iPhone 3G (not S) vs. Blackberry Bold
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I'm considering these two phones via AT&T, primarily for email, browsing, and well, you know, phone calls. iPhone is new and sexy, but I'm not wild about touch screen (i.e. non tactile) interfaces. Other than that, I don't have any real feel for which would be a better choice. Any thoughts?
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Got a career question? Ask the Attack Chihuahua!
Go with iPhone. Your life will be changed forever. I am yet to meet a person who owns the iPhone but does not like iPhone. The browser is the real deal. Who knows you may even develop an application for it. ;)
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Personally I find the Bold's 8800 style keyboard awful to use. The Curve II's keyboard (8900) comes from the Curve and I find is much nicer. While the 8900/Curve II isn't 3G I've not really missed it (nor the reduced battery life). It has WiFi so when I'm at home or he office I go through this which is much fast than what 3G can provide anyway. If I'm surfing on the road then it's an emergency and any speed will do. The one caveat being that while trying to use the GPS / Google Maps over 2G it's pretty slow to download maps. That can be annoying, but again, I only do that in absolute emergencies and after at least the required hour of "Hang on - I think this is the way we go" tactics. [Edit: How much battery life do you need? iPhone = a day. Blackberry = a week]
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
Excellent, thanks man. The iPhone looks exceptionally neat and shiny, but I just can't warm up to the idea of a touch screen keyboard.
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Got a career question? Ask the Attack Chihuahua!
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Go with iPhone. Your life will be changed forever. I am yet to meet a person who owns the iPhone but does not like iPhone. The browser is the real deal. Who knows you may even develop an application for it. ;)
Rama Krishna Vavilala wrote:
I am yet to meet a person who owns the iPhone but does not like iPhone.
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I'm considering these two phones via AT&T, primarily for email, browsing, and well, you know, phone calls. iPhone is new and sexy, but I'm not wild about touch screen (i.e. non tactile) interfaces. Other than that, I don't have any real feel for which would be a better choice. Any thoughts?
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Got a career question? Ask the Attack Chihuahua!
I've had the iPhone 3G for about a year now and am waiting to get a Bold (as soon as my local store gets more - they ran out of them, and they have tons of iPhones). I like the iPhone very much, but the keyboard sometimes falls short for long emails. The plus side is that there are a lot of apps, but even though I have many installed, I used one or two on a regular basis. I'm getting the bold, and if I don't like it, I'll just switch back to the iPhone :)
Luis Alonso Ramos Intelectix Chihuahua, Mexico Follow me on Twitter (@luisalonsoramos) or on my blog (www.luisalonsoramos.com)!
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I'm considering these two phones via AT&T, primarily for email, browsing, and well, you know, phone calls. iPhone is new and sexy, but I'm not wild about touch screen (i.e. non tactile) interfaces. Other than that, I don't have any real feel for which would be a better choice. Any thoughts?
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Got a career question? Ask the Attack Chihuahua!
My .01c (or less given the exchange rate) from here in Aus. I have a work supplied Blackberry Bold - while the screen isnt huge, the keyboard is the best for typing big emails on the go. I dont have an iPhone, but a Blackberry Storm - the screen is slightly different to the iPhone's, in that it has a tactile response (hard to describe) .. even so, its not as usable except for one word sms responses .. If you have a large amount of emails to respond to, I'd suggest the Bold - if you dont have a large amount of emails to respond to, and want apps, maybe the iPhone is better 'g'
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Excellent, thanks man. The iPhone looks exceptionally neat and shiny, but I just can't warm up to the idea of a touch screen keyboard.
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Got a career question? Ask the Attack Chihuahua!
It seems there are two kinds of people, the ones that like the onscreen keyboard, and the ones that hate it. I'm in the former group, I really like the fact that the keyboard is only there when I need it, and the screen real estate is available for other things when I don't. I can only say that (after an initial period of mild frustration) I have become more expert at typing on it than I could ever hope to be on a physical micro-keyboard. The lack of 'tactile feedback' is IMO more than compensated for by some nifty software tricks that help you: - press the wrong key, keep it pressed while you slide your thumb to the key you really wanted and release and it will type the latter character (a tiny popup appears while your finger is down showing the char that will be typed). - switch between localized keyboards instantly (great for multi-lingual users), soon (tomorrow) with version 3.0 of the software, we'll be able to switch between vertical and horizontal keyboard layouts with the orientation of the iPhone. - excellent spell checker, language corresponds to the keyboard localization (I can type english and get english spell checking, and switch to dutch with corresponding spell checker in the same message). - spell checking is adaptive, you can reject suggestions instantly and it will learn from your corrections. I'd say it's a no brainer, but then I'm an Apple fanboy of course so you can just disregard everything I say. ;-)
Mark C Hagers New Media Ventures Amersfoort, the Netherlands
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I own an iPhone and have been very pleased. The touch-screen keypad is good, but the BlackBerry keyboard is probably a little better. The big issue with the touch-screen key pad is the need to switch between "views" to get to some keys (e.g. numbers & some symbols #$%,etc.) After 30 minutes of use, I no longer wanted a tactile keyboard. One other down-side to the iPhone is the lack of integration with Exchange over the web as is readily available with the Blackberry. I can connect to Exchange via iTunes, but only while connected to my PC. I can access Outlook WebAccess, which is what I do, but I would like to be able to just get my corporate email on the device. I've gotten use to that nuisance, but it is a minor issue. Apparently, Apple now does have some type of Exchange/Outlook WebAccess connector, but I haven't tried it out yet. One final small issue is that the iPhone does not have real GPS, but instead uses the cellular network for location awareness. The Google maps app provided works very well though and all the other location aware apps work well. Other than the keyboard being a little less optimal and the Exchange connectivity issue, I find the iPhone to be far superior to the Blackberry in every other way. (NOTE: I've never owned a Blackberry, but I've worked with them at the office and helped others with them, so my experience is not as extensive.) I find myself using the iPhone in ways I never imagined. The available apps are mind-boggling and many are quite usefull (to me). My wife has lots of games, recipe programs, etc for hers. I have mortgage calculators, levels, movie times, hotel finders, etc. So, my take on it is this: If you absolutely need Exchange connectivity, get the BlackBerry. If you just gotta have a tactile keyboard, get the BlackBerry. Otherwise, get the iPhone. Oh yea, the iPhone might end up costing a little more than a Blackberry, though a quick poll of my office-mates who have BlackBerry devices indicates that the cost is fairly coparable.
You must be referring to the first gen iPhone, the 3G has excellent support for Exchange email AND GPS. Exchange support is also set to be improved with the next software version.
Mark C Hagers New Media Ventures Amersfoort, the Netherlands
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I'm considering these two phones via AT&T, primarily for email, browsing, and well, you know, phone calls. iPhone is new and sexy, but I'm not wild about touch screen (i.e. non tactile) interfaces. Other than that, I don't have any real feel for which would be a better choice. Any thoughts?
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Got a career question? Ask the Attack Chihuahua!
Nokia E71x Nokia N97
Edgar Prieto Software Engineer
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I'm considering these two phones via AT&T, primarily for email, browsing, and well, you know, phone calls. iPhone is new and sexy, but I'm not wild about touch screen (i.e. non tactile) interfaces. Other than that, I don't have any real feel for which would be a better choice. Any thoughts?
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Got a career question? Ask the Attack Chihuahua!
I've owned an iphone first gen, a Motorola Q Global 9h, and now an iphone 3g. I definitely prefer the tactile feel of the keyboard for the Q. I don't know if you can compare the experience to a Bold, so I'm just comparing tactile to touchscreen in that context. As you can tell in the end, I went back to the iPhone. I like the larger viewing screen immensely, I miss bluetooth sharing, I love the ability to easily customize the iphone through the apps store, I miss voice command (and that's probably a Q feature or a Win6.1 feature) and I miss MMS (with the upcoming OS3 upgrade hopefully that will be remedied). One of the coolest features I have on my iphone is the ability to remote into my windows PCs using either VNC or LogMeIn. Personally, in the long run and once you get used to the touch screen, you'll like if not love your iphone. Just hold out for the iPhone 3G(S) which comes out tomorrow I think. You get the OS3 already loaded plus you're getting a faster processor and better battery.
S.Nowlin ----------------------- I'm a Techwriter Monkey -- handy, just less useful than the Bathroom Monkey.
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I've got an iphone sitting disused on the shelf in my office. I tried to give it to my wife and she didn't like it herself. For me the problem was a complete lack of features I want in a device at the time. I don't know about the Bold by a good friend of mine loves his.
Sovereign ingredient for a happy marriage: Pay cash or do without. Interest charges not only eat up a household budget; awareness of debt eats up domestic felicity. --Lazarus Long Avoid the crowd. Do your own thinking independently. Be the chess player, not the chess piece. --Ralph Charell
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I own an iPhone and have been very pleased. The touch-screen keypad is good, but the BlackBerry keyboard is probably a little better. The big issue with the touch-screen key pad is the need to switch between "views" to get to some keys (e.g. numbers & some symbols #$%,etc.) After 30 minutes of use, I no longer wanted a tactile keyboard. One other down-side to the iPhone is the lack of integration with Exchange over the web as is readily available with the Blackberry. I can connect to Exchange via iTunes, but only while connected to my PC. I can access Outlook WebAccess, which is what I do, but I would like to be able to just get my corporate email on the device. I've gotten use to that nuisance, but it is a minor issue. Apparently, Apple now does have some type of Exchange/Outlook WebAccess connector, but I haven't tried it out yet. One final small issue is that the iPhone does not have real GPS, but instead uses the cellular network for location awareness. The Google maps app provided works very well though and all the other location aware apps work well. Other than the keyboard being a little less optimal and the Exchange connectivity issue, I find the iPhone to be far superior to the Blackberry in every other way. (NOTE: I've never owned a Blackberry, but I've worked with them at the office and helped others with them, so my experience is not as extensive.) I find myself using the iPhone in ways I never imagined. The available apps are mind-boggling and many are quite usefull (to me). My wife has lots of games, recipe programs, etc for hers. I have mortgage calculators, levels, movie times, hotel finders, etc. So, my take on it is this: If you absolutely need Exchange connectivity, get the BlackBerry. If you just gotta have a tactile keyboard, get the BlackBerry. Otherwise, get the iPhone. Oh yea, the iPhone might end up costing a little more than a Blackberry, though a quick poll of my office-mates who have BlackBerry devices indicates that the cost is fairly coparable.
Yes, as others have said, Exchange push definitely works. . .my iphone gets a meeting invite before my desktop outlook client does when I'm sitting at my desk. GPS does work from satellites. . .just realized that last week on vacation in a remote area where no cell service was available and I needed to know where to drive. So, google maps could show the beacon of where I was at when I had no service. . . .how it got the underlying map/highways I think was due to a cached map stored on the phone from before I lost cell service I think. To the original poster: I love the phone. . . .it does everything I need and things I didn't know I needed. And. . . .you just pick it up and use it. . .no menus to burrow through. It was my first apple product, ever, so I'm not a fanboy I guess. ..well, haven't been anyway. If you need to type a lot then they say the qwerty devices are better. . .I don't so I'm quite happy.
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I got a Nokia E71X from AT&T about a month ago - works really well, includes 802.11g, GPS and a keyboard that is very easy to use (no touchscreen). Only thing that I don't like is the battery life (2 days max before it need recharging) mostly due to it going out and checking for new e-mails 2 or 3 times a minute. Web browsing is very easy and bluetooth connection to my Nokia N810 works well. Useful applications include OpenOffice and PDF Reader. AT&T classifies the phone as a PDA, so you have to get a PDA plan (5GB / month) and since I use the phone with my N810 and sometimes with my laptop or desktop (when the cable goes out), I had to get the PDA plan with tethering (~$60 / month) + the phone plan. I upgraded from my Nokia 6682 with a phone plan > $40, so I got the new phone for just $50. :thumbsup:
Steve _________________ I C(++) therefore I am
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Okay, how many people are begging you to sell your iphone now? I have a daughter that wants one :)
S.Nowlin ----------------------- I'm a Techwriter Monkey -- handy, just less useful than the Bathroom Monkey.
snowlin wrote:
Okay, how many people are begging you to sell your iphone now? I have a daughter that wants one Smile
I've had a few offers since I've had it. I promised my sister that she could have dibs on it for my nephew's 16th birthday. Sorry :)
Sovereign ingredient for a happy marriage: Pay cash or do without. Interest charges not only eat up a household budget; awareness of debt eats up domestic felicity. --Lazarus Long Avoid the crowd. Do your own thinking independently. Be the chess player, not the chess piece. --Ralph Charell
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snowlin wrote:
Okay, how many people are begging you to sell your iphone now? I have a daughter that wants one Smile
I've had a few offers since I've had it. I promised my sister that she could have dibs on it for my nephew's 16th birthday. Sorry :)
Sovereign ingredient for a happy marriage: Pay cash or do without. Interest charges not only eat up a household budget; awareness of debt eats up domestic felicity. --Lazarus Long Avoid the crowd. Do your own thinking independently. Be the chess player, not the chess piece. --Ralph Charell