No iPhone For Me
As I mentioned in my last post, I had been anxiously awaiting this year’s MacWorld keynote in hopes of finally getting some news on Apple’s upcoming cell phone. You see, my Nokia 3650 has been getting a bit long in the tooth and I’ve been looking for something newer for quite some time. But I waited as rumors of an upcoming phone from Apple persisted. I’d wait and at least see if MacWorld shed any light on these rumors.
The Pearl
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you have, by now, heard that indeed the iPhone was announced and was initially hailed as the single greatest invention ever, dethroning 79 year champ “Sliced Bread“. Personally, I’m more partial to sliced bread. Sliced bread doesn’t cost $600 and doesn’t require a service agreement with Cingular. Still, the iPhone certainly looks to be quite a bit better than my old Nokia, right?
More details regarding the iPhone emerged during the week. Details such as: No removable battery, no expansion slot, and most damaging, no support for third party apps. Ow. And iPhone only comes with 8GB of memory max, so it isn’t going to be able to replace both my iPod and cell phone.
So the iPhone isn’t looking like the phone for me… sniff. On the bright side, that means I can upgrade my phone now! And so I did. After careful consideration, I am a proud new member of the Crackberry club.
I’ve never really understood the BlackBerry appeal, I wasn’t even sure that they were actually phones or just messaging devices. Obviously I don’t follow this stuff closely. During my phone search, I stumbled across the BlackBerry Pearl aka 8100, and it’s perfect. Has most all the features I want (note to Sling Media: please support BlackBerry!) in an attractive and reasonably sized package with a respectable user interface. And it does all this for $600 – $300 less than the iPhone (YMMV) and you don’t have to wait 6 months to get one.
You have to admit that the iPhone looks pretty good, and great for itunes, ipod, and I!
Why the Blackberry rather than a Treo? It can do the email stuff without having to tie yourself to RIM (any IMAP or POP3 will do) plus there’s all that other 3rd party software… and Slingplayer supports it.
Why the Blackberry rather than a Treo?
I’ve got nothing against the Treo really. Seems like a great device also, but I was looking more for a phone that has PDA capabilities versus a PDA that has phone capabilities… if that makes sense.
Look at the dimensions of Treo 700/750: 113mm x 58mm x 23mm which doesn’t include the big antenna thingy on some of those models. Versus the Pearl: 107mm x 50mm x 14.5mm. For comparison, the iPhone measures 115mm x 61mm x 11.6mm. So it’s thinner, but larger in every other dimension.
Any email account can be added to BlackBerry’s email service. There is no requirement to use the blackberry.net address. I can monitor up to 10 email addresses. I’m currently using 5. And this is all via push. No need to poll a server periodically.
Slingplayer support wasn’t really critical. My wife uses it more than I. But if I just have to watch something I can connect to the net thru the Pearl via Bluetooth / EDGE. Still, there is plenty of software for the Pearl on Handango. I’ve already installed a few apps, including an AIM client and eBook reader.
You have to admit that the iPhone looks pretty good
I will readily admit that the iPhone looks phenomenal. However, I’ve opted for a little more substance over style.
I, too, like what I’ve seen of the Pearl. It’s become the phone of choice at Sabre. However, my favorite hobby is genealogy — Palm and PocketPC both offer software. I don’t find anything for Blackberry. Do you know of 3rd party software programs for the Blackberry? Appreciate it.
Blick
I don’t see any genealogy software for RIM devices over at Handango, so yeah it seems like your out of luck there. All of my genealogy data entry is done online via the TNG software installed on my host, and so, if I were a very determined I could perhaps update information using a browser on the Pearl. I can’t imagine reaching that level of determination however 🙂