tech ronin

BlackBerry Pearl vs. iPhone, Part 2

I wrote part one on June 27th. Now it is July 7th and I bought my new iPhone on Jun 29th. Here are additional thoughts based on a week's worth of experience with the iPhone:

This is really no contest if you have a BlackBerry Enterprise Server and email is an important part of your life-work-style.

I was using my BlackBerry with a regular email account and a Mac. I got push to my BBP but whatever I did on my Mac did not filter or otherwise affect what I had on my BlackBerry. Full-on BlackBerry syncing is pretty strong stuff. But I have not had that option.

Keyboard competition. As I guessed, the BBP wins slightly. Not by enough to go back to BBP but I like the little Suretype keyboard on BBP. One thing I like better in the iPhone is that iPhone suggests whole words while BBP always suggests one character at a time. On an iPhone, you can get lucky and get a fairly long word suggested after typing two or three characters and type space to accept the suggested word.

If you have read any of my other iPhone posts, you know I think the user interface and the apps that are there are awesome. The experience on an iPhone is far superior in general. In specific, a lot of features and applications are missing on the iPhone in its initial release.

For example, there is a day view and a month view in the calendar but no week view.

There is no voice dialing. This is obviously something they will add and is something one would expect under normal circumstances. The iPhone is a whole new platform and Apple's first cell phone effort. They have to build all this stuff from scratch and figure out ways to make it work well with multi-touch. That's hard and that's why everything isn't here yet.

The iPhone camera takes better photos than the Pearl under good conditions. The Pearl camera has zoom. iPhone does not. iPhone's bigger screen (about 2.5x as big as the Pearl) comes in handy in framing photos and in reviewing them immediately thereafter. The ease of zooming in and cropping for assigning photos to contacts is spectacular on iPhone. The speed of scrolling through photos is way faster than on the Pearl. You can enjoy your photos more on the big screen and with the speedy navigation.

The iPhone wins here but also suggests it could be even better without too much effort on Apple's part. I would like to be able to zoom, crop and save photos. Duplicate photos. These are basic functions. iPhone doesn't have a user-accessible file system (yet). The iPhone flash memory does not mount on the desktop but does import into iPhoto on a Mac and works with PC photo apps like Photoshop Elements.

Features and options are actually much greater on the Pearl. The full set of long menus on Pearl allow many variations. Apple's simpler, menuless button interface doesn't do well with too many options. A lot of options you would normally expect are missing from the iPhone.

The UI on the iPhone dazzles. It is much more fun and impressive. The touch interface is fun and natural to use. It feels good to use your fingers to control the screen. They call it direct manipulation and it works!

The iPhone screens are stunning. But, remember that Apple has left features out when not absolutely essential. Steve is the ultimate minimalist and it shows to good effect in the iPhone.

In the iPod section, there are four buttons across the bottom and then a more button. The more button gives you six more options. Apple put the extras out of the way. They actually can get away with that if they let us decide which of the functions are most important to us.

In this case, you can click an Edit button on the More screen and drag other options to the button bar to replace any of the standard four buttons. Many other places in iPhone are not currently user-modifiable or features are just plain not available.

The biggest missing next to lack of voice dialing is lack of instant messaging. A huge number of people want to be able to IM with multiple people at once. SMS texting doesn't allow that.

Notes can be taken and that's it. You can't sync them. For now, I will have to settle for emailing my notes to myself. That will do for a few weeks, but I hope Apple adds a little more soon.

As anticipated, web surfing on an iPhone is worlds better than the Pearl. If 24/7 web access is important to you, this may be the reason to get an iPhone (see my previous comments on the net access with the Pearl here).

For me, the move to the groundbreaking and fun multi-touch interface, the web surfing, decent email (not rules, though), big screen and visual voicemail win the contest. I want to believe that Apple will fairly quickly fill the most glaring omissions. It is in their interest to do so.

I almost forgot the price differential. I mentioned this the first time, but it is worth repeating. The iPhone is a much more expensive device. It will cost you a lot more money. I was willing to empty my device savings fund because I couldn't resist, but that doesn't mean you should. [photo compliments of Engadget]

Technorati Tags: Blackberry Pearl, iPhone

First Person Report on my new iPhone

Count me among the many who scored an iPhone last night. I was monitoring the iPhone news on the Net all day, gathering last minute information. Would the iPhone bomb! Would lines be endless?

The lines were not bad. I waited until initial reports came out from the first few East coast people with phones. Did they like them? People were saying really good things. I didn't want to buy a Newton 1 again and feel like I bought into the hype and got suckered.

So, I waited until 7:10 pm before driving over to my local Apple store which is about 8 miles away in Corte Madera. When I arrived, the line was about 80 feet long. It took about 45 minutes to get to the front of the line. Then another 10 minutes waiting in a line inside the store. People were incredibly excited and maybe a little tense.

I bought the phone in about 3 minutes at the counter. They had about 6 people set up to sell iPhones. Then, there was a little spot over on the side where you could check out iPhone cases and I checked those out briefly.

I liked the red In Case case but not well enough to forego a more thorough shopping effort. I really didn't want to sully my phone with a case that couldn't possibly look as good as the iPhone itself. I did buy a clear screen protector which I have not yet applied. A couple staff were taking your cards with their little portable machines. Most staff were just standing around or outside. I am sure they were completely exhausted.

So how is it? It is absolutely the most amazing cell phone ever by a mile. It is the most cool computer ever. It will rock the cell phone space.

I had a slight delay before activation took and I was able to place calls. I need to try the phone in various environments to tell whether it is as good a call quality as my BlackBerry Pearl but the first call was fine.

During the delay when I could not make calls, after about 5 minutes, I could use other features on the phone. When I synced, I could not use the phone. It didn't sync music, photos, podcasts, video, TV shows at all. That is a separate step because all the checkboxes for those syncs start out unchecked. That is good because it means you can do exactly what you want with that.

I am getting email but I was using IMAP access to my local email account and instead they are giving me POP access. I had both accounts in my Apple Mail, but the POP was inactive and the IMAP was active. Not sure why that happened. I will ask when I go to the Apple store tomorrow for two 1-hour iPhone classes. Hopefully, they will be able to get me on IMAP access.

I downloaded the 100+ page user manual you can download from the Apple site. I've read 44 pages in the manual so far. I recommend printing the manual in color, just cause.

Flipping through the addressbook is sooooo cool. The feel is fantastic.

Surfing the web isn't perfect but MUCH better than on my BlackBerry or Treo. I'm still learning also. I will get back on web surfing after a bit more time. One nice thing is my Safari bookmarks synced. What I saw when going into safari bookmarks was everything I had in the bookmarks bar. Just what I want. Of course, I use single letters for these things to fit more and here it would have been better to see the full names. Whatever.

I am able to use Google maps. I can put in bookmarks for whatever. I am hoping I can put a lot more than the 10 bookmarks I could get in my BBP.

I am expecting all sorts of interesting web and social networking services targeting the iPhone. The iPhone could drastically alter the web towards being mobile friendly.

Congratulations to Steve Jobs for getting AT&T to be in favor of wi-fi hotspots. The first carrier on the wi-fi side of that argument. I hope we see lots more hotspots so we can use wi-fi more and the slower EDGE less.

I had to pay $600 for the phone, a $36 activation fee (that will probably appear on my next AT&T bill) and I had to add 2 years to my AT&T service contract. That's expensive. What was not expensive is the monthly charges. I will be paying the same as before. Which is $20 for the data plan, $40 for my pre-existing 1000 anytime-minutes voice plan and $10 more for 1500 SMS messages. Like everyone else, I am not crazy about Apple withholding iChat and want that changed!!! I am sure this was a hard fought concession that Apple made to get other things they wanted like the wi-fi, the $20 data plan, etc..

As usual, these are first day reports. Typically, the enthusiasm dies down a bit as time goes by and you get used to things and start taking them for granted. But right now, I think a lot of people will buy these things. And a lot more will buy when the price goes down in 9-12 months.

Good news you may not have seen. At the Apple employee meeting on Thursday morning, Steve Jobs said there would be OS X-based iPods. I am very curious to see how those will be configured. Steve will not have to compromise to please AT&T but will still be dealing with record label push-back. When do we get downloading direct from iTunes? How about an SD card slot at some point?

I am more than pleased with what Apple has accomplished with this device. There are a few big compromises like non-removable battery, no iChat, EDGE instead of 3.5 G, AT&T-only, 2-year activation required, no activation discounts. These are big but we got lots and lots of goodies in exchange so to me the deal is well worth it.

Technorati Tags: Blackberry Pearl, iPhone

BlackBerry Pearl vs iPhone

I bought my BlackBerry Pearl in February. It has been a good device especially for email. But the iPhone represents an advance in the mobile phone world and I am seriously considering get one.

I thought it would be helpful to look at a comparison of the two devices. This is not the ultimate list. But a good start and you may find it helpful in your thinking:

These are two really cool devices. Pricewise, I would say the BlackBerry Pearl is a better deal. As Steve Jobs said, though, the iPod aspect of the device could be valued like a 4 gig Nano - about $200. That makes the price for the iPhone $300 - $400 which at least helps.

I am paying $30 a month for the data plan on the Pearl. I will plan to pay $30/mo for the data for the iPhone $20 for the internet and email and $10 for extra text messages.

A few more subjective ratings:

This is just part of the picture.

Technorati Tags: Blackberry Pearl, iPhone

I see the future in my hand

OK. I am lying in bed at 10:49 am with a cold. Got my MacBook Pro with me. Am mostly using my NetNewsWire 3 and Safari back and forth. But, I need to walk downtown and get some exercise, cold or not.

That is where the dilemma is. I am right in the middle of learning about Bluedot which someone says may have advantages over del.icio.us. What to do?

One thing is for sure. I am not taking any 5+ lb notebook with me on my walk. This is a total of 3 miles we are talking about.

Should I try to make my BlackBerry serve as a browser to continue reading once I am at the Depot? Maybe, but I might just pick up a newspaper. Edge-based websurfing on a 2 inch screen can be frustrating.

It is obvious that this situation will get better soon. Maybe the iPhone is that future. Maybe I should just relax knowing that better solutions are on the way in force. Rather than spend many hours looking for ways to make BlackBerry Pearl surfing work better.

Just breathe...

BlackBerry Pearl Progress Report #1

The Kool-Aid is starting to work its magic. This is an unbelievably cool device.

The menus are everywhere en masse. The keyboard shortcuts are everywhere and sometimes strange. Comma is a popular short-cut, for example.

What is going on here? The BlackBerry is one of those one-of-a-kind things. Probably designed, not just written, by programmers is all I can figure. There is an option for everything. Feels a little like UNIX or something. Go way back in time.

After using the Pearl for a few days, I tried using a Treo again. What a let-down. My thumb instinctively reached for a trackball. Navigating with Treo's slow, dull, old-school rocker dial was like driving an old pickup truck after test-driving a Ferrari. - Mike Elgan, ComputerWorld

But, what happened is they stumbled upon a major hit with their wonderful push email. That drove huge installs in corporations.

I would not buy a BlackBerry up till now because it was so corporate. I wanted a camera and multi-media. Why should I put up with corporate rules when I'm running my own show?

Luckily, all that corporate crackberry money was gushing to the point where RIM said, why not make a consumer device?

The BlackBerry Pearl is that killer blackberry consumer device.

This thing can do just about anything. Almost everything has options upon options. All you need to know is which options to set. Most things are easy, menu-driven, choices.

It is overwhelming if you just start trying to use a BlackBerry and explore on your own. If you get greedy and want everything on day one, you will be frustrated. If you just take a few new things per day, you will be fine.

I bought a good book yesterday: The BlackBerry Pearl for Dummies. It goes into enough depth to really be valuable.

You need to learn some basics. There is always a slow, methodical way and a fast way to do something. The fast way will almost certainly involve a shortcut key.

The 200+ page manual is all on your device.

But, the power and efficiency by day 3 is off the charts.

On day 4, I am processing and deleting email from my Pearl and having those things deleted from my email account so when I get back to my MacBook Pro that mail is processed. For the moment I am syncing to Outlook on my cheapo PC notebook. Not fun, but seemed like a fast way to get started. There is a free PocketMac for BlackBerry downloadable from the Blackberry site. I will be trying it out in the next day or two.

One last thing. The Basex Research Company named the Pearl the Product of the Year. They are looking for: the product that “provides knowledge workers with the best tools to do their jobs.”

“The BlackBerry Pearl exemplifies the type of device that has broken new ground and points the way to the future,” said Jonathan B. Spira, CEO and chief analyst at Basex. “It is truly a masterpiece of design and the pearl- like trackball used for navigation allows the mobile knowledge worker to literally tap into tremendous functionality without a struggle. The Pearl provides the knowledge worker with as perfect a mobile telephony experience as possible,” said David M. Goldes, president and senior analyst at Basex. “The designers of the Pearl created a better mobile phone and managed to add BlackBerry functionality without any compromises.”

Opinions differ, but I am with Jonathan on this one!

Cool Pearl review from a fellow Mac user

Technorati Tags: Blackberry Pearl