[anon(9721108)]

Anybody have the problem of their 9900 freezing on boot-up after a security wipe if you don't have BIS? find solution here BlackBerry Archives — Gsm & 4G LTE but not work....Mine worked fine with EE because they still offer BIS, but I ercently switched to BT and because they don't have BIS my phone freezes upon boot up after a wipe (at the stage where you are signing in etc....)

Not mine, I don't have a sim in mine right now so no BIS, no freezeup. But then I havent wiped mine in over a year. I DID have issues with the rebooting progress bar jamming around 75% but not now and also it seemed to happen with Whatsapp active.

-sent from a beautiful Bold 9900

[anon(9721108)]

I have a good friend with a storm and he will never get rid of it. He received it as a gift from his Mom and its the only phone he owns or plans to own.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9900

Wow lol, Storm or Storm 2? I remember talking about everything he said about it in this thread a year ago, I just wish I could remember WHAT he said Believe it or not I think he said all he had to do was get a new battery, and that was around 2012!!!!

-sent from a beautiful Bold 9900

[idssteve]

I find the Blackberry belt clip holsters to be of the best quality of any manufacturer. On the clip part, that swivels, the spring is so stiff it takes quite an effort to make it ever come off a belt (or so I thought) and that little "hook" is a smart design. I suppose if one leaned against something it could unhook and fall off but I have been lucky I guess. I still have the BB brand genuine leather case I got for my old iPhone 5C and it wasn't cheap at $39. I think it was for the Z10 or z30. It does fit the iPhone 7 but not if there is even a thin case in the device.

I got the Apple Silicone case free with my iPhone 7 and used it about a month. I read many reports of those cases tearing near the bottom corners where it is open for the charging port. But I just found it too difficult and "grippy" to get in and out of a cargo pocket all the time, even if the pocket was big and wide lol.

Cases are so plentiful and cheap off Amazon (better deal than eBay in my research) that I usually try about 4 cases before settling on one. I really like the Ringke Air Prism for $18 Cdn and after I sold it is when I figured out what the little "loop hook" on the bottom right corner was for...... namely to attach a lanyard!!!! If I knew that is what it was for I would have kept that case because in my Blackberry 9780 there was a little hook you could access on the side (if you took the battery off) to hang a strap/lanyard. I prefer a strap if shooting video off a bridge where you might drop the device or even just walking on a sidewalk where the device would fall HARD.

So in conclusion I guess I am trying to say it is hard to find the PERFECT device but I also would like manufacturers to have the loop for a lanyard, especially since the 9780 had it and I bet people never knew what it was for. But it was difficult using that on the 9780 and then going to the 9790 and then the 9900 and NOT having one after you felt so secure using one.

Apple certainly does charge a premium for their cases, but they are quality. Ps: if you check the Apple Store app they have a new colour every week it seems.

I don't think you can go wrong with Otterbox, but I really love the Commuter, for any device! Much thinner and with 2 layer protection it even fared as well as the beefier Defender model that I have seen in YouTube drop test vids. Always fun watching those.

Left hand has been protective case for my 6 year old 99. Always used BB belt holsters, tho. Never had BB's J hook belt holster get loose. Hard to imagine losing one. My 99 has certainly spent more time in hand than in holster, tho. Its comfortable form makes it SOoo handy to keep handy. (pun intended lol). I've long empathized with Kevin's addiction.

Real time communications availability may have taken a back seat to media consumption, in recent years, but masses are still learning how this new technology can benefit their lives. No one knows what the future looks like but it's possible that some rediscovery of addictive communications may, one day, find appreciation among the masses... ?? One day? One decade?? One century???

[anon(9721108)]

Left hand has been protective case for my 6 year old 99. Always used BB belt holsters, tho. Never had BB's J hook belt holster get loose. Hard to imagine losing one. My 99 has certainly spent more time in hand than in holster, tho. Its comfortable form makes it SOoo handy to keep handy. (pun intended lol). I've long empathized with Kevin's addiction.

Real time communications availability may have taken a back seat to media consumption, in recent years, but masses are still learning how this new technology can benefit their lives. No one knows what the future looks like but it's possible that some rediscovery of addictive communications may, one day, find appreciation among the masses... ?? One day? One decade?? One century???

By "Real Time" communication, I guess we could refer to this also as Old Time Communication equivalent to sending smoke signals IF we are talking about actual phone calls then I agree, people have strayed from this phenomenon. I have friends in their 20's and they never and I mean NEVER do phone calls unless their elderly relatives phone them, and even then they likely don't know what the sound means Everything is done through apps now, ie Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger App, etc and with these you can also do phone or video calls. So I wonder if APPS can count as "Real Time" or Old Time communication? I know that I don't like when a friend requests a video chat in Facebook Messenger because you have to make sure you have a shirt on and your hair is perfect, hey....I am vain that way But chances are they always "call" by video right when it is inconvienient, so I find myself calling them back with Old Time phone calls.

Apps are the future People have got so far away from Real Time communication that it's more of a curiousity to many. Still they remain essential for more important aspects of communication IMO, like a family tradegy, I mean are they going to text Grandma if someone is in the hospital? No, of course not

I wonder if they foresaw that apps would be closing brick and mortar stores, banks, grocery stores, etc. If we said that 10 years ago people would have laughed at us.

We might be doomed

I think many people are like myself and felt overwhelmed by all the apps and constand BING BING RING BEEP BLEEP on the glass slabs and if this happens there is NO better device than the 9900 still IMO! Even if certain apps may NOT work, this makes it even BETTER to get away from all the stress of notifications because it is a device more designed for Real Time Communication.....as you say.

Hey Dallin, there is your next blog topic

-sent from a beautiful Bold 9900

[idssteve]

By "Real Time" communication, I guess we could refer to this also as Old Time Communication equivalent to sending smoke signals IF we are talking about actual phone calls then I agree, people have strayed from this phenomenon. I have friends in their 20's and they never and I mean NEVER do phone calls unless their elderly relatives phone them, and even then they likely don't know what the sound means Everything is done through apps now, ie Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger App, etc and with these you can also do phone or video calls. So I wonder if APPS can count as "Real Time" or Old Time communication? I know that I don't like when a friend requests a video chat in Facebook Messenger because you have to make sure you have a shirt on and your hair is perfect, hey....I am vain that way But chances are they always "call" by video right when it is inconvienient, so I find myself calling them back with Old Time phone calls.

Apps are the future People have got so far away from Real Time communication that it's more of a curiousity to many. Still they remain essential for more important aspects of communication IMO, like a family tradegy, I mean are they going to text Grandma if someone is in the hospital? No, of course not

I wonder if they foresaw that apps would be closing brick and mortar stores, banks, grocery stores, etc. If we said that 10 years ago people would have laughed at us.

We might be doomed

I think many people are like myself and felt overwhelmed by all the apps and constand BING BING RING BEEP BLEEP on the glass slabs and if this happens there is NO better device than the 9900 still IMO! Even if certain apps may NOT work, this makes it even BETTER to get away from all the stress of notifications because it is a device more designed for Real Time Communication.....as you say.

Hey Dallin, there is your next blog topic

-sent from a beautiful Bold 9900

Yes, voice is almost true realtime but sms, etc can be, also. Work aside, the wife emailed a shopping list (yes, in excel ) on my way home. Clicking off the list in left hand while collecting items, I encountered need to clarify one. Quick sms to her in left hand, while holding item in right hand... a couple exchanges and different item selected. Pretty real time, depending on definitions. . Something I leverage countless times per day. . Consumers might catch up SOMEday. Lol.

[anon(9721108)]

Another interesting find in the Facebook Buy and Sell groups for my city...

[idssteve]

Always wished they'd made track PAD retrofit for Pearl.

[anon(9721108)]

Always wished they'd made track PAD retrofit for Pearl.

A girl I worked with back in 2008 always had to clean the lint out of hers, but she loved that phone. I remember what a big deal It was to go from three letters per key and this helped with texting, down to only two. At the time I had a Motorola Razr and I was actually very fast at texting without a full qwerty. But I imagine shaving off another letter with the pearl made it quite faster.

[idssteve]

A girl I worked with back in 2008 always had to clean the lint out of hers, but she loved that phone. I remember what a big deal It was to go from three letters per key and this helped with texting, down to only two. At the time I had a Motorola Razr and I was actually very fast at texting without a full qwerty. But I imagine shaving off another letter with the pearl made it quite faster.

Yeah, lint was a CONSTANT problem with track ball. Especially if carried in pocket. Another good reason for leather holster. also, simply touching the ball with finger contaminated by sun screen, or motor oil, or chicken fat (lol) renders it useless. I got really good at PKB shortcuts during trackball failures. Lol. Trackballs were very easily changed, tho. I carried a special extractor tool and spare trackball assemblies habitually.

Dual character keys were pretty effective combined with the "autotext" (was it called "smart text"? Or?? Don't recall) employed. Pretty good type rates were possible with the software assistance. For regular typing. Totally useless for unique nomenclature or acronyms, tho.

Great and innovative as it was, it really was too compact, imo. My hand could readily accommodate larger, 9900 sized, handsets for even faster typing.

Of course, like anything else, there's always an optimal limit. Increasing size from Pearl to 9900 optimized typing precision and speed. Increasing size from 9900 to Classic, reduced precision and speed. For me. Sort of like if two aspirins fix a headache, two bottles of aspirin might fix it permanently. Lol.

[mushroom_daddy]

Perhaps difficult to be sure that reductions in precision when moving from 9900 to Classic are simply down to size? There are other significant changes e.g. keyboard design/layout (straight v ergonomic smile) and software (BB10 v OS7) that may have variously impacted on your productivity speed and typing precision.
That's a scientist trying to discuss 'cause & effect' factors with an engineer! :LOL:

-- posted via CB10 on my Q10 --

[idssteve]

Perhaps difficult to be sure that reductions in precision when moving from 9900 to Classic are simply down to size? There are other significant changes e.g. keyboard design/layout (straight v ergonomic smile) and software (BB10 v OS7) that may have variously impacted on your productivity speed and typing precision.
That's a scientist trying to discuss 'cause & effect' factors with an engineer! :LOL:

-- posted via CB10 on my Q10 --

Haha, the old chicken/egg - action/reaction debate....lol. Some of us engineers think we're just "professional scientists" who "sold out" before taking our phd's seriously. Lol.

Actually, Q10 vs Classic makes a more direct comparison for size vs type rate variables. Classic's toolbelt optimizes other operations over Q, but for shear typing speed, 99 and Q (in that order) both beat Classic. Hands down. (pun intended lol). 99 beats Q but that difference can be readily attributed to non-ergonomic KB and possibly OS...??

My testing might be considered excessively rigorous for consumer grade performance since zero errors are tolerated and no software assist is permitted. I happen to enjoy access to a superb laboratory of 26-27 coworkers for testing. Admittedly of minimal relevance to real world consumer use but has provided invaluable quantifiable comparison. Our fleet of deactivated 99s still serving as data entry terminals for a specialized QC/QA service my company dominates provides further testing opportunities, as well. Skill sets acquired perfecting that application have been extrapolated into other uses by myself and coworkers. Most of us have developed enough respect for 99's unique competences to always have a 99 on our person. Typically supplemented with a slower typing handset of some type. Since that testing was done on company dime, I'm not prepared to publish numbers publicly. I can however confirm that type rate itself is pretty confidently optimized between 9650, 9900 and Q10. 9900 being Goldilocks optimal for most of my "captive test subjects". Lol. Classic, PP and others are well outside of that optimal range. In MY laboratory. Lol.

Classic's toolbelt and other strengths make it most suitable second place overall, tho. As applied to OUR variables. That's what happens when engineers pretend to be wannaB scientists by defining their own variables... lol. Some things aren't sacred anymore. Lol.

[mushroom_daddy]

I must bow to your experience with Classic; I've never had hands on time with that device. Totally agree with 9900>Q10 – I regularly use both, increasingly more time on the later (due to BB10 ActiveSync capabilities), but every time I return to the 9900 I'm amazed at how fast and precise I can type on that beautiful, smiling keyboard (despite the slightly smaller key size)

[idssteve]

I must bow to your experience with Classic; I've never had hands on time with that device. Totally agree with 9900>Q10 – I regularly use both, increasingly more time on the later (due to BB10 ActiveSync capabilities), but every time I return to the 9900 I'm amazed at how fast and precise I can type on that beautiful, smiling keyboard (despite the slightly smaller key size)

I, myself, am even faster on 9650's smaller keys. Mostly due to my use of thumb nails instead of thumb flesh. Only a couple coworkers agree on that but mostly irrelevant since 9650's OS is pretty hopelessly antiquated for too many other activities.

That's not to diminish usefulness of Q or others. Without 9900 for comparison, most of us would be thinking Q/Classic is as good as it gets. Lol.

I remain convinced, tho, that PKB handsets are a full package and that the rest of the handset must work along with the keyboard. Handset size is a relevant variable in that. One assumes, but wonders, that BB performed similar testing? ??

[mushroom_daddy]

I must admit to briefly flirting with dark-side yesterday; testing the KEYone keyboard on an in store device. I wasn't overly impressed with the KEYone's pkb. It's domed, glossy keys remind me of earlier Nokia QWERTY devices (e.g. E71, E6) that I used before moving to the Bold. Recalling an almost exponential increase in my typing speed and accuracy when switching to the 9900 ... I'm going to hypothesise the following: 9900>Q10>(Classic)>KEYone

[idssteve]

Yeah, we have a few K1s but I'm gonna give them a few months of familiarization before expressing opinions or testing. First impressions are that the keys aren't very compatible with my thumb nail technique. But, I'm willing to learn new techniques if the results justify efforts. We'll see.

[idssteve]

Dead Classic. Ug. Black, blank, no led. Plugged in or no. It was fine when I holstered it ten minutes ago. At least 95% battery. Now nothing. Can't even pull battery in hopes. Next to fire up laptop & see if contact might happen...

UG! I haven't had THIS one for 8 months!! Since last one's battery died. No telling how old this one was on shelf, I guess.

**Rant** I do not like ANYthing that's happened since 2011!!! UG!!!! **Rant over**

Once again, great timing also... SOoo glad ol'99 is still an eager old friend. just can't believe this. Again!! Grrrr....

[mushroom_daddy]

Sealed battery death is also a problem that will ultimately plague the new crop of BlANDberry smartphones. I don't think its going to be so easy to replace a dead battery on the KEYone.

[idssteve]

Sad thing, I was just holding K1 side by side with my Classic before I last holstered Classic to plug K1 back in. Sometimes coincidence is just TOO strange. Just packing to travel back to ATT black hole (jobsite). Lol. Pondering taking my Z30 or K1. As backup for 99, of course. Don't even own holster k1 fits. Nothing set up on it. No cradles. Guess I'll take both and lean hard on ol'99. One more time again... Lol.

A VZW Passport would sure be nice about now. Lol.

[idssteve]

Coworkers are teasing me with humorous conspiracy theories... Lol. Some coworkers saw me comparing Classic & K1 and noticed I'd bumped them together... They're postulating a laughable conspiracy that K1's NFC injected a virus thru Classic's NFC... Roflmao... Lol. Supposedly TCL's strategy to force migration... Lol. These mensa-member breakroom theories get pretty outrageous, sometimes. Lol.

Still... That battery had been holding up well, took the usual amount of charging, showed NO notable signs of weakness. I'm not convinced it's battery related because my other, battery dead, Classic would at least show a led when plugged in. Idk. I'm leaving it with my "smart guys". Betcha they have it figured out, if not fixed, time I return. Unless they wind up in Puerto Rico. Good for PR if these guys can help them but I doubt I can cover the added work load missing Classic in right hand. Productivity WILL suffer till I get a suitable right hander on its feet... They do lurk & read these posts... Hint, hint... Lol. Just decided I'm going to see about yet another Classic to fill in on emergency basis... Typing on 99 is SO second nature that it truly relaxes my thought processes, sometimes. Almost ZEN like. Lol.

[anon(10321802)]

Semi-coherent rambling ahead.

On the Classic typing experience - I can't be sure, since I don't have a Q10 to test alongside it (yet), but having extensive experience with a Q10 in the past, I am fairly certain the Q10 typing experience would win out for me.

The Classic physical keyboard is excellent, no question. But the device is taller, wider, and heavier than the Q10 and, for me, those all slightly detract from the typing experience.

It really is extraordinary how devices with even slightly larger or smaller form factors than the Q10 or 9900 can be so notably different when it comes to typing and overall usability.

There truly is an ideal form factor for optimal thumb typing. I'm sure it varies depending on the user, but for me the Q10 and 9900 hit that sweet spot.

The KEYone and Priv may have BlackBerry keyboards - and I would certainly take those over a virtual keyboard any day - but much of the sheer joy of using a BlackBerry physical keyboard that current and former "legacy" BlackBerry users experienced was not solely from the keyboard itself.

The keyboard was but one aspect of a tightly integrated, well-engineered experience that encompassed everything about the device - from that compact, "palmable" form factor, to the durable construction that could take a drop or three, to the toolbelt and trackpad, to the OS that had been designed specifically for them all from the beginning.

Bells and whistles like amazing cameras, AI features, biometric security, and everything else aside, what modern handsets lack from my perspective is a sense of purpose - a sense of identity. They try to be everything to everyone. Yes, they can do a lot. But how many things do they truly excel at? What can they do that sets them apart from the rest?

What made a BlackBerry a BlackBerry was so much more than just a clicky keyboard and a logo. And that's why I just can't bring myself to embrace the BlackBerry Android phones as whole-heartedly as I embraced even the very first BlackBerry phone I owned - a Curve 8530.

I may eventually end up on a KEYone or another BlackBerry-branded Android device with a PKB. I may even like it. It may have some "BlackBerry DNA", but it won't have enough of it to ever make me truly pleased with it.

[anon(10321802)]

Dead Classic. Ug. Black, blank, no led. Plugged in or no. It was fine when I holstered it ten minutes ago. At least 95% battery. Now nothing. Can't even pull battery in hopes. Next to fire up laptop & see if contact might happen...

UG! I haven't had THIS one for 8 months!! Since last one's battery died. No telling how old this one was on shelf, I guess.

**Rant** I do not like ANYthing that's happened since 2011!!! UG!!!! **Rant over**

Once again, great timing also... SOoo glad ol'99 is still an eager old friend. just can't believe this. Again!! Grrrr....

And this right here is why I want a Q10 again. I was amazed I was able to resurrect my Classic after it bricked itself trying to do a security wipe after upgrading to 10.3.3. Plugging it into Link and doing a Restore from there did the trick.

The Q10 is so much easier to repair, too. I've replaced the screen, camera assembly, keyboard, and bezel on a Q10 all by myself and it was a piece of cake.

[Nguyen1]

Who knows how to use NFC? My 9900 and q10 both have it but I have never used and don't know how to activate. Any hints? I turned NFC on for both devices, tapped them, and duh nothing happened of course.

There is likely a description in some manual somewhere I haven't read...

OS 10.3.2.2530 on my Q10

[idssteve]

And this right here is why I want a Q10 again. I was amazed I was able to resurrect my Classic after it bricked itself trying to do a security wipe after upgrading to 10.3.3. Plugging it into Link and doing a Restore from there did the trick.

The Q10 is so much easier to repair, too. I've replaced the screen, camera assembly, keyboard, and bezel on a Q10 all by myself and it was a piece of cake.

Yeah, I'm trying link on mine but no luck so far. Just bazaar.

Q10 is a quality handset. Just too bad BB saw fit to omit the most important part of a BB. Lol. If Q10 had issued with toolbelt, I'd predict our 9900s might be truly extinct by now. A tragic miscalculation obviously based on monumental misunderstanding of their own market base.

It's not as if we legacy users are WANTing to suffer the challenges of using 6 yr old products. We would LOVE to have had a legitimate migration path into a more modern platform. That path was never provided in any meaningful way. Almost intentional, it seems?? Maybe they were attempting to modulate migration in effort to soften transition from BIS fee revenue??? Idk. Just so tragic Q didn't come adequately equipped.

OR, they didn't find a way to stuff BB10 or Android into 9900 chassis... Like SO many of us have begged for since month after 9900 released. So many sales opportunities lost. But margins on device sales weren't really RIM's primary revenue generator. Afaik. The devices themselves were more like hooks to SAF revenues. I don't see any way they could produce, and survive only off the margins of, a fully featured flagship like 9900 for under $1000 without SAF income.

SAFs professionals like myself might happily justify to preserve a professional grade platform. Just to prevent the seemliness of sitting down with a client while using an advertisement supported platform, among other things. Imo.

BUT consumer $$ rule. Just like Rock & Pop $$ rule. Those of us with symphonic tastes are stuck with niches, for example. Lol. SO much of where this all ended up just seems SO short sighted. Imo.

[idssteve]

Who knows how to use NFC? My 9900 and q10 both have it but I have never used and don't know how to activate. Any hints? I turned NFC on for both devices, tapped them, and duh nothing happened of course.

There is likely a description in some manual somewhere I haven't read...

OS 10.3.2.2530 on my Q10

I've never pursued using NFC on 99 or Q. It works nicely for Bluetooth pairing on classic but I've never attempted anything financial with it. Not sure if any banks supported BB10 for that?? Not sure how far I'll trust Android security with financial stuff, either. Even if I did trust Google themselves as far as I could toss them, lol, how long before that tasty universe of personal data gets "yahoo'd" by nefarious actors? If not already??

Oh well... I'm facing a mountain of a learning curve with the K. One step at a time... Lol. Just couldn't be happier to still have old friend 99 to hold my hand thru it all.

[Nguyen1]

In comparing 9900 to Q10, I'd say:

1 - 9900 wins in typing. Keyboard is easier to press, more ergonomic.
2 - editing: 9900 wins thanks to trackpad.
3 - screen. Q10 crushes 9900 with better resolution and amoled screen. 9900 might be better in sunlight though.
4 - battery: Q10 wins, but both have removable batteries and I have a spare battery and charger for 9900.
5 - OS. That's tough. Apps work much better on bb10, and ereading. My favorite activity, is better on Q10. But navigation is easier on 9900.
6 - size: draw. Both are pocket sized and fit well in hand.
7 - sound: Q10 has better speakers although I don't use either for much media.
8 - Internet: Q10 by a mile. The browser is faster, no contest.

Lots more but in short, both are great devices, and I use them more than any android or IOS phone. My 9900 is my solo carry phone, whereas my Q10 is used sometimes for that great hub, easier crackberry access, and superb e-reading experience.

OS 10.3.2.2530 on my Q10