9900:Resurgence of popularity!

Originally Posted by EFats

Wait, does TCL have BlackBerry's secret sauce for radio/antenna design? That's part of the magic.

The other day I was in the shop picking up something and another customer comes in asking for help with her phone (looked like a massive Samsung) for some reason. The guy helping her said they couldn't do much because of all the metal around the structure nobody could get reception. The guy helping me said "Yup, my phone never works here either"

Well everywhere I go my BlackBerry phones always do better for reception than the phones my friends have. And I am with a carrier with reputedly the worst coverage.

So I whip out my 9900... and sure enough while everyone is saying they can't get coverage, I still get 2-3 bars.

Yeah, I don't recall any other handset demonstrating better signal, in the same room, than my Blackberrys. Classic has paratek antenna but there are weak signal conditions where 99 slowly pulls in data when Classic doesn't. Probably more to do with 4g vs 3g?? Idk. Not sure if K1 is paratek but it's been right in there with Classic. Same scenario as Classic where data seems to stop at some low signal point. Old 99 still slowly pulls data when K1 and Classic have both stopped. Not something most would notice unless using side by side, tho, VZW is better than my ATT stuff, in locals I frequent. Att Passport is worthless at one remote local I've spent most of the last year. If old 9930 fails to drag something in, the others are likely already halted... in my experience at my locals. ;).

I've always get better signals with BBOS than my colleagues with their other brands. One of the reason I stay with my 9900. My job often take me to work in the middle of nowhere and there are plenty occasions when other guys borrow my Bold to call (to report to :)) their missus at home.

Posted via CB10

I have a KEYone coming my way. I’m looking forward to thoroughly trying it out and seeing how it compares to the 9900 and Q10.

I’ll keep my 9930 around and maybe I’ll get a Q10, too, so I can do side-by-side comparisons.

Originally Posted by Newfangled

I have a KEYone coming my way. I’m looking forward to thoroughly trying it out and seeing how it compares to the 9900 and Q10.

I’ll keep my 9930 around and maybe I’ll get a Q10, too, so I can do side-by-side comparisons.

I have a KEYone, it's an 'interesting' device, with bags of potential, having access to more apps than I will ever want, and I'm enjoying playing with it -- but it hasn't got my SIM card yet; that remains in my 9900 ... for now, I'm 'Still Bold'
:)

Look forward to hearing your review(s)

KeyOne is my top choice for Android, so far. App availability is both amazing and frustrating. Frustrating since "play world" (sounds really professional, huh... lol) can't really be counted on to keep apps "clean", it seems...

It's about 25% of a 99 for typing, imo. That's a little generous but allowing that I'm still steep in learning curve... 5 months in... lol.

K1's KB works surprisingly well, for what it is. No comparison to 99, Q, Classic, but far, FAR preferable to a long day of glass typing. The capacitive kb cursor management sort of assists text selection... about as convenient as herding cats, compared with a real trackpad, but WAY better than on D60, for example. K1 really, REALLY needs Classic's toolbelt-trackpad, imo. It might have already replaced my Classic as secondary carry, if it had real trackpad/toolbelt. Classic's TB would fit nicely in place of the home key strip... ???

As it is, I use a usb mouse and usb numeric keypad for spreadsheet data entry. Works surprisingly well. Should say I'm using two usb numeric keypads... one with "num lock" off to provide arrow key functionality. Again, K1 could be SOOO much better with a trackpad/toolbelt!! Did I mention K1 could really use a trackpad/toolbelt? Lol.

Bluetooth mouse and keyboard works ok on K1 but the lag slows me down. Others ask "what lag?" so...idk... maybe my impatience measures in milliseconds?? Lol. My "smart guys" have had some success at "bridging" 9900 as bluetooth mouse/kb and I'm impatiently awaiting their refinement of the concept. These guys do mind boggeling thing with bluetooth an d feel confident they eventually get 99 satisfactorily "bridged" to K1... when they get time... lol.

K1's battery is huge, which makes K1 feel huge'er (is that a word? Lol). Same old fixed battery scenario, tho. No matter how huge a battery is, it will need replenishing. The bigger, the longer. Some chargers are certainly faster than others but too often things just don't fall into place. My life just isn't centered around treating a sophisticated handset like a stupid battery charger. Too frequently I just fail to adequately commit to distracting attention from a hectic lifestyle toward assuring I've got the right charger at the right place and stand guard over the embedded battery thing while it plays "stupid battery charger"... lol. Even with the "quick"-C chargers, it can't get from zero to 100% charge in less than 3 minutes, including reboot, like 99 can.

Little surprise I detest the giant dimensions of the thing, and find those giant dimensions contribute very insignificantly to MY use case. BUT, I've found that turning the belt clip to one side on a Seidio belt clip holster provides a convenient ledge to assist single handed grasp... sort of reminiscent of the grasp afforded by the ledge provided on the back of 99 when fitted with "Fat boy" batteries... sorta. ANYthing helps. Lol. Also, finally found a KiDiGi desk pod that nicely accommodates the k1 along with its belt clip holster. Like all such charging pods I've found, so far, lifting it out of the pod is a two handed affair... owing to the friction in the usb-C connector. I've contemplated gluing or screwing the KiDiGi to the desk, or adding some scrap stainless steel disks we have to add weight, for permitting single handed retrieval without the dock lifting. Really hate setting my coffee mug down just to grab a handset. Lol. It's enough of an impediment that i'll grab Classic from it's Qi desk pod OR, more typically, just grab 99 from its desk pod. No two handed nonsense from either of the two older handsets...

In short, I personally find K1 about as tolerable as expected, for giant, fixed battery, android. BUT, it could be SOOOO much better if fitted with Classic's trackpad/toolbelt!!! Maybe K2 or K3?? Lol. Who knows, maybe humanity will one day rediscover something resembling professionalism and we might even see a K99...??? Haha...

Originally Posted by idssteve

KeyOne is my top choice for Android, so far. App availability is both amazing and frustrating. Frustrating since "play world" (sounds really professional, huh... lol) can't really be counted on to keep apps "clean"...

It's about 25% of a 99 for typing, imo. That's a little generous but allowing that I'm still steep in learning curve... 5 months in... lol.

K1's KB works surprisingly well, for what it is. No comparison to 99, Q, Classic, but far, FAR preferable to a long day of glass typing. The capacitive kb cursor management sort of assists text selection... about as convenient as herding cats, compared with a real trackpad, but WAY better than on D60, for example. K1 really, REALLY needs Classic's toolbelt-trackpad, imo. It might have already replaced my Classic as secondary carry, if it had real trackpad/toolbelt. Classic's TB would fit nicely in place of the home key strip... ???

As it is, I use a usb mouse and usb numeric keypad for spreadsheet data entry. Works surprisingly well. Should say I'm using two usb numeric keypads... one with "num lock" off to provide arrow key functionality. Again, K1 could be SOOO much better with a trackpad/toolbelt!! Did I mention K1 could really use a trackpad/toolbelt? Lol.

Bluetooth mouse and keyboard works ok on K1 but the lag slows me down. Others ask "what lag?" so...idk... maybe my impatience measures in milliseconds?? Lol. My "smart guys" have had some success at utilizing 9900 as bluetooth mouse/kb and I'm impatiently awaiting their refinement of the concept. These guys do mind boggeling thing with bluetooth an d feel confident they eventually get 99 satisfactorily "bridged" to K1... when they get time... lol.

K1's battery is huge, which makes K1 feel huge'er (is that a word? Lol). Same old fixed battery scenario, tho. No matter how huge a battery is, it will need replenishing. The bigger, the longer. Some chargers are certainly faster than others but too often things just don't fall into place. My life just isn't centered around treating a sophisticated handset like a stupid battery charger. Too frequently I just fail to adequately commit to distracting attention from a hectic lifestyle toward assuring I've got the right charger at the right place and stand guard over the embedded battery thing while it plays "stupid battery charger"... lol. Even with the "quick"-C chargers, it can't get from zero to 100% charge in less than 3 minutes, including reboot, like 99 can.

Little surprise I detest the giant dimensions of the thing, and find those giant dimensions contribute very insignificantly to MY use case. BUT, I've found that turning the belt clip to one side on a Seidio belt clip holster provides a convenient ledge to assist single handed grasp... sort of reminiscent of the grasp afforded by the ledge provided on the back of 99 when fitted with "Fat boy" batteries... sorta. ANYthing helps. Lol. Also, finally found a KiDiGi desk pod that nicely accommodates the k1 along with its belt clip holster. Like all such charging pods I've found, so far, lifting it out of the pod is a two handed affair... owing to the friction in the usb-C connector. I've contemplated gluing or screwing the KiDiGi to the desk, or adding some scrap stainless steel disks we have to add weight, for permitting single handed retrieval without the dock lifting. Really hate setting my coffee mug down just to grab a handset. Lol. It's enough of an impediment that i'll grab Classic from it's Qi desk pod OR, more typically, just grab 99 from its desk pod. No two handed nonsense from either of the two older handsets...

In short, I personally find K1 about as tolerable as expected, for giant, fixed battery, android. BUT, it could be SOOOO much better if fitted with Classic's trackpad/toolbelt!!! Maybe K2 or K3?? Lol. Who knows, maybe humanity will one day rediscover something resembling professionalism and we might even see a K99...??? Haha...

I’m cautiously optimistic. I’ve been watching video reviews and am somewhat impressed. It seems they’ve done some neat things with keyboard shortcuts and such. And battery life should be more than adequate for my use case. We shall see!

Originally Posted by Newfangled

I’m cautiously optimistic. I’ve been watching video reviews and am somewhat impressed. It seems they’ve done some neat things with keyboard shortcuts and such. And battery life should be more than adequate for my use case. We shall see!

Yeah, it's really good to see return of programmable convenience key, also... Mine's set to Hub and muscle memory is GRATEFUL! Lol.

Two years from now, it's looking like our choices will be Key-xxx of some kind or slab. Ug! I'm going to squeeze every last minute of REAL productivity out of 99 but... Engineer's typically think in terms of what-ifs... Lol.

Someone selling a 9900 in kijiji locally.




Back cover sure looks mint, no scratches

Discussed before but I still feel its a crying shame that this thread has been Sent to Coventry – even when we do discuss Bold matters, which is most of the time, they are now effectively hidden from those searching the 99xx CB forum threads.
Perhaps we should try harder to introduce new discussion areas into the 99xx forum area. That's difficult I know, this thread has become a virtual coffee club (chat room). It's often the first place I'll visit in the morning and I'm almost disappointed if nobody is in :rotfl:

Originally Posted by mushroom_daddy

Discussed before but I still feel its a crying shame that this thread has been Sent to Coventry – even when we do discuss Bold matters, which is most of the time, they are now effectively hidden from those searching the 99xx CB forum threads.
Perhaps we should try harder to introduce new discussion areas into the 99xx forum area. That's difficult I know, this thread has become a virtual coffee club (chat room). It's often the first place I'll visit in the morning and I'm almost disappointed if nobody is in :rotfl:

Very true. New users won't find this thread, and I don't visit the 99xx forums as much. Since I've bookmarked this thread (because I don't want to go looking for it) I don't just naturally go into the 9900 forum to look at all the new threads. Being 'sent to coventry' is almost as bad as your dog being 'sent to a farm in the country'! Almost.:p

Yep, I don't visit the 9900 forum as often but more like going straight to rehab and then out.
Am looking forward to 10000 post when the T-shirt will get a 'BLAME IT ON RALPH' in bigger size. Wait. Would it be RALPH or RAY? :)

Posted via CB10

This thread contains a LOT of treasure about using and operating 9900 while incorporating it into our daily lives. It's also an invaluable insight into WHY we still use the device as well as WHAT we do with it and also WHO we are!


Before this thread, we were struggling to command respectful dignity from quite a lot of CB community convinced we were just "anti-tech Neanderthals" resisting THEIR future... THIS thread has provided invaluable opportunity to explain WHY we use the handsets we use AND to illustrate the very real and relevant motives behind our choices! Motives that might, possibly, still provide insight into a possible niche for BB/TCL in this day of slab saturated markets!

Since most of us look up from our handsets, occasionally (lol), illustrating WHO we are, and that we are, in fact, thinking human beings, led into what might appear to be off "9900 only topic" discussions... The thing missed about that is that 9900 is a willing collaborator in life and there's no way to illustrate why we use it without "painting a picture in words" illustrating our humanness. Humanness that involves things outside of the collaborative 9900 itself...

Possibly a concept too alien for those accustomed to perpetual servitude of distraction demanded by other device platforms?? Lol.

Of course we must consider that maybe Rehab isn't quite the lowest dungeon of re-education... Lol. Since we were exiled without warning last time, I wouldn't expect warning before "permanent exile" to the gallows?? lol. A very effective disciplinary tactic employed countless times throughout humanity's journey... Lol.

I think they actually want the 9900 forum to die off. Reminds me so much of when GM mistakingly killed off Olds and Pontiac, and now there can never be a new Trans Am or 442 to compete with the Dodge Challengers out there. (People still would have bought them IN DROVES!). Anything “Legacy” or “Heritage” gets thrown by the wayside nowadays when others want people to focus on the NEW and LATEST it seems.

Kinda hard for me to start any “new” topics as I use an iPhone for my main now. I do have a question about an issue with my Blackberry VM605 Bluetooth car speaker that I use everyday and later I will try to find one of the many threads I started in the 9900 forum for this device and I’ll ask.

I think this thread was good because in the 9900 forum it allowed newcomers to see that if they had any questions about the 99, there were still people happily and defiantly using them, and then they could ask. They also could see how well we get along, etc.

But I guess the Mods expect people to NEVER make “mistakes” and sway off topic at ANY TIME PERIOD no matter what, even if it gets back on track.

If anything they should be happy for the Camaraderie that formed here for eons without ANY issue.

Originally Posted by RaybanRJ

[1] I think they actually want the 9900 forum to die off.

There may be an element of truth there, but I suspect its more likely the result of over-enthusiastic moderation and/or that somebody reported topic drift. There was some drift into politics and perhaps somebody took offence.

Originally Posted by RaybanRJ

[2] Kinda hard for me to start any “new” topics as I use an iPhone for my main now. I do have a question about an issue with my Blackberry VM605 Bluetooth car speaker that I use everyday and later I will try to find one of the many threads I started in the 9900 forum for this device and I’ll ask.

I can see you've reinvigorated your earlier thread, well done, I hope you get a response. Sorry, I can't help –– perhaps one for idssteve?

Originally Posted by RaybanRJ

[3] I think this thread was good because in the 9900 forum it allowed newcomers to see that if they had any questions about the 99, there were still people happily and defiantly using them, and then they could ask.

That's exactly right, it is why I am concerned that we're much less likely to be found, and why we'll all have to make an effort to visit and contribute to the 99xx forums. It is less convenient to check-in on two places, but if we don't your very first point will be the likely outcome.

Originally Posted by idssteve

This thread contains a LOT of treasure about using and operating 9900 while incorporating it into our daily lives.

That's true but it is becoming increasingly difficult to find that treasure ;)
Even more so now that it has been more deeply buried in rehab.

Perhaps I shouldn't worry, the numbers of Bold users will continue to fall and therefore the need for help/advice outside of this select group is going to become an increasingly rare event.

There's some discussion about service books on the 99xx forum – https://forums.crackberry.com/showth...1#post13106833
Is that something Shuswap (or others here) can help with? It's way beyond my capabilities :rotfl:

Originally Posted by mushroom_daddy

That's exactly right, it is why I am concerned that we're much less likely to be found, and why we'll all have to make an effort to visit and contribute to the 99xx forums. It is less convenient to check-in on two places, but if we don't your very first point will be the likely outcome.

That’s why I Like the Tapatalk app now because you don’t really have to find any specific threads, even among different groups like imore and CrackBerry, They all get put in the same column, no fuss no muss no hunting no scavenging.

Originally Posted by RaybanRJ

That’s why I Like the Tapatalk app now because you don’t really have to find any specific threads, even among different groups like imore and CrackBerry, They all get put in the same column, no fuss no muss no hunting no scavenging.

That's presumably, Tapatalk on the iPhone, rather than the 9900? Certainly on the KEYone (and other Androids), the current version of Tapatalk has more flexibility in presentation of forums/threads/discussions than that on legacy BlackBerry handsets. But I often visit these forums using the less capable older Tapatalk on my 9900, or on a desktop via the browser.

Originally Posted by mushroom_daddy

That's presumably, Tapatalk on the iPhone, rather than the 9900? Certainly on the KEYone (and other Androids), the current version of Tapatalk has more flexibility in presentation of forums/threads/discussions than that on legacy BlackBerry handsets. But I often visit these forums using the less capable older Tapatalk on my 9900, or on a desktop via the browser.

Yes and I miss The actual CB app on my 9900, I still can’t get the CB app to recognize my login on the 9900 and it has to be because I created the new account on Tapatalk app via iOS.

Originally Posted by mushroom_daddy

There's some discussion about service books on the 99xx forum – https://forums.crackberry.com/showth...1#post13106833
Is that something Shuswap (or others here) can help with? It's way beyond my capabilities :rotfl:

Thanks for the heads up. I've replied to that thread.

Originally Posted by mushroom_daddy

Discussed before but I still feel its a crying shame that this thread has been Sent to Coventry – even when we do discuss Bold matters, which is most of the time, they are now effectively hidden from those searching the 99xx CB forum threads.
Perhaps we should try harder to introduce new discussion areas into the 99xx forum area. That's difficult I know, this thread has become a virtual coffee club (chat room). It's often the first place I'll visit in the morning and I'm almost disappointed if nobody is in :rotfl:

I started a new topic there but no one cares lolz

Can someone with administrative rights add me to Still Bold?

Originally Posted by RaybanRJ

I started a new topic there but no one cares lolz

I've posted there tonight.

How do I take screenshot with 9900? Do I need an app for that?

Originally Posted by Nguyen1

How do I take screenshot with 9900? Do I need an app for that?

I believe you do need an app.