[Raptor464]

Well hell, I'd like to see a lot of things, doesn't mean its going to happen. Doesn't hurt to dream.

[NJBlackBerry]

True. Loved that 950
AA battery. Phone never bothered me.

[Raptor464]

Those should have been called "SmartPagers", much like the "SmartPhones" of today.

[jsconyers]

Originally Posted by Raptor464

Those should have been called "SmartPagers", much like the "SmartPhones" of today.

Made me think of this scene from The Hangover

Alan Garner: Do you know if the hotel is pager friendly?
Lisa: What do you mean?
Alan Garner: I'm not getting a sig' on my beeper.
Lisa: I'm not sure.
Alan Garner: Is there a payphone bank? Buncha payphones? Business.
Lisa: Umm, there's a phone in your room...
Alan Garner: That'll work.

[skeevecr]

Originally Posted by mi_canuck

unbelievable how many on this board can't take a bit of criticism when it comes to their beloved blackberries... my comment was meant to elicit a response... but obviously many think RIM doesn't need to change a thing... BBs are great devices, I love mine... but let's not be ignorant to progress...

So you didn't think that a phrase like "Android, iPhone and WebOS are all slowly leaving BB OS in the dust..." deserves a response from people that think it is wrong then?

Personally, I am fine with people criticising blackberries if they have specific complaints such as the browser and can explain their complaint, but these nebulous whinges about how much better other OS actually are or how old the blackberry is just come across as childish.

[jojomexi]

i have had much experience, both with the iphone 3G and 3GS, as well as the blackberries(currently own a 9630 Tour for Sprint). i have loved both phones very much, but blackberry does need to step it up in a few places. this isnt going to be bashing against the blackberry, moreso just a plea of changes..

keyboard: I want to start out by saying i LOVE the qwerty keyboard of my blackberry. i also love the capacitive touchscreen on iphones. both phones are easy to text on, but in my opinion my blackberry does beat the iphone in the catagory of efficiency and comfortability.

browser: oh man the browser.. i would have to say the browser of the blackberry is just so HORRIBLE as to what they could make it into. im a HUGE data-user when it comes to cell phones, and i will have to say i used the browser on my 3GS WAY MORE than i use my blackberry's currently.

memory consumption: needs to be greatly improved as well. imo, i would have to say speed consistancy on a blackberry is not bad, but its also not great. with an iphone, i never had to really restart my phone due to lagging issues. on the rare occasion that it would free, a simple 30-45 second soft reset would do the trick. with my blackberry, i find that once i have so many text messages in my sms/mms inbox, i need to clear out everything, otherwise it starts slowly getting laggy and choppy(ex: i write a quick text saying ok, and go to hit menu then send, and it will take at least a few seconds longer to actually pop up the menu and/or kick back to the screen to send the message. this has to be my biggest irritation with the device, as i want a smart phone that is always going to be snappy for me. not a device that i have to clear data every once in awhile, or pull the battery, or backup and hard reset my phone.

next thing is provisioning: i recently moved into an apartment that gets very choppy signal, and i know the first thing that comes to peoples mind is "this section is stupid, its the carriers fault not the phone". i really wish blackberries could find a smoother transition of provisioning for when the service is not very efficient. everytime the phone loses data services (for sprint, going from 1X/1XEV to 1x), it will lag for anywhere from 5 seconds up to a good 20-30 seconds to unprovision all the services that require data. Same goes vice versa when connecting back to the network and receiving data. now, in my situation, multiply that by about 10 times every hour at least. it gets very frustrating!! it would be nice for RIM to bridge this gap so that users going in and out of service dont have to deal with even more lag on their phone.

camera/camcorder: although sporting a 3.2MP camera just as the iphone does, i believe the codecs and lenses they use for the blackberry are a bit cheaper. comparing picture quality, you can tell that the blackberry is just a bit fuzzy. im not THAT picky, so i mean the camera quality is still good, but they do need to invest on a better camera if they expect a wider range of people to use this device. the camcorder is the same way. video quality on the blackberry just isnt as clear. The picture quality of the video is on par with the camera, but the audio compared to the iphone is just totally not as great. sure you can hear things well still, but anyone whos used both phones can clearly tell the difference. the one BIG thing that the blackberry does have over the iphone in this catagory is the EXTREMELY bright flash that accompanies it. it helps a LOT in dark/inside locations, and i love it!

notifications: the notifications seem on par with the blackberry. the only thing i dislike about this part is the support from the 3rd parties. the UI's for the main programs i use involving notifications(facebook/aim/myspace) are just downright ugly. also, lately, i can no longer retrieve my comments when someone posts something on my facebook page. data doesnt load properly/fast enough at times, and specifically when connecting to facebook, if you go to your friends page, it begins updating your friends list, which takes FOREVER. then it will stick at 99% for a good while. During this whole time my phone begins to randomly lag due to the constant transfer of data going on.

i know this may seem like a one sided rant, but i am posting this to rant to people about what blackberry should really improve on. they are obviously a great supplier for their blackberry devices, but there is also a lot of room for them to improve! i hope to see some great improvements with RIM this year, and i shall be updating to the latest .419 beta version and hoping this improves my experience with my Tour!

[skeevecr]

Interesting that you found the camera worse than the one on the iphone, most people find that the cameras on the blackberry outperform their relatively low amount of mp and I don't know anyone else who has ever had anything nice to say about the camera on the iphone.

[tourista]

i too have had experience with the iPhone and many BB devices.. as far as the camera is concerned, I will have to agree with skeevecr... my 9630 does an amazing job at everything I want out of a smartphone, especially the camera, its fast with my 5.0 beta, and takes awesome pictures, from macro to nighttime with minimal ISO noise and color distortion. The LED flash is very sufficient as well.

I would honestly like to see a droid sized/form factor full touch/keyboard device from RIM. I miss having a touch screen, but not enough to give up my full qwerty, that being said I don't think the pre-release qwerty-touch device running around under the name magnum is that impressive.. RIM needs to go for a whole new form factor to see if they can make it work. The full qwerty candybar devices are their bread and butter, but I know they could do great things, they'd be kidding themselves if they denied trying to market to a more consumer, less business market, they still are THE smartphone provider in the business world, but are making strong bounds into the general consumer market.

So I think the Full QWERTY, Full-size Glass Touch Screen Device, with CDMA/GSM/LTE radio at least 5MP camera with a real flash strobe, Wifi, OS 5.1 * i know its out there* lol, at least a 1Ghz Processor, at least 512mb of app/flash memory, at least 8GB internal storage with microSDHC slot, a revised media player.. maybe even a mobile version of Winamp, and possibly a more Android approach to 3rd party applications. All that in one device, yeah it might be a huge f****n phone.. but I'd rock it.

[kctech88]

Don't care about "more apps" or whatever. Don't care about MP3s. More storage size is nice, easier access and viewing capability of Office Documents would be great, ability to connect and use a TCP/IP Printer would be incredible.

Biggest potential feature for me in any phone upcoming would be reliable voice-to-text (dictation) software.

[unbb]

Originally Posted by kctech88

Don't care about "more apps" or whatever. Don't care about MP3s. More storage size is nice, easier access and viewing capability of Office Documents would be great, ability to connect and use a TCP/IP Printer would be incredible.

Biggest potential feature for me in any phone upcoming would be reliable voice-to-text (dictation) software.

TCP/IP printing? I do that. Are you on a BES? Also haven't had issue dealing with office docs in a while.

What do I want? I want integration with my sync system in my car so it reads my texts and emails to me. Sadly, that's a Microsoft problem since none of the smartphones seem to be on that list.

[lkeltner]

Originally Posted by kaip911

Have a screen the size of the storm and have a slide out keyboard... That would be cool...but I like the key on the bolds...hmmm

yeah, basically if they made a blackberry similar to the new moto droid (give a bit better tactile separation on the keys) then i'd be sold in a hot second.

[the-economist]

Wirelessly posted

RIM got the mail part right but it's getting slow in implementing solutions that would bring the mobile experience par to the ibricks and the droids.

Bolt browser is a 14 months startup and they already have succeeded developing a better web browsing experience than the tyrannosaurus RIM calls a browser.

Why don't they buy them already and integrate the codebase to the OS. At this stage Bolt would probably sell for a buck.