Reasons I appreciate my Blackberry.

Having bought and tried the iPhone 3g for a week recently made me think about the features of my Blackberry that I like. I thought I'd share them with you.

 

1. The ability to set different ring volumes/vibrates/flashes for every conceivable notification.


2. Being able to set the above dependant if the Blackberry is in its holster or not.


3. Great one handed use. I can reply to an email, take a photo all with one hand if I wish.


4. The flashing led on the case. I can have this flash red when I have a new message etc.


5. The magnet sensor which locks the phone when I drop it in the holster. No button to put on/off.


6. Quick home page view of new emails/sms, calendar events, missed calls. Includes preview.


7. 2 convinience keys I can program how I want. One takes photo, the other chooses profile.


8. Mini USB charger, no special leads needed.


9. Good battery life, several days with medium use.


10. Email comes in, remove from holster in 10 seconds and the email/sms is opened for you.


11. Trackball. I can navigate around the whole phone by moving this and pressing it to select.


12. Blackberry Messenger. Shows full status of IM, i.e. tick=sent, (D)elivered,  (R)ead.


13. Google Talk and Google Maps native apps.

Ok, so there are more I am sure. Now here are some things I don't like about my Blackberry.

1. Lack of many native applications. Getting better but not great by any means.


2. No 3g. My 8320 Curve has no 3g, I plan on getting the Bold soon which will strike this off.


3. Expensive cost of having BES provisioned. Some networks charge £25 pm for this.


4. No GPS. My 8320 Curve has no GPS, the Bold will fix this.

 

The best phone for business. Ever.

  That's apple's bold claim for the iPhone 3g! How can they make this statement when the phone does not even include such basic functions as copy & paste, search and dial from calendar entries.

I'm sure you will agree its a very bold and sweeping statement, one which is typical of Apple it seems. During my week with the iPhone hooked up to my Exchnage 2007 server, I could not see a way to invite an attendee to a calendar event, nor could I see a way to set a default reminder time of 15 mins on events? The iPhone does not support any form of notes synchronisation with Exchange nor does it even include a tasks application.

Yes you can get your email and partial calendar events pushed and sync'd with Exchange server but I think thats just about where any  business use of the iPhone ends.