to send it in or w/e, wait two weeks, then they will send it back without doing a thing telling you that we were unable to fix it. Then you have to call them again, tell them that and then they say they will send a replacement. Then after like another 2 weeks, your replacement comes.

And to add to my previous post, it is pathetic that the iphone is so user friendly that their users cannot fix their phones themselves. They have to rely on replacements.

Not with BES, but if your company uses Exchange, then yes, the iphone will integrate with it through active sync. And yes, that would give you global address lookup as well as your own calendar, address book and all your mail folders in Exchange.

And no ability to invite people to meetings. A show stopper for some.

Yes, with ActiveSync you have push e-mail (assuming the non replaceable battery stays alive) and OTA sync of contacts, calendar and tasks. No notes. Or a replaceable battery.

Blackberries have micro sd card readers, iPhones don't. Even though the iphone can hold up to 32 gb, it still helps to be able to transfer it from one place to another.

security? Or is that too broad

Wirelessly posted

You can see my article at the address http://kirrinjones.wordpress.com/2009/08/10/the-blackberry-vs-iphone-saga/

Moved to BlackBerry Versus

I have two yahoo accounts on my iPhone and I use push with them (for free.) I know this well because I probably receive 100 emails a day.

Just saying.

Also, I think you can also get gmail push on the iPhone now.

Wirelessly posted

Some of the features outlined in my article that was written awhile back, was resolved in the latest OS upgrade for the iPhone. But it just shows that what we have as a standard feature, the iPhone had to acquire at a later iteration.

I took my broken Storm to VZW last week and was out with a new one in less then 15 minutes.

Remember, guys, let's compare today's Blackberry devices against today's iPhones, and by that I mean the new 3GS series with the latest firmware. The copy and paste issue and MMS arguments are no longer valid. Because I own a 3GS, I would have to say that it's a great device.

All devices evolve over time. For years BBs had no camera, other devices did. BB still has a crap browser, other devices have moved beyond this and have excellent ones. There are no "standard features". Each device/platform is different.

hey, another thread on the bb and iPhone.

i'll repeat this again: it depends on the user and their preferences. if you want a funky 'leisure' phone with tons and tons of apps, go for the iPhone. if you want push email, more 'corporate' phone, then blackberry. SIMPLE. each platform is different, each phone is different, and each person has a different requirement in a phone.

-.-

Why isn't there a phone that does both, or yet better, have the best of all the qualities?

I want: a Blackberry with the Safari Browser and the iPod touch screen, the physical keypad and new trackpad, along with the Nokia 95 speakers and the N82's xenon flash and video camera. I want it all!

I think such a device is available, in fantasy land

If you listen to Steve Ballmer, Windows Phone 7 will probably do all that and clean your house all at the same time.

Now if that were possible.. life would be sweet.

i cant be the first to mention this: modem tethering. Simple flawless without some kinda hacky 3 party sketchy app, modem tethering. On vzw my tour works as a modem everywhere (for the most part).
With that said, I wish BBerry would adopt the T-mobile wi-fi voip so my berry would work at my "in the woods" no service home. Maybe I'll just move

With iPhone or iPod Touch using GMail, all you need is OS 3.1 and an app called GPush which is $.99 off the App Store. Yes, it will push and give you a home screen notify, plus some blinking audible sound.

Boxcar, which is another paid but cheap app, you can add push notifications on Twitter and Facebook. Add .99 cents for every email account. So if you have five email accounts, you're paying five dollars for a one time fee.

There are other push apps in the app store, such as Notification.

I don't have an iPhone but I got an iPod Touch. When in range of Wifi, I can often hear the device go blink blink with every new email, Twitter or Facebook update, as well as various breaking news updates.

On the iPhone and iPod Touch, other apps have their own system of notifications.

Yahoo Messenger
AIM
CNN Mobile News app
MSNBC mobile news app

If there is breaking news for example, the app displays a message on the screen with some blink blink audible notification.

What the iPhone OS lacks is a unified message box. The push notifications disappear from the screen when other app sends the next notification. As a result there is no activity log of incoming notifications to review. The home screen only displays the most recent notification.

All these notifications do not need some Exchange sync.

a lot of the issues are also cured if you jailbreak your iphone... tons of additional apps to use at the same time it opens an ungodly amount of functionality...

i know what a lot of people will say about jailbreaking the iphone but, how is it any different than putting a different carrier's version of the bb os on their berries?

jaibreaking is injecting code, into the boot process of the phone that allows system access.

loading a different carrier os onto a blackberry does not inject code into the boot process to gain such access.

see the difference?

Like people have said it doesn't matter too greatly what one phone has over another as long as you've got the right phone for you. Then again you have both

I suppose a lot of it will depend on whether you prefer keys and buttons over a touchscreen. I tried typing something on my brothers iPod Touch and it didn't feel right for me. Buttons are like a security blanket.