BlackBerry versus Android versus Apple

[cerebus]

Speaking of peace of mind I guess that's the same peace of mind my brother in law gets whenever he returns his BB every few weeks due to some fresh malfunction, or the peace of mind my other friend gets when his BB freezes periodically or goes offline for a week. Or the peace of mind you get when you buy a new Playbook with the assurance that your favourite messaging and mail apps are going to be working straight out of the box. But I guess that's anecdotal or something.

 

[Elimentals]

Speaking of peace of mind I guess that's the same peace of mind my brother in law gets whenever he returns his BB every few weeks due to some fresh malfunction, or the peace of mind my other friend gets when his BB freezes periodically or goes offline for a week. Or the peace of mind you get when you buy a new Playbook with the assurance that your favourite messaging and mail apps are going to be working straight out of the box. But I guess that's anecdotal or something.

That reminds me, something that really really gets under my skin is one of our developers is on BB and if I need urgent help and he is not at his desk I end up sending a Whatsapp message.

You know how many times I actually have to phone him because his dam phone decided to crash and was in need of a reboot, he may as well not have whatsapp on his phone for all I am concerned. Cause I think in the past 3 months its worked about 3 times.

Its OK if the message is not urgent, cause he will get it eventually but when its urgent it becomes a really crap phone.

 

[BeVonk!]

They don't sound very tech savvy if they were caught out by high bills, tech savvy people would know how to avoid that and be aware of whats happening

You'll be surprised. People are so busy with so many things that they often don't have the time to look at what is really happening on their devices (especially in the background). One person, using a SGS2, got a bill of many thousands of R from MTN after his kid switched on a video news feed on his phone (playing with it) while he was driving the kid to school. Rushing from one thing to the next he never saw this. The downloads must have been going on for many days. **** happens to the best of us.

 

[BeVonk!]

But I guess that's anecdotal or something.

Cerebus, you will find peace when you get that bee out of your bonnet. The home school debate is looooooong gone buddy.

 

[Elimentals]

You'll be surprised. People are so busy with so many things that they often don't have the time to look at what is really happening on their devices (especially in the background). One person, using a SGS2, got a bill of many thousands of R from MTN after his kid switched on a video news feed on his phone (playing with it) while he was driving the kid to school. Rushing from one thing to the next he never saw this. The downloads must have been going on for many days. **** happens to the best of us.

If thats the case, I'll second the motion that he was not tech savvy.

No Alarms, no WiFi/3G switching.... that doesn't sound very bright to me. Well unless you are rolling in it $$$.

 

[cerebus]

Cerebus, you will find peace when you get that bee out of your bonnet. The home school debate is looooooong gone buddy.

eh...what?

1) I have no bee and no bonnet. I'm not attacking you. I just perhaps come across stridently but don't take anything by it.
2) Not sure what you mean by the homeschooling debate unless you think I hold some kind of grudge from it; but I can assure you that I don't. I'm all about sandboxing.

 

[icyrus]

BlackBerry might be down but they are not out yet.

I highly doubt that RIM will exist as an independent company in 5 years time.

My bet is half that.

 

[DominionZA]

(typing on glass sux!!!)

That's why you Swype

 

[BeVonk!]

If thats the case, I'll second the motion that he was not tech savvy.

No Alarms, no WiFi/3G switching.... that doesn't sound very bright to me. Well unless you are rolling in it $$$.

Okay, maybe there are degrees of "tech savvy". They are engineers but do not sit and play with their phones to set stuff up and know what apps are available to do x, y and z.

 

[BeVonk!]

As I told Elimentals, swype is not my style ... LOL! I type with two thumbs the BlackBerry way. Old dog. New tricks.

 

[Elimentals]

As I told Elimentals, swype is not my style ... LOL! I type with two thumbs the BlackBerry way. Old dog. New tricks.

I am so glad I bypassed the whole BB craze by going iPhone back in 2007/8 so that I did not learn bad habbits that block me from enjoying my phone today.

Well I did jump from the Samsung BlackJack to iPhone, but luckily that phones power was so bad that I was afaid to answer the phone let alone use apps on it else it would not last a full day.

 

[BeVonk!]

I am so glad I bypassed the whole BB craze ...

I enjoyed my BB phase. I quickly learned to type like white lightning on my Bold using two thumbs. Can't get near those speeds on my touchscreen devices. Backspace is by far the most used key on my touchscreen devices.

 

[Syphonx]

You'll be surprised. People are so busy with so many things that they often don't have the time to look at what is really happening on their devices (especially in the background). One person, using a SGS2, got a bill of many thousands of R from MTN after his kid switched on a video news feed on his phone (playing with it) while he was driving the kid to school. Rushing from one thing to the next he never saw this. The downloads must have been going on for many days. **** happens to the best of us.

I understand with the kid, not something to be expected. But surely learn from your mistake and you only need get a high bill once in your life

 

[HavocXphere]

I wish the SPs would rather let me use bundles on on BB....without breaking BBM & paying the R70 or whatever the rate is.

BB + BBM is perfect...but being forced to use BIS...ugh. I'd rather pay per mb and get usable speed tbh.

 

[GuileX]

As much as some may deny it most of the purchasing decisions are based on this aspect. And it needn't even be celebs. If all your friends are using BBs it's likely you'll be roped into getting one too. Or iPhones. People tend to love "selling" their device of choice (hell, I'm guilty of it) and most are very susceptible to peer group pressure.

Fortunately that does not work on me, I like to have something that no one has.

 

[cavedog]

I'm sorry to say but the Blackberry bold 9900 is a very nice phone. That said price wise yes its wallet killer.... Android data is a disaster waiting to happen on a open contract.

I had a couple of decent Android phones and 3 different blackberries and the Bold 9900 that I have now is quite nice, miss the apps though...... Can't beat android apps cause you can do ANYTHING with the free apps.

Never used a iPhone before but almost got a hart attack when I check that price of the phone on contract.

I think generally you get very cheap android phones with very good features for so cheap. For example the Vodafone 858 aka Huawei U8160. 3.6Mbps HSDPA, Android 2.2, Capacitive touch screen, GPS [works well with decent apps from market] 2mp camera and more for R600 odd rand. Now compare the cheapest blackberry.

But people opt for the more expensive blackberry 8520 just cause of the BIS service..... I wonder if data is dirt cheap or you get like a cheap data bundle for android phones if people would buy android phones more....

 

[undesign]

I realise it's an old phone now, but I just replaced my wife's Bold 9700 (my old phone). Bloody thing was driving me crazy. Internet browser just stopped working one day - and delving into the options/tools/settings menu...geez, just a complete over-share of every obscure little setting or option that even Linus Torvalds wouldn't understand. Wifi was always an issue. Did a wipe and fresh install of OS 6 before giving it to my mother-in-law. After a reboot I could go for a shower, have a snack, come back and it would still not have completed the restart - it takes for ages!

Other than that...is was actually ok I guess. At the time at least. New OS any better?

 

[jannievanzyl]

Jannie, was that test done on the Vodacom network? I don't see the name of any network on the screenshot. Just asking.

Yup, on Voda 3G in Sandton. (Now watch Marine1 have a hernia ) I can probably post another pic with the network name displayed, did take a shot of the whole phone.

 

[xcpointx]

What kind of user are you?

I'm pretty sure the bulk of the BB users are indeed 'poorer' but there is a percentage using the higher end models that are enterprise users.
What is an enterprise user? Are YOU one? Do you know what one is?
Are you a director, manager, salesman on the road, stock trader, a BUSINESSMAN?

How many emails are you getting a day? Can you happily reply to them all (I get at least 5 a day that require at least 300 word replies) using your SMARTphone? THINK ABOUT IT AND BE HONEST.
Or do you wait until you have a chance to whip out your MacBook? I almost never see people 'ON' their Iphones. They look at the screen type a few words and put it away.

Here's the clincher. You don't need a desktop or laptop if you own a Blackberry. I almost never use mine anymore unless its to use Photoshop and Visual Studio. You're MOBILE. A Blackberry replaces your laptop.

Anyone have any friends that switched from BB to Iphone? Anyone notice the difference in quality and length of their
a. emails
b. whatsapp conversations
c. activity on Facebook
d. activity on Twitter

AM I RIGHT??

So far this month I've used 160MB radio traffic, and 520MB wifi traffic. I don't call myself super active either. I tweet a couple times a day and hit facebook mornings and evenings. I'm paying R60 a month for this.

Read it: http://www.saynotes.com/3-reasons-that-you-wont-leave-your-blackberry-for-an-iphone/

Red Indicator Light: I’ve noticed that the iPhone doesn’t have that tiny flashing light to indicate that you’ve got an unread message, text, e-mail, etc.

Full Keyboard: I’ve never lost a typing race to an iPhone user. Ever. Not to mention my messages are coherent 100% of the time (the exception of course is when I’ve been drinking) while my iPhone friends are busy correcting their auto-correct.

BBM: I’ll be honest. This is my weakest argument for holding onto my BlackBerry. Nonetheless, the BlackBerry Messenger has been good to me.

 

[DominionZA]

I'm pretty sure the bulk of the BB users are indeed 'poorer' but there is a percentage using the higher end models that are enterprise users.
What is an enterprise user? Are YOU one? Do you know what one is?
Are you a director, manager, salesman on the road, stock trader, a BUSINESSMAN?

How many emails are you getting a day? Can you happily reply to them all (I get at least 5 a day that require at least 300 word replies) using your SMARTphone? THINK ABOUT IT AND BE HONEST.
Or do you wait until you have a chance to whip out your MacBook? I almost never see people 'ON' their Iphones. They look at the screen type a few words and put it away.

Here's the clincher. You don't need a desktop or laptop if you own a Blackberry. I almost never use mine anymore unless its to use Photoshop and Visual Studio. You're MOBILE. A Blackberry replaces your laptop.

Anyone have any friends that switched from BB to Iphone? Anyone notice the difference in quality and length of their
a. emails
b. whatsapp conversations
c. activity on Facebook
d. activity on Twitter

AM I RIGHT??

Depends who you are aiming this at dude. I owned a BB many many years ago and my biggest problem moving from it to a touchscreen phone was the virtual keyboard. I got used to it though.
As the years have moved on so have the touchscreen keyboards. I forced myself to learn swype and move away from punching on a virtual keyboard. I now have zero issues swyping out a lengthy email, whatsapp message, blogging, etc...

My daughter (hectic BB Bold user) challenged me to a "typing" test. I finished the paragraph less than 1 second behind her with no errors and using proper english.
At spur on Sunday night I was chatting with my Xbox clan via whatsapp. Both my girls where gobb smacked at the speed I was able to swype out my messages (and again - in english). They have lost their arguement of "keyboard" is the reason to stick to their phones and are now looking at Androids or iPhones (not sure if swype is on iPhone) for the next upgrades.

To me - it is called evolving. You don't move on from a BB and still try type. You have to learn the new way of doing things on the new technology. Only then can a person appreciate the full benefit of modern smart phones.

My wife recently dumped her BB for a GS2 - after many years of swearing she would never get rid of her BB. The girls are next. Also got lots of mates that have moved on from BB to GS2's (popular option it seems).