[nobla]

Yeah, theres an article here about his Storm review, and about how he is in Apples pocket

New York Times slams RIM - The INQUIRER

[rextilleon]

If it were only Pogue, then you could say that Apple has him in their pocket. The fact is that the Storm has had so many bad reviews----that's reality. What amazes me is that RIM would release the product with so many bugs. I thought only Apple did that.

[tkorpi]

I'm not sure that Pogue is THAT deep in the Apple pocket. His reviews of other RIM devices have been pretty good if not excellent. Here's his take on the Bold and Flip:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/30/te...ewanted=1&_r=1

And I will add that if his experience with the Storm was anything like my 10 minutes in the VZW store, he was kind in his review! Of course, I'm willing to take my 10 minutes on the demo in the store with a grain of salt. Maybe it needed a battery pull, maybe it's been hammered on in the store, whatever. It sucked. I hit a few buttons, fired up the browser and surfed to the nytimes.com. And that's where my experience ended. It just sat there spinning wheels. I guess I'll stick with my VZW Pearl a bit longer.

[jimmypowder]

Originally Posted by tkorpi

I'm not sure that Pogue is THAT deep in the Apple pocket. His review of other RIM devices have been pretty good if not excellent. Here's his take on the Bold and Flip:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/30/te...ewanted=1&_r=1

And I will add that if his experience with the Storm was anything like my 10 minutes in the VZW store, he was kind in his review! Of course, I'm willing to take my 10 minutes on the demo in the store with a grain of salt. Maybe it needed a battery pull, maybe it's been hammered on in the store, whatever. It sucked. I hit a few buttons, fired up the browser and surfed to the nytimes.com. And that's where my experience ended. It just sat there spinning wheels. I guess I'll stick with my VZW Pearl a bit longer.

I love all of the Storm apologists who have bought this phone and are trying
to convince themselves that this is a good phone.It is not.Maybe down the road but in its present state this is one of the worst phones I have attempted to use.The speed was along the lines of the old Motorola Razr
when switching from menu to menu.Typing will be a nightmare for
heavy email and text users.

I was one of the first folks to play with the Storm when the store opened so it was not "hammered" at the store when I played around with it.The guy next to me had identical problems with a different Storm and we both agreed we were gonna keep our current Blackberry phone.

I love my Blackberry pearl even with the suretype but I'm not gonna buy this
terrible dud.

[purephase]

Originally Posted by michael12005

Remember, the NY Times is so biased it is beyond belief. Why it even endorsed Barck Hussein Obama so it should come as no surprise it likes the lousy i Phone!

Nice. How your brain can possibly draw any correlation between endorsing a politician and a wireless device is simply mind-boggling. Way to throw in the middle name as well. That's not baiting at all, nosireebob.

[drewhazard]

"I love all of the Storm apologists who have bought this phone and are trying to convince themselves that this is a good phone. It is not."

Wow! A Storm Apologist?? There really has been nothing I would have to apologize for with my Storm. I would consider this device at least 80% there...

Anyway... why would I have to apologize?? I can return this phone anytime before mid January since it was purchased during Verizon's holiday purchase period. And believe me... I would be the FIRST person returning it if it sucked as bad as people say.

I am also a heavy user of email and text... I have had zero problems typing with both keyboards. Sure... the first couple of days it was a bit of a challenge getting use to it. But now... no problems and accuracy is spot on.

I gotta say... there are a lot more folks who own this phone and like it... than those who have returned it or plan on returning it.

-gobble -gobble

[complexx]

Originally Posted by juwaack68

I haven't read his article, but I can tell from Jason's comments that it is mostly the guy's opinion, which is well....you know what opinions are like.

I've used BB's for the last 4 1/2 years and today got my hands on a Storm (for about 10 minutes). The little bit that I used it made me drool - I loved it.

I HATED the iPhone. I had one for about a month and couldn't stand typing on it since I couldn't tell when I actually hit a key or what letter/number/symbol I was going to get.

The SurePress is great in that I don't get s letter/number/symbol without a tactile response. Priceless.

I think those that have never used a BlackBerry will be more open to the Storm than those that have used BB's.

You should read the article. Most of the authors suggestions on how this phone "could" have been revolutionary are excellent ideas and should have been implemented as alternative methods to make use of this phone. I'm not saying that the way the phone currently functions is bad, because I do not think that. However, if I had the option to have it operate in some of the forms that the author of the article described, I would be extremely happy with this device rather than impartial to it.

At this point in time, the only reason why I'm considering keeping it is because it doesn't have a trackball/physical keyboard. I'm bored by those phone styles.

[Shatiek]

Unlike some people I had to buy 2 Storms for my household(one for me and one for the wife). Having 2 Storms I can say if this phone was a car I would have returned it days ago. If you don't mind lag, battery dying sometimes within hours. Hmmm wedging paper under the battery for better screen clicking.

About 3 restarts a day not counting my wife's 3 reboots. A camera thats so slow to take a picture a snail might shoot by before the shutter snaps him. IMHO it will be a great phone one day. It's not one today. I do love the phone and will hold off returning my Storm. If you are on the fence I suggest wait for a few weeks. Right now it seems like most people are waiting for the firmware to fix a lot of the problems. I hope it does......

[BallHawk3]

I hate the iphone, and I just hate touchscreen phones in general. They have always driven me nuts. Sometimes you just can't get simple tasks done as fast. However, I will state out of all the touch screen phones I have used so far, the iphone's touch screen is the best....so far.

But....recently a co-worker waited in line and got the storm, with intent of returning it after a few days of use, just so all of us can get our hands on it and test it out. So for the next few days, it was the village bicycle. FYI, all of us at worked had a blackberry, either the Curve, Pearl or 8800

I prob spent a good 20 mins on it. I was impressed! The touchscreen idea is brilliant. People find the whole screen as a button thing awkward, but I think its just smart. I love the idea of being able to touch the screen without having to worry about opening something up I don't want to, and if I do select, I have to pressed down on the screen. it made typing a breeze. I felt going with this idea, it something that anyone can pick up immediately, unlike other touch screens like the iphone, typing takes some time to get used to, which the iphone is the only other non-keyboard phone worth mentioning cause everything else pretty much blows for me. Basically, you can pretty much pick it up and start typing without a problem, theres really no learning curve involved. Just "press" the key you want!

And the storm after all, is still a blackberry, just with a touch screen. It was smart it still has the four buttons on the bottom (send, menu, back, end). For me, having those buttons would be a life saver, as the touch screen pretty much only replaces the trackball.

The touchscreen is pretty darn accurate, considering that the plastics were still on and we had no intent of removing it so we could return it! Wow!

Things I was not happy about...even though its a touch screen and as great as it is, i miss a full keyboard. They did a pretty good job of implementing the touchscreen to replace a keyboard (and i'm sure some people won't miss the keyboard with the storm) but for me, being able to hit numbers and start dialing is something that makes me miss a keyboard. It's the "little" things that matter, the ones you don't think about until its missing. The phone was laggy, and I checked the handheld software, which was the older one. That was my main complaint, the phone being slow and laggy which I heard was fixed with the new update, which we didn't have a chance to put on the phone. And switching from landscape to protrait mode, you'd have to like shake the phone to get it to work and sometimes it would do it itself, which was very frustrating and annoying at times. And the phone was fairly heavy. But overall, my experience was pretty good, considering it still had two lays of plastic on the screen and the "old" slow laggy software. Most of these issues people complain about (lag, reboots, etc etc) can be fixed with software, cause its software related.

Would I get a storm? Prob not, I have no urge to go to Verizon or go out of my way to unlock one for t-mobile. It's a great phone, but not really for me, i love my curve and expect to get the Javelin. I'm not going to say its "not for everyone" cause I truely think most blackberry users would be happy with it. I mean its hard to say, I don' really need the touchscreen so myself wouldn't be going after it. It is an awesome device, but at the end of the day, it's a blackberry with a touchscreen.

Put it this way, if blackberry decieded to kill all blackberry devices and replace them with the storm, I wouldn't be screaming bloody murder and try to leave. As much as I hate and don't care for touchscreen. I can live with the storm and think I would quite be happy with it.

And I think some are right, people who have never used blackberry's will be more open to it, and this is prob most likely to draw them in, stealing user's of other touch screen devices. However, for current blackberry users, this is just another "option." It's not meant to steer everyone away fromt he keyboard, but if you ever though of one before, here's your chance!

Most phones are love or hate. I don't think the storm is one of them. You'll love it, either more than or just not as much as your current blackberry. Which is why I think I can happily live with the storm if it came down to it.

[pastor_rob]

Originally Posted by rextilleon

If it were only Pogue, then you could say that Apple has him in their pocket. The fact is that the Storm has had so many bad reviews----that's reality. What amazes me is that RIM would release the product with so many bugs. I thought only Apple did that.

Again ... those reviews are from those who have probably never used a BB or probably never used an iTouch/iPhone either. I happen to have both.

I just got my STORM ... and I will agree at first touch it is "different" but it is a better different in my opinion.

The Iphone and iTouch are different in their touch value but in "my opinion" I like the Storm's touch value better because with my iTouch I can hit things and go places I really didn't mean to ... since the screen is so ultra sensitive. I like the fact that it does what I need and it needs me to really "touch" it in order to move to where I want to go.

Don't be so biased ... give it a few days to play with ... and you will see how many of those naysayers will switch their tune.

The STORM is HOT ... and it can only get better with the updates ... be patient ... play with it and write back in a few days ... I bet you will see what I am talking about!!!



P.S.
By the way ... I have read many people say here ... they would not pay $50 for a STORM ... will any one of them ... send me a PM ... I will gladly pay you $50 and pay for shipping ... for your STORM ... to take you out of your misery!!!!

I will be waiting to hear from you!!!

[ocgreenmachine]

I see that there are many people who seem to have a dislike for the Storm, and after reading those posts prior to buying my storm, I was in agreement. I ended up going to a verizon store and playing with the demo on site the day after release, and at that point I did not like the storm. It was laggy like the reviews said, and froze several times during my 30 minutes at the store. HOWEVER, I gave the storm a chance and got my grubby hands on one the next day and after playing with it for less than a week, I have to say, although there are some software bugs and some issues with the accelerometer and screen orientation, I LOVE MY STORM. The surepress screen is awesome, I can type almost as fast as I did on the 8830 I owned prior to the Storm. I like being able to use the larger screen to look at websites... I like being able to stream video now (my 8830 couldn't watch youtube). Also, I like having the camera handy for any candid shots I want to take when I'm out in public. I deleted VZ navigator as soon as I got home from Verizon and installed Google Maps instead. I got rid of the language packages that were pre-installed on my phone and any other unecessary programs that were on my Storm when I bought it. I haven't really run into any major issues that have been discussed here such as the battery drain(mine lasted pretty much 8 hours of intensive use playing brickbreaker) or constant reboots. Maybe I lucked out, but overall, I'm happy with the Storm, and look forward to any software updates that will iron out the kinks in the programming.

[sokkermick]

Originally Posted by kenton.vannatten

I read through his article and will attempt to address some things he stated:

He often complains about the typing, the photo of the hand typing on the keyboard shows him using his index finger.... use your thumbs, just like you're supposed to for other keyboard based BB's. (and he mentions that in the article "Hello? Isn’t the thumb keyboard the defining feature of a BlackBerry?") The index finger approach is very common among iPhone users.

He also snidely comments: "A BlackBerry without a keyboard is like an iPod without a scroll wheel." I suppose he's never seen or reviewed an iPod Touch then?

"you could design a brilliant operating system where the two kinds of taps do two different things. Tap lightly to type a letter — click fully to get a pop-up menu of accented characters (é, è, ë and so on)."

It does, if you're typing and you hover over a letter while touching, it will show you alternate characters... click to commit.

"On the Storm, a light touch highlights the key but doesn’t type anything. It accomplishes nothing — a wasted software-design opportunity. Only by clicking fully do you produce a typed letter."

His tone makes anyone who may take stock in his review that it's some sort of physically exerting activity to lightly press down on the screen. Personally, I find it to be an asset that "a light touch highlights the key but doesn’t type anything." No accidental mistypes of adjacent letters, if you're aware of the highlighting. I can run my finger over the keyboard and not get a message with "qwertyuiop" in it.

"It’s no help that the Storm shows you two different keyboards, depending on how you’re holding it"

I'm not sure why this is "bad"? A more unbiased review would've stated... "the Storm shows you two different keyboards, depending on how you’re holding it" and left off the "It's no help" comment.

"offer an @ key when addressing e-mail."

It's not that difficult to quickly switch to "numbers" mode and hit the @ symbol with your right thumb. (though, it would've been nice for the @ symbol to be on the ABC level of the QWERTY keyboard)

"even if your finger seems to be squarely on the proper item, your click often winds up activating something else in the list."

The item you're touching will always highlight, so, I'm not sure how you would ever activate something else? Unless you are not paying attention to the highlighting.

"To scroll a list, you’re supposed to flick your finger across the screen, just as on the iPhone. But even this simple act is head-bangingly frustrating; the phone takes far too long to figure out that you’re swiping and not just tapping."

You can adjust the scroll rate in the Settings... I cranked mine up to 6 (the highest) and again have no such issues.

"My favorite: When I try to enter my Gmail address, the Storm’s camera starts up unexpectedly, turning the screen into a viewfinder — even though the keyboard still fills half the screen"

I did see this once... but I also had my right-side convenience key set to Camera... since changing it to Calendar, no problems.

I may not be a high-paid NYTimes reporter, but I am pretty tech-savvy and have opinions of my own. I encourage everyone to give the phone more than a week with heavy use before drawing any conclusions. And tweak your settings to optimize it to suit you.

I completely agree with you. In fact immediately after reading his post I fired off an email to him basically calling him out on those same things. It made me wonder how much apple(Jobs) was leaning on him to give the device a bad review. I mean c'mon, apple even put out a massive update to the iphone the very same day the storm launched. I'm pretty sure if he forgot how to use the iphone and tried the storm again, he would write a much different review. The iphone and the storm are two entirely different phones.
I'll include my email and his response below.
Btw, to the person that said apple has fixed the safari browser issues, I have an ipod touch, and I know a bunch of people with Iphones that safari still crashes consistently.

Hi! Excellent analysis! Thanks for sending it along...

I should note that my BlackBerry was not a beta unit. In fact, they sent a second one just to make sure...

dp


On 11/27/08 2:44 PM, "sokkermick" wrote:

> It sounds like you are reviewing the storm on the premise that it is
> supposed to function like the Iphone (tap to select a letter, click to
> bring up a menu). That is not at all how the storm was designed to
> operate. The purpose of the click was to eliminate (but at the very least reduce) typing errors.
> The reasoning for this tap+click system is so you are absolutely sure
> you are pressing the correct letter.
I got my storm on saturday (the day after
> launch) and I did find that the typing (compared to my blackberry
> 8700) was a little slow, however since I have been using the device
> for a few days, my typing speed has improved greatly. In fact I am
> writing this email on my storm. I haven't had any of the issues with
> applications doing random or unexpected things leading me to believe
> you had beta software on your review units (this has been the case as
> a lot of posts on blackberryforums.com ). The camera app still sucks however.
Suretype has its own tricks too. It works
> best if you use it like you would a 'dumb' phone. Maybe it is just how
> it learned my typing style, but I find that if you want to get to the
> second letter on a button you half to press twice in quick succession.
Now all of my
> friends that were interested in the storm are no longer interested
> after playing with my device for a few minutes. All of them were
> completely baffled on the operation of this phone (they all were
> trying to use it like an iphone). I have an ipod touch and I can tell
> you that these two devices are not even comparable. I was able to play
> with the storm simulator for weeks before the device was released, so
> for me, the transition to the storm was relatively painless.
What I tell people when they ask about the storm is if
> they are accustomed to an iphone, they need to forget how the
> operation of that works to learn and enjoy the storm. I tell
> blackberry users that have either the curve or the bold that they
> should stay with their device if they are too ingrained in typing lots of emails a day.
In all, I think you should
> take a second look at the storm with these things in mind, I would
> guess your opinion on it would change drastically.
> Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

---
David Pogue
Tech Columnist, The New York Times

[joeygator]

Long time user of BBs. Currently the curve. Love it. Tried the Storm in the VZW store. the lack of knowledge by the rep didn't surprise me as this is usually pretty normal. Personally, I did not like the touch screen. I can see the need for it to compete with the iPhone and it should do that well.

[Arcangel]

total biased crap and these people who play with the storm for 10 minutes and pan it are just ignorant. I have had the phone since day one. I have also had 5 different BB and the iphone. The storm is a great phone and most people i know that have it not only love it but dont have any of these so called buggy issues. the few that have them have expressed that they are not bad enough to return the phone. Also they are waiting for the software updates and are sure rim will fix these issues. As I have noticed the beloved idiotphone is still recieving updates, and still can't do simple mms or copy and paste.

[Jadey]

Review from The Times (UK)
Review - Blackberry Storm: prepare to be let down - Tech & Web - Times Online

[Donbp]

Sounds to me that anybody with a myriad of complaints has never bought any phone on the first day of release before in their lives. This is not uncommon at all. There is only so much testing a minimum of people can do. It's not until it is in the hands of thousands or hundreds of thousands that all the bugs will ever come out. Just look at the iphone if you want an example.

[4Runner]

I agree...these reviewers need to mention the bugs but also could add a comment that a firmware update should fix it. Now, if they don't like or do like how, say, the browser functions and how it renders pages, that is worth reviewing. The review should be based more on functionality and design. Also, I wonder how long these reviewers use a device prior to writing their column.

[ArgonNJ]

Originally Posted by jletendre

I have no doubt this device makes Apple nervous.

I doubt it. Not ever the BB faithful like it.

[modulo]

pogue doesn't write articles, he writes long winded hyperbole's. i don't doubt that he was frustrated, but he is obviously over-exaggerating to the point of ridiculous. for some contrast, try reading gary krakow's review.

[Donbp]

Originally Posted by ArgonNJ

I doubt it. Not ever the BB faithful like it.

Of course it makes them nervous, it does corporate email and it does it with security. Also, in the US at least it does it on VZ and not ATT. Two huge advantages right off.