Hi - new to forums...from BB addict to iPhone 4!

mishie

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Dec 22, 2010
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Hi everyone!!!

Apologies for the long 1st but wanted to introduce myself to the forum. *waves*

Can't believe it's been nearly 2 weeks since I made the most surprising decision of my technology-crazed life, I made the switch from my beloved Blackberry to the iPhone 4. I surprised all my friends/family but most of all - I surprised myself!

Since then, I've played a lot with my new device and just thought it's time I made a post about why I did it, how I'm surviving and what I absolutely despise about my new toy.

Those who know me know that I've always been attached to the hip to my Blackberry - I've owned and used many (World 8330, Curve 8130, Curve 8330, Bold 9700) and I often joke with my husband that my Blackberry is my "other love" that he has to compete with. It's true - my BB never used to be too far away with me, it even slept in the same bed as us (much to his chagrin) and he's staged many interventions regarding my addiction and using my BB at inappropriate times (haha).

The Blackberry was my first smartphone and it seriously changed my life. Suddenly, I was no longer chained to my computer and I was still instantly connected. I know some people don't like being able to be reached 24/7 but I loved it. It personally gave me so much freedom and since I am a multi tasker at heart, this device was amazing. I loved being more connected to my friends and family, and I was able to do so much on-the-go and I felt so productive. Suddenly I could read/respond to important emails on the bus, in the office, in the waiting room, in line, etc. I could schedule apts, type out reminders, chat with friends, share photos, etc. As time went on, I barely used my Macbook anymore when I got home from work. I stare at the computer screen 24/7 at work, so I had no desire to spend any more time in front of my computer.

I could still do everything I normally do in front of my computer - I had my RSS feeds, email, YouTube, social networking, etc. I loved it.

But after years and years of wedded bliss , and many , many smartphones exploding onto the market - nothing ever tempted me like the arrival of the iPhone 4. Now let's preface this by saying I'm an Apple fangirl and LOVE their products..but I've never liked the iPhone. My husband owned the 2G and I always played with it - it was nice, but certain things about it rubbed me the wrong way and I found I could not type on the glass screen...even when the 3G and 3GS came out, I was not tempted in any way to leave my Blackberry world.

So I suppose every great love sometimes comes to a sad end. I eventually found that the Blackberry OS was just not meeting my needs anymore. I kept waiting and waiting for good updates and promised innovation - it downright started to piss me off that we still didn't have a functional browser and the OS just looked old and aging with each new update - no drastic changes at all! RIM was quickly becoming the dinosaur of the smartphone world.

(I know RIM has greatly improved the browsing experience in OS 6.0, but it's still not going to match the prowess of iOS or Android IMO. )

So many of my friends finally made the leap to iPhone when the iPhone 4 came out - I have to admit, it was sexy and so tempting - the display is FREAKIN' GORGEOUS and the new camera was sweet and I struggled so hard to remain married to my beloved Bold 9700. There were so many things I loved about my 9700 - it was blazing fast, camera was good, multitasking, great keyboard... and so many things I love about the BB OS - great communication device and BBM is amazing...

But I hated the slow re-starts, the fact that you have to reset all permissions when you load a new OS, no frills media player, non-usable browser, etc.

The iPhone 4 started looking better and better even though I know it wasn't the perfect smartphone either.

When my BB finally bit the dust (I still have to reload the OS) after my Asia trip - I made the giant leap of faith and got an iPhone 4.

It was a BIG change to move from using a Blackberry to the iPhone - but I think I'm getting more and more used to it with each day.

I still have to say that the Blackberry is the BEST communication device there is, so if your main goal with a smartphone is to constantly stayed communicated for work and/or personal - stick with this. BB builds the best hardware keyboards on the market - and their push email is the best. You can not beat them! for the business user or someone who needs a true workhorse - this is the best device out there.

Moving from the BB to the iPhone - I found that although the phone has a great UI and is so slick and pretty - you almost need no tutorial to use it - everything feels very "dumbed down". There are also things about the iPhone iOS that are seriously making my scratch my head - sometimes I have to do things that take 4-5 steps when conceivably you should be able to achieve it in 1-2. Customization is very difficult and Apple is sort of evil making you do everything "their way" and having to use all their products (ie. iTunes which many have a hatred with)

I am still getting used to the glass keyboard, I have to say I still prefer my BB keyboard for sure (with the BB I could text and walk with precision) - not this way with the iPhone.

BUT ---

I love the browser (of course!) and the multimedia functions are amazing. I take even more photos now (hard to believe, I know) and sharing them is SO easy and fun! It always took forever with a Blackberry to upload or send/email .

and the apps and games - so fun and I've found great productivity ones too! The apps were always sorely lacking on Blackberry - let's not kid ourselves, their app store is a joke

My favourite iPhone apps

- Dragan Diction - "speak" your words and copy/paste the text for a text, email, etc. 99.999% accuracy, amazing

- This American Life app - great app if you're a fan of this radio show - my favourite podcast in the world. I always try to listen weekly

- Slacker radio - great music app to stream customized stations

- Camera +, Photoshop express, retro camera, instagram, pocketbooth, hipstamatic - all MUST HAVEs if you like taking photos

- Drop Box - big fan of Drop Box, so easy to sync files " in the cloud"

- List Pro - great for making lists and checking it off! I love lists

- Tip Calculator - enough said

- Instapaper - save web pages and read when you're offline...a total lifesaver while travelling and no 3G/wifi connection

- Pulse News - amazing beautiful gorgeous RSS reader - I use this daily

- Fav games: flight control, angry birds, cut the rope, fruit ninja, tap tap revenge, trace

Tell me your faves - I have a ton of apps, but these come to mind as my absolute fav!

What I miss about BB

-their notification system - so easy to customize, the blinking red light was awesome! if I want to check if I got any messages on my iPhone, I have to look at the screen...this makes me less addicted but it's an extra task.

-BBM ...Kik/What's App is just not the same, although kudos for trying. BBM was the best messaging app ever!

-physical keyboard ..typing on a glass screen is just not the same. I am much slower typing on iPhone

-multitasking - way better experience on BB - the iPhone 4 needs serious work.

- BB Bold 9700 had amazing battery life...

Hopes I want for next iPhone

- better notification system
- multitasking that isn't a joke
- even better camera
- widgets on screen (c'mon already!!)
- better battery life

After playing around with the iPhone ,now I'm itching to try out the Android OS, maybe next year ;)

Maybe some day I'll find my perfect smartphone ;)
 

Ipheuria

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Jul 21, 2009
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Welcome Welcome :) nice intro def a cool read. I have to say that I just don't understand people's love affair with the physical keyboard. I used one on an Android phone and it was the worste experience ever which is what I would expect. The BBM thing yes it is a plus in RIMs cap and I don't know why they don't play it up more in advertising. The simplification of the UI is meant for older folks who use the phone, it's easier to catch more flies with a simple interface since more advanced users obviously wont have a problem using something more simple. The Android user interface I can honestly say was not polished and very disappointing. There were cool things but over all very painful to use and I was on FroYo.
 

mishie

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Dec 22, 2010
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Thanks for taking the time to read it all...haha.

Hmm...hope one of my good friends goes Android so I can test it out myself!
 

PhxBlue

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Apr 4, 2009
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I actually read that whole thing too! Anyways, welcome to the fold. I too came from the RIM compound after a few years. I still have a soft spot in my heart for them but the product bores the poo outta me. My iPhone keeps me way more entertained than a BB ever could. The biggest thing for me is the excellent camera. Being a dad of 3 i am constantly taking pics of the young-ens. Im an Android fan as well and own a Nexus One which is cool but it doesnt have the same polish on the apps as iOS does and their game selection is abysmal.
 
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welcome to apple lol i left my bb in oct! and i love the iphone but i do miss my keyboard and notification light! thats the only downfall! and the battery life as well
 

bellizima

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Dec 21, 2010
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ditto everything you said...battery charges up very fast though which is nice mid day...

the iphone is more zippy and smooth and i feel they will get a real notification system and true multi tasking soon...i want to try a 9780 bb but feel i might not be able to go back to bb small screen and cheap feeling build over my solid i4!

there are a ton of productivity apps for 14 that make my road warrior life easier too!
 

anon(4698833)

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A few things...

- BBM is a dinosaur, it hasn't changed in a decade...you have this age old program meant to be essentially "AIM" on a mobile device, and it uses an isolated identification system, eliminating other people from this "luxury" so many BB owners live by. But i have to ask why? I have a curve, and i get BBM'ed all day for work, but there are programs out there (even for blackberry) that work better, include all networks, all types of phones and have more options for what you can send...to me, BBM was a useful tool a decade ago, but today, its like a dial up modem as far as function goes.

- Multitasking? On the Blackberry? I'll give you one thing on the iPhone, what they call multitasking is essentially just programs running in a sleep state that have instant access...but i mean really, when you get down to it, what IS multitasking? NONE of the phones on the market are letting you run various windows while you type here and browse here and adjust settings here all at the exact same time, it is almost an impossibility because A.) Screen sizes (even on the biggest smart phones), and B.) Processor speed (even on the 1GHZ rooted droids and iPhone 4's, it still isn't quite there yet). The terminology is where people stumble, because there is no "multitasking" on ANY phone yet, it is all just varying versions of ways to put programs to the side while you use another program and then come back to the original one without losing whatever it is you were doing...and in that, iPhone 4 does it just as well as anyone else...

- You can keep the widgets, in my opinion they are cheesy and cluttered...there is nothing appealing about the various gigantic clocks and preview windows for facebook or whatever that appeals to my wants on a cell phone screen...BiteSMS is about the only thing i would say would even be considered, to me, as being a "worthwhile" addition to the home screen, and only because you can reply to a text without having to get out of the lock screen. (and even that has issues, as i have gone into in other threads).

- Better camera? I'd venture to say that with the HDR feature on the iPhone 4, the camera IS better than the other cameras out there (including the "10-12 mega pixel" camera which is a complete sham on some of the phones, because it is a complete and over zealous estimate on its honest functionality)...and let's not even get into the video camera, with the 720p resolution, you're looking at perfect quality videos...others can do it, no question about that...but there really is no reason for them to improve the camera on the iPhone 4 because honestly, there isnt another camera in the U.S. market (on a phone) doing it any better than the iPhone.

...with all that said, welcome! I may come across brash at times, but if you're legitimately here to hang out, talk about tech stuff and not go on and on about asinine subject matter, much respect to you!
 

john_v

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Apr 20, 2010
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Welcome aboard! I read through your whole post as well...sounds like the story of my life! Had a hard time letting go of my bold for a 3gs, but finally did it. Unfortunately, like a whipped puppy, I went back when the Torch and os6 came out. Now I"m just waiting for January so I can upgrade to the i4!


Agree with a lot of what Sean posted...especially BBM and the camera on the i4. I've played with a friends i4, and seen the video taken with the phone, then projected onto a large screen with an HD projector, and it's fantastic! Can't wait!

A few things...

- BBM is a dinosaur, it hasn't changed in a decade...you have this age old program meant to be essentially "AIM" on a mobile device, and it uses an isolated identification system, eliminating other people from this "luxury" so many BB owners live by. But i have to ask why? I have a curve, and i get BBM'ed all day for work, but there are programs out there (even for blackberry) that work better, include all networks, all types of phones and have more options for what you can send...to me, BBM was a useful tool a decade ago, but today, its like a dial up modem as far as function goes.

- Multitasking? On the Blackberry? I'll give you one thing on the iPhone, what they call multitasking is essentially just programs running in a sleep state that have instant access...but i mean really, when you get down to it, what IS multitasking? NONE of the phones on the market are letting you run various windows while you type here and browse here and adjust settings here all at the exact same time, it is almost an impossibility because A.) Screen sizes (even on the biggest smart phones), and B.) Processor speed (even on the 1GHZ rooted droids and iPhone 4's, it still isn't quite there yet). The terminology is where people stumble, because there is no "multitasking" on ANY phone yet, it is all just varying versions of ways to put programs to the side while you use another program and then come back to the original one without losing whatever it is you were doing...and in that, iPhone 4 does it just as well as anyone else...

- You can keep the widgets, in my opinion they are cheesy and cluttered...there is nothing appealing about the various gigantic clocks and preview windows for facebook or whatever that appeals to my wants on a cell phone screen...BiteSMS is about the only thing i would say would even be considered, to me, as being a "worthwhile" addition to the home screen, and only because you can reply to a text without having to get out of the lock screen. (and even that has issues, as i have gone into in other threads).

- Better camera? I'd venture to say that with the HDR feature on the iPhone 4, the camera IS better than the other cameras out there (including the "10-12 mega pixel" camera which is a complete sham on some of the phones, because it is a complete and over zealous estimate on its honest functionality)...and let's not even get into the video camera, with the 720p resolution, you're looking at perfect quality videos...others can do it, no question about that...but there really is no reason for them to improve the camera on the iPhone 4 because honestly, there isnt another camera in the U.S. market (on a phone) doing it any better than the iPhone.

...with all that said, welcome! I may come across brash at times, but if you're legitimately here to hang out, talk about tech stuff and not go on and on about asinine subject matter, much respect to you!
 

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