From iPhone to Z10.....and kinda back again.

Well this has been a FUN ride! And away we go!

Initial situation: Long time Apple user disillusioned with Apple's switch to more marketing features and poor quality operating system. Co-worker gave me a Z10 with broken screen. Replaced said screen ($8.95 on eBey...crazy) and had a working Z10, so I thought I'd try it out.

Things to know: I'm a linux command line junky, computer system control freak (I type this on an iMac running linux...I know EXACTLY what this thing does, and where it connects to....especially on startup). I like firewalls, intrusion detection systems, digital forensics, malicious software reverse engineering, packet and protocol analysis (must also mention that is my dayjob). I host my own email, VPN, Cal/CardDAV on a machine right next to this one.

Ok...so now that we know that, let's move on.

Things that are mission critical for me from a phone point of view:

• Cal/CardDAV
• VPN
• Email
• Text
• Phone

Things that are important:

• Egress firewall
• Tethering
• Application support
• Long-ish battery life

Nice to have:

• Music player that knows which tracks I've played
• Emoji support
• Linux compatbility

The Z10 when I got it had the stock 10.2 from the carrier. I've gone from 10.2, 10.3.0, and 10.3.1, and yes, I can see going from 10.2, to 10.3.1 the device did seem laggy. I liked the Hub idea, but for me, I only used text and email with the Hub. A HUGE frustration was that when plugged in and playing music, the Z10 would randomly check email (there's a thread in the forums about that). I have access to email pretty much all the time and only need to check from my phone when I'm on the road, so this was really annoying...this was a POP3S, SMTPS setup set to Manual and it just would not stop. Same issue with 10.3.0 and 10.3.1.

Calendaring is a mess using 10.*. I use Baikal for Cal/CardDAV which works great with everything I can throw at it...but not 10.*. I can add the account once, sync, and see most items. Delete the account on the Z10, reboot the phone, add the exact same account, and see completely different results. It's the reason I stopped using the Z10...I have family and a shared calendar is a must.

Tethering was interesting as well. I could tether and use VPn from a laptop just fine on 10.3.0, but after updating to 10.3.1, VPN wouldn't complete authentication all the way....it was very bizarre....packet captures on the VPN server show the difference from a working to not working.

What's with all the connections out all the time? On booting up OS 10.2 this thing goes to:

• cse.dcs.blackberry.com
• cse.doc.blackberry.com
• cs.sl.blackberry.com
• das.sl.blackberry.com
• go.microsoft.com
• pki.services.blackberry.com
• rcpplaybook.na.blackberry.com
• services.wmdrm.windowsmedia.com
• stun.p2p.blackberry.com
• stun.voip.blackberry.com
• time.blackberry.com
• turn.p2p.blackberry.com
• turn.voip.blackberry.com
• xtra1.gpsonextra.net
• xtra.gpsonextra.net

I'm sorry...that's just crazy...not to mention there's two constant connections back to BB (a STUN and some whackadoo port 50014). The port 50014 is that rpcplaybook one I think....it's encrypted, but what is it doing? Why can't I control that? I suspect my battery life would be longer if these weren't always phoning home. My iPhone 4S is jailbroken with a firewall...and I missed the control of that when I was running the Z10.

I realize I'm most likely not the target audience for Blackberry. In any case this really has been a lot of fun. I have a small pile of phones and I'll pull the Z10 out from time to time to see how things have changed. Who knows...I may go back some day. Thanks all...I'm sure I'll be poking around here once in awhile :)

We live in a world where control of our destiny or devices as much as we believe it to be ours is mitigated by others.
So given your status as a Linux user you have to know that all BBRY devices with the BBRY symbol are communicating with their servers (proximity sensors, BBM etc.) by bypassing carrier servers for certain functions you inherit a bit of security. If this makes you nervous but willing to go back to iOS devices then I am certain that you must have really been upset as I was to awake one morning in January to find that Apple had on their own calling forced an update down the pipe to us all Mac users (unless you have hacked their OS given the fact you run a jail-broken phone.
I check my blind spot before changing lanes, I look glaringly at numbers that pop up on my call display unknown to me, I know my ISP sees every time my kid downloads some movie but it's life.

Not sure what you are doing wrong been using my Z10 since release day (over 2 years now) and have not encountered any of these issues you mention. I have three email accounts on my phone: Gmail, Hotmail and a work sync exchange server.

All emails, calendars and contacts sync perfectly between all three. No issues with listening to music on it either. I have over 32gb of music on mine and listen to it most days.

True battery life could be better and I have noticed that it is more lagging since upgrading to 10.3.1 especially the camera.

Love the blend app! No other phone has anything near that.

Let's not forget the Z10 is now 2 years old and even a iPhone 4 is now coming of age and will be slow and laggy after the latest update of ios!

Enjoy your new phone if you are moving on. Maybe android will be more your thing if you want to customise your phone as much as you say.

Posted via CB10

Ya I stopped using Max OSX at Mavericks 10.9.2...when they removed local sync for Calendar and Contacts and pretty much said Cloud/Network based syncing only from now on....that's absolute garbage, so I stopped. Ironically it made me go with baikal which made life a little easier...still all within my control. Apple did a 180 with 10.9.3 and now you can sync your stuff local as before, but it was all I needed. The three Apple devices I use, iPhone 4S, MacBook Air, and iMac (all of which I've had for 2 plus years) are either a) running linux only, or b) jailbroken. It's enough for me at this point from a control perspective.

Yea maybe it's a baikal thing...I dunno. As for email, all three OS's just would not stop syncing no matter what I did. Again though...it was only when the Z10 was plugged in AND playing music. Not all the time...just sporadically throughout the day. For now the Z10 will be a backup phone in case something goes boom :)

Well it is simply unfortunate that you have these things to block you from enjoying BBRY and the Z10 - I am immersed in Apple products, use a Z10 that performs daily without any real issues (only delay in ring/answer) but I live with it.

Originally Posted by DigiAngel

Well this has been a FUN ride! And away we go!

Initial situation: Long time Apple user disillusioned with Apple's switch to more marketing features and poor quality operating system. Co-worker gave me a Z10 with broken screen. Replaced said screen ($8.95 on eBey...crazy) and had a working Z10, so I thought I'd try it out.

Things to know: I'm a linux command line junky, computer system control freak (I type this on an iMac running linux...I know EXACTLY what this thing does, and where it connects to....especially on startup). I like firewalls, intrusion detection systems, digital forensics, malicious software reverse engineering, packet and protocol analysis (must also mention that is my dayjob). I host my own email, VPN, Cal/CardDAV on a machine right next to this one.

Ok...so now that we know that, let's move on.

Things that are mission critical for me from a phone point of view:

• Cal/CardDAV
• VPN
• Email
• Text
• Phone

Things that are important:

• Egress firewall
• Tethering
• Application support
• Long-ish battery life

Nice to have:

• Music player that knows which tracks I've played
• Emoji support
• Linux compatbility

The Z10 when I got it had the stock 10.2 from the carrier. I've gone from 10.2, 10.3.0, and 10.3.1, and yes, I can see going from 10.2, to 10.3.1 the device did seem laggy. I liked the Hub idea, but for me, I only used text and email with the Hub. A HUGE frustration was that when plugged in and playing music, the Z10 would randomly check email (there's a thread in the forums about that). I have access to email pretty much all the time and only need to check from my phone when I'm on the road, so this was really annoying...this was a POP3S, SMTPS setup set to Manual and it just would not stop. Same issue with 10.3.0 and 10.3.1.

Calendaring is a mess using 10.*. I use Baikal for Cal/CardDAV which works great with everything I can throw at it...but not 10.*. I can add the account once, sync, and see most items. Delete the account on the Z10, reboot the phone, add the exact same account, and see completely different results. It's the reason I stopped using the Z10...I have family and a shared calendar is a must.

Tethering was interesting as well. I could tether and use VPn from a laptop just fine on 10.3.0, but after updating to 10.3.1, VPN wouldn't complete authentication all the way....it was very bizarre....packet captures on the VPN server show the difference from a working to not working.

What's with all the connections out all the time? On booting up OS 10.2 this thing goes to:

• cse.dcs.blackberry.com
• cse.doc.blackberry.com
• cs.sl.blackberry.com
• das.sl.blackberry.com
• go.microsoft.com
• pki.services.blackberry.com
• rcpplaybook.na.blackberry.com
• services.wmdrm.windowsmedia.com
• stun.p2p.blackberry.com
• stun.voip.blackberry.com
• time.blackberry.com
• turn.p2p.blackberry.com
• turn.voip.blackberry.com
• xtra1.gpsonextra.net
• xtra.gpsonextra.net

I'm sorry...that's just crazy...not to mention there's two constant connections back to BB (a STUN and some whackadoo port 50014). The port 50014 is that rpcplaybook one I think....it's encrypted, but what is it doing? Why can't I control that? I suspect my battery life would be longer if these weren't always phoning home. My iPhone 4S is jailbroken with a firewall...and I missed the control of that when I was running the Z10.

I realize I'm most likely not the target audience for Blackberry. In any case this really has been a lot of fun. I have a small pile of phones and I'll pull the Z10 out from time to time to see how things have changed. Who knows...I may go back some day. Thanks all...I'm sure I'll be poking around here once in awhile :)

The answer is simple. Upgrade to a Z30 and don't update it.

Downgraded from 10.3.1 to 10.2.1 official, still shuttering Z 29

Before you go, can you tell me the USB product ID when you tether to a Mac. (Not Samba, but tether for internet use.) I'm having trouble making tethering work with linux. If OSX has the lsusb command, that is the data I need. I'm trying to set up usb_modeswitch.

BTW, there are two programs that give you shell access on your Z10. Of course, you need to know QNX commands. And what you can do is limited. BGShellPlus and ComandShell.

My email works fine. I don't use caldav. I turn off all "reporting" features.


Posted via CB10

As a divergence - has anyone managed to get Baikal (running on a synology server) to sync witha BB10 device?!

Posted via CB10