New year comes with changes, and one of those changes is going to be my Blackberry. Yup, I’m finally getting rid of it. I’ve had my Blackberry for 1.5 years now, and I think it’s time to let it go. What instigated this thought? Well I actually had no intention to switch my phone till next year (when I’m eligible for a hardware upgrade). But my Dad switched to the iPhone 4 a few months ago, and so an old iPhone 3G was lying around. I figured I’d try it out for a bit. Honestly, it was a love/hate thing. There were some awesome things that the iPhone had, but also some things that I missed in the Blackberry. What I realized was this: My Blackberry does serve me well, but unfortunately it’s not worth to keep it for what I’m paying for my phone service. Personally, I think iPhone sucks as well, but it does allow me to do much, much more than I can currently with my Blackberry. Ideally I want to switch over to Android, which I’ll hopefully do so in the summer. But for now, let me tell you the reasons why Blackberry just isn’t good enough to keep.
1) Blackberry apps suck. Yup it’s true. After using an iPhone for about a month now, I realize how much the Blackberry apps suck:
Facebook: Pretty much the only thing the Blackberry version of Facebook is good for is the main mini-feed and replying to messages. You can’t do anything else (not functionally at least). It’s not a big, big deal, as I don’t even use Facebook as much anymore. But some features on the iPhone is handy at times though. In the Blackberry version, the photo viewer sucks, you can’t view groups, you can’t view lists of events, and even in the events that you can see, you can’t see simple things like guest list. Also, there’s also no Facebook chat in the Blackberry version.
Twitter: Twitter is ok on Blackberry. But on iPhone, replies and direct messages come instantly, whereas in Blackberry there’s a 30 minute delay. Also, it’s also much faster to browse from user to user in the iPhone version.
Tumblr: Oh man Tumblr. I use Tumblr quite a lot (if you’re reading this post, then you know). In fact, I think I check Tumblr more than I check Facebook. On the Blackberry, you can’t see your Tumblr dashboard! You can post stuff, but what if you’re out and you just want to check out new posts on Tumblr by your friends? You have to go to mobile-web version, which is really slow and ugly.
RSS: I use Google-Reader for reading all my news, and the fact that there’s no Google Reader app for the Blackberry, sucks. I’m using “Reeder” on the iPhone, and it’s pretty aweome. I can read my news on the go, and because it syncs with Google Reader, when I get home, the items that I’ve already read are marked as read on my computer too.
Google Maps: Although Google Maps exists on the Blackberry, it’s soooooo much faster on the iPhone.
YouTube: Yeah, YouTube sucks on the Blackberry, there’s nothing more to say. The quality is horrible, the search function is basically non-existent, and for some reason there are problems with playing videos over Wi-Fi for me.
Skype: Why is there no Skype on the Blackberry? None at all. With the iPhone I can turn on Skype and dial numbers/talk like any other phone call.
2) I can do more awesome things using the iPhone. These are clearly extra, but it is nice to have at times.
Screenshots: You can take screen-shots of the phone so easily on the iPhone - in fact you don’t even need an extra app or anything. I don’t use it a lot, but there are times where I’ve used it, and wished it existed on the Blackberry too.
Remote Control App: I love this app. With it you can control your iTunes library, on your computer, using the iPhone. This is really handy when you’re lying in bed, it’s really cold, and you just don’t want to get up yet (but it’d be nice to listen to some tunes). You can just start this app, select some music, and it’ll play out of your computer (well out my speakers in my case - which are connected to my computer). This is the same for when you’re about to sleep, and you’re all comfortable cocooned in your blanket - you can just turn off the music using the iPhone.
Remote Access: It’s pretty awesome that you can remote access files on your computer right from the iPhone. Sometimes you need a document, and you know where it is on your computer, but you just don’t have it on you. You can just start up an app and get it.
Reply to SMS via Computer: This is so awesome. When I get a text message, there’s a pop-up on the computer. I can just click it to reply to the text using my computer. This is pretty handy, and so much faster than typing it out on the phone.
Cool Camera Apps: The camera, even though is worse than the Blackberry, spits out such better pictures. Plus there are all those apps that make it look all funky. (All three images were taken with the iPhone)
Camera Tethering: Probably one of the coolest things I have ever seen. You can take a picture using your dSLR, and have the pictures automatically and wirelessly sent over to the iPhone. You can then upload that on to Facebook/Twitter/wherever you want - instantly. Check out the video here (skip to 30 seconds) :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H84EpXXcG_o
Games: Although I’m not much of a games person, there are those random times where you’re on the bus, or just waiting in line somewhere, where you just want to play a quick game. The games are sooo much better (and more colourful) on the iPhone, than Blackberry - which unfortunately only has brick breaker :( (They have Sonic the Hedgehog for iPhone!)
GPS: Although I already have a GPS set in my car, the GPS Apps for iPhone are a billion times better than the Blackberry.
Contacts Management: The apps for contact management are so much better on the iPhone. I have a lot of contacts/emails on my phone. With the iPhone I can easily split them into groups, and send specific groups a mass text, or a mass email.
Pocket dialing doesn’t happen: I guess this is with all touch screen phones that use a capacitive screen: You won’t accidentally pocket dial someone - which unfortunately has happened a lot on my Blackberry -_-
But despite all these things about the iPhone, Blackberry must have something good right? Otherwise why would anyone use it? Well it’s true, there are some good things are Blackberry:
1) BBM: Sad but true. There’s just no BBM replacement. It’s such a simple concept, and you would think it would be so easy to replicate. But nope, BBM is still king of all instant messengers. It’s so much faster than text. It’s easy to send photos/audio notes.
HOWEVER, with that being said. There are some good BBM alternatives. Whatsapp (currently what I’m using) and Kik messenger are both great. These were the apps I was waiting for, to switch over.
2) Email: Yup, Blackberry is an email phone, and it does that very well. It’s fast, responsive and just always on. I send and receive a lot of emails everyday, and so this is really important.
However! With the iPhone I can bear with it now. It’s pretty fast, and ever since GMail introduced Push Email, I get all my emails instantly too - which is a good thing.
3) Keyboard: Now this is a love/hate thing. Yes on one hand it is really fast and comfortable, but I don’t care so much about keyboards anymore. Good thing about touch is that you can type with one hand, where as in a keyboard, you really need both hands. Also, I find it hard to type in the cold on the keyboard (my fingers get stiff), whereas with touch, you don’t have to press down hard at all, so it’s pretty good.
4) Multitasking: Yup blackberry has multitasking down. iPhone, not so much (actually not at all). Oh well..
For all those reasons above, no more Blackberry for me. Just so you know, Android can do all those things listed above (plus more), but iPhone will just have to suffice for now :)
