Oct 15

BlackBerry Pearl Review: A Mac User's Perspective

Reviews 52 Comments »

Getting a new smart phone (Part 3)

BlackBerry Pearl

When I started seeing ads for the BlackBerry Pearl, I was sold. The form factor is just way too cool. Admittedly, while it is not the ultimate solution, the Pearl is worthy of a two-year contract signed with T-Mobile.

To recap, this journey started in 2004 when I suddenly needed a smart phone with a good e-mail client that could also sync with a Mac. Being terribly picky about compactness and ease of use with the BlackCoat-T, the only phone that I liked and would work was the BlackBerry7100. For $29 I got PocketMac for AddressBook and iCal syncability. Though PocketMac was a little buggy, this scenario did the trick for 15 months until it broke down and I switched to legacy mobile technology – the SMT 5600.

Why the BlackBerry Pearl? Did I mention the form factor is way cool? This little beast balances the right amount of performance, utility and good looks. Although the marketing is cheezy (Small. Smart and Stylish. So you can live large.), it meets most of my likings. Here is a run down:


Pros:


Style:
It needs no repeating; this phone has sex appeal! Black face with chrome trimmings – I like. Sure beats the robo man and rather cheap plastic feel of other RIM BlackBerries. Interestingly, the size/weight ratio gives this phone a great feel.

Performance:
The phone switches between applications in a snap and offers a MicroSD slot for added memory. This is a quad band phone and can be used anywhere in the world. The Pearl packs a 1.3 mega pixel camera with flash offering good overall photo quality. The media player (MP3 and video) is pretty good and I can see using it (songs you burn from CDs into iTunes can be transferred and played on the Pearl). You can designate any song as your ring tone for cheap and easy personalization.

Utility:
RIM still offers the best push e-mail on the planet. The small form factor makes this little guy easy to pack. (It works great with the BlackCoat-T, especially if you use a Bluetooth headset). Navigation is a breeze with Pearl’s GUI and luminescent track ball. Crisp and bright, the GUI is very pleasing with which to interact. There are four basic theme layouts to choose from depending on how you use your phone (I like the T-Mobile Zen theme because it offers a generous screen image and only my top 5 apps). Pearl has a sensor that changes the screen’s brightness depending on the lighting, which is a nice feature when viewing the phone outdoors. Yes, it syncs with iCal, AddressBook, and e-mail via a free PocketMac download now distributed via BlackBerry. It’s free and you get what you pay for (more on this later). Pearl will mount on your Mac so you can easily transfer files (NOTE: My Pearl mounted only when I added a 1GB MicsoSD card). Can you use Pearl as a modem for your Mac? Indeed you can! Using the phone as a Bluetooth modem is really easy and very useful for those times when you can’t find a WiFi network. Click here for more information on how to set it up. Bonus – the phone has a sweet little Maps application that provides super easy to read directions and can sync with a GPS device. Lastly, the web browser works well with T-Mobile’s edge network. Google has a mobile login page so you can get important RSS feeds, check the local weather, and much more.


Cons:


Style:
While Pearl’s stark detailing is nice, there is a more minimal feel that could be brought to the form of the device. For me there are a few abrupt transitions on the sides and face that make the phone feel less refined. The metallic look is good, but it’s not real metal. I’m from Cleveland and metal as color only is sort of cheap.

Performance:
The keypad sounds disappeared randomly when inserting and disconnecting the headphones? PocketMac is really buggy. Be sure to get a copy of SuperDuper and do a full back up. You should do this anyway. I lost ALL contacts in my AddressBook upon the initial sync! Because we have a few backup systems running, one of which is SuperDuper, I was up and running in minutes. T-Mobile’s Edge network is not nearly as fast as Sprint’s 3G and web access has some latency. Quite honestly it’s not that bad, but faster is better.

Utility:
For me, I had to make sure the Mac overwrote the phone on first sync with PocketMac. After that, it worked pretty well for iCal but not address book. When I had my Pearl and Mac sync with each other, the phone added dozens of duplicate groups for no reason. Very weird. Oh, you might not want to install the Safari bookmark tool – it didn’t work for me and crashed my Mac :-( .

(I can’t wait for Apple to add BlackBerry to iSync. This would solve everything!)

Overall, the BlackBerry Pearl works well, but is still a little buggy for those who want to sync it with their Mac (pretty much everyone). Although there will always be trade offs when getting a mobile device, I love my Pearl and it gets a lot of compliments. It’s by far the best mobile phone I have ever owned. And for $149 bucks, what’s not to love!

Oct 14

Too Much Choice?

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Here is a great video from TED featuring Barry Schwartz on the “Paradox of Choice.” He makes the point that choice is constantly on our minds and more choice leaves built-up expectations unfulfilled. Can it be true that this why there is more depression in a post-industrialized world? Are we really better off compared to people who have less choice? Decide for yourself.

Oct 12

Getting a new smart phone (Part 2)

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SDA MDA SMT 5600

Determined to find a smart phone with style, performance and utility, I searched and searched and searched until I went nuts missing phone calls and being away from e-mail for more than an hour. Not being completely satisfied with the BlackBerry 7100t’s form factor, I considered other options. Although having great compatibility with Macs, The Treo’s buttons are just too tiny for my liking and it was a little too heavy, as well. While I simply could not bear the thought of using anything associated with Windows, I decided to give Window’s Mobile 5 a shot; it was supposed to be new and improved over WM3.

Being a T-mobile customer, my options were the MDA and SDA. Just released, the demo model of the SDA was a real piece and the phone had way too many buttons. Form and function were really off and I was not impressed to say the least. As for the MDA, it is a brick (4.29″ x 2.28″ x 0.93″) in comparison to my BlackBerry 7100t. Anything over .75″ thick is too big for the front pocket; .5″ and less is optimal. However, it did pack quite a punch when it came to performance and functionality (at least it seemed so at the time) so I decided to give it a 14 day test drive (time period you can return the phone for a full refund).

Well, after 5 days I knew I was out of luck. I was able to sometimes connect via WiFi and enjoyed typing e-mails on the phone’s generous slide out key pad, but there were many short comings.

  • Windows 5 did not sync with Mac at the time and I was not about to type in all of my contacts. (Markspace.com has a great sync program that also allows you to mount the device on your Mac. Their sync programs are much better and less buggy than Pocketmac’s.
  • WiFi connectivity was mediocre unless one was connecting via a T-Mobile hotspot.
  • Battery life was reduced by 30% or so due to the large screen and using WiFi (I know this is a choice but it is still annoying).
  • No push e-mail.
  • Dialing from a touch screen ,when opening the key pad is not always a first option (i.e. when driving) can not be done without looking.
  • I just don’t like Windows Mobile 5. It’s clunky to work with, complicated, and still buggy.
  • Last but not least, I got a zit on my ear from using the touch screen with my fingers to dial out, check e-mail, etc., and then putting it to my ear to make calls. Ouch!

Do these device manufacturer’s observe people to understand how they are going to use their stuff?

In the end, the MDA had too much functionality (funktionality), and when used performance was compromised. Let’s not forget that this thing is a brick!

Unsatisfied with current US phone offerings (oh, they are way better everywhere else in the world), I decided to go with a 3 year old phone that ran Windows Mobile 3 and synced flawlessly with my Mac using MarkSpace’s sync program. The smallest smart phone of its time, the SMT 5600 would have to hold me over until I could find something that totally satisfied my form and function sensibilities. All in all, the SMT 5600 was easy to unlock for use on T-Mobile’s network and operated okay. (BTW – don’t buy any unlock programs on eBay until you have exhausted your FREE options on Google). It would have to do.

Well, the SMT 5600 DID sync with my Mac and WAS compact (4.24″ H x 1.82″ W x .69″). However, the camera was sub par (640 x 480 by May 2006 standards), the keys squeaked, and Windows Mobile 3 was super buggy. Give and take yet again… Will there every be a phone that integrates seamlessly with my digital life and sports my kind of form factor? Sheesh, I hope so. Stay tuned.

Oct 09

Mysterious Universe: Stretching the Mind and Imagination

The Future No Comments »

Yes, I know many of my friends would call me a bit of a whack job for posting this, but what they heck; I enjoy the paranormal and the scientifically inexplicable because I am a geek!

MU

This is really fun stuff! The Mysterious Universe show’s creator, Benjamin Grundy, does a very professional job pulling this podcast together with spectacular sound quality and great ambient background mixes. This is not to mention really interesting stories ranging from ancient phenomenon, ghosts, the Big Bang (quantum physics), and UFOs (always involving the US DOD in some way) to Big Foot. He keeps a well balanced position (as far as the paranormal is concerned) and seems to do a reasonable amount of research to qualify his stories story.

If you are a curious person, open to something a little bit out of the mainstream, check out this podcast. At a minimum, it’s terribly refreshing to here news not covering war, corporate scandals and politics.

Got a long trip planned, download a few podcasts from the following for a mix of tech, science, creativity, the future and spirituality:

Mysterious Universe
KCRW’s Left, Right & Center
PodTech.net
TedTalks
The Accidental Creative
??????????
All available on iTunes.

Oct 07

Archiving Life: Social Networking

The Future 2 Comments »

It is uncertain what the future will bare, and some people don’t get it, but Social Networking seems all the buzz these days.

Whatever your opinion, it sure does have the attention of millions of people, VCs and search engine companies (i.e. Google) alike, so it will most likely have a future or lead to something even bigger. Here is an article from the Financial Times on Google being ‘among suitors pursuing YouTube.’ Reportedly they are offering $1.5bn to $1.6bn. This is facinating to say the least!

This is a business model with tens of millions of people (understated) providing constant content to Social Networks (e.g. MySpace, Flickr, Digg) on the web. The sheer volume of participants and global virality of the web suggests that this is a very real phenomenon. Will it become a perpetual “reality tv” like program open to the planet, with interactive qualities rather than just pushing content? Is this the permanent digital archiving of our lives that will be a lasting memory of what we did, liked and thought about and will somehow be repurposed? Only time will tell. For now, it has a critical mass of participants, financiers and new products and will be around for at least 2 years in its current form.

Just think what the obituaries might be like in 60 years?

“Bob was a pioneer in internet social networking anthropology with breakthrough research in understanding the evolution of man’s and woman’s cerebral need to be in the matrix. He is survived by his wife, two dogs and bookmarks on Digg and del.icio.us…”

LOL

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