BlackBerry Bold: The Business iPhone?

September 2, 2008 – 9:06 pm
When RIM announced the BlackBerry Bold in April of this year, they promised the ultimate BlackBerry in terms of form and function.  They have been kind enough to send us an evaluation unit which I spend some time playing around and I thought I’d take the opportunity to post my thoughts on the new model. In short?  The iPhone for Business.

This review will cover the aesthetics, operating system, connectivity options, multimedia and applications.

Aesthetics

BlackBerry Bold

BlackBerry Bold

I don’t think I have to say much here as I’m sure you can see from the photographs that the new design is fantastic. The curves on the device are much more accentuated than on previous models. The keyboard also feels much more comfortable to type on compared to the 8800 and the textured back cover makes it very comfortable to hold in one hand - something I miss with the iPhone 3G.

A major usability improvement is the revised layout of the function keys.  The answer and drop call buttons much easier to press and are much bigger than previous models.

Textured back cover

Textured back cover

It looks like RIM realised that the textured leather back cover won’t appeal to everyone so they provided fully interchangable covers. 

 Operating System

UI courtesy of BlackBerry OS 4.6

UI courtesy of BlackBerry OS 4.6

 The first thing you’ll notice about the new user interface is that it looks much neater then previous releases. Pressing the hot key brings up with full menu with a gradiented background. I’m glad they fixed this as the custom backgrounds on previous models just made the desktop look messy. The only complaint I have is that some of the icons are a bit cryptic - I had to hover over a few to fully understand what they were meant to represent.

BlackBerry Bold - Aesthetics

BlackBerry Bold - Aesthetics

The number of menu items per page has also been reduced as the 8800’s home screen looked a bit crowded. The Bold has 3 rows of 6 icons - if you have lots of applications, beware of scrolling.

Connectivity Options

Transparent dialogs and connectivity menu

Transparent dialogs and connectivity menu

Again, I don’t have to say much here. It has it all. Not only does the device support fast 3G data networks, it has GPS, and Wi-Fi built in as standard. As you’d expect, power hungry 3G networks drain the device battery much faster than GSM but you’ll still get a good run out of the 1500mAh battery - say 24 hours solid with a few hundred e-mails, few hours of calls and some web surfing. The BlackBerry definitely wins over the iPhone here.

Additionally, the device supports A-GPS (Assisted GPS) meaning the device can instantly latch on to your current location based on information from the local mobile tower. This works really well.

Multimedia and Applications

The bold includes a wealth of applications and of course you can download new ones with ease either through your network’s portal, direct from the Internet or have them pushed through your business BlackBerry Enterprise Server. One big plus is the ability to open and edit Microsoft Office files, and the new *.docx format that so many legacy applications have a major problem with.

The music player syncs with iTunes AND normal audio files!

The music player syncs with iTunes AND normal audio files!

The multimedia player on the BlackBerry Bold is fantastic. You can sync iTunes playlists (except DRM protected tracks) to your device with the click of a button. What’s more you can combine this with ordinary ‘Windows Syncs’ through the BlackBerry Media Sync software included with the phone. What a welcome change from iTunes. All changes on your local PC are sent down to your BlackBerry next time it’s docked. No fuss, no hassle.

The #1 improvement from a hardware point of view is the inclusion 3.5 mm audio jack enabling you to use your own headphones with the device.

The new audio player - 'Precision' visual style

The new audio player

You can take photographs on the phone’s 2MP camera and the video player can cope with AVI and MPEG-4 formats plus the DivX and XviD codecs, WMV and 3GP. The resolution of the camera is exactly the same as previous models @ 2.0 Megapixels but the photo quality seems better.

Texas Hold'em - One of many pre-loaded games

Texas Hold Em

The games are definitely worth checking out. As well as the usual BrickBreaker (usually found on Windows Mobile), there’s Texas Hold’em King 2 Poker which is well done for the mobile.

Two other major features which I didn’t screenshot were:

  • Tthe ability to view web pages ‘desktop style’, just like the iPhone. It’s really easy to operate with the trackball acting as a mouse, and what’s more it supports streaming media through the RSTP protocol.
  • The single biggest improvement on the device: The e-mail client. Not only does it deal with HTML emails, but the larger screen and better fonts make them easier to read.

Both of these features out perform the previous models when accompanied by a faster processor in the device and 3G network connectivity.

In Summary

What a device! If I hadn’t just bought an iPhone, this would be my next phone.

Gallery

The music player syncs with iTunes AND normal audio files!
The new audio player - 'Precision' visual style

Transparent dialogs and connectivity menu
Textured back cover

BlackBerry Bold
BlackBerry Bold - Aesthetics

Texas Hold'em - One of many pre-loaded games

UI courtesy of BlackBerry OS 4.6

By nick | Posted in Mobile, Technology | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (1)

Surveys at Grow Live

September 2, 2008 – 3:37 pm
Custom survey styling now available

Custom survey styling now available

By nick | Posted in Off Topic | Comments (0)

Follow up on my trip to Italy

August 29, 2008 – 9:48 pm

I thought I would follow up on my trip to Italy.  What a great place to visit. The purpose of the trip was primarily business, but Pam and I managed to add on a few days at the beginning to take in the sights of Milan, visit Lake Guarda and a drive to Mantova.

After leaving the car with at valet parking, it was a relatively short journey and despite a fairly long delay we eventually arrived at Milan Malpensa at 9:00pm, three hours later than expected.  The Italians are known for their attention to detail and fashion sense; even the Easyjet staff definitely looked more stylish than their UK based counterparts.

There were some adventurous times during our 5-day stay.  We braved the hectic Italian motorways and took a few wrong turns along the way (sometimes TomTom is rubbish) but eventually arrived in one piece at the Air Hotel Linate. Unfortunately the delay meant all that was left at the hotel restaurant was limited fare. Certainly more unfortunate was the nightclub situated beneath our rooms. The bassline of dodgy Italian techno reverberated through the floor and kept us both awake until 3.30am.

After a day of soaking in the sights of Milan and Lake Garda, we arrived at our hotel in Pergognaga (Hotel Ristorante Novecento) where we were greeted with the glowing Italian welcome we’d come to expect.

Suzzara town centre

Suzzara town centre

From a business point of view, the trip was a successful one. The hospitality was amazing and we were given a full tour of the production facility before starting work.  After two long days, the other visitors went home and Pam and I spent a final night in Suzzara before heading back to the airport on Wednesday morning.

One thing I learned from queuing at the airport is that Italian people do NOT know how to form a line.  It is the strangest thing.  The people are great, but if you leave any space between you and the people around you someone will come in and stand in front of you.

Anyway, I’m sure I could go on and on about stuff we did on the trip but I’m sure you have other more interesting things to do :)

Suzzara town centre
Piazza del Duomo
Duomo di Milano

Piazza del Duomo
Lake Garda (about half-way between Venice and Milan)
Some bar on River Po about 20km south of Suzzara

The Alps
Air Hotel Linate
Suzzara, Mantova

Hotel Ristorante Novecento

By nick | Posted in Grow Live, Travel | Comments (0)

iPhone 3G: The Lack of a User-Replacable Battery

July 31, 2008 – 2:09 pm

I am appalled by the iPhone 3G’s battery life.

Apple has put an obsessive amount of effort into creating a fantastic looking product that’s light years ahead of the competition in terms of overall user experience and external aesthetics. Sadly, their obsession for design has resulted in two major shortcomings 1) The lack of a user replacable battery 2) Extremely short battery life.

It looks like the reason for the short battery life on the new iPhone is the power drain from the fast but hungry 3G networks. The graph below shows that if you do nothing else with your phone (calls, texts, email, apps), you can get 197 minutes surfing out of your phone (full story here)

Normally, this wouldn’t be a big deal for me as I work with power hungry handsets on a daily basis, but since O2 are only offering the unit on an 18-month contract and battery retention is claimed at 80% over 300 charge/discharge cycles, it looks like the phone isn’t going to make it to the end of its contract.

The iPhone 3G uses a lithium polymer battery (1150 mAh) which is reported to be able to take >300 full charge cycles whilst retaining 80% of its capacity.

Here are some quick unofficial YourBit tips on how to extend the battery life of your iPhone 3G:

  • You don’t have to charge/discharge the battery fully to get the most out of it. In fact, some reports say this is the toughest work this type of battery can do. Unlike Ni Cad batteries, Li-poly batteries don’t have a ‘memory’.
  • Don’t let it get fully discharged (<10%) too many times. This type of battery lives longer when kept in the middle of its charge range.
  • Avoid topping up the battery. Again, it’s best in the middle.
  • Don’t use cases. The back cover looks like it’s made of aluminuim to dissipate the heat. Covering it up will cause it to heat up and do it more harm than good.

Apple has their own ’suggestions’ to help you improve the battery life of your iPhone 3G:

  • Turn off 3G
  • Minimize use of location services
  • Fetch new data less frequently
  • Turn off push mail
  • Auto-check fewer email accounts
  • Minimize use of third-party applications
  • Turn off Wi-Fi
  • Turn off Bluetooth
  • Use Airplane Mode in low- or no-coverage areas
  • Adjust brightness
  • Turn off EQ

In short, pretty much disable everything that makes it different from a Nokia 3310.

Apple is selling a replacement battery kit for about £50 but one innovative Chinese manufacturer has decided to capitalise on the product’s shortcoming by offering a D.I.Y. kit for $20!

Two minor concerns I have about this are:

  1. The risk of battery explosion during this process (there are a number of cases where this has happened when counterfeit batteries are used with the original iPhone.
  2. If you manage to avoid the fallout from the explosion, surely any “DIY” kit which needs a soldering iron to perform its function is going to end some kind of injury.

If you really want to try this, you can buy the product from here*. It even comes with an ‘instruction menu’ in Engrish.

I would post this using my iPhone on the new WordPress for iPhone app but I can’t run apps just in case I need to make a call :(

By nick | Posted in Technology | Comments (0)

The TELEFUNKEN

July 8, 2008 – 8:23 pm

Never before has there been such a gulf between the excitement of a product’s name (The TELEFUNKEN) and the disappointing reality (an 11″ digital photo frame)

In short, it’s an 11.3 inch LCD with a slide show feature meaning your “pictures change automatically” (actual product marketing). Can you imagine how joyless all your treasured memories would look displayed on its dismal screen.

By nick | Posted in Technology | Comments (2)