Saturday, February 28, 2009
STORM -in
I've had a cell phone for years. I always liked the look of the iPhone, but I don't like the network of ATT. Drops a lot of calls around where I live. I prefer Verizon, which drops virtually no calls anywhere. At least, that's been my experience. So, imagine my joy when Verizon began offering the Blackberry Storm. They're the first wireless company do offer it, but I doubt that they'll stay exclusive forever. It's just too cool.
Okay, we paid $150 for two of them. On top of that, since I'm a teacher, I get %35 off my monthly bill for my phone. When you add in that our youngest just started paying for her own phone (and removed herself from our plan) we now have added unlimited web surfing for about the same money we were paying for three lines. Nice.
The phone is touch screen and works like a charm. I loaded the Blackberry desktop software and discovered that I can put all of my music on the Blackberry as well as on the computer. It's a really nice music player, and it plays all formats. It even has an application that syncs with your ITunes folders, but as I generally use Media Player (laziness, really) I probably won't load it. The player sounds really, really good through headphones (I can't use ear buds due to hearing aids) or through the stereo I normally plug my computer into. All of my music, and all of my playlists, are available in their normal configuration. Is that cool or what?
There are other applications too, of course. For instance, when I turn off my copy of Outlook I get my email on the Blackberry. And I can surf the Internet all I want, the real Internet just like the iPhone talks about, plus there are quite a few, and getting to be more, applications available for downloading. It came with two games: a word game and a brick breaking game. There is a GPS application included, but Verizon charges extra for it, so I'll probably never use it. There's also Visual Voice Mail, plus you can view and edit common MS Office documents using the Blackberry. Honestly, I don't recommend editing, because of the small keyboard, but you can do it. I tried it and it worked. With the desktop software you can transfer any sort of application or data easily between the phone and your desktop. For instance, I dragged an mp3 file into the Ringtones directory, and was able to choose it with no editing or tweaking involved.
The Storm has a couple of gig of built-in memory, and comes with a 7 gigabyte mini SD card. There's also a SIM card, so if you travel to Europe, you've still got your phone. Or, if you're going to be staying there a while, you can put a different company's SIM card in and use their network. Try that with your iPhone! In America, it's a very good CDMA phone by default, but you can use another network at the same time if you want to. Again, try that with your iPhone!
The Blackberry Storm once again demonstrates, for me, how Apple depends more on slickness than substance to sell it's products. In terms of features, this one is actually better because you can use different networks. And the cost isn't even in the same neighborhood. By the way, Blackberry Storm works with a Mac, if you're interested.
Steve
Okay, we paid $150 for two of them. On top of that, since I'm a teacher, I get %35 off my monthly bill for my phone. When you add in that our youngest just started paying for her own phone (and removed herself from our plan) we now have added unlimited web surfing for about the same money we were paying for three lines. Nice.
The phone is touch screen and works like a charm. I loaded the Blackberry desktop software and discovered that I can put all of my music on the Blackberry as well as on the computer. It's a really nice music player, and it plays all formats. It even has an application that syncs with your ITunes folders, but as I generally use Media Player (laziness, really) I probably won't load it. The player sounds really, really good through headphones (I can't use ear buds due to hearing aids) or through the stereo I normally plug my computer into. All of my music, and all of my playlists, are available in their normal configuration. Is that cool or what?
There are other applications too, of course. For instance, when I turn off my copy of Outlook I get my email on the Blackberry. And I can surf the Internet all I want, the real Internet just like the iPhone talks about, plus there are quite a few, and getting to be more, applications available for downloading. It came with two games: a word game and a brick breaking game. There is a GPS application included, but Verizon charges extra for it, so I'll probably never use it. There's also Visual Voice Mail, plus you can view and edit common MS Office documents using the Blackberry. Honestly, I don't recommend editing, because of the small keyboard, but you can do it. I tried it and it worked. With the desktop software you can transfer any sort of application or data easily between the phone and your desktop. For instance, I dragged an mp3 file into the Ringtones directory, and was able to choose it with no editing or tweaking involved.
The Storm has a couple of gig of built-in memory, and comes with a 7 gigabyte mini SD card. There's also a SIM card, so if you travel to Europe, you've still got your phone. Or, if you're going to be staying there a while, you can put a different company's SIM card in and use their network. Try that with your iPhone! In America, it's a very good CDMA phone by default, but you can use another network at the same time if you want to. Again, try that with your iPhone!
The Blackberry Storm once again demonstrates, for me, how Apple depends more on slickness than substance to sell it's products. In terms of features, this one is actually better because you can use different networks. And the cost isn't even in the same neighborhood. By the way, Blackberry Storm works with a Mac, if you're interested.
Steve
Labels: Reviews
