[moorejrjr]

hey guys. i've owned 4 or 5 BB's in my time, and i've loved them all. . i have a bold 9900 with ATT. my current issue (i seem to have one every few weeks) is that i have a problem syncing google cal with BB calendar. my email works great, and when i change calendar things in my phone, it is immediately reflected on my pc. however, when i change things on my PC (either online or with eM client) it is not reflected on my phone. i've tried everything i can think of, but it is not working. this is a huge pain in the neck for me, and i am just wondering if it may be the last straw for me.

i love blackberry, and i love that they haven;t ditched the physical keyboard (i have been eagerly awaiting the Q10's release) my only problem is that BB seems to be losing quite badly in the smartphone battle to Apple and Google. I dont play many games, so I have never cared that BB has far fewer popular apps than everyone else. I also love the idea of the "hub" on BB10, and think the Q10, as well as the Z10, will be great phones.

I am just concerned that the connectivity is an issue that is only going to get worse. I use gmail, google calendar, google everything. So, why am I sticking with BB when I have to go through intermediary steps to get to my Google things? Why not cut the middleman out, and finally go for an android device?


I would hate to leave BB, as I love their devices, and I do not think the full touch screen is nearly as good for typing as the physical keyboard of say, the 9900. But it seems like every week there's a new problem with syncing something. It always gets resolved relatively quickly, but it gets annoying having to deal with minor inconveniences constantly.


If I am just being a baby, please tell me. I have never considered leaving BB to be one of those "android or iphone people" but i think that google is really taking over, and i'm thinking it may just be time to jump on the android bandwagon.


Any thoughts, recommendations?

[bb_brianh]

I actually just switched from Android to a BB Bold 9930. I use Google everything as well. Although the syncing with Google products is much better, I enjoy the simplicity and keyboard of the Blackberry. I have yet to have those syncing issues. Notifications and email are so much better with Blackberry. I can't knock the Android platform, I just felt like it was time for a change.

[jjfad]

I'm not sure why you're having such problems. I have a 9930 on Sprint and so far the integration with Google seems to be okay. I haven't had any problems with making changes on my laptop and not seeing the changes reflected on my phone. There is a bit of a lag with the reconciliation (e.g., if I delete an email on my laptop then it takes a while for the email to be deleted on my phone, and vice versa), but eventually it does reconcile. My primary complaint is that the Blackberry will not synchronize multiple shared Google calendars. That's a pretty big deal for me, and it came close to being a deal breaker.

I have pretty much owned Blackberries exclusively. Over the past year I switched over to a Motorola XPRT, which is basically like a 9930 (i.e., touch screen with candybar QWERTY), but the keyboard keys kept sticking. I swapped out three XPRT phones before I finally gave up, and then switched back to my 9930.

I wish there were more apps (e.g., I really want an offline news reader like Instapaper or Pocket), but for now I'll stick with BB.

[southlander]

so... your changes to your calendar on your pc do not update back to the phone? or is it both calendar and email? asking because email is not going to sync back towards the device on os7 far as I know.

Sent from my BlackBerry Runtime for Android Apps using Tapatalk 2

[moorejrjr]

Thanks for being helpful. The changes to my calendar on my pc do not update to the phone. And actually, most of the stuff does actually change after 15 minutes or so. I still have problems with editing things like location, but I guess that's not a dealbreaker. Email has been fine, and updates on my calendar on my phone works fine too. It is just the pc to phone route that's giving me problems.

i am aware that there is a a strong possibility that I am doing something wrong, and that the situation could be remedied quite easily if I knew what i was doing. it could even be that i have unrealistic expectations about the reconciling time, and oftentimes waiting it out seems to work.

Because the android phones are directly linked to google, it seems like there are not as many hoops to jump through. I like BB very much, and in all likelihood will stay with them, this situation just got me wondering...I am going to pay ~$200 for a new phone, and I think that google has such a big universe of things (google chrome, gmail, google calendar, android market, etc) that I just wonder if it makes sense to keep using a different device like a BB. Why not just get a phone that IS google?


The lack of a physical keyboard on the upscale android/iOS phones is still a big deal for me, so i will most likely stay and at least try out BB10.

hopefully the climate will change, and BB will become more attractive to app developers and stuff, it just seems like for a college student like me, BB is a dying brand. At the school I go to, probably 75%+ of the students have iphones. There is a lot of community support for problems, apps, etc. (The school shuttle, for instance, has an iphone app. things like that) But BB users are sort of left in the dust. It may just be time, maybe soon, to give in and at least switch to the galaxy s3 or something (i could never bring myself to get an iphone)

anyway, thanks for your help, and any more comments, advice, etc. would be much appreciated!

[lunaticwithin]

I believe the sync from the server to the phone happens every few hours or so - this has been the case since they introduced this sync feature on BIS a few years ago.

[jjfad]

Google integration on an Android phone is indeed seamless. That was one of things I really liked about it. Honestly if I hadn't had so many problems with the XPRT keyboard I would have stuck with it.

If the only thing holding you back from Android is the keyboard you should give it a shot: Motorola XPRT on Sprint or Droid Pro on VZW (they're the same phone). Hopefully you have better luck with the keyboards than I did.

[jjfad]

so... your changes to your calendar on your pc do not update back to the phone? or is it both calendar and email? asking because email is not going to sync back towards the device on os7 far as I know.

Sent from my BlackBerry Runtime for Android Apps using Tapatalk 2

Can you say more what you mean by this? It seems to me like when I write emails on my PC (eg using Google Chrome) those emails actually are reflected in my phone inbox,

[southlander]

Can you say more what you mean by this? It seems to me like when I write emails on my PC (eg using Google Chrome) those emails actually are reflected in my phone inbox,

I just mean the deletes. Delete on pc or in a web browser and it will not delete back on the phone. At least it never has for me on the 3 os7 blackberrys I have owned. On os5 there used to be a google sync add in that (I think) did this. Anyway maybe I am wrong but it has never worked for me with gmail.

[jjfad]

I just mean the deletes. Delete on pc or in a web browser and it will not delete back on the phone. At least it never has for me on the 3 os7 blackberrys I have owned. On os5 there used to be a google sync add in that (I think) did this. Anyway maybe I am wrong but it has never worked for me with gmail.

That's weird. I just did a test where I sent my GMail account an email from my Yahoo account. Verified that it showed up in my BB9930. Then I deleted it from my browser. Four minutes later, I looked at my BB and it had been deleted (reconciled).

[jorbjorb]

I've been using blackberry for 6 years. I think i'm gonna be a little more open minded and switch to an iphone4s

cheers.

[Jay Hopkins]

Your being a baby haha . Trust me. As someone whos owned over 30 different styles of blackberry, also owned 9-10 droids and every make and model of I crap out there. If you swap to a droid this will seem like the smallest issue on the face of the planet to you.

With droid you will experience massive hardware failures *repeat warranty exchanges* , Massive crashes, Internal conflicts galore and massive headaches all the way around. updates every third day

Iphone you will have to deal with the BS of apple, Apple warranty , Itunes , Itunes crashes and backup issues, oh and haivng to Update your OS every 12 minutes .

Stick with BB . Trust me lol

[jjfad]

With droid you will experience massive hardware failures *repeat warranty exchanges* , Massive crashes, Internal conflicts galore and massive headaches all the way around. updates every third day

FWIW, I did not experience these headaches with the Motorola XPRT (Droid Pro). Really the only issues were (a) the device was slightly laggy, but I fixed that by uninstalling FB; and (b) the sticking keyboard keys, which kept recurring even after I swapping through two new phones.

[southlander]

That's weird. I just did a test where I sent my GMail account an email from my Yahoo account. Verified that it showed up in my BB9930. Then I deleted it from my browser. Four minutes later, I looked at my BB and it had been deleted (reconciled).

Are you using a plain personal Gmail account or do you pay for Google Apps?

[Cap_172R]

BBRY for me... i have had android and its not bad at all, but after a while it gets old. I have a Galaxy Note and I love the device but the OS...gingerbread was a pain, finally got ICS a few months ago and it's not so laggy depending on the launchers you use, widgets on the screen etc etc many variables. I don't trust that OS at all...i store nothing sensitive on that device. BB OS is different and i feel secure doing any transaction over that device (you can never be too sure, when in doubt, trust BBRY).

Back to android...the device was a backup/spare phone for me and i got to try out a new OS which was cool but i've always carried around my 9900 with me. There are tons of apps for the droid and that's a plus for many, the note itself is amazing, coupled with the s-pen etc etc. But when it comes down to the OS and how the phone runs, i was a bit disappointed that it wasn't as fluid as i'd like. The other complaint would be that the way android is updated...you could be waiting for ages for new updates (official updates that is)...

[Jay Hopkins]

The problem with droid. Is compared to BB. It is a relatively new platform. Yes it can make you look older, and yes you can fully customize it. And yes it has a app that tells you which one of your family members is a bird. However it has a lot of glitches. Because its very young compared to BB. BB is the OG of smartphones. Actually other than old old PDA's im pretty sure BB IS the first smartphone. They've been going since 1999. droid has been around since 2003 but only really launched *and before 2008 they ran mainly off the G1 which was a colossal POS*......

The strives of the note and galaxy S3 are the front runners of droid. But i had a S3 and it still lagged, still crashed and still had massive hardware malfunctions, i bought mine a few days after launch and by the 4 month mark i was on my third phone.

Blackberry may not be as fast, it may be more complicated. But when it comes to doing things right. BB has the experience and track record in my book.

I wouldnt trade my BB for a droid or a Ipoo any day of the week ;-)

[moorejrjr]

thanks for all the answers.
Jay Hopkins: I think that calling BB "the OG of smartphones" might be enough to convince me to stay haha.

the only other thing, besides minor calendar and other synchronization issues, is that my 9900 (with google maps) rarely works without problems. most of my friends have iphones, and whenever we are in the city looking for a restaurant or something, i don't even bother trying to use my GPS anymore. It never comes up, my location is always unknown, and i think that the GPS on the iphones (and probably androids like the s3) seems to be a lot better. I might as well not even have a GPS on my phone.

It'd also be nice to play temple run and words with friends, but that is certainly not a big enough deal to be a deciding factor in my decision.

Is the maps/GPS issue going to be addressed with BB10? (sorry if this has been answered a million times).

[costas1966]

I've been using blackberry for 6 years. I think i'm gonna be a little more open minded and switch to an iphone4s

cheers.

wait....please....allow me....I'll hold the door.

Cheers.

[Jay Hopkins]

thanks for all the answers.
Jay Hopkins: I think that calling BB "the OG of smartphones" might be enough to convince me to stay haha.

the only other thing, besides minor calendar and other synchronization issues, is that my 9900 (with google maps) rarely works without problems. most of my friends have iphones, and whenever we are in the city looking for a restaurant or something, i don't even bother trying to use my GPS anymore. It never comes up, my location is always unknown, and i think that the GPS on the iphones (and probably androids like the s3) seems to be a lot better. I might as well not even have a GPS on my phone.

It'd also be nice to play temple run and words with friends, but that is certainly not a big enough deal to be a deciding factor in my decision.

Is the maps/GPS issue going to be addressed with BB10? (sorry if this has been answered a million times).

Well its not really a BB issue. Its more of a google issue. They give the app to BB, BB puts it on the device.. Make sure your GPS is turned on in the device settings. And usually maps through google has issues on most devices that i've seen so far. I use VZ navigator for GPS because i have verizon. And it works pretty dang well. Another one i use on non BB devices is telnav GPS. Sadly i cannot find this on app world anymore, i had it on my older bold and curve. If your not looking for GPS and just looking for good maps. MapQuest 4 Mobile is in app world and is free and is pretty good. But i advise using whatever GPS program your provider offers, its a few bucks a month, but its worth not getting lost IMO :-)

And the iPhone 5 maps are a joke. Seriously people have driven into lakes following the GPS on those :/

[jjfad]

Are you using a plain personal Gmail account or do you pay for Google Apps?

I use a plain Gmail account.

[jjfad]

the only other thing, besides minor calendar and other synchronization issues, is that my 9900 (with google maps) rarely works without problems. most of my friends have iphones, and whenever we are in the city looking for a restaurant or something, i don't even bother trying to use my GPS anymore. It never comes up, my location is always unknown, and i think that the GPS on the iphones (and probably androids like the s3) seems to be a lot better. I might as well not even have a GPS on my phone.

Agree. The Google Maps integration, and the turn-by-turn Navigation, offer an unparalleled experience on Android.
Sprint provides TeleNav on my BB9930, but it is a pretty crappy piece of software.

[CDM76]

hey guys. i've owned 4 or 5 BB's in my time, and i've loved them all. . i have a bold 9900 with ATT. my current issue (i seem to have one every few weeks) is that i have a problem syncing google cal with BB calendar. my email works great, and when i change calendar things in my phone, it is immediately reflected on my pc. however, when i change things on my PC (either online or with eM client) it is not reflected on my phone. i've tried everything i can think of, but it is not working. this is a huge pain in the neck for me, and i am just wondering if it may be the last straw for me.

i love blackberry, and i love that they haven;t ditched the physical keyboard (i have been eagerly awaiting the Q10's release) my only problem is that BB seems to be losing quite badly in the smartphone battle to Apple and Google. I dont play many games, so I have never cared that BB has far fewer popular apps than everyone else. I also love the idea of the "hub" on BB10, and think the Q10, as well as the Z10, will be great phones.

I am just concerned that the connectivity is an issue that is only going to get worse. I use gmail, google calendar, google everything. So, why am I sticking with BB when I have to go through intermediary steps to get to my Google things? Why not cut the middleman out, and finally go for an android device?


I would hate to leave BB, as I love their devices, and I do not think the full touch screen is nearly as good for typing as the physical keyboard of say, the 9900. But it seems like every week there's a new problem with syncing something. It always gets resolved relatively quickly, but it gets annoying having to deal with minor inconveniences constantly.


If I am just being a baby, please tell me. I have never considered leaving BB to be one of those "android or iphone people" but i think that google is really taking over, and i'm thinking it may just be time to jump on the android bandwagon.


Any thoughts, recommendations?

See my post in http://forums.crackberry.com/blackbe...rashes-770698/ to see exactly how to fix this issue. Is an easy fix and appears that I originally set up gmail account wrong.

[southlander]

I use a plain Gmail account.

Well I just tested this again on mine and no dice. Someone said it syncs back and deletes on device about every 3 hours (which is absolutely useless). Yours deletes within minutes? Any special settings you are using in Gmail?

[jorbjorb]

i just got the iphone 5. apple maps blow but google maps rules.

[lcchick]

IMHO, its all about what you want the most. Ive had a few BBs and a few androids. The androids had keypads, the slider style and it wasnt easy to type on at all. They have the apps (i have an ipod touch for games, my phone is for communication), and the map apps are great. But battery life was horrendous. Typing was annoying. The photon Q dropped calls constantly. Was it worth it, for me personally? No. But the good thing is that you can change your phone easily. You can always try the android but IMHO dont sell your BB just yet.
Lisa