[JRSCCivic98]

OK, so I've always been behind the iPhone in terms of usability and function/features over BB. The issues I've always had with BB is the fact that it has such lacking app support and even lacking native capability support from RIM that "I can't effectively fill my everyday needs with a single device". You guys know that I like to have the ability to carry one device that can do as much as possible and with BB I couldn't do that effectively. I knew other platforms could solve this, but there was always one or two things keeping me from switching. (iPhone not available on Verizon, Android having crappy ActiveSync policy support, etc.). Well, all that ended last week. I'm now iPhone enabled and I'm not finding myself looking back.

I came from the Storm series of BB, so touchscreen was never a miagration issue for me. I had and used other QWERTY BBs before as well, so no one can blame my experience on the Storm 1/2 at all. Besides, I've setup pretty much every flavor of mobile smartphone platforms for individuals and businesses, so I've seen and used them all. Below are few views I'd like to share with everyone that's worried about moving to the iPhone. I understand that not all wil share my views and not all work like I do, but let me show you how I use this platform to outperform my BB of yesteryear. Lol

1) Email - Truncated email and poor HTML rendering... is no more! I can finally get all my email and view it and its attachments like I can in Outlook. The native attachment viewer on BB would treat some of my Word docs that had tables in them as Excel ones. That's no longer an issue and I can finally read MY ENTIRE email that would be lengthy order forms or lista for IT equipment or WAN connectivity orders from various carriers. Also, simpler mailbox subfolder navigation and filing is a big plus and I think better than BB. I also no longer need to worry about not being able to see the images someone screenprints into an email for an error they'd get and wanted me to see. Now I just zoom in and out of the email body to see it in detail. Do that on a BB. Heck, the PlayBook can't even do that with the native email bridge link.

2) Web Browsing - Um, ya, OS6 can suck it with their high Acid score BS. The iPhone handles all sites I visit with no issues. Heck, I can even configure network gear (firewalls, routers, printers, etc.) that have a web management portal on them. The thing just works. Oh and online videos... what's the problem again with no Flash support? I've hit CB, Engadget, etc. sites and switched them over to the full desktop site and I see the video windows properly displayed. I click them and they open and play full screen high quality videos. If I'm streaming Internet radio in the background, that dims down in volume before the video starts to play, very nice audio transition experience. Basically, the isht works!

3) Apps - Well, that's not even a contest. I need to be able to support my clients at the drop of a hat. Yes, that means that if I'm out on the town with just my phone, it better be able to fill the functionality of my laptop, no questions asked. I'm not carrying a 7" tablet with me when I'm out. Screw that! I can use RDP clients and other remote control apps to hit your PC/Server/etc. and fix your problem while yapping with you on Bluetooth and if you're iPhone savvy, I'll even let you check out my hotness via Facetime as I wave goodby to your issues and hello to the $$$ I just charged you for my time.

4) Battery Life - Better than the Storms. I don't care if you get 3 days out of your 9700, you can't do all the stuff I can with this thing. Have fun reading and typing emails for 3 days while hoping you won't get a lon (message truncated 30865 bytes)


There will be more coming in the near future and feel free to ask queations if you have any. And yes, this post was made on the full CB site from my iPhone while listening to streaming radio. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go do some Mod work from my phone, now that it's no longer a problem. (WAP site what? )

[howarmat]

holy **** you are alive!

and i always figured you would get one at some point

[JRSCCivic98]

BTW, one thing that I do miss. Multiple email signature support. No worries though, Steve will soon learn how big a pain in the *** I can be when your platform is lacking.

Maybe we'll see it in iOS 4.x or 5. That would round out email support nicely on the platform, especially for Enterprise/Personal account users.

[JRSCCivic98]

holy **** you are alive!

and i always figured you would get one at some point

You should know by now that when I go quiet for a while something new has just happened which I'll be coming back with info about. Either an OS leak test and long post dogging the RIM coders for all the bugs I just found or something else was just put in my hands for a test run.

[pilsbury]

I agree 100%. Been sticking with RIM for close to 6 years in hopes they would improve the OS, even ditched my first i4 because OS6 was supposed to be groundbreaking-it wasn't. Same old OS with a couple of bells and whistles, same old freeze ups, slightly improved browser. After struggling with the 9800 for six weeks, I sold it and paid retail for another i4.

[JRSCCivic98]

I think what they say about BB being a "true" business smarphone is more along the lines of "business men like to carry that around ALONG with everything else they carry around". Seriously, no minimalist (in terms of what you're going to have on you most of the time be it personal time or whatever) is going to use a BB to fill the needs. It can't be done... I know, because I've tried to do it for the past 4+ years and I couldn't keep waiting, especially when RIM's solution was a 7" tablet. That's rediculous!

[avt123]

Congrats Civic. I am happy you are finally using a device worth a damn lol.

[dcsr23]

Glad to see you back, and happy with your new iPhone4. I also made the jump, so I'll probably see you on tipb or something (hopefully), as you always post a no nonsense anti fanboy argument that I'm always glad to read. I should thank you for letting me see the light that RIMs devices are scheduled for planned obsolescence the moment they hit the shelves.

Enjoy your iPhone4

[condemned]

Hey OP, by any chance why haven't you tried Android all this time? I couldn't imagine using that piece of crap storm for more than a week.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[NotJustAPhone]

Thanks for your thoughts. I've been considering making the move from my Storm 2 to an iPhone myself.

[JRSCCivic98]

Hey OP, by any chance why haven't you tried Android all this time? I couldn't imagine using that piece of crap storm for more than a week.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

Google is dragging their butts with proper ActiveSync policy support and all of their handsets (because everyone does their own thing) are so fragmented, it's not even funny. I'm not one for super tight control on what you can and cannot do with an OS, but there aren't two different Android devices out there that have the same support and capabilities built in. An open platform is nice, but not when you let all your hardware manufacturers just do whatever they want in terms of standard supported features. This is where Google made a mistake. They should have kept the OS concept locked to the "With Google" designs as they did with the Nexus and such. Then do the OS builds themselves. Cutting the manufacturers loose to do their own thing with no "experience" guidance is a mistake because they'll just frack up your platform and tick off admins who can't guarantee one handset will work the same as the next. What good is that?

If you ask me, Google has pimped themselves out a bit on the Android market. They've elected to relinquish control over their platform in order to penetrate the market quicker. Let's just hope that bubble doesn't pop from over inflation. (There is already talk from users who don't think too much about what they're bringing to the tablet market.)

[Entertainment72]

Wow, I remember when you use to rip the iPhone to pieces.. hahahahha.

[JRSCCivic98]

Wow, I remember when you use to rip the iPhone to pieces.. hahahahha.

Are you sure about that? I've liked the platform for a while now, and while I'm sure I might have given it some negative point since I still can do that even now, I don't think I've ever elevated a BB above the iPhone ever. The thing I've always advocated was the ActiveSync support as opposed to BIS/BES support in terms of cost vs end user experience. You can't beat ActiveSync on that.

[howarmat]

pretty sure civic has wipped RIM much more than the iphone. and i agree activesync is fantastic for probably 95% of the consumers out there over BIS crap

[FigureThisOut]

OK, so I've always been behind the iPhone in terms of usability and function/features over BB. The issues I've always had with BB is the fact that it has such lacking app support and even lacking native capability support from RIM that "I can't effectively fill my everyday needs with a single device". You guys know that I like to have the ability to carry one device that can do as much as possible and with BB I couldn't do that effectively. I knew other platforms could solve this, but there was always one or two things keeping me from switching. (iPhone not available on Verizon, Android having crappy ActiveSync policy support, etc.). Well, all that ended last week. I'm now iPhone enabled and I'm not finding myself looking back.

That there is exactly why I couldn't wait to get my hands on this phone once
Verizon announced it. I really hate carrying more than one device. BB's just were
lacking for me after a few years of use. I switched to Verizon at the end of last
year with the idea that they'd be getting the iPhone soon enough. In the meantime
I used a Droid X which was one heck of a phone. But for my needs, I need a great
music player and it sucked having to carry around an iPod and phone at the gym.
No mobile device has as great music capabilities and quality that Apple does. Not one.

And it helps to have Verizon behind it. For me at least. Having used my previous
iPhones on ATT, I was satisfied. But 2010 was the year that a lot of the spotty
service started to catch up with me. Coupled with the fact that I would stream
Pandora or Slacker and keep getting the stupid pause and rebuffering because
the service got too spotty.

[maxiang]

Google is dragging their butts with proper ActiveSync policy support and all of their handsets (because everyone does their own thing) are so fragmented, it's not even funny. I'm not one for super tight control on what you can and cannot do with an OS, but there aren't two different Android devices out there that have the same support and capabilities built in. An open platform is nice, but not when you let all your hardware manufacturers just do whatever they want in terms of standard supported features. This is where Google made a mistake. They should have kept the OS concept locked to the "With Google" designs as they did with the Nexus and such. Then do the OS builds themselves. Cutting the manufacturers loose to do their own thing with no "experience" guidance is a mistake because they'll just frack up your platform and tick off admins who can't guarantee one handset will work the same as the next. What good is that?

If you ask me, Google has pimped themselves out a bit on the Android market. They've elected to relinquish control over their platform in order to penetrate the market quicker. Let's just hope that bubble doesn't pop from over inflation. (There is already talk from users who don't think too much about what they're bringing to the tablet market.)

This was a big reason I dumped android again: its open for the manufactures to muck with and decide on updates with no real support from google cause "its free"
Just don't you go leaving CB! I like having you around to slap us koolaid drinkers up the backside of our heads

[LazyStarGazer]

Damn. They'll let anyone in here.
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:Wait. I might need her help at some point:

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Welcome Civic!

[phonejunky]

Awe shucky ducky now look who Steve Jobs just added to his team. Good to see your happy with the iPhone (for the time being that is). Can't wait to see the problems you find with our awesome device though. I'm loving it and haven't looked back since adopting it as my personal phone and probably never will (at least not in RIM's direction).

[JRSCCivic98]

Well, there are a few things that iOS is short on.

1) Signatures, as I already pointed out on the first page.
2) Auto text to turn wont into won't without having to type it.
3) Auto Correct in SMS that checks as you type as opposed to after you hit send.
4) Inter-app interaction so that functions from other apps can pollinate the core functions of the main apps. (Basically the principal of the Super App bullisht that RIM marketed.) A good example of this would be to allow a signature app to add another button to the native email app that you basically press and it brings up a prompt for what preconfigured signatures you want to drop into the email.

If Apple is smart they would build some additional APIs to do these type of functions and also put in native email signature support IN EACH ACCOUNT SETUP SCREEN.

[Mr. Marco]

I think what's interesting is that generally speaking people have less issues (which in turn equals less questions asked) with the iPhone. Like most BB users at one time or another, we've all had some mysterious "problem" with our device which ended up being a service books issue, or an app icon mysteriously disappears but the device still shows it as being installed, etc. I've found in my 2+ years as a BB user that the answers to many BB users' questions aren't out in the open and easily attainable.

It's this aspect of BB (the mysterious and convoluted nature of the OS) that has led to the creation of all the BB masters found on crackberry.com and all over the net. I feel that iOS is just so much more intuitive, straight forward, and understandable that I don't believe there are any "iPhone masters".

GENERALLY speaking I believe that any "normal" average person could pick up an iPhone for the first time and in a day or two know how to use and "work" the device just as good as someone who has been playing with an iPhone since 2007.

Now I'm not knocking any BB masters and I'm not saying those new to iPhone don't use forums to find answers to questions. What I'm saying is that in the grand scheme of things, if you look at the big picture, the iPhone really puts everyone on a level playing field and blurs the lines between someone new and a "master" much faster.

So people like howarmat spend less time typing out instructions on how to resend service books and wipe and install a OS, and spend more time answering questions like whether someone should or shouldn't get a white iPhone vs. a black one lol.

[JRSCCivic98]

Lol, I think that what I find interesting about iOS is the small issues with it that I characterize as a bug initially, but then I take a small step back and think of another way to do something or of how I would fix the issue only to discover that this is exactly how it was made to work to begin with and the bug all of a sudden is no longer there and "my" way of working around it was already coded in the OS already, I just wasn't aware of it. Let me give you a couple os small examples.

1) Caps Lock I thought was not existant because I'm used to doing a long-hold to enable it. I laughed when I wondered if Apple had chosen to do a double tap of Shift to enable it rather than the slower option of the long-hold opperation. Now I'm happy. Lol

2) This one was a bit more complex. Every single post I've made on here in the past couple of days has been from the iPhone on the full site without any issues at all. It's fast and pretty. However, sometimes I make a mistake and need to go back and edit a really long post. Well, I found that the edit post box on long posts require scrolling, but I couldn't swipe inside the box to scroll the box; it would just scroll the entire screen. So, I went the route of scrolling down through the text box via the long-hold magnifying glass, which was slow and annoying. So, I started thinking of writing to Apple about this and suggesting a way to enable another function in scrolling to fix this. That method was simply a double finger scroll within the text edit box to tell the browser to scroll within the contents of the edit box as opposed to the entire webpage presented. Luckly for me I decided to try that before submitting the ticket. Guess what? That functionality was already in there and exactly like I was going to suggest it.

I have to say it was a bit surprising to see this because with RIM there has been a lot of hand-holding from the community during the build/leak stages of the Storm1 OS which ultimately allowed RIM to polish the OS enough and evolve it into what the touch version of OS6 is now, whether they admit it or not.

[Mr. Marco]

Lol, I think that what I find interesting about iOS is the small issues with it that I characterize as a bug initially, but then I take a small step back and think of another way to do something or of how I would fix the issue only to discover that this is exactly how it was made to work to begin with and the bug all of a sudden is no longer there and "my" way of working around it was already coded in the OS already, I just wasn't aware of it. Let me give you a couple os small examples.

1) Caps Lock I thought was not existant because I'm used to doing a long-hold to enable it. I laughed when I wondered if Apple had chosen to do a double tap of Shift to enable it rather than the slower option of the long-hold opperation. Now I'm happy. Lol

2) This one was a bit more complex. Every single post I've made on here in the past couple of days has been from the iPhone on the full site without any issues at all. It's fast and pretty. However, sometimes I make a mistake and need to go back and edit a really long post. Well, I found that the edit post box on long posts require scrolling, but I couldn't swipe inside the box to scroll the box; it would just scroll the entire screen. So, I went the route of scrolling down through the text box via the long-hold magnifying glass, which was slow and annoying. So, I started thinking of writing to Apple about this and suggesting a way to enable another function in scrolling to fix this. That meathod was simply a double finger scroll within the text edit box to tell the browser to scroll within the contents of the edit box as opposed to the entire webpage presented. Luckly for me I decided to try that before aubmitting the ticket. Gues what? That functionality was already in there and exactly like I was going to suggest it.

I have to say it was a bit surprising to see this because with RIM there has been a lot of hand-holding from the community during the build/leak stages of the Storm1 OS which ultimately allowed RIM to polish the OS enough and evolve it into what the touch version of OS6 is now, whether they admit it or not.

Cute post, but I think in order to sum it all up you should sit back and before thinking too much into something give Steve Jobs the credit he deserves. I mean come on, the dude already invented time travel as a function on the iPhone back in 2007. He simply chose to leave it out because he probably doesn't think humanity is ready for such a thing yet.

I've never owned an iPhone but from what I read it's only true flaw is the notification system. But even with that I've only ever heard people say how much they love the device.

BTW I hope Steve Jobs feels better soon and returns to full active duty.

[JRSCCivic98]

Lol, it's hard to give credit to someone who built in support for multiple email accounts into a device but left off independant signature control over each one of those accounts.

[Mr. Marco]

Lol, it's hard to give credit to someone who built in support for multiple email accounts into a device but left off independant signature control over each one of those accounts.

And your point? I just finished telling you he knows how to time travel....

[sivan]

Glad you finally found that one true device

The iPhone will never have the features power users want.

But, looking around, Apple is the only company with a mature and proven OS while the others are invariably stumbling through a transition or just copying ideas. In the end maybe competence matters more, and that is on display reliably every year with a new model and OS version from Apple.