Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Firechief2]

Occasionally I come across a product that impresses me enough to pass it on to others --- this is one of them. I have always had Windows based smartphones but was not 100% happy with them. About a month ago I purchased the BlackBerry Storm and WOW -- great "push" email, SMS, organizer, mp3 player,full qwerty touch screen keyboard,etc. (oh yes, the phone part works well too). If you are looking for a new "smart phone" you may want to check this one out.

[2018_FLTRXSE]

Thanks for the review... the Storm is on my maybe list... my LG NV is acting up.... too much in my chest pocket in the rain!

I heard about complaints about the keys being too small for fat fingers (like mine)

[hogasm]

Occasionally I come across a product that impresses me enough to pass it on to others --- this is one of them. I have always had Windows based smartphones but was not 100% happy with them. About a month ago I purchased the BlackBerry Storm and WOW -- great "push" email, SMS, organizer, mp3 player,full qwerty touch screen keyboard,etc. (oh yes, the phone part works well too). If you are looking for a new "smart phone" you may want to check this one out.

Not trying to change the subject but did you purchase your Black Berry outright or sign a new plan for 2 years to get one.

I need a new phone and am looking but not spend a fortune

[Puzzled]

It is interesting that this subject comes up as I called Verizon Saturday. My renewal date is Feb 6th (when I lost my phone in Cincy last year). I was inquiring about the same phone. It looks like it adds about $35.00 to my bill as I'll need the data? plan. I also opted for the insurance on this phone. The two year contract price made the phone $250 with a $50 mail in rebate.

I had looked at an I-Pod touch that would get me Wi-Fi but not true Internet. I think I'm going to leave my MP3's on one device and keep the phone/internet as a separate device.

My Bud has a Storm and he really likes it. My concern is durability hence the insurance. I have one of those waterproof contractor phones now and it has been the most durable phone I have ever owned.

[hard10]

I have been looking at the Storm seriously as a alternative. I currently have a Palm Treo 755p and I love it. However, the web surfing leaves a lot to be desired. I have just been using the Google G1 for the last month. It was one of the company phones from Florida and was on the T-Mobile network. Coming from the Palm, I would not recommend the G1 to anyone! The web browsing portion was very good, in fact better than the Palm, but that was all. For any type of business applications I would stick with the Palm or Storm. Palm has announced at the Consumer Electronics Show the new Pre that will only be available on the Sprint network in the beginning. This looks to be my next phone unless someone can convince me otherwise.

Here is a great site to review electronics: http://www.infosyncworld.com/

[BalDeagle]

I was thinking about getting the Blackberry Storm until I spoke to one of Vodafones (Cable & Wireless I think in the USA) advisors. She discussed all my requirements with me - business/pleasure/texting/internet etc etc and suggested that I get the Blackberry Bold. So I did and I have to say I am very impressed with it. The main difference between it and the Storm is that the Bold has a full qwerty keyboard on it rather than being touchscreen. This makes it less fiddly to use and even with my big mitts I rarely make mistakes with it.

If you are used to a qwerty keyboard and use texting a lot it is superb. My old style phone with the multiple push buttons for selecting letters used to drive me mad.

Worth a look as an alternative to the Storm.

Nige

[LRebel]

Ok, I'm not "Tech Savvy" at all.  My cell phone is little Motorola flip something or the other and I think it has a camera.  I'm way past the end of my contract, but the little phone still works fine and the battery still last about as long as it did when the phone was new.

Anyway, I am thinking about getting a new phone.  I don't text, but I do see some advantages to texting, so may get into that.  I think having internet would be pretty handy.  And, a good amount of storage would probably be good too, so I am thinking about one of the new "Smart Phones"... I guess

Reading through this thread, I noticed that no one mentioned the I-phone.  Any particular reason?

[FNGw/08SERK]

Ok, I'm not "Tech Savvy" at all.  My cell phone is little Motorola flip something or the other and I think it has a camera.  I'm way past the end of my contract, but the little phone still works fine and the battery still last about as long as it did when the phone was new.

Anyway, I am thinking about getting a new phone.  I don't text, but I do see some advantages to texting, so may get into that.  I think having internet would be pretty handy.  And, a good amount of storage would probably be good too, so I am thinking about one of the new "Smart Phones"... I guess

Reading through this thread, I noticed that no one mentioned the I-phone.  Any particular reason?

Went to iPhone from ATT (Hermes) "smart phone" and can't see turning back. Very easy to use and for me that's important 

[LRebel]

Went to iPhone from ATT (Hermes) "smart phone" and can't see turning back. Very easy to use and for me that's important 

My drummer is a college kid that has a part-time job at the Apple store.  He thinks the I-Phone is the only way to go, but I'm in no big hurry and want to check-out all my options.

Also, usually when I buy something.... the next week the bigger, better, more powerful version comes out.  Anyone know if the next hot smart-phone is on the horizon?

[hard10]

My drummer is a college kid that has a part-time job at the Apple store.  He thinks the I-Phone is the only way to go, but I'm in no big hurry and want to check-out all my options.

Also, usually when I buy something.... the next week the bigger, better, more powerful version comes out.  Anyone know if the next hot smart-phone is on the horizon?

If you want a phone for the "fun" stuff than the iphone or Google G1 will do. Both are glorified MP3 players with a telephone and internet browser attached. If you need a more robust phone that can open documents and send files, you'll need a Blackberry or Palm.

[LRebel]

If you want a phone for the "fun" stuff than the iphone or Google G1 will do. Both are glorified MP3 players with a telephone and internet browser attached. If you need a more robust phone that can open documents and send files, you'll need a Blackberry or Palm.

Ok, so the IPhone can't open a document attached to an e-mail?

[hard10]

Ok, so the IPhone can't open a document attached to an e-mail?

In order to open an excel or word document you will need third party software that is not available for the G1. I just found out that it is available for the iphone. The most common software for this application is Documents To Go by Dataviz

[DarkEagle]

not to burst any bubble, but you might need to check on battery life with some of these "smartphones". Heard the BB Storm has about a 3 hour battery life if used frequently.

If you use your cell phone as a phone a lot of the time, might need to check the phone you are getting or at least look at the various power options to keep it charged during a typical day of use.

Other than that, looks like the bomb except not sure about the calling plans of Verizon or AT&T with iPhone compared to the $99 unlimited Sprint plan. I don't socialize on my cell so I keep it cheap with a simple prepaid cell. I use separate technology for music, GPS, & ultra-mobile Internet-capable PC (see www.oqo.com)
here is a PC similiar to mine w/built in WiFi & Sprint wireless broadband:

[Dan_Lockwood]

After my wife washed my Sony/Erickson 580W Walkman phone in my jeans, I had to look for something new.

I went with the iPhone 3G 16 gig phone.  I'll admit I do use it for a MP3 player quite a bit, but that's not all it can do.

It has Internet that I find very similar to my PC Internet, but of course much smaller screen.  I can access all my Picture Trail pictures through the browser just as I can with my PC.

I use the GPS everyday to and from work.  It has real time road alerts and lets me know where all the traffic jams are.  Lots of times I take alternate routes and save lots of traffic time. 

Every morning while getting ready for work I hit the weather for local, where my son live, where my brother lives and even London and Paris from time to time.

Around Christmas time I use the "Where Did I Park" program to find my car in the full mall lots.  It works great.

I've been low on gas with the SERK in unfamiliar territory and just hit the "near me" button and looked for gas and there they were.

Live stock market button, dictionary, translator for any of the languages you can think of.  A program called Units.  This one you just type in the item, like 1 gallon, and it tells you all the metric conversions.  It has currency exchange live rates in any monetary system you can think of.

I have over 3k songs on the iPod player part and still have over 5 gig of free space.

I've not downloaded one program from the Apple store that has cost me a penny, all I mentioned above and many more, were either preloaded on the iPhone or downloaded free from the Apple store.

I love the 2.1 megpxl camera, other than it doesn't have a zoom like my old Razr had.  I can download through my PC any amount of pictures in separate folders.  I have my '40 Willys photos, '08 Sturgis and all my new boardtrack building pictures, all at a finger's touch.  And believe me I use the picture thing a lot.

Voice dialing, voice internet browsing, alarm clock, etc.

I have my work Outlook sync'd with my iPhone and all my calendar reminders automatically pop up and all of my work e-mails are available for browsing and replying etc.  It opens up all the PDF's I get, but some of the other attachments don't open up.

As far as fat fingers go, I doubt many will have fatter fingers than me.  I really doubted the touch screen keyboard, but it is VERY intuitive.  If you're typing a word, say, thing, and you hit the thimg instead, it will pop up the most logical word assuming that you hit the adjacent M key instead of the N key.  Just hit the space button and it substitutes the correct spelling for you.  If you type in ill as in I'll, it will sub in the I'll for you with the space bar.  I've found that two thumbs works great for me, now I'm not going to hit 40 word a minute, but it's not like a preschooler doing his ABC's.

I don't know how many times my wife and I are watching TV and see someone that we should know, and she does the Google search and we find out what we want to know.

At first she used to tell me to put my toy away.  Now she wants to play with it too.  Come on guys, the iPhone, the iPhone....

I guess from what I've written above, you probably get the idea I like the new iPhone.  I really do.  With the 2yr normal renewal, it cost me $299 for the 16gig and the 8 gig is just $199.

Now do the others, LG, Verizon, etc do the same thing, probably, but there are so many support apps for this iPhone it's scary.  Most pay apps are $.99 or $1.99 each.  Some of the "real" programs are a lot more, but I don't see them in my future.

I know that when my wife's renewal is up that she'll have one as well.

I was at our company Christmas party on Dec 19th.  During the party there were friends of the boss' there and I was showing one of them my new boardtrack project.  All of a sudden he pulled out his iPhone to show me his new boat.  All together at that table there were about 6 iPhones all out showing each other pictures.  The zoom feature is cool as well.

Oh, did I mention that Google Earth is a download for free and works just like my PC at home.  Picture quality is great, just not as much of it on the screen.

The GPS map is great.  It looks just like a GPS in the car or you can do Hybrid where overlays the Google Earth with the GPS road maps.  You can type in a search for an address of someone and then just hit driving directions and it takes you there, just like my car GPS.  I can't remember how many bookmark locations I have on the thing.

Sorry for just rambling on and on and on................

[hard10]

Dan, can you sync your calendar & schedule with your PC? Can you have multiple schedules? i.e. one for work or for two people? The sync thing is most important for me. My secretary (Linda  ) can add appointment to the PC during the day and then I just download them when I get home. What about a program just to take notes? I'm looking for a new phone and am looking at all my options. I don't have a need for the pictures.