[pj200105]

The more and more these updates come out, the more and more I am thinking the hardware really isnt up to the job. If the solution is coming out with another storm and us dedicated people have to pay another $150-$250 (kind of like the i phone 3g), I will boycott blackberry forever and hope everyone else will join me.

All in all if its a hardware problem, admit your mistakes RIM, cut your losses and give the dedicated storm fans what we deserve.

[mikeysmallz]

software wouldn't correct hardware problems.. hardware corrects hardware problems. all these OS'es aren't even official except for one.. leaks come about because they want to perfect the next official release.. imagine if these leaks didn't occur, the majority of us would still be suffering in .65 complaining about OS.

but anyway! the OS is designed to enhance the current hardware if anything.. like a new OS makes the screen faster in switching orientation.. it's like trying to run a big machine with minimal power output.. you try 5w and it works barely, 10w and it works better, then at 55w it works like a monster.. catch my drift?

i doubt we'll be seeing a Storm 2nd Gen.. this one is already perfect imo.

[Nickreich]

Do you know anything at all about what you are talking about?

If you're going to make a ridiculous claim atleast substantiate it with some ridiculous evidence.

[pj200105]

Nick, who are you talking to?

[Back Stabbath]

im pretty sure hes talking to you...




i gotta say...i got a big laugh out of the fact he addressed nobody in particular. im actually hoping he doesnt answer who hes talking to...

[TheMisses]

Originally Posted by leemoreau
To the people saying the storm isn't slow, that people just dont' know how to use it is total bs. The storm IS slow. The iPhone flys through menus. Sorry but clicking contacts and having a 1-2 second delay before they open is slow. Don't even get me started on the photos... BRUTAL. Click a picture to get the "Loading...." at the bottom for 5-10 seconds.

I agree totally with this and it is exactly the thing that kills the fun of promoting it to others. So right now, I just leave it be. It is slow, it got faster, yes, but it is still slow. Very much so. This is also the reason why I cannot understand that the devs are so keen on the dissolving thing. Also the locking process is a bi*ch, especially the locking process since it is unreliable. VERY unreliable. Especially when using a holster other than the OEM pouch. And even then it has problems.

The touching: a reasonable amount of time I touch something multiple times. I have to. Either the screen doesn't respond to my touch or the response comes only after multiple seconds (which for me causes the locking problem as I said above). Sometimes this causes the phone to dial or send an email or do other stuff I do not want to. That is the laggyness I am talking about mostly when it comes to it being a hindrance to use the device. The other laggyness will put this device way back of the competition instead of infront of it, but it won't kill it. The "hanging" of the system will. It should be no problem whatsoever to cache a lot of stuff IF the device cannot be made any faster then it is. You can easily load/cache the first screens of a bunch of often used items like the ones on the desktop-like screen and keep that process going on. Which would reduce the laggyness much. Still though, it should not be necessary on fast flashmem which has almost no accesstime at all and since entire programs on the device are way way way! less then 100KB they should load like crazy. Especially the none demanding part like lists and screens etc. That is a major shortcoming right now.

Webpages don't load fast! NOT even the mobile ones. Not even on .100. The fact that all data has to pass the BB servers so it can properly be displayed on the phone is crazy too.

Ever since I used Azureus Java has been a no-no for me. The storm made me look at the Java platform again. At this moment I do not know whether it is the OS, whether it is Java or the HW itself, or a combination of those three and if so, which percentage causes what part of the delay/problems.

There are just still too many flaws which are starting to make me think that the device hardware just isn't up to the task. Mainly because the device was rushed out so a definate and good screening of it and its eventual speed couldn't be done. Its like having XP no SP IE6 (or was it 5 when it came out? nah....?) no .NET, no updates running on your P3 256MB. It'll run fine, for a moment..... THEN when you've used it for some time, start installing applications, updates and service packs come out... Right now: try again to run XP SP3, IE7, .NET 1.0, 1.1, 2.0, 3.0, XP updates etc etc etc on that same machine. Lets see how it works.... There is a whole lot that can be done by optimizing software but in this stage of development its more fine tuning than real hardcore big jump major difference on a large scale speed overall. And I think they might have misjudged that part and they should have used a more powerful CPU/chipset. Which they didn't because of a judgement error due to everything having to go fast. Except for the phone... I hate the fact there is no 3rd party benchmark software for the BB. There is starting to come some apps for other phones, but not yet the BB (well, two models are supported, don't remember the name of the package... Pi something or N something).

Battery shouldn't be a problem. If third parties can make larger loads in the same type and size of battery then the OEM should have no problem with that either thus that would be a bull argument too in terms of not using a faster CPU. On .100 the battery life has greatly diminished BTW. But honestly, the phone does have a bunch of dedicated chips in it so I'm sure it hasn't been pushed to the max yet.... We'll see in the future.

I hope I will be proven wrong, but I'm afraid that is not going to happen.

[elad1]

i dont know whats wrong with yours but mine runs perfect on .75 and .99 The only troubles i had with mine were cosmetic defects....i'll put my Storm up against anyones IPHONE anyway they wanna go. Period!
The blackberry isn't called a "phone" anyway its a PDA with phone software installed. The I Phone is just a fashion statement for teenagers and adults alike.

[Acid]

The I Phone is just a fashion statement for teenagers and adults alike.

LOL. This made me giggle.

Do you know how much Crap I get for owning a blackberry instead of a regular phone? Just as much as my Uncle does for having an iPhone. People see both as a Luxury & Fashion statement. Although I do not have mine for either, I have it because I'm a tech geek and Love touch stuff. but thats besides the point.

Ask anyone. At one point you were considered "Rich" if you had any kind of PDA. or worked for a very important company. The iPhone killed all that and made PDA's a fashion statement.

Oh. and I Had all the problems that TheMisses had on .75 until I upgraded to .99 and then the problems were still there, until I did a few battery pulls, reboots, killed a few applications until an official OS release. and now my phone has none of those problems. The only problems I have is keeping my screen clean :O

[ace242]

I don't know about you guys, but I'm on .100 and it's working. Best OS so far. Hardly notice any lags if there were, no random reboots, signal strength is at full bar all the time except for in buildings obviously, camera works great and it hasn't crashed or jammed. Haven't done a batt pull in 3 days since I installed it. Also batt life is great.

[TheMisses]

I understand what you guys are saying but if you do not have the problem with for example locking the phone and having to wait 4 secs before it does and if you don't it'll (not always though) happily continue unlocked in your pocket... which as I'm sure you can imagine, poses a problem, while other people also do expierence this, and the same goes for the reboots connected to or with the included wired OEM headset, the units behave strange. It doesn't make sense. Beta or not.

Battery life today appears to be better on this end too btw... and the strange thing is: I've been using it much more intense today. So that's pretty contradictory huh for a computer and an OS...

Again: no turd party apps installed on this end and I always make sure that only the basic four icons are running when its idling. Which is a pain too BTW. Shouldn't be necessary with programs which are so small and should almost use no resources for the functions they are performing.

And in my specific case I'm talking about just pre-installed apps that come with the OS, many of which I do not even install, let alone run. In other treads more people are confirming this behaviour. No noobs btw.

I also think its very important to make a distinction in the target group of people who are using the phone who are experiencing problems and other groups who don't. I am a pretty heavy user and would even use it more IF the device worked better (better is a pretty personal thing to define so lets say I mean stable and above all: consistent) but right now, I am using my paper agenda and pieces of paper for notes again. I'm even resorting back to my old pda for navigation in car. Not because of problems I have, but because I do not trust the device anymore to deliver what I expect it to deliver. Even though I'm using a 2005 Yakumo PDA which has its own issues, that distrust was never there.

I'm just saying...

And that means something is fundamentally wrong with it at this moment but its being masked. Well, IMO at least. I also think that that is the reason why the same OS on the same device behaves so differently over time.

Even win95 was more consistent and stable....

Can't some smart dude make a java to x86 interpreter so we can create and run something else? Please....

Or RIM stop working on your new projects for a couple of weeks and work around the clock with all those teams nicely synced on the problems at hands. You can run in shifts, day and night. No time needs to be wasted. You wanted to play big and earn big? Than you gotta own up BIG. Programmers or hospital personell... we're all humans so we can all work at night and day when good planning is done.

Own up for your greedy *ss techno-bull behaviour. Beta phones are here to stay... tsssk...

Will it help if I ask nicely? Please?

[snork]

yay another person with no idea what they are talking about.

RIM has a 2nd and 3rd gen storm already in the works. dont ask me for details because i dont have them, but boygenius had a glimpse of it (you can do a search for blackberry storm 2.0 and it should pop up under one of the first few results.

the storm is everything they claimed it would be, just not what you expected. and really, for a 1st gen, its pretty damn good.

[missyzane]

I love my STORM.

end of story.

[frankiw]

i love my STORM. even so much so... ^^
end of story 2

btw how come there isnt any review about the storm 9500
regarding the .100 (im assuming it's problem free for now?)

[nlambson]

The problem here is that RIM took the same old OS it has been updating from the beginning and then ported it over to be used with their new touchscreen device. What they should have done was created an entirley new os for the Storm. Don't get me wrong, I really like my Storm, but after watching the video's on the Palm Pre I think of what this device could really do if they had built an entirely new OS for it.

[kdechols]

I am not expert by any means, but I do have two cents to add...

I got my first storm on Dec 4, about two weeks after the initial roll-out. It came with .65 installed. It was horrid. Constant lock-ups and reboots. Slow and pouring molasses up a rope.

Within the first week, I took it to Verizon and they upgraded it to .75 for me. Still a giant POS!!!!. Same problems all day every day.

After about three weeks of trying tips and hints and hiding icons and cleaning memories etc. etc. etc, I was fed up. I called Verizon for a replacement.

I have had my second Storm for well over a month now. I am still running .75 because I am not confident I can upgrade without f*cking it up.

I am runnning weatherbug, AP News, Slacker Radio, Facebook, and YouTube.

My phone is not lightning fast- and the accelerometer sticks from time to time- outside of that, this phone has not rebooted one single time. I an honestly say that the ONLY thing I am wishing for was speed.

My point I guess, is maybe it is a handset issue more than it is a OS issue. Did RIM manufacture a batch of duds in an attempt to rush to market?

I have no idea but it does amaze me that the exact same OS can perform so much better on one handset than it does another.

Maybe one day there will be a new realease that is snappy. Or, maybe I will take the time to study CB and learn how to do it myself! Who knows. But all in all, MY Storm, on OS .75, is running pretty damn well!

my .02!

[bigman2]

This is in the wrong subforum, you want rants and raves. And compared to your average embedded device, like a wireless router you might pick up at a place like Best Buy, the Storm is pretty beefy in its hardware.

But what you (the OP) doesn't seem to be understanding is the number of competing concerns RIM has to deal with. On the one hand you have the engineers who would probably love nothing more than to make the end all be all uber device. That's what gets engineers going. But then you have to have someone come in and say, "We can't afford that. Here's what we can afford, so build us the best device you can for under this amount." RIM also has to be thinking about being able to sell devices in the future. If they build some uber device now, how do they then manage to improve upon that in the future? But before you go searching for your tinfoil hat, that one is a distant second compared to the much more immediate, "We only have X amount of money to design and build this device." It's easy to take the finished product and take pot shots at it, especially when you don't take into account any of the multitude of hard choices that had to be made during the design process.

[onstageone]

yay another person with no idea what they are talking about.

RIM has a 2nd and 3rd gen storm already in the works. dont ask me for details because i dont have them, but boygenius had a glimpse of it (you can do a search for blackberry storm 2.0 and it should pop up under one of the first few results.

the storm is everything they claimed it would be, just not what you expected. and really, for a 1st gen, its pretty damn good.

This?

BlackBerry super-phone in the works, Storm 2 and 3 coming soon : Boy Genius Report

Ok, no offense but even I could go and make a "report" on RIM coming out with a phone that will brew me a cup of effing coffee and say that "2 independent sources" told me...but I have NO proof, no mock-ups and obviously I can't name names...but TRUST ME they're working on it?!?!

OH-EMM-GEE....seriously

I might also add that this "report" came out about a month before the Storm itself was released

[bigman2]

The problem here is that RIM took the same old OS it has been updating from the beginning and then ported it over to be used with their new touchscreen device. What they should have done was created an entirley new os for the Storm. Don't get me wrong, I really like my Storm, but after watching the video's on the Palm Pre I think of what this device could really do if they had built an entirely new OS for it.

While I agree, we once again run into our old friends rock and hard place. If RIM were to design an entirely new OS, it would send the development costs of the Storm skyrocketing, probably would have delayed the phone for at least another year, and would risk alienating long time Blackberry users who have come to expect that the OS from one device to another won't be too different.

On a purely technical level, I absolutely agree that a lot of the Storm's potential is wasted by being saddled with the old BB OS. If I think of it more like someone with two business degrees, and think about the increased costs and product delays, the idea doesn't seem quite so appealing.

[bigman2]

RIM has a 2nd and 3rd gen storm already in the works.

Of course they do. Before the Storm ever launched they were probably already working on the next generation. You can't just crank out a cell phone from the initial concept to finished product in just 6 months. It's going to take 2-3 years to work through everything that needs to be done.

the storm is everything they claimed it would be, just not what you expected. and really, for a 1st gen, its pretty damn good.

And that is the hardest part for a lot of people to understand. They build up these grand expectations in their imagination, and then when the Storm doesn't live up to these impossible standards, they get upset. About the only real claim RIM has made about the Storm, is that it's a touch screen Blackberry. Hard to dispute that one. Some of the TV commercials Verizon has put up have been a bit on the unrealistic side, but we've been over this so many times in the past... It comes down to while there should probably be stricter regulations on the portrayal of products on television, but right now there aren't. So, it's up to you, the consumer, to keep this in mind when you purchase a product and to do your due diligence before purchasing.

But getting back to the point... The Storm is everything it was claimed to be: A touchscreen Blackberry. The official updates could certainly use with some performance tuning, but if you were thinking the Storm was going to be this miracle convergence device, then I'm afraid the error was yours.

[nlambson]

You're probably right on the money bigman2. It would have been nice though

[TheMisses]

The problem here is that RIM took the same old OS it has been updating from the beginning and then ported it over to be used with their new touchscreen device. What they should have done was created an entirley new os for the Storm. Don't get me wrong, I really like my Storm, but after watching the video's on the Palm Pre I think of what this device could really do if they had built an entirely new OS for it.

What sillyballs said... Beta phones are here to stay. That guy is craz*... Let me go and fix his boiler... ey dude, beta-boilers are here to stay. Sorry, we're fixing the software but in the mean time you will have to make do with cold water when its freezing outside. What? a tight hard beam? No man, it drizzles. Just wait a month or maybe 4, but our employees will tell you it'll be fixed in 14 days each time you call. Ahhh... no problem right? You can use your boiler and shower (if it doesn't shock you or just turns off alltogether at times and then won't get up and running again, not even after a plug-pull). So? Whats the problem? Sh*t up and wait man. Get used to it, beta-boilers are here to stay. Oh, and the same goes for your toilet...

I'm pretty sure that mr sillyballs does not take no for an answer and has everything in working order (except for his phone) but then again, he probably isn't using a smart phone... you need to know how to count AND you need to know the alphabet for that.

When I'm at a customer of mine or a new customer and I want to add them to the contact list with all their personal data I feel like a total d*ck, I am literally 3 times quicker when I write it down then when I type it in and the same goes for making an appointment. NOT because I cannot type fast enough (I'll race you guys any day ;-) I really use the landscape keyboard a lot in emails and texts and that goes just fine, so its not about not being able to type and its also not a defect as if the touchscreen would be broken, because... well, then it wouldn't type fast right?) but because the phone does not respond to touches when it should respond. It is laggy as ****. The phone is a PR nightmare, even for its users, not just for the company. Yeah, RIM... you really want that for your business users? Good call!!

I know that a couple of tv-show hosts, total gadget freaks, are at this very moment preparing an item on smart-phones. The show is watched by hundreds of thousands in NL. Wanna know which phone is going to get crushed? BUT they are realistic in testing I must admit. And so it will be a while before the results are on TV. I do hope though that they get the phone with a working click screen for RIM and Vodafone if they want to keep the sales up. And I also hope they will at least get a phone with the soon to be released (hopefully for RIM) new firmware and not a .78 or even a .65 phone. It'll be a consumer test, not a techguy test so I doubt if they will update the FW or use it straight out of the box...

I'm holding my heart in despair and hope the storm survives this show.... I'm guessing the Palm is going to kick the storms *ss tenfold though. I don't know anything about it yet I must admit but for normal basic business use and consumer use it looks much more promising. I've been told you can even organise your emails into folders. And I wonder if there is a 32KB data limit on text in emails.....

Well, we'll see wont we? As will lots of other people too.

And you know what.... I would have strongly felt sad for RIM and would have defended the phone with all I've got, but since Mr. SillyBalls is telling us, the paying consumer, that the beta phone is here to stay and we'll just have to get used to it... well, lets see what the media can do about that, if the carriers and OEMs won't do it themselves....

Its not just about the phone, its about the attitude of the OEM that comes with it. Say you're sorry and it'll be something different. Now? Tsk... shamefull. They have knowingly and willingly given people a crippled device, that is behaviour which should not be rewarded by accepting it but it should be punished so ridiculously hard that ANY company will not ever get it in its blunt head to release such a beta product again...

[TheMisses]

I have no idea but it does amaze me that the exact same OS can perform so much better on one handset than it does another.

Hmmm.... reinstall it and see how your OS behaves. Might be totally different. That is one of the mysteries of the Storm....

[sho95]

Hmmm.... reinstall it and see how your OS behaves. Might be totally different. That is one of the mysteries of the Storm....

Why don't you follow your own words

[Rodsky11]

Something is wrong here. I like my Storm over other blackberries for the exact opposite reason of this rant.

Entering an appointment. Click calendar, click time, enter info. Much faster than scroll to calendar, scroll to time, scroll through appointment info.

Enter a contact. Click contacts, click add new button, enter info. Not scroll all the way to contacts, bb menu button, scroll to add new contact, enter info.

But then again, since running 90 and 99 I haven't experienced the lag that this guy is talking about.

[TheMisses]

Why don't you follow your own words

I have many many times. That's why I gave him the tip. You think I haven't tried that?

But that is besides the point. I have never had windows (POS) behave strange like this on one device unless hardware was at fault.......

At least windows is consistent in its faults. So are some of the Storm. I can anticipate on those and although that of course really should not be necessary, because they are predictable I can work with them. Its the other issues and the OEM mr sillyballs attitude that makes it a problem.

For navigation I use my old PDA (winmo 2005) no problems whatsoever. For music I use my zen mp3 player and for photo's I use my kodak camera. For email my acer aspire one, for notes a piece of paper and for appointments a paper calendar.

Why did I get a smartphone again? Help me out please, I can't seem to remember the advantage it brings other than having a pretty large and brittle device for making phone calls.... if it doesn't hang up on me or looses signal. My samsung from 2001 still is more reliable for making calls than this phone.

So.... Hmmm.... well, tell me.... Is that going to bring in new customers, or drive them away?

And anyone who has had a company knows that it is 5 times more difficult to get 1 new returning customer than to get an old customer to come back and have them bring in new customers ALL because they are satisfied.

Hmmm, sorry guys.... my english is breaking me up in the last sentence for sure, but I do hope you guys get the drift of it.