Just ignore all the shit I talked previously about my BlackBerry [Pearl]. This is the one! Big, bad, and oh-so sexy. The BlackBerry Curve 8330 features high speed EvDO data, fully unlocked GPS with Google Maps and BB Maps, camera, video, full keyboard, huge screen, and the best part: Over 10 days of standby and 4-5 straight hours of talk time before your call drops. For a CDMA phone, this one is king.
I’m such a phone head.
The first 3G iPhone has arrived, but for a mobile power user like myself, is the iPhone really going to cut it? I don’t think so. While I love the look and feel of the “Steve Phone,” there’s something seriously missing from these devices. I live and use my smartphone in the United States, where GSM lags behind CDMA in terms of signal, quality, and data speed. I hate to break it to you guys over at AT&T, T-Mobile, etc., but some people like talking on their phone without a ton of static, dropped calls, etc. GSM just doesn’t have enough decent coverage here in the U.S. to be a real fesiable option. If it were “that good,” more carriers would offer it nationwide and Verizon (Mainly CDMA) wouldn’t be the #1 carrier here.
War driving to get faster data by hopping on insecure wireless routers? Come on, now. That’s less than the perfect solution to poor speeds. And I’m not too impressed with the faster 3G iPhone. I own an HTC Titan (PPC-6800) and while Windows Mobile just plain sucks, third party applications like SPB Phone Suite and Missing Sync make it usable day-to-day, it’s still a lot better than your iPhone. And Steve Jobs is still calling this thing a smartphone. Why all the issues, downtime, etc. if this thing is supposed to be so “smart?” I expected more from Apple on this new toy. I would’ve rather seen the Apple Tablet than see everyone working on that project shuffle over to the iPhone team and create this rather… interesting device on a rather poor network.
I’ve been playing with my new phone for about a week now, the HTC PPC-6800. I’m in love. It’s smaller than the 6700 I had, jet black and spring-loaded with enough power to do things such as 802.11b/g wireless, stream every kind of media imaginable, and even act as an FTP or torrent server. Now that’s hot. My eBay purchase wasn’t so hot, however. The phone won’t vibrate and I’m still not 100% sure it’s fixable without doing an insurance claim and forking over another $95 in addition to the almost $300 I paid for the phone used. There is also a very slight LCD burn which is inherent to the phone’s super heat generated by long days of excessive Wi-Fi usage. Yes, this baby gets smokin’ hot.
The LCD burn is barely noticeable, even by me, but the vibrate feature is something I wish I had — even if it kills the battery life and rattles the battery cover like there’s no tomorrow. And to top it all off, I’m still missing the sync cradle which was supposed to be included with my eBay purchase but the mondo eBay store shipper simply forgot to include. Oh, and I paid for rush UPS 2nd Day Air shipping and they sent it UPS Ground. Granted it arrived in 3 days instead of 2, I’m still out 2X the shipping cost without a refund. Looks like it’s time to do a PayPal reversal and play hard ball.
It’s too bad, too. I’ve used this eBay seller in the past last year and received such an amazing “like new” BlackBerry that I deliberately went back to this person/company (BatteryMania) for a phone I just had to have in pristine condition. And what a load of shit he shipped me. Now, I’d just be happy with the damn $10 generic sync cradle they forgot to include. Even if I throw in another $95 and use my insurance claim to get a phone in better condition, I’d still be paying less total for the whole nine yards than I would’ve if I renewed my contract for another 2 years and bought this PocketPC from Alltel.com.
So, I’ve marked another eBay seller off my list, and I’m still fighting with BatteryMania to get my god damn $10 sync cradle. Shipping costs refunded? As soon as I hit the PayPal dispute button and vent my anger to the automated Gods, we’ll see what happens with that. All in all I’m still happy with the purchase. I’m easy to please when it comes to new toys and I’ll slowly save away piece by piece for my insurance claim hundo.
TomTom, go home.
Well, that didn’t take long! And it’s not that my BlackBerry doesn’t work great, don’t get me wrong — this is a solid platform trusted by hundreds of thousands Hollywood stars and Government officials alike. The only problem I have with it is that it works too well. Yeah, you heard me right. There’s nothing to tinker, hack, or mod. It’s so stable it’s scary. Try loading 10,000 contacts on your Treo and call me when it stops crashing. This little device packs a punch, but my wireless carrier has really dumbed it down. No multimedia messaging (MMS), locked GPS that forces you to buy the cheap no-thrills $9.99/mo. TeleNav, and since it’s a CDMA BlackBerry, there’s no 802.11b/g wireless support.
So, I’m going back to Redmond. Back to Bill Gates. Back to another Windows Mobile phone with all the toys. The PPC-6800, also known as the HTC Titan, “Mogul” and a few other carrier-specific nicknames. Paired with Windows Mobile 6.1, threaded text messages, multimedia message support, 802.11b/g wireless, high-speed EvDO on the Alltel/Sprint EvDO network, unlocked (hacked) GPS ready to roll with Google Maps or Windows Live, and Skype for international calling anywhere in the world from anywhere in the world? Now that’s a phone. Or should I saiy, that’s a small laptop with a built-in phone.
I’m looking to order the new HTC PocketPC (PPC) in the next week or two. Mmm, features.
I’ve had my new BlackBerry 8130 for about a week now and I must say, while there are some cons over pros on this little device, it’s really rock-solid and stable. Gone are the days of random freezes and crashes like Treo’s and PocketPC’s in the past. I was actually able to leave a wide range of applications idling over night with no network issues (jmIrc, IM+). It seems to keep a stronger connection to the data network than any smartphone I’ve had in the past and with BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS), my e-mail comes faster than usual without the battery drain.
With my Treo, I used ChatterEmail to get push e-mail using IMAP IDLE (RFC 2177) and with that combination, I could barely keep it going an entire day. Since the Canadians check my mail for me, I’m only downloading messages that have already been compressed and specially cooked for my BlackBerry (Just like Mom used to make!). While the only “true” push e-mail is offered on your @<carrier>.blackberry.com address which comes free with when you join the BB club, I’ve noticed only short delays, maybe 5 seconds to 5 minutes in most cases, for receiving mail on my SSL IMAP server. Considering to save battery life on my Treo I had to set mail checking intervals to 15 minutes, this is a good thing.
The form factor is probably what I love most about the phone and also what I hate most about it. It’s small, light, and so unlike a normal smartphone. I feel like I’m going to crush it or drop it constantly and that wouldn’t be good considering how expensive this little thing is. At the same time, I love being able to slip it in my shirt pocket — something I’d never attempt with my other smartphones, when I need to reach for it a moment later but don’t want to fiddle with the holster.
A lot of people complain about the cramped SureType keypad. It’s a full QWERTY layout midgetized. I’ve used QWERTY keypads for a long time now and I can tell you, it didn’t take but a few days to start blazing on this tiny keyboard. The secret, like I’m sure you’ve heard elsewhere is don’t look at the screen! SureType is pretty damn sure, getting about 80 to 90% of the words correctly with half the keys. Overall, I’m happy with the BlackBerry 8130. With a beautiful 2 megapixel camera, sleek look, and solid proven Operating System, what more could you ask for? Except for MMS, Wi-Fi….. I’ll just stop here.
