[anon(4316677)]

Came from iPhone, and I got to say, I love the physical keyboard, email and BBM. It's all I ever do with my phone anyway. And the LED function is really cool.

[svfd757]

I just purchased a BB Curve 8530 from fleabay. I am currently using a Galaxy Nexus. My question is, will Verizon charge me their activation price ($30) if I switch? Will I lose my data package and have to jump to their tiered data package? I miss my BB and want to experience it again. If only for a limited time. I am very interested in seeing what BB 10 brings. I hope they knock it out of the park because I was an ardent BB user until they fell behind (IMHO).

I am looking to be able to switch back and forth to judge if I really miss my BB or am just bored with Android..

[blutschmatz]

Re-planting my flag here, coming from iPhone 4. New Curve will be here tomorrow.I found I didn't use the apps at all - Spotify and IG at a push but the LED and physical keyboard swung it. All I really do is tweet and text and rage at FB every so often. Old user, back under a new name and a newfound enthusiasm.

[szotz926]

Back from Android, prior to that iPhone, prior to that Android. I just missed my darling BB.

[rcklss1]

Glad to be back... BB to android to iphone to BB... Got my 9900 today... Glad to be back!

[Denise in Los Angeles]

Welcome to both new and returning CB members! Come and post your screenshots here:

http://forums.crackberry.com/general...index3128.html

Lots of friendly people using creative themes and wallpapers in the BlackBerry screen thread.

[bER1Nry]

funny enough,
I am actually in the process of selling my S3.
To get ready for the BB10 qwerty.

SUPER EXCITED!!!!

the irony of it all is that i got a iPhone 5, completed disliked it, returned it for my S3....
and I realized I HATE typing on touch screens.

I can not wait for BB10. I like what I am seeing. A much better look then OS7.
I love the fact that the icons are changing, I was not into the OS7 ones.

Anyone agree?

[leejayh]

Never left! But, have tried lots. iPhone 3GS, droid inc1, ipad3, droid inc 4g, s3. My main phone, though, has always been my trusty BB 9810. If one kept up with OS 7 the BB 9810 has nearly everything that someone would want - in a very nice experience. The only apps that are missing that are real show stoppers are a good turn by turn navigation and maps app. I wish google would write for bb10. It's got mostly everything else. I don't play games. On a recreational level, it is missing Hulu, Netflix,and Skype.

So I have a Nexus 7 now for good portable recreation. But, will never give up my BB. Too much typing to do! BB10 for me.

[Homo Erectus]

as soon as i saw this thread title i knew it'd be a ghost town

can I get a smoke

[bmd900]

Started off with blackberry storm, then went to webos, then android for a long time, went to iphone and now back to blackberry.

[HafeezAkmal]

I'm not sure whether this is the right place to post this up. so, if u think my post here is unnecessary, i apologize.

today. i did something that some people might say stupid. after months of using the galaxy note, i got tired of it & trade it for a torch 9810 - in white!.

yeah, of course, androids have all the apps for everything. the HD amoled screen is almost unbeatable. & who could ignore angry birds, temple run, etc.

but after months with all that glitters, i'd decided to go low-profile. & that's what i needed most at the right time. the physical keyboard, the notification LED, the style it bears with it - the slider made it look more business-feel. & will be a good companion for my Bold 9900...

some questioned my act, as to why do i have to get a second blackberry when i already have one? maybe it's because addictive, there's a reason they call it crackberry . plus, i've been using blackberrys since the era of curve 3g - familiar with the interface. & i really love what RIM has done with their 'data efficiency"...

i don't enjoy much typing on a 5.3 inch glass. but i don't despise androids & i's.. it basically goes down to what you like & what you need...

[j8298c]

Sitting with an iPhone 4S haven't upgraded to iPhone 5 hoping that blackberry 10 brings me back home can't wait only 66 more days until the unwrap the new blackberry's

[catholiclibertarian]

I used to do Bluetooth Interoperability testing for a living, so I have played with almost every phone that came out from 2006-2010. When I first started, I fell in love with the BlackBerry TrackWheel. I figured I didn't need a smart phone personally so I never got one. Then right before I got married, I went ahead and upgraded to the Peral. I loved that keyboard (which I first fell in love with on the 7100 series). And if you are going to go full qwerty, there is NOTHING better form factor than BlackBerry. I left BlackBerry for Android when the Motorola Droid came out, by that time I had began to dable in GNU/Linux and really like the open platform. But I still missed the BlackBerry form factor. When the microphone on my Droid 1 stopped working, I upgraded to the Droid Pro because the keyboard was most like a BlackBerry. Not too bad, but the numbers where in the wrong spot, on the top not in a telephone format.

NO matter what there will be times I need to use the keyboard while driving (even if its just to press 1 for English) and a touch screen alone makes that almost impossible.

My Droid Pro has stopped charging, and sometimes it won't even turn on, if i use my wife's old Droid 2 to charge the battery. The Droid 2 the volume keys dont' work on,
and the touch screen has a mind of its own often. As such I cannot wait until my upgrade is available 12/15. I'm coming home. In addition to returning to the world's greatest keyboard (I would at least consider staying with Droid if Verizon happened to release a replacement for the Pro with the numbers in the right spot). But I need email. I'm currently workign as a contractor,which means I Have to provide my own phone, and none of the consumer level Android apps really integrate correctly with the company email, sticking with trying to use Outlook Web Mail while you are on the road, but BlackBerry works with out a problem, per my co-worker. So I'm coming home, and I've been drooling. Part of me wants to wait for BB 10, but due to the shape of my current devices, I cannot wait till January (which is probably fine as first generations usually need some work).

So I've decided to go with the BlackBerry Curve 9310 on Verizon. FREE with contract renewel from RadioShack.com. Though I'm still trying to find one on eBay or somehwere else frist, so I can get it now, and so that I don't have to loose my grandfathered Unlimited data plan. Reagardless looks like the 9310 is the only BB RIM has ever realised to Verizon with a wi-fi hotspot available.

While, in Jim's perfect world, I'd have a BlackBerry with the old 2-letter on a key keyboard, with a scroll wheel(optional, still including a touch pad and/or touch screen), and ran Android. I dont' think it will happen.

Maybe onday RIM will decide to license BES and BIS as a service and manufacutrer their own handests with Android, I don't see it happening soon. And if BB10 is the great savior they won't have to, but as a lover of freedom, there development process really cold be a lot more open, but as a consumer, I need my CrackBerry back!

[rek101]

I've had an android phone with a keyboard and an iphone 5. What is one step on a blackberry is three or more steps on the other devices. It's not that I'm such a busy and important guy that I can't take a few extra seconds....the problem is the times that you need a few extra seconds are when someone is waiting for you to get back to them or when you're with other people. I find myself inconveniencing others in order to entertain myself with the apple. With the android (which had a keyboard) I found myself screwing things up because it just isn't that organized or intuitive compared to the bb or the apple. I think if you like to look in the mirror a lot and feel important, the apple is your best device...then bb, then android. If you're actually a busy important person, the best device is bb. If you're a wannabee important person, apple is best, then bb. If you're just a nice person who is kind of selfish, then go for android. And if you're really a very nice person in todays word, you don't have money to afford 75 a month for a smart phone and you just have a regular phone. So basically, our "attempt" to use smart phones to do anything smart or important has failed. It's a failed social and business experiment. But if you really want a device that makes you able to be responsive to others without being totally annoying, bb does the job best.

[szotz926]

I just started a new blog for myself, to share my experiences as a BB user with other students and how you can use a BB to be a great student. My first post was sort of about my experiences with other phones and returning home to BB, so I thought I'd share it here.

I notice a lot on my college campus that most Blackberry users are exchange students studying here in California from abroad who use Blackberry and BBM as a reasonable means to communicate with their families and loved ones back home, as well as a few scattered local students who just like the form factor and the tangible keyboard. Having used a Blackberry off and on for the last four years (have I really been in college for nearly six now? Sigh, it seems graduation is always being put off...) I've seen how certain types of smartphones have affected my productivity as a student:

I had an iPhone 3GS for the last year and a half. Finicky thing, really, although because I'm a T-mobile subscriber it seemed like I was putting more effort into jailbreaking and unlocking the poor phone than I was in actually enjoying it. I liked it well enough, though that may have been because I could make my text message bubbles look like whales. There were so many more apps at my fingertips I didn't know what to do, and I remember downloading an app that literally just made cat noises just to drive Sir FuzzyWuzzy insane (it worked) and logging into the App Store every few days just because I'd grown bored of the apps I already had installed and wanted something new to keep and captivate my attention. Beyond that, I really had no complaints about the phone, other than that all the upkeep to the software to keep it working for T-mobile was a real pain in the patella. I really didn't experience any glitching or freezing while using the phone, and never had any issues with the Springboard crashing like many jailbreakers experience. I liked it. It was pretty -proof, as long as you were good with jailbreaking.

And then iOS 6 came out.

Suddenly, my iPhone was bricked! I'd had to do some fancy nonsense in upgrading the baseband to the iPad baseband to get it to work on T-mobile, and then I had to downgrade the baseband again using redsn0w to some other baseband that wasn't the built-in firmware one, and suddenly installing iOS 6 was a nightmare. I literally spent six hours trying to fix whatever I'd done. Sure, that's user error and not Apple's fault (and I own two Mac computers so I quite like Apple for certain products) but combining the amount of trouble it had been to use the iPhone on T-mobile's network and the lack of productivity I felt when I had it (I also didn't really like the on-screen keyboard. I have a serious case of the fat fingers.) and how easily distracted I was with so many useless apps at my fingertips, I decided to give the iPhone away and go in another direction.

After my disastrous experience with the Bold 9780, T-mobile had "rewarded" me with an early upgrade two years ago to the MyTouch 3G Slide. It was okay. Solid in the hand, the software left a bit to be desired but it got the job done. It was fairly unremarkable, and I didn't really have anything to comment or complain about it. It was a phone, and it worked. In January of last year, when the flex cable went out and the screen completely died on me (hence my disdain for phones with moving parts) is when I'd hooked up with someone on campus and bought my iPhone. When my iPhone went to chaos level 5, I'd found myself longing for the simplicity and "meh" feeling I'd had while still owning my MTS, so I went looking for a similar phone. I found, on craigslist, a Sidekick 4G.

Before I knew that this would probably be one of the biggest mistakes of my life (not including dating my horrible ex) I was pretty excited. 4G! 4G GUYS! Fast speeds and it had a keyboard and it was a Sidekick, which I'd eagerly oogled as a teen but my mom wouldn't get it for me because data plans were expensive. 4G, Sidekick, and the seemingly untroublesome Android to boot. For eighty bucks, I really didn't see what the trouble was.

Physically, the Sidekick 4G was great. In theory. The little flippy thingy you could do to slide your keyboard out not only made you look cool, but it was pretty darn solid. It was a thick phone, but it still fit in your pocket for the most part, even if it made you look like you were smuggling a king-sized candy bar or a TV remote in your pants for later use. I occasionally experienced some keyboard stutter but unlike the 9780, it didn't feel like the keyboard itself was faulty, but rather that the software was lagging so badly that it just assumed you'd hit the same button eight hundred times.

The software... oy. I don't know where networks get the impression that people LIKE it when you take a perfectly functional system and then tweak it so that it's "T-mobile special funtime" and suddenly you have twelve million widgets on your screen, a clock that uses words instead of numbers (Okay I really liked this feature the first week I had it until it stopped changing the time) and some really ugly bright green theme that you couldn't change. Isn't the point of Android its open source customizing nonsense? So why couldn't I customize my theme away from these puke-green buttons?!

What was most infuriating about the Sidekick was that it just failed to work on any occasion where I actually needed it to. Need to make a phone call? Sorry, the Sidekick thought you meant a text message Facebook voice search. Need to receive a phone call? Only if you can get the screen to stop freezing long enough to actually slide the little bar across the screen. Its most basic of functions were limited by T-mobile's need to have a "special T-mo version" of Android on this so-called flagship phone. Not to mention that you really couldn't browse the internet or open an app for more than thirty seconds before having to wait twice as long for the phone to unfreeze. I'd just resigned myself to the idea that my phone was going to spend more time in my pocket than in my hand.

At this point, Blackberry, my beloved Blackberry, was looking like the mecca of phone manufacturers. Stock Android still didn't have much to complain about for me, but I didn't have stock Android. I had a Sidekick, and my ability to root things without breaking them doesn't exist. While I'd had a horrible experience with the Bold 9780, I missed my Curve 8900 something awful. That phone was a tank, and it never just forgot what its purpose in life was. I couldn't break it. And it WORKED. I knew I wanted another Curve, but rather than downgrading from the 8900 in my eyes and picking up a 8520 or a 9300 (both good phones, but too basic for me. Them's beginner Blackberries and I, good sir, am a pro), I started looking into the 9360. I could get a 9900 for T-mobile but 1) I'm poor and 2) I don't like the Bold keyboard.

Entrez-vous my early upgrade. It couldn't have come soon enough, because any longer and I probably was going to light the Sidekick on fire and run it over with my motorcycle. At the same time. Then in opposite order. The 9360 was on sale for 50 dollars (after a mail-in rebate... which I didn't get a rebate card for, and will not see that extra 50 bucks back. Meh. So, 100 dollars, really.) and I'd just gotten paid pretty decently at work, not to mention I'd skimmed some money off of my bill fund to protect my sanity because if I'd gone crazy and decided to throw the Sidekick at anyone's head, it probably would have killed them and I'd have wound up in jail and couldn't pay my bills anyway. So, anyway, I went home with a shiny new Blackberry and let me just say:

It was like sleeping in a bed after living in your car for a year and a half.
It was like drinking water after running through the Mojave.
It was like taking a shower after a weekend of camping.
It was like everything in the world was right, clean, and functional.

First impressions, of course, were that the 9360 was small. The keys are small. The phone is so thin. I was scared to touch it for a few days because I really believed my hands, which aren't all that big in the first place, were going to somehow stab their way through the screen and it was going to explode. OS 7 was better than OS 6, which I'd left a year and a half before after burying my Bold and giving my Torch to my sister (who just got drunk and dropped it anyway, I should have kept it...) and it just... fit my hand. It fit my pocket. It fit my life. With the exception of not having a Tumblr app (BLACKBERRY YOU NEED A TUMBLR APP) it had everything I used on a daily basis and none of the random, awkward and distracting apps I didn't need but somehow HAD to download anyway. Once I could afford a case for it, it felt a little less fragile, and my fingers adapted back to the tiny little clickity buttons I used to love.

I got back into the CB community, where I realized I missed these people to an extent that probably not only makes me an addict but a stalker, and I met some really cool people. I learned about Mobihand closing and mourned the loss of some of my apps, but other companies such as NikkiSoft and BellShare were nice enough to work things out with me and get me new license keys, so all of my old favorites were still functional, at least. It was as if I'd never left.

Now, let me just say, I get my school emails blazing fast (something I haven't had for the last year and a half) and I'm on top of my homework. My assignments are all programmed into my calendar and I've got a to-do list in my phone which, with finals coming up, is a Godsend. Between the organization I've done on my Macbook pro and my Blackberry, I know exactly what's due every day for the next three weeks until school gets out. I've got my Christmas list put into my phone. I know exactly how much I've spent, which credit cards I used to purchase the gifts, and I have a basic budgeting plan for paying it off over the next year because I'm 23 years old and I need to earn some goshdarn credit before I decide to try and buy a car or lease a house or whatever. I drive a motorcycle, and I know thanks to BerryWeather that it's going to rain for the next four days and I am going to be very cold and very wet going back and forth from class and work. I'm prepared for this. I know where to buy the cheapest gas for my bike.

My life makes sense. And while I know that I could do all these things and more with my iPhone and my Sidekick (well, maybe not my Sidekick... the phone actually has to work to accomplish these things) the "more" portion is what really distracts me from getting things done with my phone. It doesn't suit me like Blackberry. I know, since I just upgraded, I won't be able to upgrade again when BB10 comes out in January, but I don't care. I don't need the latest and greatest. I just need my Blackberry.

Coming up soon will be commentary on my Playbook, which should be coming ANY DAY NOW and how I'll use that to be a more effective student. We'll see, it's awful shiny and you will all learn someday how shiny things distract me.

Until later!
CB Sirena (szotz)

[grover5]

Great post szotz...I think you'll be very happy with the playbook, particularly the bridge functionality.

[Plazmic Flame]

When the BB10 N-Series comes out, I'll be coming home...

[mditurno]

I had a BB 8330 and then moved to an 8530 for about a year or so and when I had the chance to upgrade with Verizon I decided to go for the iPhone 4. I used the iPhone for about 6 months and realized it never really did anything for me, I am not the kind of person who uses a million different useless apps, and I really never found a way to like the virtual keyboard. So about 9 months ago I bought a very clean 9650 on ebay and have never looked back. Everything I ever used the iPhone for my BB does just as well and simply like the BB form factor much better along with the QWERTY keyboard. Batter life is better, speaker phone is better, and I am happy with my phone again. Now .... just waiting on BB10.

[Mugen_Power]

for several years i have been with the Symbian OS and it is only now that i have tried the BB platform (using 9320) and i must say i made the right decision and very happy with it.
i wanted to test the feel of using a BB so i bought this gorgeous phone 9320 (IMO) and after using it for roughly around 11 days i am now looking forward to getting the 9900 on my next pay check. getting an android or an iphone never crossed my mind. for me it was instantaneous - BB was the next choice. . .and i have to say i made the right decision

[ritesh]

for several years i have been with the Symbian OS and it is only now that i have tried the BB platform (using 9320) and i must say i made the right decision and very happy with it.
i wanted to test the feel of using a BB so i bought this gorgeous phone 9320 (IMO) and after using it for roughly around 11 days i am now looking forward to getting the 9900 on my next pay check. getting an android or an iphone never crossed my mind. for me it was instantaneous - BB was the next choice. . .and i have to say i made the right decision

In 2008, I too moved from the Nokia E71 to a 8320 and have never looked away from a BB. I used a HTC widfire, Iphone 4 as 2nd phones in between, but the BB's have always been my main phone. Now I am back to using a single phone with the 9900

[moralcode]

Started out with nokia old school flip phone, then got a blackberry tour, loved it. Switched over the Galaxy 1, hated it. Switched to iphone 4s, despise it. Waiting for the blackberry 10!

[Rolandh]

I just started back using Blackberry on Sunday with my Curve 8520 after being an Android user since February 2011. I first tried Blackberry in 2009 when I got a Pearl 8110, then upgraded to a Curve 8520 and since Monday I've been using a Curve 9320, and it feels good to be back to the simple easy to use Blackberry OS that just works. But I'm still an Android user as I've got an Asus Google Nexus 7 Tablet.

I even surprised myself on Monday by still being able to remember my Crackberry Login details.

Roland

[Bleeh]

I'm back on Blackberry after a 3 month break with a HTC One S (my previous phones: 9800, 9810). I feel home with my bold 9790, battery life is amazing, I have all the apps I need, the device is responsive and above all a physical keyboard. Looking back, I don't understand why I left Blackberry!

[mark1914]

Coming back later this evening hopefully! Galaxy Note being sold for a brand spanking new in the box Bold 9900. Still keeping my Nokia Lumia 920 for traveling and taking pics. Missed my berry and that keyboard. Not to mention I still have my Playbook.

[BBerryPowerUser]

Like so many here, I strayed from BBerry for a while with Android and iPhone. I was lured by my friends telling me that not only was I a Dinosaur, but I was missing all the great stuff you could get on the iPhone (or Droid). I am not one to worry about image, but I do consider productivity a huge part of a smart phone, so I thought I had better at least "try" the Droid and iOS platforms. So I did. For about six months. I first had an Andorid. Liked it very much. It made sense to me, probably because I have an Android tablet. Liked the way the apps are hidden in a master menu and you can choose which apps go on the screens, unlike iPhone where all of your apps are simply dumped onto your home screens. I also liked certain aspects of the Droid OS like being able to hold a text and get a pop-up menu for email, call, etc. Again, unlike the iPhone where you have to basically scroll to the beginning of a thread before you are presented with operational choices. Apple has a very cult following, and my iPhone friends are frenzied about their beloved iPhones, the way some BlackBerry users are about their beloved Berries. When I went from Droid to iPhone I missed the Droid. Apple has set ways that you will be doing things on their iOS, period. Droid is a tad more customizable.

HOWEVER, NEITHER, IMO, CAN HOLD A PRODUCTIVITY CANDLE TO BLACKBERRY. NOTHING GETS STUFF DONE LIKE A BERRY. AND NOTHING COMMUNICATES LIKE A BERRY.

All I did for six months was whine and gripe and moan to my friends and business colleagues how I missed my BlackBerry. They'd say, "But look at all the stuff you can do on your new smartphone! You can play games, you can really get into social networking, you can bank, you can make reservations at restaurants, you can have access to hundreds of thousands of apps, you can.... blah blah blah blah blah."
Yes, you can. If that's your thing, having 1000 apps "at the ready" and posting on Facebook and Twitter and Linked-In and doing 100 other things that are not related to your business or your personal schedule, well, then I guess those platforms are for you. Those smartphones were designed from the ground up as mini pocket computers for application management.
BlackBerries were designed from the ground up as Personal Digital Assistants for busy professionals and for managing your life, your schedule, and your contacts. You CAN do FaceBook, Twitter, and Linked-In if you want, perhaps not quite the same as on other platforms, but it works just fine. And if you want to actually "Call" someone and use your phone as a phone, Berry is sold in this regard.

So I came Back to BlackBerry. Why? Because I have to get stuff done. I'm a buy professional running two companies. I need to be productive, and my BlackBerry allows me to be very productive, while not overwhelming me with all the other minutia that is thrown at you by iOS and Android.

I have missed BlackBerry, and I'll probably not stray again, unless you call upgrading to BlackBerry "10" straying. From what I have seen, the new "10" is awesome. I look forward to it. In the mean time, my 9780 is just fine for me. It works as I need it to. I have a banking app, and a few other key applications that I grew used to on Android and iPhone. These were available on BlackBerry so I use them for productivity sake.

Glad to be back.