[RoverSpitfire]

Part I

Hello CrackBerry Nation!

Today I switched from an iPhone 4S to a BlackBerry Z10. Given that the Z10 is brand spanking new, along with BB10, and BlackBerry I thought I'd share my experiences here. I've had some joy, some sorrow and some intense frustration so far. I'll post up how things are going and if anyone out there is experiencing similar issues or has a solution for me, post up and share it here!

Background on me to set the stage: I have an IT background, I love technology and I'm known as the go to gadget guy among my friends for recommendations on what to buy, etc. I'm in my mid-thirties and highly educated. I'll admit that I'm generally an Apple fan. I have a number of Macs, iPads, and iPhones in the household. My first BlackBerry was a Pearl, after which I switched to iPhone and I've had a 3GS, 4, and 4S. I also have a Bold 9800 for work. And yup, I'm the guy that carried around a BB for work, and an iPhone for personal, all the time. I decided to switch to a Z10 because after 4 years of Apple iOS on 4 iPads, 2 iPods and 2 iPhones, it's feeling stale. BB10 is fresh, it doesn't suffer from the in-and-out of iPhone and the feeling of being a mouse in a maze trained to do a series of repetitive tasks with a vague feeling of being in a Rube Goldberg contraption.

Going in assumptions:
* I will be a little disappointed in apps and have to be patient
* My experience will be hindered somewhat until my wife gets her Q10 and I can really use BBM to its potential (hardly anyone I know has a BB any more, everyone is on iPhones)
* I will have to be patient as I learn the new gestures and flow of BB10
* The phone will be speedy, and pleasing to look at and work with
* People will look at me strangely (being an Apple fan boy turning his back on Cupertino, as it were)

Experience picking it up:
* I had to wait all through the work day until I could swing by a Rogers store and pick up my reserved phone.
* It was there waiting for me, and the fellow in the store sighed with relief when I gave him my name because it was the last Z10 they had and he was hoping my name matched the box.
* Quick work getting everything done, and while I waited I looked around at several people who were either buying or were being given a demo/sales pitch on the Z10.
* Grabbed a spare battery and charger bundle while I was there.

Turning it on:
* I'd read tons and tons of information on BB10 before I got there, so I sped through the gestures demo. Initial impression, the screen isn't as sensitive as the iPhone, I needed to re-try gestures. But not a big deal.
* Asked me if I wanted to update (6MB), I said yes, it failed to connect. I figured I was standing in a mall, signal maybe not the best, tried again, no problem.
* Set up my BlackBerry ID, really simple, no problems at all.
* Went to call my wife in excitement. Stared at screen. Do I go to the hub? No, that's messages. To the right to the apps? No, shouldn't be there... Ahh, phone button. Duh. Dialled, pausing only briefly to admire the design of the phone app. She didn't answer, left a message.
* Drove to my son's school and from the parking lot started to enter a text to my wife. WHAT? Are you kidding? This keyboard is fantastic! I'd read rave reviews and even with such high expectations I was totally impressed. I was having so much fun flicking words, I was momentarily irritated when my wife called me back interrupting the party.

Digging deeper:
* I get home and it's time to setup accounts: Mail, Facebook (First status "Rocking the BlackBerry Z10"), LinkedIn, Twitter - boom, boom, boom lickety split. Everything set up beautifully.
* I am getting the hang of flow.
* The device is beautiful. Pictures don't do it justice.
* It also feels great. I had a nice weight to it. I find my friends' iPhone 5's to be too light, they feel flimsy. The Z10 is just right.
* The back is really comfortable to hold on to, I like the grippy texture.
* The screen is bright and sharp, and the transitions between screens, waking up the device, etc. are all better than Apple.
* I had a 64GB MicroSDXD card ready and waiting to go. Thanks to CrackBerry.com I know I need to reformat the card before it will be recognized. A few simple steps later that I remembered from the post and I'm in business.

Uh-oh, here come the problems Apple 0 - BlackBerry 1:
* Here's where the fun stops. But it's no fault of BB off the hop. I text my wife at the dinner table. She responds. I don't get it. She tries again. No dice. Why? Because we both had iPhones and her iPhone insists on sending an iMessage even though my old 4S is shut down. I disable the cellular number from the iMessage app on all my Apple devices. No dice. Try to force the iPhone to send a text message - this will only work until the status of the message changes to delivered. Google search reveals iPhone to Android switchers have been dealing with this for a year. Various solutions from wiping the phone to re-registering the device online with Apple are suggested. Only guaranteed solution: wait two weeks. 14 days is the refresh window on Apple's servers. Nice one Apple.

I want my MTV. Or at least my music and videos:
* I install BlackBerry Link. I plug in the Z10 to my Mac Mini and it prompts a download and install. Cool. I let the install run. It tells me I have to restart my Mac. Huh? I've never had to restart the Mac when installing software, but ok. Minor inconvenience.
* The BB Link software is pretty simple and self-explanatory out of the box. It syncs media and documents only, unless you have an old BB to transfer data from.
* But it's slooooow. Oh my is it slooooow. I thought iTunes was slow, but no, this is a whole new definition.
* Duplicates. What? I tried loading one playlist, Link tells me it failed. I try again. It works, but now I have duplicates of everything. Really?
* Videos. I try to sync two videos. It says they went. Great. It moves on to duplicating more music. I check the device. No videos. What?
* No, at least the device shows up in the Mac Finder. When it finishes doing what it's doing (see slooow, above), I'll take a look through the finder and see if I can't fix this duplication business.
* Right now it looks like I will be keeping Apple products for media devices. But it's early. I'll try some device re-boots and what not and see if I can't get things moving more quickly.

Typing Avoidance aka Contact and Calendars:
* Again, thanks to CrackBerry.com I read that it's possible to sync Contacts and Calendars with iCloud.
* I Google various different sets of instructions.
* I did into the Mac's Library files to find obscure text documents to confirm which mysterious servers my iCloud data is hiding in.
* I enter the info into the CalDAV account setup. Nope. I try a bunch of variations pulled from different instructions. Nope. Nothing.
* I try the Contacts. That works. Kind of. No contacts come down to the phone, but if I enter a Contact on the phone, it will send it up to iCloud immediately. And create a duplicate, if it's a contact I already have. I try editing the new contact in Address Book hoping maybe the new entry will sync down to the Z10. Nope. No dice.

Does anyone have any suggestions on the Contacts and Calendar connection? I admit I was very disappointed that BlackBerry did not include sync software for the computer. I would even switch my PIM apps to Outlook if that would solve the problem. As nice as the Z10 keyboard is, it's still a lot faster for me to enter things with a real full size physical keyboard.

How do I get Contacts and Calendar info out of iCloud and into my Z10? It would be so nice if I could sync like PB owners.

So I'm frustrated, and the bulk of it is Apple's responsibility here, but if BlackBerry wants to convince more iPhone users to switch over, they have to make it easier! There's a real opportunity (or necessity here) that BlackBerry could address. I know, I know, this is what I get for being an early adopter. I'm still happy with the Z10, just not with the setup experience and BlackBerry Link.

Speaking of BlackBerry Link, it's almost finished duplicating my music, so I'm off to sort that out. And one of the few BB owners I know saw my Facebook post and sent me his PIN so BBM here I come!

[overzeer]

For file media syncing I simply use WiFi file sharing. Simple, convenient, look-ma-no-cables approach.

[jweihrauch]

Dude, thank you for the in depth experience. I currently use an iPhone 4S for work and my Bold 9900 for personal use...I know, it's backwards.

I appreciate the honesty and am happy to see you back on the BlackBerry platform. Q10 for me!

Sent from my BlackBerry 9900 using Tapatalk

[RoverSpitfire]

Update on the media:

Duplication was my bad. I stacked too many copy requests and that confused it. When I took it slower, one request at a time, it didn't duplicate, even when multiple playlists had the same song.

I did consider straight wi-fi file copies, but I really wanted to preserve my playlists and BlackBerry Link does that. Still working on it.

One disappointment, none of my video media from iTunes will play on the Z10. So far I've only tried purchased iTunes videos in SD and HD format and the Z10 tells me the format is not supported. More digging to do on that front too.

Update: Turns out it's the DRM on the M4V files from iTunes. Will have to find third party software to strip that out. Which I don't favour. Again, not BB's fault, but Apple keeping you locked into the Ecosystem.

[macberry33]

thanks for in deep experience post. And for your questions I don't have the answers.
pd: hopefully Blackberry reads your post, take note and act to improve the entire experience you just wrote.

[ealvnv]

Might be a DRM issue with the movies, not sure though, as for calendar and syncing, this thread seems to have that sorted out

[mday924]

Update on the media:

Duplication was my bad. I stacked too many copy requests and that confused it. When I took it slower, one request at a time, it didn't duplicate, even when multiple playlists had the same song.

I did consider straight wi-fi file copies, but I really wanted to preserve my playlists and BlackBerry Link does that. Still working on it.

One disappointment, none of my video media from iTunes will play on the Z10. So far I've only tried purchased iTunes videos in SD and HD format and the Z10 tells me the format is not supported. More digging to do on that front too.

Update: Turns out it's the DRM on the M4V files from iTunes. Will have to find third party software to strip that out. Which I don't favour. Again, not BB's fault, but Apple keeping you locked into the Ecosystem.

This is exactly why moved away from iTunes a long time ago, and why i didn't buy an iPhone. If not for this, i might be an iPhone user. Good luck getting everything squared away. BTW, it's my understanding the z10 uses the Wolfson DAC so sound quality should be much better than the iPhone since Apple moved away from using Wolfson a few generations ago. Grab the Neutron app for music and you'll be in heven.

[m33lad]

Z10 i say, blackberry has the highest phone security out there, longest battery life, and of course bbm. And etc.. and z10 is a smart phone, i mean really smart phone it memories ur favorite words and gets u a dictionary according to ur stye and etc..

[RoverSpitfire]

Part II

Contacts and Calendar:
Thanks for the thread above on the iCloud configuration. I tried those steps and still no joy. I couldn't be without contacts today, so I had to solve the problem last night.
1) To copy my contacts from Apple, I went into Contacts on my iPad, and one by one I selected 'Share Contact' and e-mailed the vCard to myself. Opened the vCard on the Z10 and saved it. It even copied their photos over. 117 contacts later I was set. (Took me half an hour while watching TV.) Problem solved!
2) I knew the Hub would pull in message content from all your social media accounts, but Contacts does too!!! All of my Facebook and LinkedIn contacts appeared in my Contacts on the Z10. You can also filter them, just like the hub, and link them together (e.g. SIM contact and BBM contact). Sweet!
3) Calendar? Still no luck, but I didn't have a great deal in there, so starting again is no big deal. I'm so glad to be free of iCal. I love Apple products in general, but I was no fan of iCal. It's far too simplistic and the interface is simple but inefficient.

Browser:
So far so good. Web pages are fast and look great with one notable exception. Google looks like it is from 1995. Particularly if you go to a Google sub-site like Google Finance the site doesn't render properly at all. Not even close. In fairness, Apple's Safari has always had the same problem every now and then at random. I'm beginning to think Google isn't playing nice with others. No problem, swing over to Yahoo Finance and problem solved.

Hub:
Fantastic. Oh is it fantastic. And as far as showing off the phone to folks, they're pretty lukewarm on the Z10 until they see the Hub. Then the interest is sparked. I think that ultimately this will be a huge differentiator for BB10 from the others. All in one place. No more in and out of apps. I have only one tiny little quibble... and I'm sure BlackBerry can fix this very, very easily: when I receive an HTML e-mail (say a promotion from Tiger Direct), it's never sized to fit the screen. It's always too wide. The Hub should auto zoom the e-mail when I open it. It's a little thing, but it's a sign of the kind of polish BB10 is missing. But I'm not worried about it. All those polish things can be easily resolved with software updates. The core of BB10 is excellent!

Media:
* Yup, stung by DRM when it comes to video content. Which leaves me out searching for M4V converters that will strip it out. I don't feel guilty. I am not sharing it, and I paid as much as the Blu-Ray price in some cases for it. I'm all for copyright protection, but when I paid for it I should be able to use it how I want.
* Upside, the music sounds terrific. When I've got some time to leave it syncing for a loooong time, I'll fill it up with my music collection.
* Photos came through great from iPhoto. I tried a mix of both proper camera sourced photos and iPhone photos and they all came over no problem and look great.

Apps:
* I downloaded a whole bunch of apps last night. Some free, some paid.
* Yup, there are a lot of 'standard' apps missing. Hopefully BlackBerry keeps the pressure/incentives up and improves here. Primarily I want apps from businesses, like IMDB. Some of the ones I went looking for (Shark Dash, Skype to name a couple) I know are 'committed' and on the way so I just have to be patient.
* There were lots of old standby's though. The Weather Network, Air Canada, CBC, Songza, NY Times
* There were some surprises like Guidebook. I rarely use it, but when I do it's very handy!
* Only one app didn't work. I keep getting a Javascript error when I try to use Flixster. Too bad, I like that app.

Camera:
* Quality is ok. Not great, but ok. The iPhone was ok too. It's still a communication device first, camera second. BlackBerry is not alone here.
* Time Shift: huge party pleaser. I had to figure out on the fly how to use it, but it garnered a lot of ooh's and ahh's from everyone that saw it.

Overall assessment coming up on 24 hours:
* It's an excellent first effort. It's not a 1.0 phone by any stretch.
* I really, really love using it for communications.
* The rough edges in the interface (e-mail sizing, a button to go to next item in Hub, etc.) can all be fixed simply with future software updates.
* The apps are thin, but it only just launched. Right now though, Apple dominates in this area. It isn't even close.
* I really like the phone. It's a pleasure to use, and I feel it's much easier to stay connected to all streams of interactions. For the additional stuff, it does enough.
* The Z10 and BB10 are an excellent foundation to work from. But if BlackBerry wants to make a comeback and be successful in the broader market, they need to keep polishing the OS. They need to be relentless on this. They also need to keep pushing and pulling developers and businesses for apps. If they do those two things, I could see them locked in a near even three way split of the market.

More to come though. Tonight I need to dive into customizing. I had all my ringtones and preferences set up in the iPhone and I want to replicate that in the Z10.

[M.Rizk]

Great topic. Despite how long it is I couldn't move my eyes away before reading it all!

[1magine]

Subscribed.

[M.Rizk]

Subscribed.

Same! ....10char

[phylez]

Same! ....10char

[prokopy]

I added my contacts from icloud by simply adding my email. It automatcially collected my contacts and calendar from icloud as a CardDAV.

The problem im getting is all my emails have not been retrieved. When I set up the email i changed the initial retrival amount to 30 days, and it still hasen't retrieved them all. If anyone knows a solution that would be great!!

[Casper TFG]

Many thanks for letting us follow your exploits.

I too am bored of my iPhone 4S sick of al the hoops to jump through and also want to just get my head down and work using a better keyboard. A return to BB is looked forward to

BUT....

To organise family life I rely on

A) a subscription to my wife's iCal diary
B) operating a shared iCal diary to block out events i feel my wife needs to know about

So... Contact sync and diary sync is a big deal to me.

To the original poster is this below useful?

(The start again fresh and import of data) it's from another thread.

It took almost 3 weeks, but I finally figured out how to sync my BB Calendar with a Mac with the help of RIM support! First, you need to decide where the data is coming from, the BB or Mac. Unlike a PC you cannot dictate the directionality of the sync. 1) So if you Mac is where the updated data is, first make a backup to your desktop using the BB Desk Manager (same goes with if the data is on iCal, make a backup by exporting it!). 2) Using the Desk Manager, click on Device on top menu bar, then Forget Device, which removes any previous sync data and issues. 3) Create a new calendar that is blank; delete the old calendar. 4)Go to Sync on DM and indicate the name of the new blank calendar and when it prompts you, indicate merge data. After this the syncing should be fine! You should be able to change an event on your BB and it will change it on iCal when you sync and likewise when you add an event on iCal, when you sync it will add it on your BB.

[ralfyguy]

This is one of the best threads here, period. thank you for the educational insights and if you keep going like that, I will be able to just power it up when I get mine and start using it and setting it up, knowing that I already "read" the manual.
Thank you OP. This is how threads should be.

[jstplnfrank]

I appreciate the extensive feedback. I had forgotten my password to this site because it had been so long since I've been here.
I have been reading non stop since the Z10 was announced. I currently have an iPhone 5, but have been using Blackberrys since they had black and white screens. I went from BB to an Evo and then to iPhones.
I am really excited about this phone and seriously considering getting rid of my iPhone.

[RoverSpitfire]

I added my contacts from icloud by simply adding my email. It automatcially collected my contacts and calendar from icloud as a CardDAV.

The problem im getting is all my emails have not been retrieved. When I set up the email i changed the initial retrival amount to 30 days, and it still hasen't retrieved them all. If anyone knows a solution that would be great!!

I'm curious as to what kind of e-mail you are using. I'm using my ISP which is provisioned by Yahoo! In fairness, it did ask me to sync my contacts with Yahoo but they aren't connected to my iCloud at all.

I did manage to connect to the iCloud servers, but I only managed to update iCloud from the Z10, I was never able to pull an contacts down to the Z10 from the iCloud.

[RoverSpitfire]

To the original poster is this below useful?

(The start again fresh and import of data) it's from another thread.

It took almost 3 weeks, but I finally figured out how to sync my BB Calendar with a Mac with the help of RIM support! First, you need to decide where the data is coming from, the BB or Mac. Unlike a PC you cannot dictate the directionality of the sync. 1) So if you Mac is where the updated data is, first make a backup to your desktop using the BB Desk Manager (same goes with if the data is on iCal, make a backup by exporting it!). 2) Using the Desk Manager, click on Device on top menu bar, then Forget Device, which removes any previous sync data and issues. 3) Create a new calendar that is blank; delete the old calendar. 4)Go to Sync on DM and indicate the name of the new blank calendar and when it prompts you, indicate merge data. After this the syncing should be fine! You should be able to change an event on your BB and it will change it on iCal when you sync and likewise when you add an event on iCal, when you sync it will add it on your BB.

Casper, sorry but I have bad news. There is no Desktop Manager for BB10. You get BlackBerry Link and all it does is sync media and do updates and backups. I think I read in another thread that the Desktop Manager will still connect to BB10 but won't have full functionality.

The calendar thing I'm going to solve in the following fashion:
* Get my wife a Q10
* Use a group calendar in BBM
* Invite my work e-mail address when I want it on a desktop (I don't really use my Mac at home for calendaring, I've gotten used to just doing it on device. With iCloud is was convenient to open it and browse but I can live without it.)


* Abandon iCloud iCal for now unless someone builds an app that will sync it in the future

[GTiLeo]

you could hae sent your contacts from your iphone to your z10 using bluetooth, i did that with my 9900 today as my BB link was being stupid and would only transfer 14 contacts

[bluetroll]

if you learn how to sideload apps, your app selection becomes a lot better

[GTiLeo]

if you learn how to sideload apps, your app selection becomes a lot better

thats pretty easy to do, but lol i still can't figure out where to download them from :S duhhhh i'm to lazy to read all the threads we have and dig through the links

[RoverSpitfire]

Part III

This one gets a little technical for folks switching from iPhone to BB10.

I really liked the ringtones I had set up for specific callers and messaging types in my iPhone and I wanted to replicate that on the Z10. It takes a little bit of time and patience, but you can move all those ringtones over and not have to download them again (if you could even find mp3 versions of them). Of course, Apple doesn't make it easy for you to have them. Some Ringtones will sync with iTunes, some will not. On the iPhone you can select them, but there's no way to get them off of the phone, at least not that Apple gives you. No File Manager like BB. But there is a way, and here it is!

Overview of the process:
1 - Locate your m4r files on the iPhone
2 - Copy the m4r files to your computer
3 - Change the extension to mp3
4 - Copy new mp3 files to your Z10

In detail:
1 - Locate your m4r files on the iPhone
* To accomplish this I used DiskAid and application from DigiDNA at: DiskAid - iPhone, iPad, iPod Transfer Software for PC & Mac
* The m4r files are located in: Storage\Media\iTunes_Control\Ringtones

2 - Copy the m4r files to your computer
* From within DiskAid it's a simple drag and drop to your desktop or folder

3 - Change the extensions to .mp3
* On your COMPUTER change the extensions to .mp3
* Seriously, no conversion required

4 - Copy the new files to your Z10
* I connect by wire because I find it the most reliable but BB10 can also be accessed remotely
* I created a Ringtones folder inside the music folder on the SD Storage Card
* I put all the mp3 ringtone files in that folder
* They all show up just fine in the Z10 when you are in settings and picking ringtones

Here's a question for the BlackBerry gurus: What are 'Messages'? They are listed separately from BBM, Text, Facebook, etc. When I go into a contact to add a custom tone specific to that contact, I can do it for the Phone ringtone no problem, but the only other choice I have is Messages. There's no option for text or BBM or anything else. Is that normal? Is that a BB10 thing? If so it's disappointing.

I will note however that it wasn't until iOS 4 that you could set custom tones for individuals on iPhone. But still, I would think in 2013 that's a pretty basic function.

Anyway. That's my iPhone tip for tonight.

Miscellaneous notes:
* I bought the spare battery and charger combo and I'm glad I did. Last night I didn't push the micro USB cable in far enough and the Z10 didn't charge. Since I was running on the out of the box charge plus whatever it got while connected to my Mac, it pretty much dead by morning. I charged it for a bit before leaving for work, and most of the morning. But it still didn't get a full charge. I'll be deep cycling that one now. But since I had the charger and the spare battery, when I got home I was good to go with the spare and could keep on going.
* Call quality is excellent. I've made calls on the device, and via the Bluetooth in my car. The sound quality was great in all cases.

Fun side note, my carrier hit me with a telemarketing call tonight on my device. It went something like this:
R: I'm calling from... blah, blah, blah. You now qualify for an upgrade for a new phone on number blah, blah, blah.
Me: That's exciting!
R: Are you happy with your current phone?
Me: Yes I am. I've only had it for one day.
R: Uh really?
Me: Yes, upgraded yesterday.
R: Great. What did you get?
Me: A BlackBerry Z10.
R: Oh the new one! Already? Did that come out?
Me: Uh yeah. Yesterday.
R: Well congratulations then. Enjoy the phone!

To all those that have expressed thanks in this thread you are very welcome and I will keeps sharing as the Z10 and I continue to get to know each other and I extract myself from the Apple Orchard.

[ralfyguy]

Another great lesson. Thank you.

That is really odd about the limited rintone settings though. Even though I'm still exited anlbout getting one, in a few corners it seems again like a little rushed and unfinished release. Like they didn't have enough time left to include everything that has been standard on BlackBerries for a long time.
Here is to hope that they complete that with future updates.

[dbmalloy]

These are the type of posts that keep me coming back..... Kudo's to the OP.. it is great to get some insight into how much of a walled garden Apple has actually created....Hope BB does not follow this path... After reading the OP it makes me appreciate people who have patience and actually understand the complexities of an OS.... I found it amuzing those who posted they are returning their device after a day or too.... tempted to send them to ths thread to get educated a bit......many of them need it...