Comments on: What's a BlackBerry Without a Keyboard?

By: Did Droid Just KO the BlackBerry Storm2?

Did Droid Just KO the BlackBerry Storm2? — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:47:07 +0000

[...] for review. I think it’s very brave to do that, because I have not necessarily been shy about my view of Storm and its touchscreen. I am going to play around with this and give you my first-hand impressions. [...]

By: » Blog Archive » I’m an iPhone AND I’m a Blackberry

» Blog Archive » I’m an iPhone AND I’m a Blackberry — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:08:50 +0000

[...] my friend is not so alone on his matter. Om Malik in his review of the Blackberry Storm mentioned that he also carries both a Blackberry and an iPhone: “The reason I carry both an [...]

By: For New York Times BlackBerry Storm is a Dud - GigaOM

For New York Times BlackBerry Storm is a Dud - GigaOM — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 01:56:09 +0000

[...] I had pretty much the same sentiments, though I wasn’t quite as colorful. Many who have used the Storm’s touch keyboard have been disappointed by it. Others, have been turned off by its lack of WiFi support. [...]

By: djilla

djilla — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 00:19:22 +0000

@ Richard Bemmett. The 8820 has Wi-FI and GPS. I own it on tmobile.

By: Después de la tormenta… : Wishful thinking

Después de la tormenta… : Wishful thinking — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 17:24:04 +0000

[...] no han podido ser mejores. Incluso ha gustado al generalmente tibio Walt Mossberg. A otros, no le ha gustado tanto, aduciendo que la introducción de la pantalla táctil es una traición al aspecto más diferencial [...]

By: Phoenix Woman

Phoenix Woman — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 19:28:59 +0000

As the owner of an Apple iTouch, I’m glad to see this — because now it will force Apple to roll out new software with the cut-and-paste function, which they’ll need to do to keep the Storm from eating their lunch.

By: Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 11:09:40 +0000

RIM’s never built a phone with both Wi-Fi and GPS, so it was probably VZ’s choice to go with the GPS. It’s probably a battery life issue at the end of the day.

By: Jesse Kopelman

Jesse Kopelman — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 22:39:28 +0000

@Om

I’d agree with you about the no WiFi thing being Verizon’s fault if they didn’t sell all that Windows Mobile crap with WiFi. Yes, they sell it with the WiFi disabled in software, but the hardware is still there and is fairly easy to activate. I think this was actually RIM trying to increase profitability by leaving out a feature that costs them money to implement and that their primary customer (Verizon) is happy to not have. I guess what I’m saying is that this is Verizon’s fault, but it is also RIM’s fault. It will be very interesting to see if Verizon actually sells an Android phone, as with such a device it should be easy to enable all the features Verizon wants disabled.

Oh yeah, that reminds me of the whole having to pay Verizon to actually use built-in GPS thing. It really sucks that Verizon generally has the best coverage and customer service, as they really rip you off on the rate plans. Wireless service is definitely a case of you get what you pay for.

By: matrixstore

matrixstore — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 11:50:10 +0000

I’ve had the pleasure of owning a Storm for almost a week now, using it in real world scenarios etc, so unlike most commentators, I can comment with perhaps a little more kudos (I’ve also used the bold in anger, but not the iphone):

Email – receiving

First of all the display of emails, and their attachments is a SIGNIFICANT improvement – the screen is lovely and the emails display brilliantly. Attachments can be zoomed in on, and even edited – so I highly recommend the device if those aspects are the most important to you.

Email – typing

Yes, you CAN type on it, but I defy anyone to type on the device at even 50% of the speed you can on a Bold. And if you are the kind of person you likes to edit what you typed, good luck to you: it’s almost impossible to accurately select a character in the middle of a typed message to correct it. So to me: if 50% write speeds aren’t an issue to you, this is a beautiful device to get.

General: this is a really beautiful device – I hear what you say about companies sticking to their strengths, but BB have done a beautiful job on it: give me that new email display together with a slide out keyboard and trackball and I’d be a happy man!

By: Broadband Politics | Storm not winning any raves

Broadband Politics | Storm not winning any raves — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 01:06:48 +0000

[...] Malik isn’t impressed by the BlackBerry Storm and neither am I: The Storm reminds me of the St. Louis Cardinals phenom Rich Ankiel, who was an awesome pitcher till [...]

By: Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:56:14 +0000

T-Mobile makes very good use of the Wi-Fi feature on the Curve, supporting VoWiFi with UMA as well as web browsing.

And to Drew, the Storm is different from other Blackberries because of the humungous screen. If that’s not for web surfing, I don’t know what it’s for. If all I want to do is e-mail and text, I’d rather have a Curve with real keys any day. RIM doesn’t want to be in an e-mail ghetto when the rest of the world is webbing.

By: Om Malik

Om Malik — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:11:56 +0000

@Jesse, @ Richard and @Drew

I totally agree and the omission of WiFi is just strange. It is because Verizon despite all the talk about open is still a closed network and they don’t really don’t want freedom on your devices.

By: Raymond Padilla

Raymond Padilla — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 23:56:09 +0000

RIM didn’t suffer from the ridiculous control and confidence problems Ankiel had before he reinvented himself. It’s not as if RIM suddenly forgot how to make smartphones and eventually started making middling MP3 players.

By: Drew Clark

Drew Clark — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 23:30:04 +0000

One thing we should all keep in mind when invoking these comparisons with iPhone and G1 is that while these two are primarily browser-oriented devices, the Blackberry is fundamentally an email machine (thus Om’s missive over the keyboard) that has some Web capabilities. The lack of WiFi would be substantially more serious to me if I were purchasing the Storm to be primarily for Web access (which I do not) rather than for email efficiency which I do..and it’s a far better email device than iPhone at the moment and handles mail & calendar very effectively over EVDO.

By: Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 22:55:40 +0000

I agree with Jesse. I would have happily bought one of these babies to replace my mislaid Curve if it had Wi-Fi, but without that feature it’s a non-starter. 3G is nice and all, but I get close to 4 Mbps download speed on my G1 via Wi-Fi and Comcast, and only 600K via 3G. Plus I’ve got no obvious cap with Wi-Fi. Verizon needs to revise their specs and try again. Both the iPhone and the G1 have major weaknesses, and Blackberry is the company best able to crush them.

By: Jesse Kopelman

Jesse Kopelman — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 21:57:22 +0000

Don’t you think the lack of WiFi is a killer omission? While I’m sure I could happily live without it on such a device, it just seems wrong not to have a feature that has been pretty standard on smart phones for 3 years now.