But then I actually tried the devices, and I liked them.

For a quick reference, here is a quick list of the three models I reviewed:

• BlackBerry Torch 9810 on AT&T
• BlackBerry Torch 9850 for Sprint
• BlackBerry Bold 9930 on Verizon WIreless.

In many ways the devices are similar. That is, they have the same processor, same operating system, and the same (or similar) amount of on-board memory. That made it somewhat tough to make the reviews unique. Yet each model lent something to the whole. Today I’m going to sum up my final thoughts on the newest line of BlackBerry models.

The hardware makes the difference

The original BlackBerry Torch provided a valuable lesson for RIM. It had potential, and I even enjoyed my short time with it. Yet I wouldn’t have purchased it as my personal BlackBerry. Why? Because despite all the new features of BlackBerry 6, the device seemingly could not handle them. There just wasn’t enough power behind it. As I emphasized greatly in every review, the processor was the single biggest improvement of any model.

It’s a bit frustrating, of course, because Android manufacturers were pumping out handsets with 1GHz processors in 2010. If RIM had done that, and hadn’t just gone with business-as-usual move, they might have avoided a lot of issues that they face now.

Software is no big deal

When it comes to BlackBerry, the standard complaint centers on the software. The BlackBerry OS is ancient. There aren’t enough killer apps. And so on. RIM tried to change that conversation with BlackBerry OS 6, and to an extent they did. That is, OS 6 was a far more powerful mobile operating system than anything they had previously released. But, again, the issue was that their phones weren’t powerful enough to handle it.

At this point I’m not sure what the big deal is. Sure, if you’re looking for the greatest in customization you might prefer Android. But BlackBerry 6, and now 7, offers a straight forward UI that works as well as you might imagine on a touchscreen. Again, maybe cutting edge consumers won’t love it, but business users have every reason to use and like it. It ain’t the best, but it’s not unserviceable, either.

The feel is right

The last, and perhaps most noticeable, feature of the BlackBerry 7 smartphones is that they just feel right. Whether it’s the way the Torch 9850 feels in my hand, or the way the 9930′s keyboard blows away the competition, the devices just feel right. The exception, I guess, is the Torch 9810. But on the whole these just feel like solid devices that should be able to handle the rough and tumble of my pocket and frequent drops.

Usable, practical

My overall impression of the BlackBerry 7 smartphones is that they are perfectly usable, practical phones for a business setting. They’re not going to set the world afire with apps. There won’t be any hacking the devices to gain extra features, nor will there be a cult of RIM to go along with them. But they run properly, use adequate software, and still take advantage of RIM’s second-to-none messaging system. It’s hard to ask for more from the BlackBerry line of smartphones. RIM has certainly reached an apex with this current breed.

Thankfully, they can still go up. This line not only gave them a line of business phones that can handle anything thrown at them, but they’ve also inspired confidence in the next line of BlackBerry phones. I’m definitely psyched to get my hands on the Colt. Hopefully that happens not too long after New Year 2012.

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

BlackBerry 7 smartphones: a final overview

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

BlackBerry 7 smartphones: a final overview

But then I got to review the 9930. It’s funny how impressions can change when you go from imagining something to actually using it. In my time with the 9930 I’ve found it hard to not come away impressed. It helps make up for the devices RIM released last year.

Click on any image for a larger version.

The best way to put the 9930 into perspective is comparing it to its predecessor, the Bold 9650. This works best with Verizon, since the Verizon 9650 very well might have represented a low-point for RIM. Yet they’ve totally redeemed themselves with the 9930.

Physical Attributes

The Bold 9650 might appear smaller, but that’s hardly the case. It might be a bit narrower, but that’s about it. The Bold 9930 is thinner and a tick lighter, both of which are easily worth the trade-off with the width. It’s essentially the same size as the Bold 9000. It’s much easier to carry in the pocket. The only advantage the 9650 holds is that it feels a bit more natural in my palm. But the 9930 makes up for that in many different ways.

A few buttons have changed with the 9930 as well. Gone is the two-button system at the top of the device. On the 9930 there is only one button, the lock button, and it’s recessed a bit. This helps prevent unwanted presses that can lead to pocket dialing. The micro USB port has moved to the left side, along with the headphones jack. There is no convenience key on that side, though there is one on the right side. The volume rocker is also on that side. I suppose that makes the device a bit more balanced, but it’s really not that big a deal.

Keyboard

It’s physical, sure, but the keyboard absolutely deserves its own section here. While the BlackBerry’s reputation took a hit in recent years, the keyboard was never part of the attack. It has remained the best in the biz. On the 9650, despite all its flaws, the keyboard does not suffer. But the 9930 takes that to a new level. Maybe it’s because the device is wider, but I find this to be the best BlackBerry keyboard I’ve ever used.

The keys do appear a bit bigger than those of the 9650, which always helps. But it’s not just the key size; it’s the action on the keys. They hit naturally, with minimal click. They just feel softer, too, which is a big plus. I haven’t done any words-per-minute tests, but I’m confident that I type considerably faster on the 9930 than I did in the 9650. And I typed pretty fast on the 9650.

Screen

We needn’t spend much time on the displays, since there really is no comparison. The 9650 had a nice enough screen, measuring 2.4 inches at 480 x 360 pixels resolution. Watching videos was fine if you didn’t mind the small screen, and all the apps came through vibrantly enough. The 9930, however, takes the screen to a completely new level. It’s a bit bigger, at 2.8 inches diagonally, and it has a much better resolution at 640 x 480 pixels. The video experience is obviously much better, then, and the screen in general is just more enjoyable to view.

That doesn’t even touch on the most important difference between the two screens: the touch functions. Honestly, I’ve often touched icons on my BlackBerry’s screen knowing full well that it would accomplish nothing. It’s a deep-seated yearning to have a touchscreen on the device. It would make navigation that much easier. Well, now we have a touchscreen, and it does make navigation that much easier. In fact, you can probably get around the 9930 in half the time it takes to perform the same function on the 9650.

While the screen on the 9930 is probably its best feature, it wouldn’t be possible without one other distinct difference between it and the 9650.

Processor

It’s amazing what’s possible when you nearly double your processor speed. The 9650 had a paltry 624 MHz processor, which, at the time of its release, was typically reserved for low-end Android devices and non-smartphones. That caused massive lag issues. When combined with the software issues inherent to the Bold 9650, it made for a terrible, terrible experience. Hell, there are times when I click on the messages icon, and the application takes literally a minute to launch. No, it’s not fun. Not one bit.

The processor on the 9930 jumps to 1.2 GHz, and it makes all the difference. Not only do applications open almost instantly, but it’s easy to get from one place to another on the device. That’s essential with the touchscreen. The main function of the touchscreen on the 9930 is to more quickly get around the device. If the processor was slow, that end would be entirely defeated and all we’d have is a novelty of a touchscreen. But with the faster processor it serves an actual purpose.

The processor will come into play even more when we get to the software section of the post. Which reminds me…

Software

As I mentioned in the BlackBerry Torch 9810 review, OS 7 isn’t that much different than OS 6. It has a few more features, and it certainly handles message notifications a bit better. But those are just upgrades. They don’t really represent a new version of the OS. Yet it’s impossible to think that OS 6 running on the Bold 9650 is the same as OS 7 running on the 9930. They might as well be completely different operating systems.

They function the same in theory, of course. There’s the various home screen panels, and there’s the same icon-based interface. But in terms of operation the 9930 mops the floor with the 9650. There are just so many flaws with the 9650 software that prevent it from being a compelling mobile OS. Beyond that, OS 6/7 were clearly made with touchscreens in mind. It seems downright unnatural to have that interface on a non-touch device. (Hence me touching my screen even though it does nothing.)

To make things clear, BlackBerry OS 7 is not some revolutionary software that immediately puts RIM on par with its smartphone competitors. It’s still made for the core BlackBerry user base, which is enterprise. But it does represent a major upgrade over OS 6, if for no other reason than the processor speed. BlackBerry 7 runs smoothly, and it has far fewer kinks than OS 6 did.

In Sum: A Year Late

While I absolutely have enjoyed the 9930, that doesn’t erase the past. This is the device that should have dropped a year ago, in the place of the 9650 and the other uninspiring handsets that RIM released. Those were nothing but incremental upgrades, and even then they weren’t much. For instance, I enjoyed my Tour 9630 more than I did the Bold 9650.

Ideally, RIM would have released this line of products last year. That might have enticed consumers to stay with the BlackBerry line. That would have led to a launch of QNX-based BlackBerry models this year, which would have, in theory, fully brought RIM up to speed with its closest competitors. But that’s not how it played out, and that lost year looms large. RIM’s reputation definitely took a hit in the last year in the consumer market, and it will take more than these devices to help recuperate.

At the same time, RIM has done a fantastic job of catering to their core audience. These devices are absolutely perfect for enterprise. They’re fast, they’re responsive, and they bridge just enough into the consumer market to keep business types happy. In fact, I’m not sure that we’ll see much of a shift from enterprise customers when the QNX phones do hit the market. Those can cater more to the consumer market, while RIM can continue working on its traditional line for enterprise. I’m not sure if that’s a viable business strategy, but it would seem to play to both ends of the market.

For now, though, I’m pretty happy with the 9930. It’s exactly what I expected from RIM about a year ago, when we got the crappy 9650. RIM has righted that wrong, but they still have plenty of room to grow. If this is a sign of things to come, it’s hard not to be intrigued.

Buy

Verizon is currently selling the Bold for $250, which is quite a bit more than you’d expect to pay for a smartphone. Sprint has it a bit cheaper: you can pick up the Bold 9930 for $199.99 with a two-year agreement.

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Righting past wrongs with the BlackBerry Bold 9930

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Righting past wrongs with the BlackBerry Bold 9930

You might recognize the above device as the BlackBerry Torch 9850, the full-touchscreen handset that RIM announced last month. Sprint was first to the gates, releasing the device on August 21st for $150. Verizon is the latest to announce the device. They’ll sell it for $200 starting on Thursday. The Torch 9850 is unlike any device that RIM has yet released. It borrows some features from other handsets, but it has a distinctly different feel. I got a chance to review the unit. Here are a few impressions.

The touchscreen

The only device that this really compares to is the Torch 9800 and 9810. That is, it has the same touchscreen feel. Gone is the old SurePress technology that drove the BlackBerry Storm. In fact, it appears that RIM wanted to distance itself from that stigma. Hence naming this device the Torch rather than the Storm.

What I dig about this is that it takes the Torch touchscreen, which I loved, and blows it up. The Torch 9850 has a smooth screen that bests even the Torch 9810 (the size helps). I’ve really taken to this one. It makes me wonder why the Storm ever existed in the first place.

My favorite aspect of the screen, though, is the resolution. RIM put some more work into the screen quality this time around, and it really shows. Videos on this device are crisp and clear, coming through better than even the Android device I have. If I had to choose between the two for watching a movie or TV show, I’d choose the Torch in a heartbeat.

Device feel

As for the physical device, it feels very natural sitting in my palm. It’s thinner than the previous line of BlackBerry smartphones, making it easy to interact with the touchscreen. It’s also only slightly taller and wider than previous BlackBerry models. In fact, it’s hard to hold the device and, from a purely physical standpoint, not make an iPhone comparison. It really has that thin feel to it.

The only complaint I have here are the physical buttons. The smooth touchscreen interface just makes them feel out of place. They’re also very firm, which adds to the unnaturalness. Given how smoothly the operating system runs, I’m absolutely certain that RIM could have removed these buttons completely and still have a product that people would use.

Software

It seems pointless to go on about BlackBerry 7, since I did so in the Torch 9810 review. There is literally no difference between the two devices in terms of software. That is to say, it’s still behind the pack, but it’s adequate for what it does. The faster processor also helps.

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Verizon to release the Torch 9850 tomorrow

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Verizon to release the Torch 9850 tomorrow

When we learned earlier in the year that RIM would release a slew of new devices in 2011, none had me more psyched than the Torch 9810. Sure, I’d been waiting for something like the Bold 9900 for years, and I was curious to see what a touchscreen BlackBerry sans SurePress would feel like. But the Torch was one of my favorite BlackBerry devices to begin with, and the new version figured to correct some of my biggest issues with it. Specifically, the faster processor should have made everything smoother, creating an ideal BlackBerry environment.

I’ve played with the Torch for about a week now, and I have to say that it’s lived up to expectations. Here’s a full breakdown.

It’s no iPhone or Android

Before I even dive into the specifics, I want to make clear that the BlackBerry is not the iPhone. It is not Android. It is not, really, for someone who wants cutting edge technology in their mobile devices. The BlackBerry, as always, is for those who want a simple, stripped down mobile experience with a focus on messaging.

In that way, the Torch delivers. It’s gives you easy access to multiple messaging formats, and then adds features on top of that. It makes for a smooth, easily navigable device that takes care of all the business you need.

BlackBerry 7

The Torch is among the new crop of BlackBerry handsets to run the latest version of the operating system. It’s billed as BlackBerry 7, though it’s really more like 6.5 or even 6.1. That is, there aren’t a ton of changes from BlackBerry 6. As I mention in this Tuesday’s quick tip, there are subtle differences, such as the ability to limit your home screen panels. Almost every change is in this mold: a subtle improvement that, while welcome, doesn’t really represent a brand new version of the operating system. Not that there’s anything wrong with that; I liked OS 6 plenty in the first place.

One addition that I, along with basically every other BlackBerry user, appreciate is the ability to add numbers to an existing contact. There were apps that did this, but it’s nice to have it finally along with the native OS. There are goodies like this throughout the OS, though I really haven’t noticed too many of them. That’s both a negative, because I’d like more small improvements, but also good, because I’m not really noticing any deficiencies. It really is a smooth smartphone experience.

I’d expound on this a bit more, but it’s more accurate to reiterate that it’s nearly identical to the older OS versions. It’s a lot smoother, sure, and I’m sure software improvements are behind that. But the faster processor, which we’ll get to in a minute, plays a large role.

Social Feeds

One specific software aspect I want to hit is Social Feeds. This debuted with the original Torch and OS 6, but this time around I’m finding a bit more use for it. As you can see in the screenshot, you can control almost every aspect of your non-email messaging from here, from instant messaging to BBM to Facebook and Twitter. The ability to remain logged into all of them is a definite plus.

If there’s a downside to this, it’s that those who follow a lot of people on Twitter might not have the best experience. My main feed is basically Twitter through and through. I had to scroll through about 30 minutes of tweets before I got to a Facebook update. And then it’s basically all my Twitter, followed by all my Facebook. A more even distribution — that is, real-time updating — would be better. But this is still a good app that can store all of your social information.

(And, as a quick tip, you can add a view under Settings -> Manage Views. This way you can follow specific people, rather than your entire Twitter feed.)

On the next panel is RSS, which allows you to add feeds from RIM’s internal list, or you can find feeds of your own. Again, because of overflow reasons I suggest keeping this to the essentials. Social Feeds is basically a quick and dirty way to stay updated with things that are of high importance to you. There has to be some manual filtering, or else it will get cluttered. For example, I have BGR, Wall Street Journal, and Wired in my RSS. That’s about all I need for quick and essential information.

Finally, you can add podcasts to your feed, too. I found this a bit hard when it concerned podcasts not in RIM’s database. But if you have enough savvy you can work around that and find the ones you want. Or you can just select from RIM’s library. Again, this is all about getting the information all in one place. It’s probably my favorite addition to OS 6, and it got a bit better, and smoother, in OS 7.

The feel

Now that we’ve established the software side of things — i.e., that nothing really has changed — we can move onto the feel of the devices. As you can see from the shot above, the device is identical to the Torch 9800. Everything, from the weight to the keyboard, feels exactly the same. That means it’s still a little awkward to type on the physical keyboard, but not too awkward. That is, it took me a while, again, to get used to the shallow keyboard rather than the full-depth one on my 9650. But it only took a little adjusting. It’s good enough, again, that the on-screen keyboard is mostly useless.

(Well, the keyboard does feel a bit more solid, but that might be because the 9800 is a year old. But it’s worth a parenthetical note, I guess.)

That said, the Torch doesn’t feel any bulkier than a standard BlackBerry. In fact, it’s the exact height and width of the 9650, and maybe 1mm deeper. That 1mm makes a difference to approximately no one, so you can consider this a standard BlackBerry with a few hidden tricks.

Really, the more I play with the Torch, the more I wonder why I would ever go with a standard-sized BlackBerry again. I’ve always been a fan of the standard style, since it’s stripped down and simple. It has an adequately sized screen and the best keyboard in the biz, so I never thought I needed more. But the Torch delivers more, without creating any problems in the way. The touchcreen interface is great for navigating the device, and the keyboard only comes out of hiding when I need it. That it’s the same size as a standard BlackBerry puts the Torch over the top, in my mind.

The processor

And finally we get to the element that brings together the device. The old Torch had a 624MHz processor, which put it in a class far, far below the other smartphones released in 2010. It made for a lot of lag, which got really frustrating after a while. In a way, I was relieved when my time with the original Torch was up. It felt like a huge tease. The elements were all there, but it was just too slow. Screens lagged, applications took forever to load, and it was generally a rough experience.

The Torch 9810, along with the other new BlackBerry models, features a 1.2GHz processor, which is right in line with today’s high-end devices. That makes for a much smoother experience, one that leaves me with little to no frustration. Even App World boots up in a snap. Again, while I’m sure that tweaks to the operating system played into the improved performance, I have to think that the processor plays an even bigger part. It’s physically faster, meaning it can handle more apps, more tasks, and more inputs.

At the same time, it does not negatively affect battery life. This is the most amazing part, to me. One reason RIM kept with its slow processors is because it believed that its customers valued battery life over speed. With the Torch they’ve found a balance between the two. The battery still lasts two days with moderate to slightly heavy use, just like my old BlackBerrys. And yet it’s worlds faster. This might be the Torch’s greatest accomplishment.

Overall impression

It’s fair to say that I’ve come away from my time with the Torch impressed. Again, if you’re expecting a revolution that vaults the BlackBerry in line with Android and iPhone, you’ll come away disappointed. The Torch is not that. No BlackBerry will come close, at least until they have QNX running smoothly on a dual core handset. But for what it is, a messaging-focused device with plenty of bells and whistles, the Torch delivers. It might be the only thing that would direct me to AT&T for my next BlackBerry upgrade.

Even better, AT&T is offering it on-contract for $49.99. The Bold 9930 through Verizon, meanwhile, is $249.99. I don’t think a BlackBerry deal gets better than that.

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

A look at the all-new BlackBerry Torch 9810

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

A look at the all-new BlackBerry Torch 9810

The home screen

This is where the value of PocketDay lies. When you launch the app it brings up a Today-looking screen that contains your unread emails, text messages, calendar appointments, tasks, Twitter feed, missed calls, and weather. There are no icons, except for visuals for the weather forecast, so there aren’t any apps or other things to distract you. All you have are the emails that need attention, the appointments that need fulfillment, and the tasks that require completion.

The PocketDay home screen is completely customizable, so you can view only the sections that you want to, and in the order you desire. To change the home screen appearance, just click menu and go to Screen Setup. There you’ll see the section lists. To move or delete a section, click it and select the appropriate action from the menu. You can also click menu for the same action list. I have mine pared down to unread email, calendar, tasks, search, and weather. That’s all I need to stay focused.

You can also control how much information to display on the home screen. Just go to Settings, and then General Settings. Scroll all the way to the bottom, where you’ll see a section titled Today Screen. Here you can set the maximum number of missed calls, emails, appointments, and tasks appear on the home screen. This is crucial in some cases, as there is potential for plenty of home screen clutter. I usually leave everything to a five-list max.

Calendar

There is plenty of focus on the calendar in PocketDay. That makes sense, because your calendar can be your single greatest productivity tool. For starters, you’ll want to read the paragraph above, about how you can keep your home screen uncluttered by limiting the number of appointments that will display. You can also keep it clean by limiting the number of days ahead your calendar will look. This is set by default to 7, but you can always click in and see further dates.

When you’re on the home screen you can scroll the calendar forward and backwards. To go to the next day, click N. To go back to the previous day, click B. That makes for easy navigation without having to click into anything. You can also easily add a calendar appointment by clicking menu and selecting New Event. To edit an event just scroll to it, so that a red arrow appears next to it, and then click.

To get a look at your full day, you can click menu and go to Summary View (or, if you’re hovering over another section, Today’s Calendar). That will bring up all your appointments and tasks for that particular day. The same keys, b and n, will put you a day ahead and a day back. From there you can perform the same functions. That is, you can create new events and edit existing ones.

Launching apps and contacts

One notable absence from the PocketDay home screen is apps. You might also notice that your contacts aren’t readily retrievable. That doesn’t mean they play no part in PocketDay. It’s just that they’re more distractions than anything. But there are times that you’ll need to launch them. You can do this one of two ways with PocketDay.

When you click menu, you might notice an option that says PD Favorites. This is the first place you can launch apps and create contact shortcuts. You can also launch PD Favorites by pressing the right convenience key. Just click on that option and you’ll come to a screen that contains tabs for Contacts, Apps, and Web Links. To create an app icon, click on Apps and select Add New. In the next screen you can select the app, native or third-party, and then label it. There’s a place for a HotKey, but I haven’t yet seen any use for it.

When you finish you’ll see the app and its icon appear when you hover over the Apps tab. Just click and you’ll launch it. The escape key will bring you back to the PD Favorites screen — though the End key will bring you back to the normal home screen.

You can also create contact shortcuts here. Just click on the Contacts tab and select Add New. That will bring up your contacts list. Select the appropriate one. After that you can also assign a shortcut key. That’s the most useful aspect of all. When you’re on the main PocketDay screen you can press and hold that key and bring up a quick actions box for the contact. This will allow you to compose a new email, send a text message, or place a call to him or her. You can do the same by clicking on the contact in the PD Favorites screen.

There is also a place where you can essentially create web bookmarks. It works in the exact same manner as contacts and applications. Just click on Add New, type in the site address, and label the button. It will actually capture the favicon for you.

Key mapping

This was going to fit with the previous section, but it got kind of long. Another aspect of PocketDay that can help you streamline your actions is key mapping. Just go into Settings and then scroll to Key Mapping. Here you’ll see a list of default keystrokes and what they perform. As you can see, the top two options are B and N, which control the calendar on your home screen.

You can change any of the defaults, but more importantly you can add shortcuts for apps of your own. For instance, I’ve noticed that my default convenience keys are disabled when in PocketDay. This is a bit of a pain, since I use one to take screen shots. So I just assign ZonaSnap to a different key within PocketDay. Now the app will take a screen shot when I press the Q key (because that’s the one I assigned it to). You can do this with up to 15 apps — though at some point, with the default keys you’re going to run out of keys between apps and contacts. Use them judiciously.

Strong suggestion: Play with options

Before we wrap up, I really want to emphasize that PocketDay has an incredible level of customizability. Make sure to play with all of the settings so you can make it display and function as you desire. There are some things that just don’t work well, as I’ll describe below, but for the most part you can make it do what you please.

Downsides

The app isn’t all upside, of course. There are some issues, the foremost of which being the syncing and function of text messages. I’ve actually removed them from my home screen, because they just don’t work properly. First, if you read a text message in the normal OS screen, it won’t disappear on your PocketDay. It will stay until you click it and clear it. And then, when you click it, it brings you to an email screen rather than the SMS screen. That just doesn’t cut it.

The absence of BBM from the home screen is a bit of a disappointment. Thankfully, the quick launch option is there, so I can launch it with a hot key. But if we’re using a Today-style home screen, I’d like to have BBM included on that.

It takes a little while to get used to the interface and to forget about the old BlackBerry interface. It is also incredibly boring. But that’s the entire point. It’s easy to get caught up in that, but remember, the point of PocketDay is to make your life more productive.

Get PocketDay Personal

If you want to rid your BlackBerry of distractions and get down to productivity, you can get PocketDay Personal for $9.99. There are versions compatible with OS versions 4.2 and above, including OS 6. There is also a free trial available. For another $10, PocketDay Professional adds a number of options you can add to your home screen, including RSS and stock information. I’m just fine with the personal version, though.

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Review of PocketDay Personal for BlackBerry

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Review of PocketDay Personal for BlackBerry

Getting started

After downloading Flycast you’ll have to set up a user account, if you don’t already have one. Your email address gets filled in automatically and after that it’s just your password and some demographic information. Enter that and you’ll be set up.

(Also, the ZIP field defaults to numbers, which is something that every app should do, but few actually do.)

Once you finish the form the setup is complete. The only thing you might want to check out before starting is the User Settings option. This allows you to select your preference of Wi-Fi or cellular network. You can also choose to restart the last station played when you restart the app. If you want you can automatically record a station, though that’s available only with an upgrade. Flycast will also allow you to play files from your music library. But we’ll go over these shortly.

Also, in case you want the reference, here is a list of Flycast stations.

My Stuff

When you start Flycast you’ll go right to your My Stuff folder. This includes your music library if you so choose. In User Settings you can choose to enable this, plus a few other features that we’ll get to shortly. That makes it a bit easier to listen to whatever you want, whether recorded through Flycast or from your own collection. It’s not a top-notch feature, but it’s nice.

Below that you have the spot for your recordings. This is available for premium users. If you go into User Settings you’ll see an option that allows you to automatically record all of the songs you listen to. Since you can always delete this songs, I do recommend keeping this feature on. As I can attest from my halcyon days of recording songs off the radio onto cassette, you don’t want to miss the opening bar for no good reason.

Guide

The second menu bar option, Guide, is where you’ll find the media selection in Flycast. Let’s run through this by menu item.

Weather: It just opens a BlackBerry browser and shows you your local weather. I clicked this the first time I used it and never plan to click it again.

On Now: Click on this and you’ll get a list of stations currently streaming. It doesn’t really tell you what station, but rather just the show name. Also, it appears to deal with only talk stations. I only saw Politics, Spiritual, Sports, and Talk as options.

Cities: Looking for a station in a particular market? You can find it here. It’s a much more manageable list than the one on iheartradio, so you’ll be able to find the market you’re looking for.

(But perhaps not the station. But more on that later.)

Genres: Pretty self-explanatory. You can find stations that play varieties of music by exploring by genre.

Audio Podcast: A big high five to Flycast for including podcasts, which has easily displaced talk radio as my favorite vocal medium. You can find podcasts from dozens of outlets, ready to listen right after you click. There are also plenty of back episodes, in case you’re particularly bored.

Search

At first I wasn’t sure that a search function would work well in a streaming radio app. But then I tried it for Flycast. You can basically search for an artist, and it will return stations that play them. This works better for some artists than others, and with some I couldn’t get the stations to work. But the option is there, so I presume it will get better with updates. Or, at least, I hope.

You can also search the SHOUTcast radio directory. That appears to bring up more results, but as with the results from the Flycast search I often got errors when clicking on the stations.

History

It shows you a history of stations you’ve frequented. No real explanation needed here.

Upgrade

Here’s one very intriguing feature of Flycast. For the first seven days after you download the app you can record up to five hours of music, for playback at any time. After that, though, you have to pay for recording space.

You can keep that five hours of recording space, which you can use and recycle as you wish, for a one-time fee of $9.95. If you want more space, you can get 20 hours for $19.95. Again, these are not subscription fees. It’s akin to buying storage space. You have five hours of music, meaning you can record and delete items as you wish, so long as you’re under your allotted time. Clearly, you’ll need a microSD card for this.

Review

Now that we’ve walked through the app, here is my take on its value to a BlackBerry user.

There are many streaming audio applications out there. If you’re seeking entertainment when you have some downtime, there are many options. I would not consider Flycast among the best options. In fact, despite my somewhat harsh words for iheartradio, I think it’s a far superior application to Flycast. There’s just not enough here to top other apps, especially those such as TuneIn which include similar features.

The app is painfully slow. It loads fine, I guess, but the lag time is unbearable. I’m having general lag problems with my BlackBerry, but they’re far worse in Flycast. It has rendered the app basically unusable. I hope that others do not experience the same issues.

I’m also not overly impressed with the stations list. I loved it on TuneIn, and was OK with it on iheartradio. But I just can’t get into the limited selection on Flycast. I did enjoy the podcast selection, even though it’s missing a few of my favorites.

With all the issues I ran into when testing the app, I cannot recommend it over our previous streaming audio app reviews. It appears to have plenty of potential, but the total package isn’t yet present.

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Geek Review: Flycast v2 streaming radio

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Geek Review: Flycast v2 streaming radio

Getting started

After downloading iheartradio you’ll have to create an account. It doesn’t take long at all, and you can do it right from the app. After that you’re free to browse around.

Finding stations

As with TuneIn, iheartradio brings you live feeds from radio stations around the country. You can start by browsing local stations. Just click on the first option, and the app will use your GPS to find stations in your local market. The only problem occurs when you don’t have a freely accessible GPS. This is the case with Verizon. Because the GPS function is locked to most third party apps, iheartradio cannot populate a list of local stations. I have to use the next feature

If you want to find your local market you can click into the All Cities option. That will give you an alphabetical, by city, list of all radio markets in the country. The list is unwieldy, though the search function on top helps. Problem is, it only searches by city. So if I’m looking for radio stations in New Jersey, I have to type in the specific market. There are also no shortcuts for browsing up and down the list, so you’re stuck scrolling with the trackball or trackpad. That’s just unmanageable with a list this long.

Then we get to the browsing by format. This is a bit better than browsing by market, because the lists are smaller. There are a number of formats provided on iheartradio, but unfortunately there are no sub-genres. So if I want to find my old favorite, WSOU, I have to dig pretty deeply. I could not find that station in any of the lists.

If you’re into radio personalities, there is an option for that, too. I didn’t recognize many of the shows or the hosts, but I’m sure there’s something around for everyone. The good thing is that it updates as the day goes along, so you won’t be clicking into a morning show after it’s over. There are also premium personalities. When you click into these you have to enter your email address in order to get a link, or you can create your account by clicking the button, which takes you to a mobile web page. It will cost a fee, of course — it looks like $2 for a day, $4 for five days, and $6 for 30 days.

Playing stations and favorites

Once you browse through and find a station you want, just click on it to play. On the Now Playing tab you’ll see the station’s logo along with four buttons. That’s Play/Stop, Favorite, Tag/Buy, and Lyrics. These are all pretty self-explanatory, though I’ll make some notes on how they function.

When you favorite something, you add the station to your stations list and the song to your songs one. I’m not sure why they don’t allow for one or the other, but that’s the way it is. If you want to play one of your favorite stations, just click on the heart tab atop the screen. There are two sub-tabs, Stations and Songs. You can click on a station to start playing it.

If you want to listen to a song, you’ll have to buy it. Nothing will happen if you highlight the song — you have to highlight the Buy button. It will then give you an option to download the song or the tone, though the tone is not available on all songs. I actually couldn’t get it for any of the songs I tested. Of course, the buying function isn’t perfect. I haven’t installed Verizon’s VCAST Music on my BlackBerry, so I can’t buy songs from iheartradio. I’m not sure what the purchasing system is through other carriers.

You can remove songs and stations from your favorites as well. Just highlight them, click menu, and select Remove Song.

One neat feature is the randomizer. This is the circle logo in the main menu bar. Click that and iheartradio will take you to a random station. I tried it once and it took me to a rock station, which works. I did it again and it brought up a sports talk station. You can keep hitting the randomizer until you get a station you like.

Impressions

All told, I’m far more impressed with TuneIn than I am with iheartradio. TuneIn was easier to navigate and had a much larger selection of stations.

Still, that’s not my biggest complaint. While I did enjoy iheartradio in a general sense, I did get frustrated at times with the lag. When I was playing a station the app would just lag and lag and lag. It made it a bit difficult to navigate through the menus.

That said, iheartradio provides a decent selection of radio stations from across the country. I wish it were easier to seek out these stations, but it’s not as if it’s just a list of radio stations and you’re left on your own. The ability to search by format is key, as it presents the most manageable lists.

If you’re up for it, you can download iheartradio for free at App World.

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Geek Review: iheartradio

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Geek Review: iheartradio

Getting started

To download the Grooveshark Mobile app, go to m.grooveshark.com from your BlackBerry browser. That will take you right to the download page. Click the link, and you’ll be set. When you run the application you’ll have to create an account if you don’t have one already. Once you’re logged in you’ll be asked to start the VIP trial. If you don’t say yes you won’t be able to access the mobile app. But, since it doesn’t require payment information up front, there’s no risk in trying it.

Warning: I tried to play a number of tracks using the trial, but kept getting an error. I wasn’t sure if that had to do with the tracks or my trial status, so I opted to pay the $3 fee for a month of service. I was then able to play the tracks in question.

Finding music

The only way to find music in the Grooveshark for BlackBerry app is by searching. Enter in what you want to find, and Grooveshark will return artists and songs that match. That can make for an unwieldy list, and I often found that the band I sought did not appear. In other words, finding music within the app can be a pain, and you might not find exactly what you’re seeking. Since the entire point of Grooveshark is to listen to songs when you want them, I’d say the lack of a discovery feature hurts the app.

It’s a shame, too, because the Android application includes a few more features that would be welcome on the BlackBerry one. These include a list of popular songs and streaming radio stations. As usual, BlackBerry is left behind on this one.

The only positive I can take from the search feature is that you can drill down a bit. Hit the menu button on any song and you can view the album it’s on, more songs by that artist, and albums by the artist. There is also an option for similar artists and songs, but I found those unhelpful. For instance, when I clicked similar artists for one of my favorite punk bands, Bad Brains, it suggested Kid Rock. Vocalist H.R. would probably be thrown into a violent rage were he privy to this classification.

I actually suggest finding music and creating playlists on Grooveshark.com. It’s much easier to find music that way; you can enter a search term and then click on a result to get artist, song, or album. Once you create those playlists you can play them through the BlackBerry app. This seems like the optimal usage for the Grooveshark app. It took too much time to work up playlists from the device itself.

Offline songs

Perhaps the greatest feature of Grooveshark is the ability to play songs when you’re out of cell signal range. If you want to listen to a playlist while offline, just click menu on it and select Add Playlist to local storage. You’ll then see a green lightning bolt icon next to it and a green progress bar under it. You can do this for individual songs, too, by clicking menu and selecting Allow Offline Playback. Why the same option is worded two different ways I do not know.

If you’re going to use the offline feature, I suggest getting a sizable memory card. Again, I find it to be the best feature of the app, and I don’t like removing songs from my offline playlist.

Complaints

Everything else in this application is self-explanatory. By now everyone knows how to use an audio player, etc. If there is significant demand I’ll expand this review to include the easier features. But I think that, for now, my list of complaints will be more helpful.

1) Some songs just did not play. There is no indication, but sometimes when you try to play a track you’ll get an error. This seems to be tied to artists and albums, since it happens an album at a time for me.

2) On my CDMA BlackBerry the app doesn’t handle calls well at all. If I get a call or text message, the song stops playing. This is normal. With other streaming apps, though, the song continues after a few seconds. Grooveshark requires you to restart. If you hit pause and then play, it skips to the next song. There is no way to pick up where you left off.

3) Songs skip regularly. Some skip right to the next song. If you get a “The requested song cannot be played” error, you have to click OK and then quickly hit pause, or else it will keep trying to play another track.

4) The delay between tracks is beyond annoying. On the web app there is a seamless transition from track to track. The mobile app should be able to do this, too, by loading a portion of the next song. Even on playlists it does not do this. That’s quite obnoxious when listening to an album that features between-song transitions.

Getting what you pay for

Even considering the complaints, it’s tough to downrate the Grooveshark app too badly. It does, after all, give you access to far more tracks than Rhapsody for less than a third of the monthly price. There are certainly issues with the app, though considering the updated version Android recently got, I think we could soon see one for Android. That would change the equation a bit.

You can check out more information on Grooveshark at http://mobile.grooveshark.com/blackberry. If you want to download the app, go to m.grooveshark.com from your BlackBerry browser. I’d suggest setting up an account on the main website rather than the app. That seemed to make things a bit easier.

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Geek Review: Grooveshark streaming music for BlackBerry

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Geek Review: Grooveshark streaming music for BlackBerry

In the past we have covered other Bluetooth car kits that are a great buy for the everyday road warrior. Today we bring to you the Parrot Minikit Slim – Ultralight Bluetooth Speakerphone.

Introducing the Parrot Minikit Slim

When searching for a bluetooth speakerphone for your BlackBerry you will no doubt come across a wide variety of manufacturers and stylish form factors. Some of these will be strictly for use in your car, while others can be utilized anywhere you like.

The Parrot Minikit Slim falls into the second category, allowing you to use it for hands-free calling while driving or at home/work as a desk mounted speakerphone.

Featuring a super slick, low profile design, the Parrot Minikit slim should absolutely be on the short list for anyone looking to get hands-free with their BlackBerry.

So What can This Thing Do?

The Parrot Minikit Slim does what is expected of it. It provides a great bluetooth experience when paired with a BlackBerry for use as a speakerphone. The Minikit Slim does not stop there though. In addition to the standard functions of a traditional speakerphone, the Minikit Slim also provides a number of really great features.

The first feature that really impressed me was the ability to download/sync contacts directly from your device. This makes so much sense I don’t know why all devices like this don’t have a similar function. The benefit to the user is that you can transfer up to 1000 contacts from your BlackBerry and connect to them using voice commands. This is a true hands-free setup.

The parrot Minikit Slim is able to pair with up to 5 devices at a time through Bluetooth 2.0. This makes it ideal for a family of phone owners or as a handy device for office conference calling etc.

You will also find that the unit is pretty strong when it comes to talk time. The documentation claims 10 hours of talk time on a single charge. I saw approximately 8.5 during my testing but I still found that perfectly adequate being that I would normally have the unit plugged in. For those who want to use this kind of device in their home or office, cords are not really an issue. The strong talk time is definitely a bonus for those taking the Minikit Slim on the road though.

The battery in the Minikit Slim is not removable. Instead, Parrot has opted to charge it using a 12V micro USB adapter for the car or a similar cable to connect directly to your PC.

This thing is tiny! So how do they get the speakers in there? The answer to that is a very cool flat panel that vibrates, essentially mimicking much larger speakers. The benefit to you is a fully functional speakerphone system that is much smaller than other units in it’s class.

My Experience with the Parrot Minikit Slim Bluetooth Speakerphone

Immediately upon powering up the Minikit Slim it was ready to be found by my BlackBerry. I quickly paired it and immediately after that it began to sync my contacts into its memory. This took a little while as there were plenty stored up. I do not have a thousand contacts on my BlackBerry though so it was nice knowing that there was still room for more when added.

Accessing my contacts through the Minikit Slim was quite easy and dialing out was the same thing. I tested both the manual dialing (using the dial on the front of the device) and the voice dialing functionality. I have to say that I am quite impressed with the Parrot speech to text software. Out of 10 controlled attempts to dial by voice, the Parrot Minikit was successful 9 times. To its credit though, the name it got wrong was a pretty complicated name.

I definitely prefer the voice dialing over the manual dialing which is slightly tedious in comparison.

As far as call quality is concerned, the Parrot Minikit Slim is as good or better than any other kits I have tested so far. As with any speakerphone system, the sound can be a bit thin, but this is certainly not a negative. If it does not have a subwoofer, it is hard to get the mids and lows – simple as that.

The call clarity was great when speaking with friends over the device and they indicated that I too was broadcasting loud and clear.

My Conclusion

Overall I would suggest the Parrot minikit Slim Bluetooth Speakerphone to anyone who owns a BlackBerry and is looking to go hands-free. The price point is right in line with other top quality bluetooth kits and the functionality of the device is right up there as well. Parrot could have included some more multimedia functions in the Minikit Slim but they didn’t and the price accurately reflects that as well.

I was completely satisfied with the talk time and portability of the Minikit Slim and the clarity of the devices broadcast was more than ok. I did not experience the usual clippy static that is common with speakerphones, which was a pleasant surprise.

If you are in the market for a hands-free solution to your BlackBerry addiction then definitely check out the Parrot Minikit Slim Bluetooth Speakerphone. You can purchase it for $99.95 from the BBGeeks Store.

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Geek Review: Parrot Minikit Slim – Ultralight Bluetooth Speakerphone

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Geek Review: Parrot Minikit Slim – Ultralight Bluetooth Speakerphone

The hardware

The idea behind the Torch is that it’s the ultimate BlackBerry device. It combines the touchscreen of the Storm with the QWERTY keyboard that made the BlackBerry so famous. We’ve seen plenty of Torch pictures, but here are the open and closed ones just for good measure. You can click each one for a larger view:

And the back:

I’m always a fan of comparison shots, so here’s the Torch along side the Google Nexus One and the BlackBerry Tour.

And thickness:

The Torch has plenty of quirks in the hardware, some of them positive and some of them not so positive. I wouldn’t call anything a negative, really — I even expressed some skepticism about the layout of the physical keyboard when I saw the device last Tuesday, but after playing with it for a while I have no further issues. Still, it’s best to dig into the nuances.

Slide mechanism: Sliding the device open is easy enough. The screen is normally locked when I flip it open, so I just stick my thumb right on there and move it upward. When the screen is lit I fumble a bit, since it’s tough to slide it up from the bottom on account of the buttons being there. Still, it’s pretty standard.

Screen responsiveness: The screen is as responsive as any touchscreen you’ll find out there. I had no problems performing any functions, and even found a reasonable degree of precision when scrolling. In the browser the device lags a bit when I do a big swipe to move way up or down the page, but it still moves appropriately.

Convenience key: The Torch features just one convenience key, which is on the right-hand side of the device. You have to press pretty firmly in order to activate it. This is actually nice, as it prevents accidental depression.

Locking and unlocking: Like most new BlackBerry devices the Torch features a dedicated lock button on top of the device. Sliding the device open will unlock it (as will hitting the lock button, of course).

Trackpad: I didn’t think I’d like this so much, but I absolutely love having the ability to browse with a finger swipe or the trackpad. I’ve actually found myself using the trackpad to navigate menus, rather than swiping.

Screen function: When I use my Nexus One I often complain that the device doesn’t adjust between landscape and portrait mode quickly enough, often sticking in one mode long after I’ve rotated the device. This is not the case at all with the Torch. It responds almost immediately. It even goes into landscape mode on the home screen, as you can see here:

Keyboard: I’m not sure what changed between last Tuesday and today, but I’ve have a much better time with the keyboard this time. My complaint before was that the top row of keys was too close to the top slider piece, but that might have been a result of me rushing through the device demo last week. I’m using the physical keyboard almost exclusively.

Charging port: Nothing to add on the port itself, but just a lesson learned. If you plan to type while the device is charging, I suggest using the virtual keyboard in landscape mode. Otherwise the plug gets in the way.

The software

Now that we’ve established the quality of the hardware, it’s time to move onto the software. For so long the operating system has been one point on which RIM has been constantly criticized. As we moved from OS 4.2 to OS 4.5 and even into 5.0 we didn’t see any wholesale changes. Instead we got incremental upgrades, and 5.0 hardly seemed worthy of its own version. With OS 6, RIM looked to change that reputation.

Boot time

When I first turned on the Torch I was surprised at how fast it booted up. Maybe I’m just used to the Tour and its near-10-minute boot time. But even with the intro video the Torch got to the good part in maybe three minutes. This also came in handy when I froze the device while trying to take a screenshot during a video. I don’t plan to try that again.

Home screen

In previous BlackBerry OS builds, there were two main places you could view applications, the home screen and applications menu. The applications menu was straight forward, as it was just a grid of all your apps. The home screen was variable, depending on theme. Sometimes you’d have a ton of apps there, sometimes you’d have a preview of your messages and calendar, or sometimes you’d have both. With BlackBerry 6 we get a much more simplified interface.

When you first see the home screen you’ll see four icons at the bottom of the screen, along with a bar above them. We’ll get to the bar in a second. The neatest part about this new home screen is that you’re not really limited to those four icons. Not hardly. The interface allows you to manipulate the home screen as you see fit.

Want four rows of icons? Drag the bar all the way to the top. Want three? Two? One? You can do that and keep it that way. Check it:

The bar on top also allows you to keep more of your stuff on the same screen. The main screen has all of your items, including folders. Swipe to the right and you get favorites, then media, followed by downloads, and then finally frequently used items. The menu is circular, so you can swipe either left or right to find the menu you seek.

Moving upward, there is a status bar on which you’ll see plenty of notification icons. This is rather awesome, because it makes moot the idea of a Today preview. Just click on this and a menu will drop down. It contains all of your new notifications, from messages to social apps. This includes Social Feeds, something we’ll touch on a bit later. Scroll through these and you can pick which messages to view. You can also click on the header and open that application. As a substitute for Today, I don’t think RIM could have done better.

Also on that bar sit two static icons, one for search — which searches everything on your device and can also search the web — and profiles. Those are two excellent icons to have readily available on the home screen. Up above is the clock, signal meter, battery meter, and other network indicators. Click it and your Manage Connections app will open. I wish you could open the clock by clicking that, but the whole top bar is one big button.

The browser

The biggest change people sought was with the browser. Again, instead of a new, refreshed browser in the newer operating systems we got incremental upgrades. They were welcome — the browser on OS 4.2 was particularly horrible. But we still didn’t have that robust web browsing interface you see on other platforms. Thankfully, the WebKit browser changes all of that.

As you can see, the browser renders web pages in full if there is no automatic mobile redirect. This view obviously does you little good beyond reading headlines. But the browser has an excellent zoom function that not only makes the text bigger, but also renders it quickly. In OS 4.5 through 5.0 you would also see non-mobile pages rendered in full and could zoom. The difference is that, in my experience, the rendering took way too long. OS 6 does a much nicer job of zooming and rendering quickly. If the site has a dedicated mobile version you’ll go there, and I don’t see a good way to see the actual site.

Tabbed browsing is a new and welcome addition. Next to the address bar you’ll see a pair of overlapping squares. Click that and you’ll see all of your active tabs. You can hit the green plus sign to add a new tab, or you can just swipe between your currently open ones. The red X closes the tab you have highlighted, not the tab that is currently open in the browser. Also, it does not close the tabs screen. I made that mistake once. The Escape key will get you back to the main browser screen.

The icon next to tabs, the globe icon, lets you manipulate browser functions. You can add the current page to bookmarks, add the page to your home screen, send the page address to a contact, or copy the address. This is also where you can access your bookmarks and browsing history. Not that you need me to explain that. It’s pretty self-explanatory once you start using the device.

Watching videos is pretty nice, too. The videos don’t load right in the browser, though it’s not like the older browser where it would open in your Media app. It’s like clicking on a video automatically turns on full screen mode. You can watch the video there, and click the Escape button to return to page from which you launched the video.

At the press conference last Tuesday RIM showed off one feature of the browser that I thought would make a big difference. When zooming, if you double click the screen it would not only make the text larger, but it would align it as to fit on one screen. That feature, at least initially, appears to be a bit wonky. Check out the screen shots below.

Some sites seem to wrap the titles but not the text.

But others, particularly awesome ones I guess, wrap just fine. There doesn’t seem to be much rhyme or reason to this. It’s just something I’ve encountered. I’m sure this is something that will end up working better with future software updates. But for now it doesn’t exactly serve its purpose. Which is a shame. It’s an awesome feature in concept.

Social Feeds

More and more we’re taking care of our social networking on mobile devices. I know plenty of people who don’t even use Twitter on their desktops anymore, even if they’re right at the computer. I don’t think I’d ever go that far, but I do have to say that using social networking and media apps on my mobile devices has been a more pleasant experience than using it on the desktop. It just feels like they belong there. (Though I’m sure many will disagree, since it’s a personal feeling.)

With the Social Feeds app you can keep up with your friends and family with ease. Like the integrated messages app, the default screen in Social Feeds shows you the latest from all of the networks you have active. You can filter these by clicking on the top bar and selecting the specific feed you’d like to view. A click of the Escape key will bring you back to the big feed.

Swipe to the right and you’ll see your RSS feeds. There are a few subscriptions by default, but you can easily unsubscribe to those. To subscribe to a new feed just click menu and select New Feed. Type in the address — you can use the web address and not the feed address — and you’ll get the subscription confirmation. You can also filter these by single feed.

You can also post new messages right from the social networks app for any application you have integrated. Click menu and select New Post. This will bring up a text box and a list of social applications which you’ve signed into. Type the messages, check all the apps you want to send it to, and your status will be updated. You can also share RSS items with your networks. After you click into the specific post, click Forward, and you’ll see the New Post screen, only with a description of and link to the post. Check the appropriate boxes and away you’ll send it.

Universal search

One feature I’m liking is the ability to search anything on the device from one place. Universal Search means you can search files and folders on your device with one search. You can also search various web apps, including Yellow Pages, Google, App World, and You Tube, all from the same place. In other words, if you want to do a simple Google search you can just type it into Universal Search and you can do that, or you can search the same thing on You Tube, etc.

By default, all you have to do is start typing to launch universal search. It’s like typing a search into Firefox. Just start and you’ll get the search option. You can also opt to employ application shortcuts, as in the old OS home screens, but I think Universal Search provides a bit more value.

Overall thoughts

When I first heard of the BlackBerry slider I was skeptical of its potential. In general I prefer either the old style BlackBerry, were the face is split between the keyboard and the screen, or a full touchscreen device. Slider/touchscreen devices always struck me as bulky and unnecessary. The BlackBerry Torch has changed my tune.

I find this device, along with the new OS, far more intuitive than previous BlackBerry models. The change from SurePress to a more traditional touchscreen helps a lot, but so does the new operating system. I actually wonder how it will translate to a non-touch device, because it feels like it was made for the touchscreen. Everything on the device is easily accessible, and if you have problems finding anything you can easily track it down using universal search.

The addition of Social Feeds is probably my favorite new feature, since it takes care of so much in one place. The drop-down universal messages menu also adds a lot to the OS, since it basically takes all of your new messages and puts them in one easy to reach place. Since messaging is the first and foremost priority of the BlackBerry platform, I’d say that this was a successful implementation.

If I were in the position to select a device for the next two years and didn’t mind going with AT&T’s service, I can’t do anything but recommend the BlackBerry Torch. It brings wholesale changes to the BlackBerry platform while retaining its best features.

What’s next?

I touched on tons of features in this review, but I obviously did not hit on everything. There will surely be questions, not only about what I reviewed but about things that I did not hit. Leave your questions in the comments, and I’ll try to compile them into a follow-up review for next week.

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Review of the BlackBerry Torch 9800

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Review of the BlackBerry Torch 9800