[Snazy]

Glad you liked the read.

With regards to the questions.
Reboot I have not timed, but generally it's not a physical battery pull anymore, but a hardware button reboot. I shall time one shortly.

As for mass selection, gone are the days of swiping over with the trackpad, and instead you have the 'select more' option from the three dot menu. As pictured below.




It's a little buggy at the mo and sometimes won't delete everything selected.

Hope you continue to find my ramblings helpful in some way.



Posted via CB10

[jthep]

Many of those gripes are nitpicking. No one seems to say things like the iPhone or Galaxy phones have a shytty typing experience due to lack of a real QWERTY keyboard? Even that is sorta true.

The criticism I paid most attention to was in the notifications and the sound options. BB7 and many BBOS's before that did a great job in keeping that feature simple, which made sense since many professionals that used BB's had to be hyper-connected getting and composing numerous emails per day. Making the notifications overly complicated or just changing something that was the BBOS strong suit just does not make sense.

I cannot comment on BB10 as a whole since I have not used one of the devices yet. When ATT gets Q10 I will buy it though...

[Snazy]

Many of those gripes are nitpicking. No one seems to say things like the iPhone or Galaxy phones have a shytty typing experience due to lack of a real QWERTY keyboard? Even that is sorta true.

The criticism I paid most attention to was in the notifications and the sound options. BB7 and many BBOS's before that did a great job in keeping that feature simple, which made sense since many professionals that used BB's had to be hyper-connected getting and composing numerous emails per day. Making the notifications overly complicated or just changing something that was the BBOS strong suit just does not make sense.

I cannot comment on BB10 as a whole since I have not used one of the devices yet. When ATT gets Q10 I will buy it though...

The touchscreen typing experience as a whole is generally not complained about as most users accept what they have and get on with it. As the main input for any device, you either accept it and get on with it, or move on to something else. Its only when you use two devices side by side that you start to appreciate or complain about the experiences of each. The experience on the Z10 for example is the best I have had with a touch screen to date, and I can only say that because of my previous touchscreen devices, of which there have been a few now.

As far as notifications go, as my blog says, BB have moved from what was a very simple to use, but not pleasing to the eye set up, to a rather more complex and multi-layered system, which is fitting with the whole BB10 image, but not a great experience at all. Finding a standard tone from the few on offer is fine, but daring to delve into your downloaded tones and suddenly it becomes long winded and a little frustrating.

I would hazard a guess to say that a lot of these things which have become rather complex will be rectified at some point in the near future. However it doesn't excuse the fact that some things that were fine as they were, have been tampered with and messed up for no good reason.

[m4gician]

As a phone, it's horrible. It's absolutely horrible as a phone. The 9900 was better.

Can't speed dial by touch screen

Can't type letters (I.e 1800ROGERS1)

End button sucks and is almost non responsive

CB10 from my Q10 saaaan!

[Snazy]

As a phone, it's horrible. It's absolutely horrible as a phone. The 9900 was better.

Can't speed dial by touch screen

Can't type letters (I.e 1800ROGERS1)

End button sucks and is almost non responsive

CB10 from my Q10 saaaan!

Fair enough, they are your views, but do you really consider because of those small short fallings, that the whole device is rubbish?
Speed dials will come im sure, more from the physical keyboard rather than the touchscreen.
As for not being able to type letters, never been an issue here as its not the done thing, but I guess region to region it will make a difference.

End button has improved no end for me on .273 Are you running .238 or .273 No issue with it whatsoever anymore.

Not saying you are wrong, you are entitled to your own opinion of course, but seems a small handful of issues for you to be saying it sucks as a phone lol

[Snazy]

Also, if a battery pull is done for some reason, I assume they've sped up the reboot speed?

And thanks again for all the objective posts on the device, they've been quite helpful!

Right, a few restarts of various kinds later and we have the following.

A software reset from the power button menu takes 1 mins 45 seconds to get back to the OS running fully. Followed by between 8 and 30 seconds to find a network connection again.

A power button reset pressing and holding for up to 30 seconds as some have suggested takes 61 seconds to get the OS back up and running again, and the same sort of network search / connect time.

And finally a volume rocker long press reset takes approx 1 min 10 second to reboot fully, and again the same variation of times to connect back fully to a data signal on the network.

What each of these resets do I dont know, I have yet to do some digging to get a definitive answer on which is better, or which should be used when. But all return the device to its original state before rebooting, and non wipe any data.

[kupfernigk]

"As for not being able to type letters, never been an issue here as its not the done thing, but I guess region to region it will make a difference."

I think this really shows that BlackBerry now see the US market and its quirks as rather a dead duck. Those letter equivalents were a horrible workaround for the fundamental phone design error of decimal phone numbers*, and as soon as proper on-phone contact lists became available they should have had a sack put over their heads before shooting them.
I also think that the best approach for speed dials is a page with contact pictures and a preferred action for touching a contact, so that one person gets phoned and another gets the email client starting up. In 2013 it should not be necessary to remember an arbitrary key relation. Years ago a colleague put my number on speed dial and then kept accidentally triggering it when in the pub, thus resulting in a phone call with muffled background noises late at night. Speed dial is too easy to abuse.

*If phone dialling had been binary encoded, instead of decimal, the history of phones could have been quite different.

[Snazy]

"
I also think that the best approach for speed dials is a page with contact pictures and a preferred action for touching a contact, so that one person gets phoned and another gets the email client starting up. In 2013 it should not be necessary to remember an arbitrary key relation. Years ago a colleague put my number on speed dial and then kept accidentally triggering it when in the pub, thus resulting in a phone call with muffled background noises late at night. Speed dial is too easy to abuse.

*If phone dialling had been binary encoded, instead of decimal, the history of phones could have been quite different.

Thats exactly what the Z10 has, on top of the phone main page, obviously the screen real estate is the difference here.
But would people accept having to press a WHOLE button to call up a speed dial page with pictures on it. I for one would be fine with that, but others seem to think 2 keys or swipes is just too much to ask.

Im sure its something that will be addressed and hopefully soon. Maybe even a 3rd party app could sort it out.

[OldSkoolVWLover]

As a (recently retired after over 30 years) software developer, I can tell you that every piece of software ever written, even "Hello world", is unfinished when it is released. There is never a clear right place to say "stop, it's done". There are simply too many decisions to make. (Take "Hello world": all capitals? Both words start with uppercase? Line feed afterwards? And that's just putting two words on a teletype.)
Like cathedrals and gardens, it is never possible to work out exactly how things should be until people gain experience with them. The people who develop software cannot do it because they know how things work. Nobody at BlackBerry can see things from the POV of a typical iPhone user or old style BlackBerry user; they can only test with a few people under artificial conditions (journalists also do not count) and hope.
Even user feedback doesn't always work. It's said that Windows 8 is the result of all those anonymous user statistics fed back to Microsoft. It turns out they were reading them wrong, or they didn't mean what they seemed to mean.

Thank you for your post. I agree 100% with everything you said. I work in IT support as one of the many things I do for my day job. I have seen solutions as simple as an automated call distribution solution fail upon implementation by a firm that ONLY DOES TELECOM. I am known as one of the people in my office/building/department that is known for breaking IT solutions. I take what the experts build and test it to its fullest ability before the rest of the end users gets a chance to touch it. I then end up doing some capacity of training and maintenance because those that deliver the product aren't always able to distill daily use down to the average (or below average in some cases) user.

Then you have the whole added aspect of no one tech solution will ever be "right" for every user, I deal with misconceptions all the time. Before I ramble any further, thank you for articulating something in a way that hopefully resonates with the average user.

[OldSkoolVWLover]

Difference is that both of those OSs were brand new to their respective companies. BB10 is not BBRY's first OS and as such, they should know better. Bottom line is, BB10 is unfinished (and not because its in the early stages of the OS). It's unfinished because rather than risk another delay, they released a "good enough for right now" OS. Unacceptable from a company who invented the smart phone. This is similar to what happened with the PB's OS1.0 which, as an early adopter (I purchased the week it released), can tell you that it was unusable.

That's where the misunderstanding comes in. Just because BBOS existed previously, does not mean that this is not a brand new OS. Just because BB the company has previously made an OS does not mean this iteration is not a brand new software. Apple had been making OS software for decades before they released iOS yet it lacked copy and paste, and many other features they have had for many years. It is not that BB does not want certain features it is that a released OS will never be perfect upon consumer release.

Oh and by the way, I think Palm/HP has a few patents that would argue with who created the smartphone

Either way you are entitled to your feelings and I don't fault you for them one bit. I just understand why some features may be lacking that BB faithful have grown used to. I don't have any early release access so I can't tell you what is there, but I wouldn't't be surprised if at least some of the missed features are in various levels of internal testing. BB is doing something big, launching on a lot of carriers internationally and having to test many versions of software and hardware with each. Three hardware versions that we know of on an international scale, I don't fault them for some things not being there yet.

[chimpingtonUK]

Lol I should have put a warning at the beginning I guess.

Posted via CB10

LOL. Seriously though is was worth the read.

Posted via CB10

[Soosay]

Great post. I agree with everything you said about the Q10. Like the bit about the relationship between doctors and pharmacists!

Posted via CB10

[Snazy]

LOL. Seriously though is was worth the read.

Posted via CB10

Haha thanks, kind of you to say.

Posted via CB10

[Snazy]

Great post. I agree with everything you said about the Q10. Like the bit about the relationship between doctors and pharmacists!

Posted via CB10

Glad someone got that bit. I did wonder if people would think I was a bit mad.

Posted via CB10

[phylez]

it is never possible to work out exactly how things should be until people gain experience with them.

There was/were/are. It's known as BBOS7. Build upon don't reinvent. Do you see contractors saying, "forget that people like rectangular doors, lets instead make a hexagon and see how people like it." Designers will do that with a one-off and that's fine. BlackBerry is in no position to alienate their loyal users by testing the waters and seeing what's "good enough". This would be like Apple not including the ability to copy-and-paste in iOS7 and then using your argument to justify that "it is never possible to work out exactly how things should be." Really?

[phylez]

That's where the misunderstanding comes in. Just because BBOS existed previously, does not mean that this is not a brand new OS. Just because BB the company has previously made an OS does not mean this iteration is not a brand new software. Apple had been making OS software for decades before they released iOS yet it lacked copy and paste, and many other features they have had for many years. It is not that BB does not want certain features it is that a released OS will never be perfect upon consumer release.

Oh and by the way, I think Palm/HP has a few patents that would argue with who created the smartphone

Either way you are entitled to your feelings and I don't fault you for them one bit. I just understand why some features may be lacking that BB faithful have grown used to. I don't have any early release access so I can't tell you what is there, but I wouldn't't be surprised if at least some of the missed features are in various levels of internal testing. BB is doing something big, launching on a lot of carriers internationally and having to test many versions of software and hardware with each. Three hardware versions that we know of on an international scale, I don't fault them for some things not being there yet.

I think you misunderstand. Yes, Apple made OSs prior to iOS but they weren't mobile OSs. I understand that OS10 is brand new in the sense that it doesn't use an coding from OS7. That doesn't excuse the fact that mobile OSs aren't new to BBRY so why should they not include features found on the previous platform? You bring up the iOS's copy-and-paste issue which is a great one. So, now they have it. When they release a new OS, do you think Apple will exclude that feature and tell users to wait? No way.

[Snazy]

I think what is being forgotten here is BlackBerry is not the first to launch a totally new OS, completely different to its previous models.
What is also important to remember here is not everyone wants the same things.
I use a BlackBerry heavily all day every day, but care very little for speed dials, keyboard short cuts etc. I can manage fine without them.

What I DO want is a smooth running OS, no lag, a good browser, clean messaging, good connection options and speeds, a nice display, clear notifications, and a reliable device.

Other than the notifications, I have all I want. So is it hard to appreciate that across a wide spectrum of users, somewhere along the line BlackBerry have managed to find a good compromise for the launch of the new OS.

I totally agree with those who have said its not possible to launch a completed OS. It would be shortsighted to believe you can.


Posted via CB10

[chimpingtonUK]

Agreed it's a solid starting point. The OS is fundamentally sound and has some unique features as well as retaining everything I always loved about blackberry.

I'm sure if the devs get onboard and some more big names commit their support RIM will be back on track.

Posted via CB10

[organum]

A great posting thank you. This is about getting BB to finish a great product as you say.

I would add

The contacts fiasco. Not being available in full form in the phone app.

The bottom strip on the email app which makes it too easy to hit the attachment icon. For this the app is too sensitive as against the end call prob which is huge.

The random crash when the screen goes black and you don't know if its really bombed or just wait.

Great job starting this one off.

[steakman911]

Good Read. Thank you for posting and making us aware of some issues that I had not thought about.

I have thought however about the following - only having my Q10 for 9 days...(liking it better and better each day mind you)
However.....

I have gone from 8830, 9000, 9900 and now Q10. I SEE the potential for this particular device...big time. It is FAST. I find the screen size quite adequate..not a gamer, I'm a business user. As such E-mail and BBm are important to me.

Certainly I trust that the LED issue will be rectified in a soon to be released update over .238...but what I find with BBM that bugs me is that I have to touch the typing screen after sending a message in order to type...why.? That is an extra move not required...unless of course I am doing something wrong here..??? a def PITA

Ending a Call can take up to 10 touches (hard - soft - baseball bat.!), before the Red screen decides..."fine, I'll close it for ya k.?" Almost seems a button with attitude.!

As for E-mail...I would like to touch the notification icon on the first screen that comes up when I open up the device. To me its a waste of time to swipe up then right 2 times to get to an e-mail. 1 motion and it should be open and readable.

Link: I find it strange that each time I hook up to my mac, I get asked to update my OS...strange, when I already have the latest OS, it should recognize such and not offer an update.

The fact they neglected to add a native MEMO pad is simply dumb,,great place to put Part Numbers and odd things you want to keep (and need to.!!), but not use a Word doc to do so.


I like my Wallpaper. Can we not have a blank (no icon), screen to showcase it.??


ALARM...Why do I have to keep my phone on and in some (to me), useless "bedside mode" in order to get an alarm.? I should be able to turn it off COMPLETELY - Charge it and still get woken up to an alarm. Not saying to delete Bedside...but allow the phone to alarm when turned off...give us the choice.

Where are the familiar notification sounds.??? I miss that UNIQUE BB sound when I got an email...beats the hell outa the stupid bird whistle thing on Samsung...BRING them BAck Please.!!!

My take...but I'm not reviving my 9900 Which ran flawlessly...



stk

[Snazy]

Good Read. Thank you for posting and making us aware of some issues that I had not thought about.

.but what I find with BBM that bugs me is that I have to touch the typing screen after sending a message in order to type...why.? That is an extra move not required...unless of course I am doing something wrong here..??? a def PITA

Ending a Call can take up to 10 touches (hard - soft - baseball bat.!), before the Red screen decides..."fine, I'll close it for ya k.?" Almost seems a button with attitude.!

As for E-mail...I would like to touch the notification icon on the first screen that comes up when I open up the device. To me its a waste of time to swipe up then right 2 times to get to an e-mail. 1 motion and it should be open and readable.

Link: I find it strange that each time I hook up to my mac, I get asked to update my OS...strange, when I already have the latest OS, it should recognize such and not offer an update.

The fact they neglected to add a native MEMO pad is simply dumb,,great place to put Part Numbers and odd things you want to keep (and need to.!!), but not use a Word doc to do so.


I like my Wallpaper. Can we not have a blank (no icon), screen to showcase it.??


ALARM...Why do I have to keep my phone on and in some (to me), useless "bedside mode" in order to get an alarm.? I should be able to turn it off COMPLETELY - Charge it and still get woken up to an alarm. Not saying to delete Bedside...but allow the phone to alarm when turned off...give us the choice.

Where are the familiar notification sounds.??? I miss that UNIQUE BB sound when I got an email...beats the hell outa the stupid bird whistle thing on Samsung...BRING them BAck Please.!!!

My take...but I'm not reviving my 9900 Which ran flawlessly...



stk

Glad you liked the entry and thread, so let's look at your issues here

BBM, having to touch the screen, I'm assuming in the reply box before you can type another line. Thats not something I get, I can type, send, type, send all day long, unless of course you touch the screen in between, which will remove the focus from the reply box.

Ending a call is something that seems sorted in. 273, I certainly haven't had a problem with it since.

Screen swipes and gestures. 2 birds with one stone here. An up and right single gesture to get into the hub isn't so bad, and it's nice to be able to go home screen or hub depending on movement. But to add a totally blank screen just to be able to showcase your wallpaper would mean an extra swipe to get past a useless page. So its swings and roundabouts really.
From any app it's up and right in one move to get to the emails, then select the one you want.
OR
Get a 3rd party app like BeBuzz which gives a pop up preview of the email to see if it's even worth looking at lol.

Link I can't comment on, I don't really use it, it irritates me.

Alarms etc, bedside more is as near as to off you can get really at the moment, maybe something to do with the way the OS works, or maybe an oversight. Personally I don't really ever turn my BlackBerry off lol. But if you are charging it anyway, does it NEED to be off?
Personal preference I know, and totally understand where you are coming from. But bedside mode does look nice lol.

Memopad, is now Remember but I guess you know that. A flick up from whatever app you are in, then 'rem' for Type and Go, et voila, there it is.

And finally notifications, the good old complex, deep menus of notifications, and crappy sounds too. Well a while ago all the old lagacy sounds were uploaded, and it's now what my Z runs on. Worth a hunt around CB for those for sure. Save as music then easy to find when browsing within Notification.

Posted via CB10

[Snazy]

A great posting thank you. This is about getting BB to finish a great product as you say.

I would add

The contacts fiasco. Not being available in full form in the phone app.

The bottom strip on the email app which makes it too easy to hit the attachment icon. For this the app is too sensitive as against the end call prob which is huge.

The random crash when the screen goes black and you don't know if its really bombed or just wait.

Great job starting this one off.

Random crash I get, if the screen goes black for more than a second or two when in an app I just close and reopen. It's an infrequent thing, and a little frustrating, but beats the hell out of the device freezing and getting the spinning clock lol.

The bottom strip in email is a frustrating yet intriguing one. Firstly it proves to any doubters that the screen is sensitive right to the edges and that that is NOT the issue for hanging up calls. But also the other wat around shows that the edge CAN be numbed a little. Maybe in future fixes they can back that off a bit. Just goes to show how easy it is to accidently press a button, and how frustrating that level of sensitivity would be on a call.

What do you mean by the contacts?

Posted via CB10