Originally Posted by Bla1ze:
PS: You jumped the gun again this year Dieter. :P

Disqualify and Ban?

Call for Votes :-)

Dieter, are you going to do a write up comparing the ease of getting/syncing email/contacts/calendar/tasks between these devices?

Originally Posted by Dieter Bohn:
Ok one more: it is still crazy to me that I have to set a convenience key to email - an "email-centric" device should have a dedicated email button. :-)

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

Exactly what do you think a convenience key is? That's right, its a dedicated key once you have set it up.

I can understand your pov coming from Winmo where Microsoft forces everyone to work to its design and users are not allowed to think. BlackBerry is real world practical tools where the equipment works to the User's preference. I've had phones with hard coded dedicated buttons, they were a PITA because the functions I needed most from the phone never aligned with the presets, and I got buttons I couldn't use. RIM is one step ahead of the game and you have flexibility, not some designers dumb idea of how you should use your device.

How about this?
Can you try living your lives WITHOUT Google for 5 minutes?

Why does everything have to be from Google? Try using a calendar, mail server, whatever from another company! Maybe it will work better! Maybe you will like it better?

I thought this Round Robin thing is supposed to be about liberalism and being free to try out new things! Stop clinging to your conservative roots and open your mind!

Google this, Google that... Give me a break!

Where was Google Mail, Google calendar when Blackberry was invented?

Originally Posted by branta:
Exactly what do you think a convenience key is? That's right, its a dedicated key once you have set it up.

I can understand your pov coming from Winmo where Microsoft forces everyone to work to its design and users are not allowed to think.

Excuse me? Have you ever used a WinMo phone before? Its one of the most open platforms available. Maybe not very intuitive for a newbie but give it a few weeks just like learning any other platform.

Originally Posted by branta:
BlackBerry is real world practical tools where the equipment works to the User's preference. I've had phones with hard coded dedicated buttons, they were a PITA because the functions I needed most from the phone never aligned with the presets, and I got buttons I couldn't use. RIM is one step ahead of the game and you have flexibility, not some designers dumb idea of how you should use your device.

No button on any WinMo device has ever been hard coded. There's a specific settings menu that allows you change the function of each button. Also, if you're into digging beneath the surface a bit you can have your buttons launch apps on single clicks, double clicks, and click & hold.

Sorry to get off topic but that needed to be cleared up.

In order to use all the keyboard shortcuts from the home screen (instead of dialing numbers from the home screen), just go to Call Log -> Menu -> Options -> General Options -> Dial From Home Screen "No".

Originally Posted by dannzeman:
Excuse me? Have you ever used a WinMo phone before? Its one of the most open platforms available. Maybe not very intuitive for a newbie but give it a few weeks just like learning any other platform.

Yes, and become very familiar with reboot :-)
OTOH this relatively new user to RIM had the Bold configured and working within a few hours. Still finding a few shortcuts and not yet found all the 3p apps I might want, but full business functionality for the core system was pretty much intuitive.

Originally Posted by dannzeman:
No button on any WinMo device has ever been hard coded. There's a specific settings menu that allows you change the function of each button.

So we agree a dedicated (i.e. hard coded) email button is not a good idea. Dieter is looking for features which would be Poor Design.

I wasn't actually targeting Winmo devices in my previous, simply the way a certain left coast software manufacturer is notorious for forcing badly conceived concepts onto users.

Originally Posted by Zvuqniki:
How about this?
Can you try living your lives WITHOUT Google for 5 minutes?

Why does everything have to be from Google? Try using a calendar, mail server, whatever from another company! Maybe it will work better! Maybe you will like it better?

I thought this Round Robin thing is supposed to be about liberalism and being free to try out new things! Stop clinging to your conservative roots and open your mind!

Google this, Google that... Give me a break!

Where was Google Mail, Google calendar when Blackberry was invented?

If you can point me to an app that is free and will sync with my thunderbird calendar without google I would gladly use it. Until then, google works like a dream.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

Originally Posted by Dieter Bohn:
Ok one more: it is still crazy to me that I have to set a convenience key to email - an "email-centric" device should have a dedicated email button. :-)

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

You can always just change your theme. I have one that looks exactly like what comes stock but in the middle screen, it shows me my emails and my calender. When I click on emails, it includes both of my accounts that I put on my phone

10. Viigo is a must. I also like Superpages; I'm never lost with this app. WeatherEye is a good one too. I've gotta know the what the weather is like at all times. Google Maps, Upvise & Muitunes, too.

As far as apps goes.. I love vLingo. Basically, it converts spoken words into text for text messaging or voice dialing. Out of all other phones, vlingo seems to work best with BB

VibandRing or flycast are probably your best option.

Originally Posted by Dieter Bohn:
Ok one more: it is still crazy to me that I have to set a convenience key to email - an "email-centric" device should have a dedicated email button. :-)

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

use "c" from main screen...that is the short cut for compose

just hit it fast...if you hold it it will speed dial the contact u stored to "c"

dieter, having a full qwerty means you have plenty of short cuts, unlike the iphone where you need to go through several pages!

recap on shorts from home screen:

"A" address book
"B" browser bookmarks
"F" brings up proFiles
"U" calculator
"M messages
"L" calender
"K" lock k/b
"N" bb messenger
"O" options (main options)
"P" call log (phone) i just hit the green button to go to phone
"D" memo pad
"V" saved messages
hold "Q" to go to vibrate only profile (good for entering a meeting)
hold "W" for voice mail speed dial

in message app:

"R" reply
"L" reply to all
"F" forward
"C" compose
"T" top of page
"B" bottom of page
"Space Bar" scroll down

those are off the top of my head there are some i missed but i use those the most.

also i like the fact that i can press "R" to a sent message i sent and it still replys to the contact i sent to, not back to me...pretty smart!

fyi : i set my screen to 50% bright and radio to 3G only...Better on the battery.

4 mac try "missing sync" app BlackBerry Sync Mac - Sync contacts, calendars, notes, playlists and photos

Originally Posted by branta:
Exactly what do you think a convenience key is? That's right, its a dedicated key once you have set it up.

I can understand your pov coming from Winmo where Microsoft forces everyone to work to its design and users are not allowed to think. BlackBerry is real world practical tools where the equipment works to the User's preference. I've had phones with hard coded dedicated buttons, they were a PITA because the functions I needed most from the phone never aligned with the presets, and I got buttons I couldn't use. RIM is one step ahead of the game and you have flexibility, not some designers dumb idea of how you should use your device.

That's really interesting, because I'm recording right now in my video that I feel the OPPOSITE way about the two platforms! I'm finding I need to adapt to the BlackBerry much more than I do to Windows Mobile, which I can adapt to my preferred services and ways of doing things. Part of that is I'm just more experienced with WM, but I really do think the platform can be a bit more flexible. Of course, the downside is that with certain WM devices you pretty much HAVE to do that adaptation work in order to make the phone act the way you like, where BBs have a universal 'default' that's more user-friendly that the many different implementations of WM.

Originally Posted by branta:
Yes, and become very familiar with reboot :-)

I can go for months without rebooting a Q9h. But point taken, BB definitely requires fewer reboots.

Originally Posted by :
So we agree a dedicated (i.e. hard coded) email button is not a good idea. Dieter is looking for features which would be Poor Design.

Heh, I don't think the features I'm looking for (more buttons to more quickly and easily launch commonly used apps) is bad design at all. Perhaps not easy design and definitely a different design than the BB ethos, but I don't think 'bad.' (edit to add) It's a scale right? On one end we have the iPhone with as few buttons as possible. On the other you have stuff like the Mogul which has so many buttons on it it can get confusing.