12 year old BlackBerry

[mikehudson]

I saw that 12 back blackberry phone its fantastic and wonderful of that. It have so many features.It feels more secure although it doesn't make me any less likely to drop.

[0ldberry]

Wow. You kids...

I was a 957 user up until a couple of yrs ago and gave it up reluctantly. Yes, mobitex. Yes no phone or SMS on it (I loved that) but had RIM's instant-email via BIS. Yes, huge screen, monochrome.

But

Battery lasted one MONTH between charges.
Easiest keyboard to use and I have small hands.
Full BIS service - BBM, email (instant notify).
Web access (via GoAmerica APN? on Rogers)
$45/250,000 bytes of data (monthly fee)!!!
The PDA features are little changed since the 957 all the way through to today's 9700 (OS5). Ahem, RIM!!!
But some little niceties are missing in everything newer:
- when viewing Calender, pressing d/w/m/a(genda) would jump to that view, and pressing the SAME key again reverted to the PREVIOUS view - that real nicety is gone and one must press specifically d/w/m/a to get to that view
- one could enter ANY character into phone number fields
- funny thing is, having used DM to upgrade my PDA since back to the 957 days (which is a testament to RIM's continuity and backward compatibility of .IPD file format), all the way up to my OS5 9700, if any phone number field has an unusual (not permitted to be entered) character in it I can, for that field, once again enter any character even on the new GSM ones
- 957's connection to PC was via RS-232 (serial), and a little slow (but then again 957's had 5, 6, or max 8 MB of RAM)
- lightning-fast boot up
- but keyboard had no backlight (screen did though)
- decent coverage via Mobitex, for me it had convenient uncovered areas too
- you could actually power down the device 100% (and use a paperclip-into-hole on backside to turn it on, or insert into cradle that was plugged into wall for charging)
- inside software engine wasn't the Java sandbox used by RIM ever since, was a direct memory-accessing 'C' programming environment
- and had a very nifty simulator for dev
- COD and ALX files were used for the 957 (no JAD/JAR stuff of course)

Someone wondered about the interface - had a scrollwheel for selecting (like 7920, 8700) and an 'escape' button right below - very easy to use.

Very durable construction, replaceable battery.

What would die on them is the scrollwheel but relatively easy to replace with no soldering needed (contrast with 8700 - microsurgery!!!) since the connector was a 1/2-in wide ribbon that just slid into the receiver.

I've always thought that if there was a way to root the BB it would be via reversing the 957 (C-code based). That environment would be easier to find bugs in and to root the 957 and I tend to think that in many respects there are significant similarities between the old C-code generation and the newer Java ones, Java sandbox notwithstanding (i.e. boot ROM sorts of things).

I have 4 of the 957's kicking and a few of the cradles. And all the dev & simulator & hacking software & OS versions from its day.

[0ldberry]

So let us see if this website shall let us post a pic of the main screen of the ole 957...

ht tp://i51.tinypic.com/19s1fc.jpg

Apparently not so all you get is the above.

(Really admins, it's 2011 and is it actually necessary to torment a legit contributor with such games as not-until-you-have-10-posts and such? Srsly...)

Oh, about those icons. 2nd last is a game called 'RIMchicken' (think 'Frogger') and the last is DopeWars (set in NYC).

Good times.

[0ldberry]

Here's another pic of the kind sysadmins here don't want me to share with you.

It's a 957 surrounded by 5 others BB models - 7290, 8700, 8830, 8900, 9700.

ht tp://i53.tinypic.com/28juo8o.jpg

957 was the bestest!

I'm putting away all my toys now, Preciousssssssssss said so!

[parabola]

Originally Posted by 0ldberry

, about those icons. 2nd last is a game called 'RIMchicken' (think 'Frogger') and the last is DopeWars (set in NYC).

Good times.

Ahh, RIM Chicken! I used to love playing that. And hockey (more like pong) was a big time-stealer. I loved how the opponents got harder as you progressed through the game ... those Russians were tough!

I should see if I can fire up my old 957 and give those games a try for old time's sake.

[adam917]

I spotted someone selling a bunch of these on eBay. Should I buy one (quite cheap) & see what can do w/ it? I heard one company is still around that could activate it (Velocita?).

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[TheScionicMan]

Originally Posted by 0ldberry

(Really admins, it's 2011 and is it actually necessary to torment a legit contributor with such games as not-until-you-have-10-posts and such? Srsly...)

It's not to torment the legit contributor, but to control the the not-so-legit ones. Becoming part of a community by posting 10 times doesn't seem like that much torment to me... but you will see a lot of shady spam posts around here occasionally and there would be a lot more and a lot worse ones without a little control.

[TheScionicMan]

I've got a couple old units still kicking around:

Makes the Bold 9000 look dinky



Yeah, that's a serial connector.

[Oniberry]

She still lives...

[JasW]

I believe I can go one better. In late 2000, I got -- and still have -- a 950, which IIRC predated the 957. (The only thing older, I believe, is the 900, which looked like a teeny tiny laptop.) So the 957 is not 12 years old, but only around 10. I remember when everyone had 950s where I worked, and then at some point later, the big wigs got the larger screen 957.

I posted the pic elsewhere on this subforum a couple of years ago, but here it is again, still working at age 11. I even have a few emails on it from when it was last connected to enterprise, back in 2002.

[sam81]

Kinda neat checking out this thread

[southlander]

Originally Posted by xxxxpradaxxxx

Wow look at the screen on that thing!

Now if only they were still that big!

Oh don't worry, they are getting there. Lol.

[henry_jones77]

Antique piece

[Ben1232]

Killer phones. Great pics thanks.

The OP's pics are the earliest bb i ever did see. It would be excellent to still rock with that today. Hehe.

[wxmancanada]

This thread inspired me to get my elder, the 7250, out of it's drawer and fire it up!

It hasn't seen the likes of a charger for over a year, as you can tell. Can't wait to see what messages are left on here!

What's great about this is one of my providers in Canada still supports this bad-boy (it's only CDMA), so it still works on the network!