[ougum]

Having trouble understanding ... What's a "cool app"?

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

Siri for iPhone = "Cool App".

[BayouBengal21]

Yea when you really break it down my Blackberry does most everything that the android/iphone phones do. It may not be quite as fancy but the fact that I always use my bb's music player and prefer it over my ipod, the fact that every website I go to works flawlessly on the webkit browser, the fact that messaging,email,text and calls are so much easier on my bb than they were on the Evo. I find that a smaller app selection is not even a factor. I work in wireless and the fact that android is open source wreaks havoc on peoples devices. Every day I bet I have to wipe at least 5 or 6 android phones because some "app" they downloaded screwed up the phone. Android is flashy but very rough around the edges. Plus after you play with it for a week and you realize you only use maybe 10 of the 200,000 apps you realize you miss the easy of a blackberry.

[BlackStormRising]

Having trouble understanding ... What's a "cool app"?

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

Me too!

i just booked a trip to Paris using Blackberry Travel and I would have to say THAT is a cool app! And I downloaded GuidePal's "City Guide Paris" which is looking pretty good too.

But I think the Ocarina app for iPhone is the one that set the standard for cool. And it is pretty cool, but I think a lot of the really cool apps are kind of faddish as well, and the novelty can wear off fairly quickly.

[MrHelyar]

why feel left out? Because I can't play games on my phone? I have a Xbox to play games on and I even have a iPod as well... I'd love the apps on a phone yes but I don't feel left out because of it.

I love my BB, it does what I want and need it to do and to be honest, when the new phones come out next year with OS7 who doesn't think the QNX OS won't be able to support apps like Angry Birds, Cut the Rope etc? Playbook will show the future of BB devices down the road.

[Tony1988]

I don't feel left out on anything. My BB does everything I want it to do, and does it very well.

Agreed. Most apps are for kids or people who are easily amused. I find most of them boring and just plain stupid for the most part. I have just recently gotten a blackberry and I am totally happy with it. I had an android for a week and was not impressed with it. It was a data and battery hog and I had to watch it like a hawk. My blackberry gets great battery life, good internet and and some decent apps to boot. It does everything important and some fun that any android does.

[T�nis]

Most apps are for kids or people who are easily amused. I find most of them boring and just plain stupid for the most part. I have ... a blackberry and I am totally happy with it. My blackberry gets great battery life, good internet and and some decent apps to boot. It does everything important and some fun that any android does.

+1 on all of this. I never did understand the appeal of all those apps. I'm just not so easily "wowed."

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[theruined]

"You Know What Really Grinds My Gears?!..." When I see those commercials (or hear on the radio for that matter) that "this app" or "that app" are available on itunes or App Store or Android or Android Market...etc

Where's BB?

I'll tell you where...hibernating!!!!

COME ON RIM - Winter is almost over! Time to get out of the house and burn that wintersday fat - "ya dumb b*stards...."

[Xopher]

The Facebook app for BlackBerry was written by RIM, so it is hard to compare it to other platforms.

Another BB app that I love is SocialScope. I think it has the best Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare integration. Plus, with features like being able to mute Facebook apps and people, as well as viewing and posting to fan pages, it has a llot more features than other applications on BlackBerry or other platforms. I use TweetDeck on Android, but I feel SocialScope does a better job.

[breakmedown]

Personally, the only app I've ever been upset that I can't get is a Redbox app. I don't see why they don't have one for BB, but alas, they don't.

Otherwise, I don't really use a lot of apps. I don't want to play games on it and I do want the battery to last for days. Therefore I couldn't love my BB more!

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[thornm]

right now i am waiting for live profile to drop i think its going to be awesome until bbm goes to other platforms, sick of waiting

[Xopher]

I don't know why RIM made the FB app, but they also made the IM apps (aim, yahoo, google talk...). Even the native twitter app is made by RIM.

All of those apps take advantage of RIM's push service. I would assume that RIM worked out an agreement with them so they could use push technology. That was well before they opened up push to developers.

[SimplyCoutured]

I have an Android, the Evo, and I miss the berry like crazy
Yeah sure, there's Angry Birds and cool apps, but really, they aren't that great. I use the same apps daily that I had on my BB.
I'm trying to go BACK to a BB ATM actually. Android's fun for awhile, but even they are all turning out to be the same. Look at the Evo...it's basically on every network now with a few minor tweaks. And that neon green color thats everywhere on an Android is getting annoying.
Android's are turning into toys, IMO. Bright shiny screens, customizable apps like Handcent, cool touchscreens (which really aren't that cool)...but thats about it.
Of course, it's all a matter of opinion, right?

[dodger_moore]

I also wanted to add... truncated e-mails. Not saying I would be in the mad category, especially not left out category, but it is a little bit frustrating. Even business users have files that may include images or attachments that get truncated out. At least let you decide if you want it or not.

Yes t'is a frustrating when it happens, but I find going into the browser and accessing my email that way does the trick. I use Hotmail so this is a pretty quick solution.

[papped]

There were very few apps that i actually used on Android other than games (BB platform sucks for games with a few minor exceptions). I use more apps on BB than I do on Android (unless you count the various utilities to patch in missing functionality on the OS, like having to install an entirely new app to get unread counts...).

When you use subjective terms like "there's no cool apps" with no distinction or specification, it's close to saying nothing...

If you like the apps on another platform better, then why use a BB...

[thornm]

ok so "cool apps" i guess i should have wrote "apps that dont suck" i just dont see any fun apps like say photoswap - fun app for wasting time. i dont need hangman or a angrybird rip off, and why is it apps take longer to come out for blackberrys as in live profile i love my torch and the productivity apps and like every blackberry user says "i like my bb for what it can do" it just could be more

[Momo13Drums]

It's a bit frustrating for sure; but not a deal breaker. I got the torch recently and I'm more than happy with it. I've had very few to no problems thus far (knock on wood). I'm not too concerned with games on my phone, though. It depends on your wants/needs.

[papped]

I would imagine Live Profile specifically doesn't gather the same demand as other platforms because BBM is native.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[dodger_moore]

ok so "cool apps" i guess i should have wrote "apps that dont suck" i just dont see any fun apps like say photoswap - fun app for wasting time. i dont need hangman or a angrybird rip off, and why is it apps take longer to come out for blackberrys as in live profile i love my torch and the productivity apps and like every blackberry user says "i like my bb for what it can do" it just could be more

There's only so many ways people can answer this question without sounding like a broken record.

Seems like you actually would be better of with an Android or an iPhone if your overall feeling is that you are missing out on entertainment and wasting time apps (as you said it above), that's fine - if people want their phone to double up as an entertainment gadget (I didn't say toy), great!

I personally get bored very quickly with entertainment gadgets, games, consoles, fun apps, that sort of stuff, so for me, not an issue. The things I use most are Docs2Go, the Travel app, GPSed, Kindle, Point, and Wordpress.

If the product doesn't fit your needs, why not change it?

[Duo#CB]

The Facebook app for BlackBerry was written by RIM, so it is hard to compare it to other platforms.

The real question is why did RIM HAVE to make the Facebook app in the first place? With many useful apps I see that RIM isn't supported while other platforms are yet RIM had and have the largest smartphone user base in the world. Is the BB really so difficult to code for that developers preferred to work with other platforms?

I don't know why RIM made the FB app, but they also made the IM apps (aim, yahoo, google talk...). Even the native twitter app is made by RIM.

All of those apps take advantage of RIM's push service. I would assume that RIM worked out an agreement with them so they could use push technology. That was well before they opened up push to developers.

I don't know about the other apps but until last year the BB Facebook app just used to use emails sent to your device to get notifications rather than some special Push API.

[papped]

The real question is why did RIM HAVE to make the Facebook app in the first place? With many useful apps I see that RIM isn't supported while other platforms are yet RIM had and have the largest smartphone user base in the world. Is the BB really so difficult to code for that developers preferred to work with other platforms?

It's not as simple as "difficult to code for". It's not that hard to write an app in the general sense (writing a good one is a different story, but that's true for all platforms). The general development setup is more complicated than it should be, but it's not like it's impossibly difficult or anything.

RIM has 10x more device fragmentation than platforms like IOS (both hardware and software). That's just what happens when you make different hardware types, which apple does not do. So you don't have to make one app to properly support BB, you have to make more like 3.

Symbian has had an even larger userbase and frankly has had far less support than BB for a while now. Userbase size (of the OS) is not the determining factor for app development...

[thornm]

well with the beta of the facebook thats coming it looks good and liveprofile should be coming anyday now so they say, i think this thread has gone a little over board lol but everyone has an opinion and i am very happy to read what you all think and i get it when i wrote it i was pretty pissed because there are a few app i wish i could have but cant i love my torch and thank you all for putting some perspective thoughts and opinions on my subject

[Duo#CB]

It's not as simple as "difficult to code for". It's not that hard to write an app in the general sense (writing a good one is a different story, but that's true for all platforms). The general development setup is more complicated than it should be, but it's not like it's impossibly difficult or anything.

RIM has 10x more device fragmentation than platforms like IOS (both hardware and software). That's just what happens when you make different hardware types, which apple does not do. So you don't have to make one app to properly support BB, you have to make more like 3.

Symbian has had an even larger userbase and frankly has had far less support than BB for a while now. Userbase size (of the OS) is not the determining factor for app development...

Funny that you should say that but my friends that develop for various platforms list Symbian as the worst platform to develop for followed by Blackberry.

I know that when I downloaded the Symbian development kit a few months ago it was a nightmare of different downloads and applications from different locations and in the end I decided that this pretty much reflected Nokia's actual understanding about UI development and that they would never improve it to the point that it would be successful so I deleted it all.

Regardless of whether the now have multiple platforms they along with Nokia have been the leading platforms for years and they should be much further ahead than they are now in the apps game. The fact that all the developers I know that work with multiple platforms tell me that BB is the second worse to develop for and the lack of apps for BB speaks volumes to me.

[papped]

^^ How many developers are going to ditch an entire platform worth of revenue because they can't get a handle on the one-time development setup?

That points out that they didn't really care about the revenue that much in the first place...

[Duo#CB]

^^ How many developers are going to ditch an entire platform worth of revenue because they can't get a handle on the one-time development setup?

That points out that they didn't really care about the revenue that much in the first place...

Actually the developers that I know didn't ditch Symbian but they described developing for it as "Pain".

As for me, yeah, I ditched it because I realised that they just didn't have their act together. I had to download something like seven different elements from Nokia and the Symbian Foundation. Create accounts in different places, etc, etc. I've done development for various platforms but I've never seen a set-up that was so fragmented.

The SDK, IDE, Emulator, etc, etc are created by the same company that decides how to package up and distribute their tools and if they can't get the simple part of making an easily downloadable package right how well do you think they will do with the more complex problem of the actual development protocols?

Oh, btw did you notice that Nokia's new CEO came to the same conclusion as I did and now Nokia have ditched Symbian? So I think I made the right decision based on what I saw of their development tools.

You may have noticed that recently a 12-year old had the top downloaded app on iOS. Yes, ease of installation, low barriers to getting started are _very_ important for developers especially if they are not developing for that platform while in a corporate environment.

Also did you actually manage to miss the whole hullabaloo about the Blackberry Playbook development kit installation on a Mac? The developer in question had abandoned his attempt to develop for the Playbook but then he wrote a Blog post, which went viral and after that he was contacted by RIM and he decided to try again.

So YES!!! Developers will decide NOT to develop for platforms if the installation of the SDK is bad enough. Furthermore these packaged have to be maintained so it isn't a one-time installation.

[thornm]

just got the new facebook beta and its looking good