[bobauckland]

Ive just converted from Android to Blackberry, having got a 9780, and Im so disappointed - that I didnt make the switch earlier.
Its actually frightening that its pure luck that Ive come across what Im coming to regard as the best phone Ive ever owned.

I struggled along for 18 months on Android, the novelty was cool in the beginning, but as time passed I was utterly fed up with typing on the touchscreen, with the lack of responsiveness, and ended up using my phone to check for new mail but then rushing to a computer to actually reply to it.
I downloaded a lot of apps initally, and then in all honesty found myself using maybe 2 or 3 regularly. I actually hated opening the market app at all as it would tell me 15 apps needed upgrading and I would just close it down.

My primary use is phone calls and email. I have a work email and a personal email and I need to respond to work emails in a far more timely manner than my personal mails. I moved off my previous network as I was not getting proper signal in our new house.
My wife has an iphone and she uses about 4 apps regularly and its decent as a media device, utterly hopeless as a phone, dropping signal all over the place and dropping calls as well.

So I read about all the doom and gloom surrounding Blackberry and I kept reading about the keyboards which interested me, with the negative sentiment surround RIM I got a class deal, a new 9780 free, on a 24 month contract, 15 pounds a month for 500 mins, unlimited text and 500 mb Blackberry data. The push email thing and an actual keyboard made me think what the heck Ill give it a try, and it was 10pounds a month less than my old HTC hero.

Ive had it for 2 days and am actually a little upset, it just blows away any phone Ive ever had in the past, and its so irritating that people actually put it down and I havent had it before. The keyboard is a joy to use, I find myself actually using it as a portable workstation and responding to my mails on the device itself.
The holster is just rocking with it silencing ringtones when the phone is in it and the ringtones work fine out of the holster. I got the BBuzz app and Im just astounded how I can now just glance at the led indicator, which is easily visible out of my holster, and know at a glance whether I have a text, miss call, a work email, or a personal email. I just cant believe I was living without this functionality. The battery life blows any phone Ive had out of the water except for the really old black and white Nokias.

What really gets my blood boiling is all these articles about how Blackberries are done, the only stats they push out is apps. 100s of thousands, seriously, who has even been through the whole apps store on ios or android? How many do average people use? I find it utterly incredible that when I was looking for a phone, I was thrown shedloads of stats about apps I dont need, and not one person could advise me on this functionality on the blackberry which I now feel I cant live without.
Apple throw out stats that suit them, nothing about their RAM usage or processor power, basically any stat they have in their favour they push as the most important stat, and people buy it!!! I cant believe it! My wife iphone absolutely sucks in comparison to my Blackberry and shes stuck with it for another 18 months. In which time there will be 2 more iphones that look absolutely the same. And yet they are praised for innovation and blackberry criticised for not impriving on past oses? My wife had an iphone right through to the 4 and I barely notice any difference, its the same form factor and its just boring now.

I have a waterproof video camera which I can use regardless of the weather and a Tom tom to help me out when Im lost, as a communications device no phone Ive ever had can top the 9780. I would never ever sacrifice the communication functionality for a better camera, that would, to me, be the height of stupidity. Look I cant get signal or make decent calls, I cant type a proper response to this email, but here Ive managed to take a classy picture of myself looking frustrated - result!

Even on this forum theres a sticky on top saying whos leaving blackberries and for what os, who cares, wheres the sticky for people whove just discovered how far blackberry wipes the floor with any other phone available at the moment?

The only app which I miss, and I do miss it, is Skype, because that was what I used to keep in touch with my family who live abroad. It is a big miss but Im hopeful that will change with Skype having new owners, but thats one big area where its disappointing theres no options for PC to Blackberry VOIP.

Aside from that, Im just over the moon, and I wish there was some way to show other people like me, looking for a communication device, how much Blackberry has to offer them. Theres no app that can give any other phone the functionality my blackberry has in terms of instantly allowing me to see which email address just sent me a mail while its still in a protective case and allow me to respond securely, thats something to think about.
Apps have a limited amount of use past a certain point, I just cant wait for people to realise that and look for actual functionality in phones again, but I guess I shouldnt complain as if people knew how awesome this phone is, Id be paying a lot more than I am for it.

Edit 1: Forgot to mention the compressed data making my Blackberry better for me when it comes to data usage and better for the network. It just gets better and better

[Gucci33]

Welcome to BB!

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[Apple Crumble]

Well said & glad you are enjoying your new BB

Can you point me in the direction of that deal you've just got, any links please?

[bobauckland]

Thanks for the welcome!
I cant post links as Ive only got 1 post and need 10 before I can post links.
The company name is e2save, if you google it you will come across it.
Its one of the orange deals, panther extra 25 blackberry at 16 something pounds a month
Its 25 pounds a month and the discount is claimed by redemption of bills, the company is apparently affiliated with the carphone warehouse so I thought Id give it a try but obviously as Ive just started cant confirm their authenticity.

You can go through topcashback and get 46 pounds on top of that deal. If you do go with e2save and mention my name I'll apparently get 20 pounds on cashback as well, which would be nice!

Id go with orange as thats the only network in the UK that does the UMA thing which kicks the Blackberry onto another level so now Im never without signal at home, which is a nice change from 3.

[Apple Crumble]

Cool, thanks for the info, I'm aware of all those companies, so I'll check them out

[SaMaster14]

Great opening post! haha. Glad your here.

Blackberry is really good at what it does and it works for a lot of people. The other devices have their advantages too and are definitely more 'flashy' than the BB (though a theme or two can change that!), but I also love the messaging capabilities and layout of the Blackberry system.

[belfastdispatcher]

I used to think most android apps are duplicates then I watched a friend search for "kindle" in android market and got almost 200 results back.
I believe if you search "weather" you get thousands of results.

Welcome to BB life, you're gonna love it

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[Pete6#WP]

Welcome to CrackBerry.

It takes one to know one as the saying goes.

BlackBerrys ain't perfect, that's for sure, but they are a lot better than their current bad public press makes them out to be.

[T�nis]

Welcome home! Another thing that's best on BlackBerry is data security. With BlackBerry's encryption capability, even if someone somehow circumvents or removes your password and unlocks your phone, he won't be able to decrypt your data, as the password itself is necessary to decrypt the data. But be careful with this and learn about it when setting it up. People have been really frustrated in the past when they've lost access to their own pictures upon moving their media cards from one device to another all because they weren't aware of or didn't bother to look into the ramifications of the various options for encryption settings. The most important one is to make sure you select "Device Password" and not one of the other two options when setting up media card encryption. With that setting, you'll still be able to access and view your media card files if/when you move it to a different BlackBerry (so long as you remember your password).

I would love a VOIP client for overseas calls, too. A member here recommended one that costs a little but seems very good called Vopium. I think it can even be used phone to phone for free calls over wifi, but it costs if one or both parties are not on wifi. I haven't tried it yet, but I might. I have a loved one in Europe who calls my phone from her pc using Google voice. It was free calling for an entire year, and recently it was extended for another year! But that only works Europe to USA/Canada. I wish it worked the other way around, too, because she is from time to time without an internet connection, and I would love to be able to call her mobile phone from my computer for free.

Anyway, I'm excited you're excited about your new BlackBerry. I just got a new Bold myself to replace my perfectly working 8330m and renewed my contract for two more years. There's no other phone that does messenging and security better than BlackBerry.

How to Encrypt Data on Your BlackBerry and Its Media Card

[belfastdispatcher]

I use Vopium, it's not free but it's cheap, voice quality is amazing and you can actually call phone numbers not a PC. You can also buy credit using paypal which I much prefer instead of giving away my credit card number.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[BitPusher2600]

Welcome and hello! Glad to see I'm not the only one who stepped away from the "popular because its the best" bullsh** and got to see how wonderful (and I like to sloppily use the word superior) these devices really are.

In short...."Great ain't it?"

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[dannykavs]

Very nice post!

I myself get caught up in all the hype surrounding all these new flashy smartphones that are being released....I do enjoy seeing the advancement in technology so I do appreciate it from that perspective. But when it comes to functionality like you said, I always come back to using my blackberry. Its just the most efficient and effective platform for my needs. Clearly, many people still tend to agree

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[bobauckland]

Thanks for all the advice people. There doesn't seem to be any simple solution to have people call my crackberry from their pc at the moment, but ill live in hope of microsoft spreading skype around.
The biggest area RIM dropped the ball in is marketing. No one knows how awesome this phone is, or at least enough people don't. A google search will throw up hundreds of reasons to buy an iphone or android device, most of them repeated. A google search on why to own a blackberry throws up the word security and not much else. So much negative publicity, that horrible interview the CEO gave to BBC where he threw a strop.
Even on Crackberry, there's so many posts on why to move away from blackberry, where's the sticky on what blackberry can do that no other phone can? Only after getting my blackberry and really searching did I come across the apps that bring functionality to my blackberry that no other phone has, like BBuzz.
I'm going to try converting all my friends and family.
Start small, aim tall!!!
The above post would have taken a year on my HTC Hero, managed it between patients on my crackberry, unbelievable.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[jerry12]

Welcome to Blackberry & I hope to see more of you.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[belfastdispatcher]

Thanks for all the advice people. There doesn't seem to be any simple solution to have people call my crackberry from their pc at the moment, but ill live in hope of microsoft spreading skype around.
The biggest area RIM dropped the ball in is marketing. No one knows how awesome this phone is, or at least enough people don't. A google search will throw up hundreds of reasons to buy an iphone or android device, most of them repeated. A google search on why to own a blackberry throws up the word security and not much else. So much negative publicity, that horrible interview the CEO gave to BBC where he threw a strop.
Even on Crackberry, there's so many posts on why to move away from blackberry, where's the sticky on what blackberry can do that no other phone can? Only after getting my blackberry and really searching did I come across the apps that bring functionality to my blackberry that no other phone has, like BBuzz.
I'm going to try converting all my friends and family.
Start small, aim tall!!!
The above post would have taken a year on my HTC Hero, managed it between patients on my crackberry, unbelievable.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

It's what Kevin I believe calls "traffic light messaging" as while you wait for the red light to change to green you have plenty time to fire out quick messages. Plenty time to learn it all don't worry, with blackberry you always seem to discover something new that you didn't know you had, my most recent discovery - upload to youtube directly from the browser.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[noized77]

Hey welcome and I hope you enjoy your stay!

Your thinking process is the same as all the other BB user. We rather have functionality over flashiness. What you describe is the main reason why we love BBs.

You did not mention the form factors compared to android phones. What is your opinion on that? I think BB fits perfectly in our hand and I can actually type one handed which is hard to do on touch screen.

Oh, if you want to add more functionality I would consider Quick Launch. With that app, I can do a lot more things then I could possibly imagine. All of my useful apps,emails and contact is just one button push away! Bebuzz and Quicklaunch should've come with the phone out of the box IMO. I can't live without Opera either. A 3rd party browser with the speed almost as fast as androids and it display in desktop view.

The knock on BB at least for me is that large email gets truncated...then again I rarely get email over 2M or whatever the limit is. Hopefully RIM will get this straight on the newer QNX.

Need any other question feel free to ask. :-)

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[mjs416]

Welcome to the forums!

[schlemer]

Welcome to the club. I've been a Storm user for almost two years (yeah, I said it). First S1, then a quick upgrade to the S2, which has been my most reliable and most durable sidekick since January 2010. While it is true the browser does not hold a candle to the iPhone or droid. It is irrelevant, being that I'm always around my laptop. If I'm out with my wife and need a quick browse, I use her iPhone ; )

For me Surepress and Suretype have been awesome. I love the look and feel of the device as I use it daily to run my music shop business. My only gripe (as with any technology) is the speed of the processor.

Lately, I've been looking over the horizon and am dying to get my hands on the new 9900 or Monaco. Hopefully the improvements made will be enough to tear me away from my S2.

Enjoy you BB

[BuddyC_cb]

I read the title and thought it was another person upset about the BB. Welcome to BB and the simplicity and functionality!

[anon(3733516)]

haha I was about to completely go off on you and say how you should just quietly crawl back to Android, but you got me!

Glad you're enjoying your 9780!

[Tom Slick]

Hummmm....I'm sensing members of the show planted in the audience on this one. Call me suspicious, but I'm not buying this. Are we to believe that a two-day BB user is not only totally savvy with the BB OS, it's marketing short-falls and repution, he's found and become a member of CB, he's completely developed an opinion and is doing all of this in-between patients? I'd like to think that my thoughts on this are incorrect, but... If I am wrong, please accept my apology and allow me to welcome you to the BB world!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless ShoePhone

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[Denise in Los Angeles]

haha I was about to completely go off on you and say how you should just quietly crawl back to Android, but you got me!

Glad you're enjoying your 9780!

Ummm, me too.

*hides my can of Troll Repellent*

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[bobauckland]

haha awesome I'll take that as a compliment, totally savvy with the BB Os? I wouldnt say so. In fact I was trying to figure out how to see my sent messages folder in the messages section of gmail today, all I can see is my inbox, any advice appreciated.
Ive got just a few free apps on my BB and 1 paid one, which gives me the functionality I love, control of the led.
In terms of marketing shortfalls and reputation, Ive been trying to figure out what phone to get for ages as my HTC hero contract ended in May and I couldnt figure out what to move to, so I was researching absolutely everything.
I never even gave Blackberry a thought, no reason to, and whenever I read anything on engadget or gizmodo or any other site it was invariably thrashing RIM and THAT interview made headlines and I thought what a clown no wonder theyre sinking.
I had to find a new phone and really wanted a keyboard as I couldnt take the touchscreen keyboard, so I decided to go with Nokia. I placed a pre order for the Nokia E6 and then luckily cancelled the preorder after they delayed shipping it twice.
I then bought an E72 off Ebay and luckily the seller sent it to me damaged so I got a refund, but I got to play around with it for a day and found the touchpad absolutely appalling. Obviously others agree as the E6 is touchscreen only, no touchpad.
Then by chance I went into what I think was an O2 store to play around with the phones and just cos it was out and functional I thought lets try this here Blackberry, I'll obviously hate it cos its not got a touchscreen. Hardly spent 30 seconds with it but was quite taken with the touchpad, its quite unlike anything else and certainly very different from Nokias take on it.
Stayed in my mind and when I saw the good deal on the top of the line qwerty Blackberry I decided to go for it on a whim.
Joined Crackberry because I came across it when I was researching all brands of phones, trying to decide what to go for, and this site did absolutely nothing to convince me to go for a Blackberry, it gave me the impression that it was a sinking ship. After getting my Blackberry and realising how awesome it is I had to join and make these posts so others looking for a phone would see some of the good points of the phone and make an informed decision, at least knowing some of the positive points rather than all the negativity thats everywhere else. Although that probably wont happen cos I was cheeky with my thread title.
I was messaging between patients cos I normally play a tower defense game on Android called Robowars or something and havent got any games yet on the Blackberry apart from the stock games, which dont sound too interesting.
Any advice on good games anyone?

[belfastdispatcher]

haha awesome I'll take that as a compliment, totally savvy with the BB Os? I wouldnt say so. In fact I was trying to figure out how to see my sent messages folder in the messages section of gmail today, all I can see is my inbox, any advice appreciated.

Alt+O for outgoing messages
Alt+I for incoming
Alt+S for sms
etc within the messages app

Edit, if you want only sent gmail emails press menu/filter/sent mail Emails sent from gmail on pc will show in this folder also

[StriderUK]

Ive just converted from Android to Blackberry, having got a 9780, and Im so disappointed - that I didnt make the switch earlier.
Its actually frightening that its pure luck that Ive come across what Im coming to regard as the best phone Ive ever owned.

I struggled along for 18 months on Android, the novelty was cool in the beginning, but as time passed I was utterly fed up with typing on the touchscreen, with the lack of responsiveness, and ended up using my phone to check for new mail but then rushing to a computer to actually reply to it.
I downloaded a lot of apps initally, and then in all honesty found myself using maybe 2 or 3 regularly. I actually hated opening the market app at all as it would tell me 15 apps needed upgrading and I would just close it down.

My primary use is phone calls and email. I have a work email and a personal email and I need to respond to work emails in a far more timely manner than my personal mails. I moved off my previous network as I was not getting proper signal in our new house.
My wife has an iphone and she uses about 4 apps regularly and its decent as a media device, utterly hopeless as a phone, dropping signal all over the place and dropping calls as well.

So I read about all the doom and gloom surrounding Blackberry and I kept reading about the keyboards which interested me, with the negative sentiment surround RIM I got a class deal, a new 9780 free, on a 24 month contract, 15 pounds a month for 500 mins, unlimited text and 500 mb Blackberry data. The push email thing and an actual keyboard made me think what the heck Ill give it a try, and it was 10pounds a month less than my old HTC hero.

Ive had it for 2 days and am actually a little upset, it just blows away any phone Ive ever had in the past, and its so irritating that people actually put it down and I havent had it before. The keyboard is a joy to use, I find myself actually using it as a portable workstation and responding to my mails on the device itself.
The holster is just rocking with it silencing ringtones when the phone is in it and the ringtones work fine out of the holster. I got the BBuzz app and Im just astounded how I can now just glance at the led indicator, which is easily visible out of my holster, and know at a glance whether I have a text, miss call, a work email, or a personal email. I just cant believe I was living without this functionality. The battery life blows any phone Ive had out of the water except for the really old black and white Nokias.

What really gets my blood boiling is all these articles about how Blackberries are done, the only stats they push out is apps. 100s of thousands, seriously, who has even been through the whole apps store on ios or android? How many do average people use? I find it utterly incredible that when I was looking for a phone, I was thrown shedloads of stats about apps I dont need, and not one person could advise me on this functionality on the blackberry which I now feel I cant live without.
Apple throw out stats that suit them, nothing about their RAM usage or processor power, basically any stat they have in their favour they push as the most important stat, and people buy it!!! I cant believe it! My wife iphone absolutely sucks in comparison to my Blackberry and shes stuck with it for another 18 months. In which time there will be 2 more iphones that look absolutely the same. And yet they are praised for innovation and blackberry criticised for not impriving on past oses? My wife had an iphone right through to the 4 and I barely notice any difference, its the same form factor and its just boring now.

I have a waterproof video camera which I can use regardless of the weather and a Tom tom to help me out when Im lost, as a communications device no phone Ive ever had can top the 9780. I would never ever sacrifice the communication functionality for a better camera, that would, to me, be the height of stupidity. Look I cant get signal or make decent calls, I cant type a proper response to this email, but here Ive managed to take a classy picture of myself looking frustrated - result!

Even on this forum theres a sticky on top saying whos leaving blackberries and for what os, who cares, wheres the sticky for people whove just discovered how far blackberry wipes the floor with any other phone available at the moment?

The only app which I miss, and I do miss it, is Skype, because that was what I used to keep in touch with my family who live abroad. It is a big miss but Im hopeful that will change with Skype having new owners, but thats one big area where its disappointing theres no options for PC to Blackberry VOIP.

Aside from that, Im just over the moon, and I wish there was some way to show other people like me, looking for a communication device, how much Blackberry has to offer them. Theres no app that can give any other phone the functionality my blackberry has in terms of instantly allowing me to see which email address just sent me a mail while its still in a protective case and allow me to respond securely, thats something to think about.
Apps have a limited amount of use past a certain point, I just cant wait for people to realise that and look for actual functionality in phones again, but I guess I shouldnt complain as if people knew how awesome this phone is, Id be paying a lot more than I am for it.

Edit 1: Forgot to mention the compressed data making my Blackberry better for me when it comes to data usage and better for the network. It just gets better and better

Hi, I'm new too, both to Blackberry and this forum and I agree with almost everything in your post.

I've had a Blackberry Curve 8520 for just over a week. What I love about it most is that it does the basic things very well and, as far as I can tell, better than any other smartphone. It's intuitive and incredibly simple to use, I had an HTC previously which was frustatingly fiddly on the simple things to the point that it wasn't actually that good at being a basic telephone!

I especially love having the 5 important icons right in front of me - contacts, calander, sms messages, work email and personal email (I especially like having the latter two totally separate).

I think the bb is also great when it comes to managing data but if there's one thing I could change it would be to make this more flexible so that I could chose exactly what I keep on the phone and/or the memory card.

I seriously looked at Android and Windows 7 phones before deciding on the bb, I really don't get the appeal for cloud storage - no signal no data!?

Someone else was criticising RIM's marketing and I think they have a point. I found it very difficult and frustrating to understand exactly what I would get with a bb. There is a lot of jargon to sort through for the unitiated and virtually no help to understand it - BIS, BES, BMS, blackberry instant messsenger, blackberry mail, blackberry email, blackberry mail booster, unlimited internet, internet booster, blackberry internet services, data allowance, data cap etc etc were all meaningless to me two weeks ago in the context of blackberry. To make things even more confusing, different networks have there own bb terminology. It's all pretty straightforward with other smartphones but absolutely not with blackberrys.

Finally a question; if I'm overseas and send an email pin to pin, will this charged in the same way as data for sending standard emails? (I'm on t-mobile)