Last week I gave my first impressions of the Storm, having used it now for a week, I thought it would be fair to give a more detailed review of the device.  The Storm definitely takes some getting used to, but I find myself adjusting to it nicely.  The biggest change is obviously the lack of a keyboard, while in Landscape mode you get a full QWERTY keyboard on screen I find the device awkward to hold and type in landscape mode, however using it in portrait mode with SureType has actually been OK, I find myself getting a little faster typing on it every day. The phone quality has been excellent, one of the nicest things about the phone is it much easier to control 3-way calls and switching between calls then earlier blackberries (or maybe it is just me but in the past if I tried a 3 way call, or switching between calls I generally hung up on someone in the process) On the negative side of the phone making calls from contacts now requires more steps.  In previous models on the phone screen you could simply start typing and it would take the numbers, and also look up the letters in your contacts. On the Storm you have to click to another screen with in the phone to make a call from contacts, and if you want to search your contacts you first have to click in the find box to activate the keyboard.  You also have to switch screens to view recent calls. Another feature I am missing is the ability to assign hot keys to contacts, so pressing and holding a single key called a person, very useful for frequently dialed numbers (though I suppose you would need a keyboard to use this feature).  I suppose I could look at voice dialing, but I have never really had any luck with voice dialing on any phone. One frequent problem I have with the device is I find it is very sensitive to movement and very often the screen orientation flips between portrait and landscape, and it is almost always wrong when I take the device out of the holster (in fairness I am not currently using a holster designed for the Storm, so I may need to revisit this after the new holster arrives). Application support for the Storm is really lacking right now, Socialcope and Beejive IM, are not supported on the Storm.  TwitterBerry is working fine but does not compare in functionality to Twitterfon on the iPhone.  One nice application I did find is Capture It for taking screenshots, which means I did not have to install the Blackberry Java Development Environment just to be able to take screen captures. The internet browser while much improved is at times very difficult to use, especially if you have to change a selection in a drop down box, maybe I am missing a trick, but it took me a few tries both times I ran in to a drop down box in the browser. The camera is slow, and in low light situations turns a light on for a few seconds before taking the picture.  The one upside of the camera for me was a Flickr client to upload pictures, something I have really wanted on the iPhone for a long time, until yesterday when I discovered Flickit for the iPhone, so even though the Storm is a 3.2 megapixel camera and the iPhone is 2 megapixel, I am getting better photo results on the iPhone. Finally the battery life so far seems to be good, I have not really had a day that really put the battery to test yet, but a full days use, with a few phone calls left me with plenty of battery life remaining. Overall I am satisfied with the Storm, I think it will get better as more applications are available, and I am sure some of the quirky behavior I mentioned will be fixed with later OS releases.  If you are a long time Blackberry user and thinking about a Storm just beware it will take some getting used to.

Earlier today my new Blackberry Storm arrived at my front door, so I thought I would share some of my first impressions of the device.   Before I even get in to the device itself let me cover two things which will you understand my expectations of the device.  Why did I upgrade now?  I have had a Verizon 8830 World Edition since November of 2007, at that time the motivation to upgrade was for an upcoming trip out of the country, and the 8830 was the first model in which Verizon finally added global support.  I had held off making the move earlier as I thought the switch to the trackball instead of the thumbwheel would be a tough one (in the end it wasn’t).  I have lost count but the 8830 was either my 9th or 10th model Blackberry, and by far the least rugged blackberry I ever owned, it simply did not hold up well at all to the daily wear and tear (you can see here the condition in which it returned from Lotusphere).  So my decision to upgrade was one of necessity.  The second factor is that I have been using an iPhone for almost a year now (something I am not sure is a good thing for making the move to a Storm), and I am very interested to compare the iPhone and the Storm. So with the history behind us, my first impressions of the Storm, which I had not touched or seen until mine arrived today, and while I read up a little on the device my main impressions were from Chris Millers posts Day 1 and 2 with the Blackberry Storm, and Day 3 with the Blackberry Storm (and Chris has promised more).  Getting started was simple thanks to  Enterprise Activation, while this is not specific to the Storm, it is impressive how fast and easy it is to change devices effortlessly with out losing any data. My very first impression of the touch screen was that it was terrible, however after peeling off the screen protector (not the shipping plastic, but one of those thin films they put on the screen) it got a little better.  It is a bit confusing especially if you are used to an iPhone since you do have to Click to make selections, I did not realize the whole screen would actually move to allow the click, definitely takes some getting used to.  I have not found it very intuitive when to touch and when to click. My second issue the the Phone and Menu buttons on the bottom, I don’t know why but I seem to want the Menu button where the phone is, and vice versa. The typing in Landscape mode is not bad as you have the full QWERTY keyboard, in landscape mode with the auto word complete will take some getting used to.  I have not used the browser much, but one thing I am finding is that in Blackberry screens and on Websites drop  down boxes are very difficult  to navigate and select. Application wise I have only looked at three applications so far, Facebook which is identical in functionality to my previous blackberry and very unimpressive, I would hope they develop a rich application like the one on the iPhone, Flickr, nice that they have a Flickr upload application (something severely lacking on the iPhone) I will have to play with the camera and Flickr later (this is my first Blackberry with a camera).  Finally Sametime 8.0.1 installed with out any issue and connected with out any issue. I have to drag out the manual and look up a few things, and play with the sound profiles and see if I can get my settings back the way I like them, and in general get used to the device. More on the Storm as I play with it and get more familiar with it. Finally, you have my point of view, let me share my daughter Molly’s first impression of the Storm, she came home from Kindergarten and was excited to see my new Blackberry, she took one look at it and said “Daddy, your new Blackberry looks just like your iPhone”.

MLB.com has an article this morning on Blackberry support for MLB.com and Blackberry alerts for your teams news.  

You don’t have to look hard to find a baseball fan carrying a BlackBerry these days. They hold onto them like Chase Utley holding onto his Rawlings glove at second base — practically fixed appendages for much of the time. As long as they are going to be that vital as a companion, they might as well be put to the best use for baseball season. Total team immersion has never been easier.

This is a nice reminder that it is just two weeks until opening day (and even less if you are a Red Sox or A’s fan who open a week from tomorrow) BlackBerry is baseball fan’s best friend

After going almost a month without my Blackberry in preparation for my trip to Dublin I upgraded to the Verizon Blackberry 8830  World Edition since my Windows Mobile device does not have an international service plan.  This is my first Blackberry with the trackball on the front, instead of the wheel on the side for navigation and it has been a bit of an adjustment.  I got the device the day before I left so I have been installing software as I go along, so far I have added my gmail, yak-on for aim/icq, Google Talk and a beta of the Sametime 8 Blackberry client. The one thing that drove me crazy this week was the flashing LED on the blackberry, I have never quite bothered to figure out the logic of when a blackberry flashed a particular color, and usually when I am on the road I just throw a towel over it at night to cover up the flashing all night  The hotel we stayed in had no clock in the room so I needed to use my Blackberry as my alarm clock (I don’t wear a watch).  So I turned off all LED Flashing in my profile, yet I continued to have green and blue flashing at me all night.   After a little digging I discovered blue indicated a blue tooth connection, that was easy enough to solve by turning off my blue tooth headset at night.  The green took a little more digging, green indicates you have network coverage, and finally under the options for Screen/Keyboard I was able to turn it off. Other then that  the network coverage was great in Dublin, and the phone is definitely better quality then any of my previous Blackberries. Next week it will be back to testing Lotus Traveler as Domino 8.0.1 Beta 1 has shipped and it included Traveler Beta 2 so I will be upgrading my Traveler Server and Mobile Client next week.