[minigrrl]

So I finally gave up on my lovely little Sony Ericsson Mini Pro (Android). I was on my 4th handset (I would drop it so often, each one would finally break for real) since this awesome phone (and clearly I'm the only one in the world who thinks it's awesome as Sony is showing no signs of a follow up) came out. I eventually came to the decision that it was just too slow to be usable anymore and seeing that there were no real physical keyboard alternatives available in Australia, I thought I'd give the Blackberry Q10 a go...

First impression out of the box:
BIG! So very big compared to my old phone. Then again, everyone used to make fun of my old phone for being so small, so maybe I'll get back some street cred now! Not sure how the pocket in my running tights is going to deal with such a big phone though...
Lovely hardware. Feels nice in my hand. Going to take a while to getting used to not having to slide the keyboard out.

First hour:
I managed to get all the important things set up and loaded onto the phone while shopping at the mall (multitasking at its finest): My work ActiveSync email account, my two IMAP personal email accounts, Whatsapp, Skype, Facebook, LinkedIn, Evernote, Remember the Milk, XMarks and LastPass.

Rest of the day:
Worked aka played around trying to get the hang of the way to get out of apps, close apps, work with the Hub. Tried the camera (ok, not great, but the Sony wasn't amazing either). Will miss the auto sync of photos up to Facebook (though maybe that will come in a future FB release).

Transferred over texts from Android phone using method I found in the BB10 forum (had to do it twice - first time didn't work seamlessly - had to edit the xml file so that all the phone numbers were in the same format - clearly the fault of either the Android phone or the export software - all good now).

Last night:
Didn't sleep well, worried that I would oversleep for my 5am call (I work for an American company, my calls start early) as I could only set one alarm and I usually set two and sometimes three for the 4am calls. I have a bad habit of hitting dismiss by accident rather than snooze and going back to sleep - that second alarm always saves me. Note to self: look for a 3rd party app that does this. Surely there must be one. Until then use Sonos as backup alarm to get some sleep! Find Sonos app.

Today:
Wondering why I am getting no sound notifications on anything. I think I did something to turn the sound off last night, but couldn't swear to it and notifications seem to all be on. Plus the sound is on. And the notification in the accounts are on. No idea. Working on it when I remember to look. It was working yesterday so I must have done something. Miss the option to long press on the power key and turn all sound off and on (except for the alarm). Maybe there is a similar option here that I just haven't found. EDITED TO ADD: Figured this one out - my bad. In Settings -> Notifications I had turned the sound off. I did look in there before but saw that Mode was set to Normal and didn't look any further. So all good here! (Still miss the Android shortcut though!)

Cool Thing: I didn't have to set up any payment information to buy apps - BlackBerry just automatically uses my Telstra account (with the option to change payment methods if I desire).

Annoying Thing: Wish the Hub would default to always going back to the main screen rather than defaulting to the last thing you looked at (maybe have an option to leave it on the last app you were in...). It's a "Hub" so I would expect it to always take you to your list of new stuff. I've already looked at my text message - I don't need to see it again next time I go in.

Annoying Thing: My Hub randomly disables accounts. There is a workaround in another thread - I've tried this and _think_ it might be working but cannot be sure. It's to do with not scrolling in the selection screen. Dodgy.

Annoying Thing: I miss my Android home screen. I miss pressing one button to get there and having all my frequently used apps there at a glance. I do understand I can get out of an app and then start typing the name of an app. But try typing "Evernote". It doesn't work. This is because Evernote is integrated into something called "Remember". Which is confusing as I also use "Remember the Milk". Plus, sometimes I CAN'T remember. I'm old. I recognise the icons for my apps, and don't always have their names on the tip of my tongue (or fingers). Basically, I end up using a lot more keystrokes and swipes and taps to get where I want than I did in Andriod. Maybe this will improve over time.

Annoying Thing: I miss the cursor arrow keys for up, down, right, left that were on the keyboard of my old phone. I hate having to move my fingers off the keyboard to use that dumb cursor selection tool. I hated it with my brief fling with the iphone and a keyboardless Android phone and I hate it just as much now. The tapping thing to move one character is cool, but my fingers are off the keyboard. Bad. Yes, I'll probably get used to this too.

Annoying Thing: I miss my dedicated "." (period, full stop) button. I hate having to do alt-. I do this... A lot... Oh and when I do this... The next character is not capitalised. Unless I press shift. Again, maybe I'll get used to this over time.

Annoying Thing: Even though I've told the calendar app I don't want to see my Google calendar entries there, they still show up in the Hub.

Annoying Thing: Email sync is slow. Even over ActiveSync. It can take a good few minutes for a message I've read on either my phone or my PC to show up as read in the other place. On Android this was almost instant. Well, with Touchdown, anyway. I was always under the impression that BlackBerry was the king for email.

Annoying Thing: I don't seem to be able to just set settings for text messages only - i want texts to be by conversation not single message - but this setting changes it for the whole Hub and I don't want my email to do that.

Annoying Thing: The bar for who you are sending a text message to takes up at least two lines. There is no reason for this - it's way too much screen real estate on such a tiny screen. There is a big bar that says "Compose" (no kidding - this does not need to be there), then a bar that says "To", then another line for the person's name. So almost a third of the screen taken up with info that needs one line. Maybe there is some way of getting rid of this but I haven't found it yet.

My overall impression is the OS is kind of fractured. I can't really explain except that doing things in one place doesn't necessarily cascade where you'd expect it to. Whereas other times doing things in one place does cascade to where you wouldn't expect it to.

All in all I do like the phone. At the very least it's not laggy like my old one. And the keyboard is pretty good. Not as wide as my old keyboard, but it's workable for sure.

I'll report back some more when I'm more used to the phone. Hopefully the "Cool Things" will overtake the "Annoying Things"...

[w0lfgang]

Annoying Thing: I miss my dedicated "." (period, full stop) button. I hate having to do alt-. I do this... A lot... Oh and when I do this... The next character is not capitalised. Unless I press shift. Again, maybe I'll get used to this over time.

lol...I do that a lot too....I have the Z10, and everytime I do....it wants to predict the next letter to be "m." So, if I don't catch it by swiping up on the spacebar, it does....m. I keep meaning to play around in the auto-correct and personal dictionary. Maybe you could set up a one button shortcut to auto-complete the....for you.
Also, in your spell check, see what happens if you turn the "ignore case" to off. That may also be why it won't capitalize for you after the....

[minigrrl]

Great suggestions.

I just tried setting up a short-cut for the ... Doesn't seem to work unless you put a space before it, which isn't what I want. i.e. I set it up as "ddd" but typing "Testddd" (for obvious reasons) doesn't work. I really don't want that extra space. I tried " ddd" but that still put the space before the "...".

I also tried the ingore case thing and it didn't make a difference to the captialisation after the "...". Bummer.

Will keep on trying!

[thepissednewt]

Where'd you get the Q10 from? Not from Telstra I gather...

[takeo]

Great suggestions.

I just tried setting up a short-cut for the ... Doesn't seem to work unless you put a space before it, which isn't what I want. i.e. I set it up as "ddd" but typing "Testddd" (for obvious reasons) doesn't work. I really don't want that extra space. I tried " ddd" but that still put the space before the "...".

I also tried the ingore case thing and it didn't make a difference to the captialisation after the "...". Bummer.

Will keep on trying!

OK, maybe I'm confusing your issue, but this *might* help?:
Go to settings, language and input, prediction and corrections and activate "auto capitalize" and "period shortcut".
Now just tapping the space bar twice gets you to type a "." and the next letter will automatically be capitalized.

Cheers

[madeinhb]

Doesn't pushing space twice add a .

[minigrrl]

Actually I want three dots. So, like this... I do that a lot. The one period with two spaces is great but I do this... a lot... :-)

[minigrrl]

Where'd you get the Q10 from? Not from Telstra I gather...

No from Mobicity. Not a big fan of getting phones on contract. Until my beloved Mini Pro I would change phones at the drop of a hat!

[thepissednewt]

I'm also a big fan of ..., and only just realized that it didn't capitalize afterwards. But I seem to be on autopilot on my Z10...

[takeo]

Actually I want three dots. So, like this... I do that a lot. The one period with two spaces is great but I do this... a lot... :-)

Oh..........

[cuek80]

Actually I want three dots. So, like this... I do that a lot. The one period with two spaces is great but I do this... a lot... :-)

Maybe using auto text to do this? Not a perfect solution, but if you do it very often, it ll save some taps.

[w0lfgang]

this thread is funny.....I actually thought I was the only one who did the.....thing. when I write to my friends...a lot of them ask...."hey...what's with all the f-ing periods dude?" So I say....pi$$...off....

[BBFanatic4Life]

Holding down a key will make it go capital. So you can go... and then hold any key down for 2 seconds will make it go Capital. Other tricks are typing "mypin" for your BlackBerry pin, "lt" for local time and "myver" for info on your phone. Just found that out last week as I don't remember it being in my Bold 9900.

Hope the phone grows on you and you learn to love it. Oh and welcome to the CB community.

Posted via CB10

[markym190]

Ok so i used bb link to transfer data from my 9900 to the q10... no emails and only some of the contacts were transferred.

I checked with a friend he had the same problem and as per him it is not possible to transfer old emails...

I have been a loyal blackberry user for over 5 years... i still have all my emails from the last 5 years.. Why would bb not consider the migration issue for their loyal bb customers? i dont get it.... If i am starting with a fresh phone and no old emails then it would be just as easy for me to switch to ios or android very easily and at a much lower price...

The essence that made blackbery is gone and these guys have blindly followed other phones to get market share ignoring their loyal customers and selling to me what looks to be a very expensive pc of junk... not to mention all the hype they created by allowing pre ordering around the world...

Blackberry someone up there really screwed up when they came up with bb10 and decided not to allow complete data migration from old devices...

Guys pls let me know if there is a way to transfer emails otherwise i am left with no choice but to switch to an s4 or iphone 5 and get rid of this pf of junk...

Also why the hell would they remove the simple email icon from the home screen? that was the best thing about blackberry and now one has to go through hub and look through all other connections before choosing when all i really needed was to send an email.
q10... pc of junk??


Blackberry was popular for emails not for the other junk they are now trying to sell you on the phone... they have officially lost their universal selling point and now just trying to sell you a copy of other devices with a bb label on it...

Goodbye Blackberry thankyou for being of use to me earlier... Already called the shop and told them i am bringing the phone back!!!

[thepissednewt]

So why ask for help?

Transfer from 9800 to z10 was flawless...

Posted via CB10

[BBFanatic4Life]

"We now return to your regularly scheduled programming"

Seriously wtf was that all about? Some people have neither common sense or common courtesy.

Posted via CB10

[digtech]

@Marky... You seriously need to relax. Forgive BlackBerry for not considering that you would still need your emails from 5 years ago.. And if you had taken the time out to understand your phone you wouldn't be trolling on this forum. There is such a feature on the Q10 called INSTANT actions... Type "Email" then start typing the message... Jeez you people just love to whine about everything. Even me who doesn't even own a BB10 device knows this.

The essence of what made BlackBerry was what was holding them back all this time. There comes a time when a company must evolve... Yes Believe it or not Market Share actually determines whether the company stays afloat or get lost to history. So you can return your Q10 by all means don't let the door hit u on your way out... As a matter... Please let it do. BlackBerry will still be here with or without your money.

[minigrrl]

Holding down a key will make it go capital. So you can go... and then hold any key down for 2 seconds will make it go Capital. Other tricks are typing "mypin" for your BlackBerry pin, "lt" for local time and "myver" for info on your phone. Just found that out last week as I don't remember it being in my Bold 9900.

Hope the phone grows on you and you learn to love it. Oh and welcome to the CB community.

Posted via CB10

Awesome! I did notice the hold down to capitalise thing, but immediately forgot about it... Thanks!

[SirJes]

Ok so i used bb link to transfer data from my 9900 to the q10... no emails and only some of the contacts were transferred.

I checked with a friend he had the same problem and as per him it is not possible to transfer old emails...

I have been a loyal blackberry user for over 5 years... i still have all my emails from the last 5 years.. Why would bb not consider the migration issue for their loyal bb customers? i dont get it.... If i am starting with a fresh phone and no old emails then it would be just as easy for me to switch to ios or android very easily and at a much lower price...

The essence that made blackbery is gone and these guys have blindly followed other phones to get market share ignoring their loyal customers and selling to me what looks to be a very expensive pc of junk... not to mention all the hype they created by allowing pre ordering around the world...

Blackberry someone up there really screwed up when they came up with bb10 and decided not to allow complete data migration from old devices...

Guys pls let me know if there is a way to transfer emails otherwise i am left with no choice but to switch to an s4 or iphone 5 and get rid of this pf of junk...

Also why the hell would they remove the simple email icon from the home screen? that was the best thing about blackberry and now one has to go through hub and look through all other connections before choosing when all i really needed was to send an email.
q10... pc of junk??


Blackberry was popular for emails not for the other junk they are now trying to sell you on the phone... they have officially lost their universal selling point and now just trying to sell you a copy of other devices with a bb label on it...

Goodbye Blackberry thankyou for being of use to me earlier... Already called the shop and told them i am bringing the phone back!!!

You "guys please let me know if there is a way to transfer emails,or else im going to iPhone or Samsung (why u feel the need to tell us the exact phone idk) but then.......

The last paragraph you say u already called and told them your returning the phone? Lol wow thats all WOW

Posted via CB10

[madeinhb]

You "guys please let me know if there is a way to transfer emails,or else im going to iPhone or Samsung (why u feel the need to tell us the exact phone idk) but then.......

The last paragraph you say u already called and told them your returning the phone? Lol wow thats all WOW

Posted via CB10

Emails only stay on handset for 30 days.

[BravoZuluDelta]

Actually I want three dots. So, like this... I do that a lot. The one period with two spaces is great but I do this... a lot... :-)

There's a bug in autotext right now where the backspace macro does not work. Once that is fixed, change your replacement text to "%b...". The %b will tell the autotext to backspace before inserting any further text.

You can see this macro used in the "br" (bracket) and "rb" (right bracket) entries. They currently do not work as designed, failing to remove the extra space. Since these autotexts exist in BB10, I assume the %b macro will eventually be made available.

Posted via CB10 on Q10

[minigrrl]

There's a bug in autotext right now where the backspace macro does not work. Once that is fixed, change your replacement text to "%b...". The %b will tell the autotext to backspace before inserting any further text.

You can see this macro used in the "br" (bracket) and "rb" (right bracket) entries. They currently do not work as designed, failing to remove the extra space. Since these autotexts exist in BB10, I assume the %b macro will eventually be made available.

Posted via CB10 on Q10

Cool! Hopefully that will be fixed soon. I just tested it on the software update I installed yesterday (.314) and it's not working...

[finallybb]

selling to me what looks to be a very expensive pc of junk... not to mention all the hype they created by allowing pre ordering around the world...

Hype? Everyone complains about the lack of advertising


get rid of this pf of junk...



Also why the hell would they remove the simple email icon from the home screen? that was the best thing about blackberry and now one has to go through hub and look through all other connections before choosing when all i really needed was to send an email.
q10... pc of junk??

I don't think it's too hard to swipe left and choose an account, they're all spelled out



Goodbye Blackberry thankyou for being of use to me earlier... Already called the shop and told them i am bringing the phone back!!!

Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Damn, I haven't been here too long and even this s h i t e is starting to grate on me now.

[finallybb]

@minigrrl, the phone really does grow on you

[minigrrl]

I do like it.

I'm a techie and get bored very quickly if I don't have something new to learn. It's fun trying to figure out how to do stuff like set the phone up how I want it. As a software developer I also understand that bugs are a matter of fact, you can't have software without bugs (well with the exception of my perfect stuff, obviously...), so the little things don't bother me too much. I reckon things will get fixed in due course.

I do still really miss my Android home screen. It's also hard to remember that you have to keep some apps running or they don't work.

Overall I'm pretty happy with it. Especially now that I have a pretty case for it. Think I'll be even more happy when I get my custom Piel Frama case (but that takes 35 days or something, so I'll be waiting a while). :-)