Three down and four to go… I’m actually kinda bummed that I said that I would spend 7 whole days with this phone. The more I use the BlackBerry Storm, the more I am becoming annoyed by it. But it’s only been three days, so I’m not going to give up yet. I promise.
Today I focused primarily on trying the instant messaging clients again (Yahoo!, AIM, etc.), the camera and music player. Yesterday when I was trying to connect to my account on Yahoo! AIM and Windows Live, I kept receiving errors saying that I needed to check the time on my phone. I really didn’t pay attention to the errors because the clock appeared to be correct. This afternoon when I tried to connect again, I noticed that the date on the phone was December something. Weird! So I went into the settings to see if I could change it. It was correct in there and when I went back to the home screen, it had corrected itself. Very odd behavior and one which I’ll be sure to keep an eye out for again.
This time I was able to connect to Yahoo! to test instant messaging with this phone. It connected very quickly and presented me with a list of my contacts.
Chatting with the Yahoo! client on this phone feels very similar to chatting with Pinger on the iPhone. When you’re typing a message, the keyboard takes up about 2/3rds of the screen, that makes it hard to keep up with someone that sends multiple messages in succession. The keyboard on the Storm continues to frustrate me. I end up pressing the wrong letters often and have to backspace.
One cool feature that the Yahoo! client has, is the ability to send files to the people you are chatting with. I took a quick snap of myself to send to Rob. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to receive it after trying twice… I think it’s an Adium (multiple chat client on the Mac) issue though.
Next up, I played around with the built in 3.2 megapixel camera.
Nothing too wild and crazy here unless you count the built in geotagging feature and image stabilization.
Click thumbnail to see full-size image
One of my pet peeves is a mobile camera that can not take a good macro shot. I don’t want to take close ups of bees pollinating flowers or anything like that, but I do want to be able to snap a picture from a magazine or book. I’m always flipping through mags at the book store and will come across a URL or info that I want to remember, but don’t want to buy the mag (jeez magazines are expensive these days huh?) or find pen and paper to jot things down. Most phones take horrible macro shots. Not the Storm. It does a great job!!! Not entirely sure why WordPress is showing the images rotated like this, but you get the idea…
Click thumbnail to see full-size image
Using the Storm as a camera is very much like taking pictures with a regular digital camera. You press the side shutter button halfway to focus and compose your shot and then press it completely down to take the picture.
One thing that I noticed is that colors look a tiny bit more washed out in the snapshots than they are on the screen when you’re viewing them through the media player.
I also noticed that even though I had the resolution set to max (2048 x 1536), it only captured images at 1024×764.
I wouldn’t want to use the BlackBerry Storm as my primary camera, but for snaps here and there, it works well.
Now let’s listen to some music…
The media player can play music, video, ringtones, voice notes and show pictures. It will show media stored on the Storm itself and the installed MicroSD card.
You can zero in on specific songs by artists, albums, genres and playlists.
Here’s the Now Playing screen (it’s missing the control bar at the bottom the screen (the screen capture program I used has some issues…). Audio quality is good through the built in speaker and headphones.
Besides playing music, taking pictures and chatting via Yahoo!, made and received more calls through the phone. My side of the calls always had good audio quality. But today at two different times, the people on the other end of the calls said I sounded muffled or as Ryan said, I sounded like the teacher on the Charlie Brown cartoons. He couldn’t hear a word I was saying and had to hang up and call back. I don’t know if this was an issue with the Storm or Verizon. Both times I checked the phone and had at least 3 bars signal strength.
Today I was also finding myself becoming annoyed with the auto screen rotation. Quite often, when I would click the display to ‘wake up’ the phone, it would be rotated in the landscape mode even when I was holding the phone in portrait mode. I kept feeling like I needed to shake the phone like an Etch-a-Sketch to get it to rotate. 😉
Overall today, I felt sluggish while using the Storm. Everything felt slower than ummm… sorry… the iPhone. I know people don’t want me to compare the Storm to the iPhone, but it is pretty hard given that I’ve been using the iPhone lately. I could also compare it to the Centro if that would make people feel better 😉 Either way, the Storm just felt more ‘painful’ for me to use today and I was missing my other phones.
We’ll see if I start liking this phone more during this weekend. I’ll be back on Monday with another installment. I’ll be using the Storm to view Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. I’ll also check out the email client and some of the other stock applications.
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Julie,
I felt the same about the Storm as you do. The keyboard & rotation just were too clunky compared to the iPhone. I’m told it’s much better with one of the recent OS updates, but I think the concept of the haptic screen just doesn’t work. I do like the BlackBerry experience though, which is why I’m using the Bold.
@Tom, @Denzel Hankinson: I’m currently running with v.75 of the OS. See, I just turned on the phone to get the OS version and it was in landscape mode. I turned it to portrait and had to wait at full second or two for it to auto-switch. I guess I’m just too impatient. 😉 I think like the iPhone, RIM should only allow rotation in specific apps. Not all. Maybe that would help.
Julie,
I am hearten to hear someone else having similar difficulties with the Storm. I am in the process of evaluating the Storm for corporate use at my company and have experienced many of the same issues. I look forward to the reading the rest of your week with the storm.
I’m starting to wonder if the quality control at RIM is to be suspect for the Storm. Either that or build quality deteriorates over time rather quickly. Why do I say that?
Well, I played with a demo Storm at a store. The unit looked pretty clean, but I had the darndest time trying to select menu/icons towards the edge of the screen. The screen “rocked” and “twisted” without really clicking when I pressed the edges. The landscape keyboard kept giving me wrong letters. Overall…an underwhelming experience.
..and then…
A co-worker received his Storm and I played with it for while. Totally. Different. Experience. The landscape keyboard rocked and I was able to type with very good accuracy nearly as fast as I do on my BB Curve. I was able to select & click along the screen edges with no problem. Sometimes the 3G browser was sluggish…other times, it was zippy. Not sure if that was just the Verizon 3G network or phone just being wonky.
I will say this though: movie playback on that thing was pretty amazing. The screen is bright and vibrant and the sound over the external speaker was REALLY LOUD. REALLY. REALLY. LOUD. We were in a room that had a server rack in it along with about 20 PCs humming away and it was still LOUD.
I’ve read of Storm users going receiving/swapping in their units multiple times…maybe there’s just a bunch of lemons out there amidst the sweet, fruity ones…(?)
C.
You’re obviously not spending a full week with the Storm if you’re still on your iPhone. Working with the Storm keyboard takes practice, just like anything else new. It probably took me 2 weeks to get the hang of the keyboard. I think these reviews are a lot like politics. Reviewers come to the table biased and slant everything towards their preference (iPhone). Don’t even talk to me about the iPhone keyboard – it’s unusable, unless you have tiny gnome fingers! I’ve been on business meetings where people whip out the iPhone and need a stylus to type out an email (WTF?!?!), which is why iPhone e-mails are usually 3 words long. And forget about phone calls on the iPhone – AT&T can not even compare to Verizon. I’ve had the Storm since mid-Dec and it’s been great. People come up to me and ask about the “rotating screen” problems; and I just reply with “What problems” and take out the Storm and rotate it up, down, sideways and it always keeps up. I didn’t hear a mention of battery life – my co-workers have their 3G iPhones constantly plugged in. Pretty shitty for a 2nd Gen phone. I’ve gone about 3 days between Storm charges – and it still had battery life left! If a battery goes dead, I JUST POP IN ANOTHER ONE! Too bad iPhone can’t do that! Stereo bluetooth, better camera, Storm takes Videos, etc – iPhone can’t compete. I will be interested to see what happens in March when the original iPhone people come off their 2 year contracts.
@Fran T: I actually called AT&T and had them forward my phone number to the Storm, so yes, I am only using the Storm right now. I’m not using the iPhone. The only time I’m using the iPhone is when someone sends me an SMS (text messages can’t be forwarded like calls). The iPhone is not my favorite phone by any stretch of the imagination. I tend to use it for a week or so and then go back to a Treo, Centro or old Nokia. I prefer physical buttons over a phone with the main interface being a capacitive touch screen.
I don’t agree with you about the iPhone’s keyboard, I think it is better / easier than the Storm’s. But if I had my druthers, I’d take the Centro or Treo’s keyboard any day.
You are VERY right about the battery life on the Storm. It’s much much better than the iPhone. I finally charged my Storm last night after using it for almost 3 full days.
Let’s face it . . I apologize to all that bash anything Apple computer makes for whatever reason, but you can’t compare ANY smart phone to an iPhone, because they are in a completely different class. Barring the exclusive ATT coverage, which I don’t really like either, or the cheezy camera, what phone is like an iPhone?? NONE! If you ever really use one, you will not want anything else.
I really love my storm. the software updates make a huge difference! .75 made it much faster and more responsive and .85 was leaked. can’t wait till the next one to make it even better!
Good point, Tom. What OS version are you using, Julie? Isn’t 4.7.0.85 the most current?
4.7.0.75 is the latest “official” version. 4.7.0.85 was leaked on or around 12/28 but has not yet been released by Verizon, so using that OS version as a basis for a review wouldn’t be prudent. When I upgraded to 4.7.0.75, my issues with screen rotation being “stuck” in portrait went away, and the rotation became much quicker and more sensitive to phone orientation. After playing with an ipod touch last week, which I assume handles screen rotation just like the iphone, I wasn’t too impressed with the rotation on the ipod. It felt a bit slower to me than the Storm.
As for hitting the wrong keys when typing – I had/have the same issue. I find that as I use the keyboard more, and learn how it senses my finger on the screen, I am getting better results. I was not proficient after two or three days, so I’d suggest reserving final keyboard judgement until the end of your week. But, things like this are very subjective, so your mileage may vary.
@Garry Kolb: You are right, I most likely will become much better at the keyboard as the days go by. The format for this review is more journal-like, so I’m providing my thoughts as it progresses. I do admit that I come into this review of the BlackBerry Storm with a preference for physical buttons over complete touch screen interaction.
@Fran T: You forgot the mention the irate phone conversations between iPhone users and AT&T customer service representatives when they figure out they can’t receive a picture message on their iphone 3g.
I also agree with the keyboard, i have big thumbs and have to use the pointer finger peck method with the iphone. After a couple of days I was typing like a pro on the Storm with both thumbs.
And although the app store is sweet, and I’m looking forward to Blackberry’s in March, it’s fairly gimmicky. I mean … how else could the top paid application be “ifart mobile”. My cousin has some sweet apps on his phone, but I have half of them on my Storm and the app store hasn’t even opened yet.
Let’s not forget that the iphone has been on the market for almost two years now. Verizon can’t keep the Storm on the shelves. I do agree that the real test will be when March comes around, will original iphone users jump ship to another platform? (which is probably why blackberry’s app store will come out then.)
I’ve yet to read a positive review of the Storm, so I don’t understand why some people here seem surprised by Julie’s experience. The cons are always the same: slow screen rotation, unusable keyboard, etc.
I have had the Storm for about a week, switching from a BB World Edition. I find it a much more capable phone and have not had issues with slow screen rotation. Additionally, I have big hands and I can navigate easily with keyboard and love the auto-complete text for its accuracy. I use an Itouch for media and am pondering how to move my media to the Storm. So far so good!
I HATE THIS KEYBOARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
PLEASE tell me I will get better at it. It is taking me so long to type and I also keep hitting the wrong letter and have to backspace. I am ready to throw it out the window…I can’t type with it…I totally miss my buttons.
I hope I can adjust.
Just wanted to let you know that the problem you had with the person on the other end of your phone calls saying you sounded very muffled is a Verizon problem. I have a Verizon XV6700 and it does the exact same thing.
Fran first off, it sounded like you are one of VZW employee or a Apple hater. Have you tried the iPhone before? because everything you said about the iphone were true, but sounded like you were will trainned by VZW. I owned both iPhone and storm (not any more, paid $35 restock fees to VZW and got myself a Omnia) and here are a couple things I have noticed about both devices.
Storm:
Battery – Horrible battery life, with very little usage (No chatting, no texting, and very few brief phone calls) and my battery was down to 50% about 10 hours after charge.
Virtual Keyboard – This phone’s keyboard made me felt like VZW’s Samsung Glide. it was the most annoying keyboard I have ever typed on. I can be trying to type S and it will come out with A and try to type N it can come out with M.
Email – They now support HTML (finally), however the format is still way off, make it so difficult and annoying to read emails.
Web Browser – Improved compared to Pearl and Curve but it’s still no Mobile Safari, I can’t even login to my Bank account.
Camera – Yes, it is better than iPhone, but not by far. The good thing is you can send video and picture to others.
Memory – 1GB?? but what good is it if you can’t use it to store and run program with it? I gues that 1GB + 8GB microSD is mainly for you to store movies, music and pictures. So you still only have 64MB program storage and only approx 50MB available for you and 48MB (I can be wrong on the number as I don’t own the storm any more.) to run your program on and if that memory goes 0, you will get the famous Pearl effect, where it will erase all your text messages.
All in all, my main reason why I return the storm was because it’s keyboard and lagg (yes, I have the lastest firmware from VZW .75), it made the storm virtually useless as a basic phone and email or text device. so what good is it to have a camera if everything else blows?
Yes, iPhone built-in battery sucks, and I do hope they chage it in the future, but iPhone does everything else gracefully unlike Storm, tried so hard to be a iPhone and yet failed so miserably. Hope their second try will improve.
My opinion, if you are a VZW customer and thinking of staying with them and you must have a blackberry, pick Curve or 8830 World Phone (No Camera) it’s so much better than storm! If you want a touch device, I would prefer to new Samsung Omnia, it’s got a better camera, better touch screen and come with Windows Mobile 6.1 Proessional. and if you can switch to another carrier, then what can I say? get the iPhone. btw, I am not a Apple fan boy, simply stating the fact, unlike my wife, she is truly a Apple fan girl!
Howard, why does Fran have to be a VZW employee to like the Storm?
I personally have never used the iPhone, becuase I did not want to leave VZW service just for a phone. But I love the Storm, maybe there is something better out there, but not for me at the moment. I read a lot of complaints about the keyboard, but I love it. I love not having to grab my stylus to punch miniature keys. It took some getting used to, maybe a day or two but that was it for me.
Actually at first I noticed some battery issues, but in a few days I was charging it no more often than the Samsung this phone replaced. So was it just not fully charged? Or was I just playing with it to much?
One thing I have learned about technology, is it is very personal. One person may hate the device because of this and that. And usually both sides will stand in amazement as to why the other person is so for or against it, wondering why they do not love or hate the product.
AMD or Intel. Ford or Chevrolet. iPhone or Storm. All in all, they are all good products that get the job done, it is just boils down to personal preference and you do not have to be a hater or an employee to truly love the product.
Where I live in South Florida Verizon & AT&T have great coverage the deciding factor is that Verizon phones lack Wifi. I like the choice and wifi is faster than 3g. Phones is allot of personal preference, I go for range of choice and technology. GSM is used around the world and if travel is the way to go. Not to mention AT&T prices are much lower and have better deals than Verizon.
I would hardly call this a review. Trying a feature, it not working, blaming it on -maybe- being the remote clients fault and moving on is a disgrace to real “reviewers”. Try and be thorough, and try not to be so obviously biased. Trying to get a spot at engadget? 🙁
A common theme I keep seeing through this thread is the frustration with the lack of real keyboard. I have tried various touchscreen phones and I always end up with the same conclusion. For fiddling with application software, touchscreens can sometimes save time, but in general, a phone needs real buttons/keyboard. My favorite device with a keyboard is the HTC Vox. It’s a tiny phone with real numeric buttons and a comfortable slide-out keyboard. The devices with permanently exposed keyboards (e.g. Blackjack, Moto Q) tend to have smaller keys with hard to use numeric sub-keys.
Marc – pretty much in ‘your own words’:
“Try and be” attentive by reading the first paragraph of day #1, “and try not to be so obviously” “a disgrace to real” readers and appreciators of Julie’s efforts to rise above the white-wash of most reviewers.
Denzel Hankinson
I have been using the storm now for 3 weeks, the keyboard get alot less annoying the more you use it. I simply could not handle an iphone as i like sending picture messages if i see something worth snapping.
The only major gripe i have is, I enjoy using .asp sites, and as far as i can tell the browser can not handle sessions in this language! I hope an update deals with this, however i could probably live without it. Other than that, i’d like to see support for wmv when playing videos as i like to view clips downloaded off the net.
Overall happy with the phone though, i live in england and my provider also gives me live tv channels through the phone. A great bonus when you spend alot of your life travelling on coaches, trains etc….
@Larry: Yes, I fully admit that I like buttons. The more buttons, the happier I am 😉 I keep trying to like the touch screen on the BB, but I still haven’t ‘bonded’ with it. For general use, it’s fine and I have no problem. But when you need to pick an option from a menu list, I have to slow down and be precise to accurately select the desired option.
@Stephen: Can you share a URL of a site you’re trying to access with the Storm? I’d like to try it with the built in browser and then with Opera.
Wow, Marc, do I sense anger? The path to the dark side that is. Julie does reviews for normal people, on the actual real-life usage of the device. She is experiencing frustrations that most ordinary people will experience and reporting them. You want a technically thorough review, you get a Storm and do one yourself!!! Some people are never satisfied…
I think your feedback represent my findings. There are features about the storm I absolutely love however, I miss Treo’s ability to type a message in a second or so. I think the Palm Pre may be the solution to our concern on that front. It will combine the touchscreen capability with a real keyboard. I cannot wait until it is released.
@Mark R: No, no anger at all. It’s just sad that every… –EVERY– review is either full on fanboy or full on hate. I’m clearly not a Storm fanboy.. to me a cell phone is a PHONE.. it makes and receives calls. I have, enjoy, and see no reason for more than, a motorola krzr (2?). Even that is a bit much. However, I like most of us am intrigued by what else is out there. I fully understand and have seen the touchscreen issues first hand. No qualms there. Virtually every first gen device is worth avoiding, really. Julie does great work. I rarely have a qualm or a question after reading an article here. But to discuss a fairly big feature, then dismiss it, lackluster.
My apologies for coming off strong, but with the Storm, I’ve yet to see a decent flat out, *full* review with no bias in either direction.
I understand this is more a usage model article than a review, but lets be honest, that should be part of a review in the first place.
@Marc: What feature did you feel I glossed over and would like me to explore further? Was it the file send feature in the Yahoo! chat client? I had planned to try again and will add my findings either today or to my last installment on Wednesday.
I am pleased wiht my Storm, I also have a 2nd gen Iphone for work, but the phone portion of the device is terrible. I love the apps, but without them, the iphone is very poor choice for anyone.
I will say as with the Iphone it will take BB a few revs of OS to get it running at peak (think about how many the Iphone has had (6-7?).
I am in the process of reviewing phones so I can switch out of the bberry 8830 world phone from VZW. I can’t handle the lack of a camera and am really tired of going to vzwpix to view pix that friends send me in text messages. M other peeve is the lack of true internal memory to run apps (yes, my text messages and emails get wiped when I max out on memory).
I have been torn between the iPhone (my company may force me to go with AT&T) and the Storm (if I can get my company to support it). Getting confirmation that the iPhone doesn’t support MMS, playing with their keyboard on a friends phone, and reading about the horrible battery life pretty much takes the iPhone out of the running for me.
Reading above that the Storm has 1gb internal memory, but only uses 64mb of it for apps is extremely disappointing. Here I was all set to buy an unlocked Storm on eBay too.
I guess I’ll just have to wait until my roommate can get me her employee discount on an unlocked Palm Pre so I can try it out on Verizon.
Hi Julie – Leslie’s comment, “Reading above that the Storm has 1gb internal memory, but only uses 64mb of it for apps” is news to me also. Can you confirm or qualify that sometime over the next few of days?
@Denzel: I’ll shoot an email off to my person at Verizon right now. The specs on RIM’s own site say: 1GB onboard memory, 128 MB Flash (flash memory). Not sure if that means you can only save files to 128mbs.. I’ll find out.
Boy, all this makes me pretty glad I (eventually) chose the Touch HD…
(not without gotchas and snags, but a fantastic all rounder)
on the train now using it as a modem while listening to music…
The Storm has a definite learning curve. I’ve had one since they launched here and I’m just getting to grips with the keyboard which takes a lot of practice.
The camera is nifty as is the video function. Video playback is magnificent – the loaded sample of Babylon is excellent. Battery life is good too but I wish they didn’t change the usb port. 8 gigs capacity out-of-the box is good too. Pity that RIMs media sync doesn’t work with Tiger.
I got a few storms to evaluate but don’t envisage deploying them to my users – the learning curve is too much.
So what about the International calling capability of the Strom? I use my Blackberry World Phone 8830 (Verizon) all over the world and I am amazed with the capabilities and clarity of this phone when making / receiving calls and use of the internet / SMS. I have traveled all over Europe, Singapore, Japan, China, View Nam, Thailand, New Zealand, Australia, and more, and never missed a call.
So how does the Storm perform overseas?? After all, this is supposed to be one of the World Phones from Verizon.
@Richard Miller: Since I don’t have any trips planned to Europe in the next 2 days, I won’t be able to comment… Hopefully someone else will chime in 🙂
Very good review so far. We should keep in mind that when GM first started using buttons instead of dials on stereos and climate controls in cars that we had a similar reaction. I have an iPod Touch and the Storm. The iPhone is not available here in Montucky and I would not leave Verizon if it were. Buttons on previous Blackberrys are more “normal” feeling than the touch screen, even if the screen clicks. For me typing on the Storm versus the Touch is much more intuitive. Neither are as easy as the old Curve was! We’ll call it a “learning” curve. For it’s flaws, it is a superior phone for call quality and internet browsing. As my eyes age, it is also much easier for e-mails and attachments. Typing and dialing out of the contacts is coming to me. You must learn to manipulate the device. Today was a very good day with the Storm as I spent some of Sunday setting it up so that it would be easier to dial and easier in general. As I get to know the device better, I am liking it more. The iPhone is sexy and I would love to have one if Verizon and Apple ever come to terms. In the mean time, I have very much enjoyed every Blackberry I have owned and believe this one will be no different. Give it time and work it. It will then work for you.
I’m Down Under with a Vodafone 3G Storm 9500, have been using it for about a month. I have longish fingernails (as in they go past my fingertips) and this makes using the touch screen quite tricky as I have to use finger pads rather than finger tips (so not accurate enough)… I am getting better with practice but it still takes me ages to type messages. I find myself making calls in preference to sending SMS coz it’s just easier. Before the Storm I was using an iMate K-Jam – I loved the pressure sensitive screen, great with fingernails for menu selection, and I could handwrite War and Peace in an SMS with a stylus in no time flat. I never used the keyboard though, so I was looking for a keyless touchscreen in my next phone. I love being able to surf the internet free on the BlackBerry Storm, although I think there is room for improvement with the Browser – but I haven’t used any other mobile browser so I am making no comparisons. I looked up a phone number on a web page the other day, and clicking on the number on the webpage activated the phone and called it direct – I didn’t have to copy the number and open the phone app. How cool is that?!! I was looking forward to using Vodafone Compass (the GPS app) but refuse to pay another $8 a month for it on top of my contracted $79 a month. Google Maps seems to work ok though, so I’m not going to get lost. I use a BlueAnt bluetooth headset which works reasonably well most of the time, although sometimes the Storm decides not to send the call to the headset, very annoying when I am driving (it’s illegal to use your hands on your phone while driving here). Am very pleased that the voice dialling app works well on my bluetooth – even though the app has an American accent, it has managed to understand my Australian accent and select the right contact every time. I could not get my old Nokia or iMate phones to talk to the Storm via Bluetooth – the Storm discovered them but refused to communicate. I synch my Storm with my Outlook 2003 calendar, tasks and contacts every day with no problems at all. I have email set up on the Storm which is good – it only downloads the header information. I choose whether to download any attachments. Facebook works ok – and it alerts me when I get a Facebook update just like it does with SMS and emails. I have to charge the Storm every night docked to the computer – I can barely get through 2 days without going flat – but I can talk under wet cement 🙂 And it plays music and all the other media stuff too… wish I could get some new themes, no one has released any yet 🙁 Overall, I am very happy with the Storm – just wish the screen was pressure sensitive…
Im thinking about getting my daughter this cell phone when her 2 year contract ends.She is visiting her aunt thats 1,000 miles away from here all summer so that will give me some time to think about it. Her old phone deletes EVERYTHING! Plus it is really slow. She needs something that she can have through highschool.She has the SMALLEST fingers so she will be extremely good at texting and surfing the web and all that good stuff. I know some people who have the iPhone and they told me NOT to get it for her. So please comment back!! Thanks
–Kylie A.
I LOVE MY STORM! :] I disagree completely! It is the easiest thing I’ve EVER used. All the free apps are a HUGE plus, and the customization is UH-MAAAY-ZIIIIING. I’ve never had a problem with the rotation or the keyboard, I mess up in the exact same ways I did my old phone’s Alias & Dare (simple spelling errors when typing too fast :D).
all of you diephone fanboys need to go and find somebody else to bother. it seems that whenever a better phone threatens the iphones existance, you guy’s pull your d*** out of your “sexy” (do you all have objectophelia or something?) iphone’s headphone jack for a couple minutes to attempt to bash new technologies that are beyond your very understanding.
Have any of you even tried to use linux? I’d be willing to bet that all of you iphony’s would go to all of the linux forums, telling everybody “windows is a godsend and everything else is crap”.
now for my ten cents. The Storm is like nothing else, obviously. This means THERE ARE GOING TO BE FLAWS. RIM had nobody to copy off of (shut up you iphony). I am currently running official os version .148. OS .148 has addressed many issues, many of which I have not seen yet because I did not bother to view the changelog. My favorite (besides the reliability) is the translucent control panel for the camera so you can see the rest of the picture before you take it. text editing was improved with a new selection cursor. screen rotation has sped up. autodim was improved. the phone doesn’t lockup when taking video like .74 was notorious for doing. aesthetics were improved a bit. the screen seems more responsive. the camera takes less time to focus. the flash duration was dramatically shortened. there is now a full keyboard in portrait view.
All in all, The storm is now at an unfair advantage to the iphone.
-Joe
p.s. I am not a storm fanboy, I prefer the pre, but I don’t get coverage in my area and don’t feel like moving just for a masterpiece of a cell phone.