Fri, 28 Nov 2008 Stephen Fry & David Pogue slam the BlackBerry Storm

RG said on Fri, 28 Nov 2008

finally...someone with common sense an utter reality-check. Sorry RIM, iPhon interface will takeover, SNK beats anything on the market by five or more years..it's only a matter of time. People keep comparing phone with a real smart computer with a phone. RIM may produce smart phones, apple produces small factor computer which happens to have a phone built into it. Not quite the same thing. I wish I could see a Crash Bandicot running on any RIM...hummm not, but then again, for the RIM worshippers...Mail on the iPhone beats any RIM lookalikes single handed, safari browsing...please...show me a RIM competitor for browsing whit such use. Stop the nonsense, RIM is a good product, but the iPhone is way in another category with no close competitor onsigth as of two years of its introduction to the market...because its a computer not a smart phone..a whole new computer category !

hype said on Fri, 28 Nov 2008

@RG, I see a horrible pattern with you.

Crash Banicoot: Nitro Kart for the Pearl which was a Year ahead of the iphone: download-game.com/Crash_Bandicoot_Nitro_Kart.htm

Mail on the iPhone beats RIM? try having more than one mailbox, can you view all new messages in one window on the iPhone? HTML email is nothing new, and RIM has released OS 4.5 for all current devices to receive it on their current phones, as well as the storm and bold obviously do it now too.

safari is good. but not the best, it's lack of plug-in support makes Opera a great and very close competitor, with Firefox releasing their mobile browser too next year, you may see some better products sooner. It's not like the Safari browser is leaps and bounds ahead of the competition.

RIM's Storm is awful in their eye's because they directly assumed it's an iPhone. There are other reviews that rated it higher than the iPhone on CNET. Chill out man.

Mannie said on Fri, 28 Nov 2008

iPhone is anything but a good phone. It lacks more than it features.

The nokia 5800 is already making the iPhone silly. It can even forward texts!

Dragonfly said on Fri, 28 Nov 2008

The big problem with a lot of these iPhone wannabes is although they now look a little more like the iPhone, they've definitely raced ahead from where they were, they don't have the benefit of a great Operating system, 20 years in the making and great skills in User interface design.

I think the 5 year gap that Apple opened up in 2007 is definitely looking more like 3 years now, but of course Apple are developing the next generation as the other play catch up.

The current iPhone isn't perfect yet (view based on iPod touch experience), but not bad for a 2nd Generation product, Apple just need to make it better and, more importantly, more affordable to everyone !

I can see similarities to when the Mac was released, lets hope the 'PC copycats' out there don't end up the winners and that Apple remembers the long term importance and benefits of popularity over initial profit.

hype said on Fri, 28 Nov 2008

@Dragonfly,

You think the average iPhone user cares about OS. The iPod OS was very basic before the iPhone, and the possibility before the iPhone released of an iPod phone from apple already would have sold to the masses.

Apple's success in the phone market was a natural next step from evolving out of the mp3 market. It's not 20 years of OS in the making that lead them to success in the cell phone market, it's 7 years of mp3 playing that gave them their foot hold.

hype said on Fri, 28 Nov 2008

@Dragonfly,

You think the average iPhone user cares about OS. The iPod OS was very basic before the iPhone, and the possibility before the iPhone released of an iPod phone from apple already would have sold to the masses.

Apple's success in the phone market was a natural next step from evolving out of the mp3 market. It's not 20 years of OS in the making that lead them to success in the cell phone market, it's 7 years of mp3 playing that gave them their foot hold.

Jennie said on Fri, 28 Nov 2008

The problem with the iPhone is that it looks good but does not deliver the functionality.

In business it does not sell because of a massive lack of features.

PC "copycats" run industry and PC's are in over 90% of homes. Apple have a lot of catching up and enthusiasts like Fry are great to wheel out and slag off phones, but lets face it the iPhone is a fad and like all other fads it will be overtaken.

I am an iPhone owner but am already frustrated by its inabilities.

Sebhelyesfarku said on Fri, 28 Nov 2008

Wow, "high profile" Maczealots call a competitor product bad and awful. How surprising...

AdamC said on Sat, 29 Nov 2008

There is a market for every product so enjoy whatever you like and stop bashing others. Life is short.
Peace.

enzos said on Sat, 29 Nov 2008

On the contrary, Jenny, the iPhone is not only leading handily in the business-user satisfaction ratings, it is also eating rapidly into Blackberry's pie. www.alleyinsider.com/2008/11/blackberry-iphone-business

Vinnie said on Sat, 29 Nov 2008

No company worth it's money would touch an iPhone. No voice bluetooth so no mobile use, very limited texting abilities and security you can drive a bus through.

The iPhone is like a kids toy phone, lots of pictures and flashy graphics but no functionality - you just pay a lot more for the name.

Dragonfly said on Sat, 29 Nov 2008

"You think the average iPhone user cares about OS". No not specifically, but it doesn't hide the fact that OS X makes the iPhone work fast and slick and makes it extremely reliable (try using a Windows mobile phone, where the 'Reset" button gets used frequently to get you out of trouble, end call buttons that don't work every time, alarms that won't clear then you appreciate the good underpinnings of the iPhone much more).

hype said on Sat, 29 Nov 2008

Dragonfly, I hate Windows Mobile as well, it's because they were so xxxx that smartphone advancement was at a crawl, because they didn't push the envelope. I agree it's buggy.

However I prefer BlackBerry over Apple in my choice of fruit for handset productivity. Like Vinnie said, voice activated dialing, copy and paste and video come in handy on my line of work.

Fry's Boring said on Sat, 29 Nov 2008

I wonder how many Maczealots have really tried the Google phone OS (forget the phone, the OS is portable)? It makes the iPhone OS look very old already.

Jocca said on Sat, 29 Nov 2008

The iPhone is an international success because you can EASILY input all kind of special characters with its virtual keyboard. The Chinese handwriting characters input works extremely well and is simply the killer deal for a Chinese or Japanese nationals. I can write a letter in French a lot faster than on a computer because all the accented letters are available at the fingertip on the iPhone. Can the RIMM keyboards do the same thing as easily? I think not.

Henry said on Sat, 29 Nov 2008

@Vinnie
Bluetooth voice is there, has been since day 1.Limited texting? How? The best texting I've ever had. Security - Excellent. It's a real computer inside a phone that can be remotely wiped, totally secured PINs that can wipe on multiple failures. Inaccessibile data over USB. I can't think of a phone more secure.

I think all the nay-sayers, don't have an iPhone (even if they say they do). Clearly they are misinformed, or purposefully dumb, and are very rarely right.

The iPhone is a joy to use, super fast, the best browsing anywhere, the best email - try to see HTML email on a RIM phone (don't bother, even in the latest OS, it's horrible). The tariffs are great too - truly unlimited data, and bundled in OpenZone and the Cloud. Excellent.

Frank said on Sat, 29 Nov 2008

@Fry's boring: You want to tell us Android is superior to iPhone OS when you don't even remember its name?

It's always shocking that most people talk about things they have never even tried or took the time to make comparisons. There are features the iPhone prominently lacks (copy/paste, MMS, video recording etc.), yes. But what the iPhone actually does, it does it so well it's frightening. What I paid for when I got my iPhone is not so much the features - which are great - more than the best user experience out there. It makes every single time I use it so much more enjoyable.

Noel said on Sat, 29 Nov 2008

I played with a Storm at a local Verizon store and is was so slow that I couldn't type because I kept hitting the same key and then it would type all the characters at the same time. It was just way to slow. The other Storm phone that was on display locked up on a customer. He decided not get it because of all the bugs. I will wait for version two before I consider it.

hype said on Sat, 29 Nov 2008

@ jocca,

YES the RIM products have been doing international languages for ages! including you can change system fonts, and character inputs. God, it's like retards really believe the iPhone was first to bring a touch screen, internet, and character input. Get out of your box once in a while and take a look at the world around.

RIM is also not the only one able to do so.

DarrenSW said on Sun, 30 Nov 2008

I sold my Storm the first day - inconsistent UI, buggy software, sluggish OS - but I still choose my Curve 8310 over my iPhone every time.

Sean said on Sun, 30 Nov 2008

@hype.

So, I'm suppose to type in Arabic on a western keyboard? What about Japanese or Russian? That sounds like a horrible user experience. Thankfully, I own an iphone which changes the keyboard to match the current language I am using.

Steevo said on Sun, 30 Nov 2008

Isn't it funny that an article about a Blackberry causes all sorts of comments about the iPhone?
I agree with Frank. Talk about stuff you know - and products that you have tried for a decent length of time. That goes for both RIM products and Apple products...

Steve said on Sun, 30 Nov 2008

@Vinnie.
Do you really understand security? If so - please explain to me how an Opera browser is secure. And then tell me how the iPhone is not.

Steve said on Sun, 30 Nov 2008

@Vinnie.
Do you really understand security? If so - please explain to me how an Opera browser is secure. And then tell me how the iPhone is not.

Baskaran said on Mon, 01 Dec 2008

Killers keep coming to the market place (storm twist etc). That itself is an endorsement to the fact that iPhone offers more than what others offer.

hype said on Mon, 01 Dec 2008

@ sean,

Yep, and thankfully when you need to copy and paste that body of text from one page to another, you can do that in any language as well too.

Impressive though, you speak arabic, japanese and russian?

Thankfully I owned an iPhone only to remind me how much more productive a Blackberry was.

It's a good iPod though.

Andy said on Mon, 01 Dec 2008

Come on people! Get a grip!

Let's not forgot that either product is still just a mobile phone. Granted they are both smart phones so they both have functionality beyond simply making phone calls, but they point I'm trying to make is that they are just 2 products trying to take a piece of similar markets.

Everyone is different and so everyone will experience a difference user experience and therefore have a different preference. Everyone is equally entitled to share those opinions and should be able to do so without being critisised.

So many of the comments here seem to go way beyond the scope of discussion or debate and but fall into the category of scathing attack.

I own one of these products but I won't be making my preference known here.

Stephen Fry has his preference (having expereice with both products) but he did choose to make his known. Does that really just being called a high profile Maczealot?