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Disillusioned BlackBerry (ab)user

tmarkt utd

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Jun 24, 2011
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I'm not a hater or a troll or whatever else, but, I am getting frustrated with waiting for a headline grabbing phone from RIM.
I would like to ask a few questions from people who know this platform. I have only used a BlackBerry smartphone, so my experience is all RIM.
My main needs are text communication - be it SMS, email, IM (BBM mainly) or facebook/twitter. I don't make a massive amount of phone calls.
I have to be able to use Wi-Fi as I live in a poor reception area for my network and although this is an issue, becasue of my heavily discounted broadband by having a mobile phone from them, I am happy to stay - as long as I can use Wi-Fi. I currently use the Wi-Fi for sending SMS, email, IM (BBM mainly) and facebook/twitter and the odd time I make/receive a call.
I have 6 email accounts on my BB, although I could trim this down to 3 or 4 without too much hassle. And I have 2 calendars that I use all the time.
I LOVE being able to customise the sound notifications as I am not a fan of the 'standard' tones, and I like to change regularly as I get bored with the same sound all the time. (I am aware that I would have to give up my flashing LED if I leave BB.) I also like the facility to place the handset into a different profile, i.e. louder with vibrate for outside, and no vibration with quiter volume for inside etc.
I would like decent battery life (minimum of a full day on one charge)! The auto on/off facility is good too for sleep time.
I have been able to see that the apps I would like to use are available (and them some), so, no problems there.
Auto Text to add own words to a dictionary so that a few letters can change into the word I want it to is fairly important also.
A good weather app with location based service is quite important as I travel around/stay away a lot in my job.
The ability to get a lot of music on the phone would be nice (32gb pref) but is not a deal breaker as I currently use my iPod over a phone for music, plus the iPod behaves better with iTunes than any non-Apple product.
Good facebook/twitter integration with the platform for adding pictures and getting notifications in a timely manner is quite high up the list.
Multi-tasking to be able to switch between apps is something I use a lot also.
Apologies if this is a lot of information, but IF someone can assist me it would be greatly appreciated.
I also would like to apologise if I am just too deeply ingrained in BB and I offend anyone with my niave comments, but these are the things I feel are the main considerations for me at this time. My Bold 9700 OS6 is on contract and that contract is now ready to upgrade, and like most men out there, I am itching to get a new gadget/toy to play with.

Many thanks in advance,

Mark - the noob
 

Hup55

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Welcome to the club. I was a die hard RIM customer up until this past month and a half. I purchased a PB and a iPad 2. I also was using a Torch as my daily smart phone. Last week I picked up the iPhone 4 and haven't looked back since. You won't regret switching. Trust me. With iOS 5 coming with imessage and the cloud service it's only going to get even better. I just wish I switched earlier. I feel sorry for RIM but after owning 12 bb devices and both my sons and my wife still on bb products I am done. When the new iPhone comes in the fall I will upgrade and give my wife the iPhone 4.
 

munchkinsdad

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Jan 23, 2011
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I've been a bb only user for ten years. I recently turned to iPhone and wish I had much earlier. Sure three are a couple things that I miss about the bb, but Apple is working on it and I'm sure they will eventually master it. All your concerns are moot...as they say..."theres an app for that." I say, "jump in!" you won't regret it. Perhaps buy it second hand and then grab the iPhone 5 when it comes out
 

poisoned10

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Mark, I, too, was a die hard BlackBerry user for many years. I was dead set AGAINST iPhone and it being completely touch screen. I always said I would NEVER own one. I got my first iPhone in Feb. of 2010 which was a 3Gs after I bought my wife one and played with hers for a few days.

The iPhone will do MOST of what it is you are wanting out of the box. Notifications are bad and there are not many tones to work with. Profiles are non-existant and battery life is bad. If you are willing to jailbreak the iPhone it will do 90-95% of what you are wanting.

Jailbreaking has apps that will give you: profiles, a customizable dictionary, custom tones and so much more.

The biggest adjustment is battery life. I had to buy the Mophie Juice Pack case to accommodate my usage. Being on wi-fi helps save battery life, but I would always keep a charger near by.
 

poisoned10

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To add to my story... I got my first iPhone in Feb. of 2010. Loved it so much that I got the iPhone 4 on launch day. I started missing my physical keyboard so I ditched the iPhone 4 after a few months and got the BlackBerry Torch. I have since ditched the Torch for another iPhone and I don't ever see myself owning another BlackBerry.

I LOVED every BlackBerry that I've had, but unfortunately, they are all far behind in almost all aspects of the iPhone.

I know BlackBerry users claim that no other device can handle email like the BB, but I will tell you, that is a lie. You can set up your gmail account through exchange on the iPhone and it is instant.
 

munchkinsdad

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battery life is bad.

The biggest adjustment is battery life. I had to buy the Mophie Juice Pack case to accommodate my usage. Being on wi-fi helps save battery life, but I would always keep a charger near by.

I love the battery life on my iPhone. Better than the s2 I had!
 

poisoned10

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It might be better that your old S2, but it sucks coming from a BlackBerry.

I would charge my BlackBerry every other day and not have to worry about the batter dying. I can barely make it a day on my iPhone battery, if that.
 

Hup55

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It might be better that your old S2, but it sucks coming from a BlackBerry.

I would charge my BlackBerry every other day and not have to worry about the batter dying. I can barely make it a day on my iPhone battery, if that.

That is weird. My iPhone 4 gets way better battery usage than my Torch. I am a heavy user during the day with email and messaging as well as text messaging. I never used to browse on the Torch because the browser was horrible but I browse a lot on my iPhone. I know a business colleague has horrible battery life on his 3G s.
 

swooshme

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my 3GS battery life sucked. I had chargers all over the place because I could never get through a full work day without plugging it at some point. BUT iPhone 4 battery life is WAAYY better. I usually can at least make it to the end of day with 40-50 percent. I know everyones usage varies, but that's my difference with two difference phones same work days.

I'm not a BB user, never was, my wife had a pearl quite a while back. Anyhow, I too was super resistant to the iPhone wondering what the big deal was. I had a Treo 650,got my wife an iphone 3G, she didn't put that thing down for a week, always going on about how great it was an everyone should get one. So I found a good deal on one and have never looked back. Got the 3GS soon after, iphone 4 on launch day, got the wife an iphone 4 couple weeks later. Eagerly awaiting iPhone 5 (or whatever they'll call it). Between siblings and spouses and parents, we have 10 iphone 4's between us. It's crazy.
 

dilipc

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I've a question for you ex-BlackBerry users and abusers. How did you transfer all your data to your iPhone? Could you transfer your data from the Password Keeper too?
Any help would be appreciated, since I intend a shift to iPhone 4 soon.
 

munchkinsdad

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dilipc, it wasn't really too bad. It depends on what your data is, of course. All I did was back up my sd card files, pics, mp3 ringtones, wallpapers etc to a folder on my pc. Contacts I just synced with gmail.
Then I pointed itunes to the folder I backed up sd card to and that was it!

Since then, I made some revisions as I became more used to the way iTunes works, but that's how I started and it went smooth for me.
 
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bcarruth62

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It might be better that your old S2, but it sucks coming from a BlackBerry.

I would charge my BlackBerry every other day and not have to worry about the batter dying. I can barely make it a day on my iPhone battery, if that.

I use all 3 platforms at my job, using them to monitor an app which is all we use them for. As far as the battery life goes the blackberry Torch we use constantly dies in 8 hours after a full charge, the iPhone4 tops both the blackberry and android phone we use by far. For my personal use my iPhone4 will last me 2 full days of moderate use.
 

battscrew#IM

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dilipc, it wasn't really too bad. It depends on what your data is, of course. All I did was back up my sd card files, pics, mp3 ringtones, wallpapers etc to a folder on my pc. Contacts I just synced with gmail.
Then I pointed itunes to the folder I backed up sd card to and that was it!

Since then, I made some revisions as I became more used to the way iTunes works, but that's how I started and it went smooth for me.

Used gmail as well for contacts and my calendar - just remember to set up you gmail as an exchange acount on your iphone (not sure if there is another)
 

Hup55

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I've a question for you ex-BlackBerry users and abusers. How did you transfer all your data to your iPhone? Could you transfer your data from the Password Keeper too?
Any help would be appreciated, since I intend a shift to iPhone 4 soon.

Luckily for me I had bb desktop manager on my Mac desktop. I just backed up my entire bb unto my Mac. Then plugged my iPhone 4 in and synced it via iTunes. Worked like a charm.
 

dilipc

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Sounds good. There's no way to back up notes and password keeper data I'd imagine. I used the Google route, and all is good. Many thanks all for helping me shift from a BB 9780 to an iPhone4. I'm having a truly amazing experience!
 

we1000

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Jul 3, 2011
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blackberry and iphone

i am a blackberry user for 7 years and iphone user for 4 i think the two has good and bad features, like blackberry email push service, or like iphone 4 apps , i use the the phones , for some stuffs use blackberry for others iphone 4.
 

tmarkt utd

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Jun 24, 2011
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I made the switch - and I'm incredibly happy - even ditched the PlayBook and went iPad4 - and my wife went from BB to i5. Thanks to everyone for your help.
Sent from my iPhone4, soon to be upgraded to an iPhone5S/6 or whatever it gets named :)
 

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