Posts tagged software

Hey, don’t get me wrong the new Droid sounds pretty cool. It has the new Android 2.0 software, which is an improvement, or next generation of the original Android software introduced by Google a while back on T Mobile’s network. I like Google products. I like Verizon products. Mixing the two together makes a product I like even more. I played with the original Android software several months ago, and I though it was smooth and functional. I like the notion of an app store, but then comes the competition. Blackberry is keeping up with the herd, and even other manufacturers like Samsung are doing a good job.

Clearly the iPhone was the original app store. It was the first relatively powerful touchscreen/smart-phone/pda/everything unit. Then came, I think, the original Android phones, then came the Blackberry storm. Blackberry just came out with its own update, 5.0. Let me tell you that the new software for the Storm is a tremendous improvement. I had lag issues with the original software, and the new update completely eliminates all memory problems. Clearly Blackberry updates memory management. RIM also has the Blackberry app world, which is comparable in all accounts to iPhone’s app store, and the Android apps. The only difference is the size of the software repository, being that iPhone has hundreds of thousands of apps. Blackberry Appworld has some nice apps, and I haven’t really checked out Android apps, but I would imagine they are comparable in many aspects.

I can speak from experience on the iPhone, and the Blackberry Storm. They both have features that anyone would want in their phone. The iPhone is a mobile applications device, it does everything and everything. It plays games, and has all kinds of apps to enhance business and productivity. The Blackberry does as well. Albeit the games are not as advanced, but the key business applications are all there. The thing about the Blackberry, that blows the iPhone out of the water, is its connectivity. It is simply a mobile communications powerhouse. With your Blackberry you are connected, period. You have email, sms, mms, and instant messaging all rolled into a single ‘message’ folder. Throw in Facebook comments, twitter updates, and probably everything else under the sun. All these messages can be directed to your messages folder, literally consolidating your communications universe into a single button on a mobile device. Right now there is nothing that compares to the connectivity provided by the Blackberry. And the Storm is a touchscreen.

I like the Storm because I came from the iPhone. I was never a querty keyboard kinda guy. I like touchscreen keyboards, and the Blackberry does it right with the surepress technology. It’s smart. Two letters one button; you don’t miss the keys and the software gets it right most of the time. It even starts to pick up your slang after a while.

In the end each manufacturer will have their niche. One one will have something you wish to be a feature in another phone, and visa versa. We will never have the best of both worlds.

Wait, I said the iPhone was awesome, the worst thing about the iPhone is the networtk. I didn’t mention why I left the iPhone. I left because I was geting over 10 dropped calls per day, and no signal in my house. At&t has a horrible network compared to Verizon. The at&t map for my neighborhood says full coverage. Then why would I drive through town getting dropped calls in at least three locations I can think of off the top of my head. At one point I was calling at&t so I would be on the phone with support just to get a dropped call with them on the line. In the end I called at&t sooooo much, that they gave me a $200 credit because they saw how many dropped calls I was getting, especially the fact that I was calling tech support for the dropped calls themselves. I used the $200 credit to resolve the cancellation fee for my phone. At&t should update their converage maps to be correct! They are not correct! It may be the case that the iPhone needs a stronger than average signal to have uninterrupted communications, and there it stands apart from other “regular” phones. Therefore, because the iPhone is at&t’s flagship product, at&t should have a coverage map specific to the iPhone.

This coverage map is not correct for the iPhone. It simply does not get full coverage. It gets 1-3 bars, and it will quickly jump from 3 bars to 1 bar. And in 3 spots the signal drops entirely.