The BlackBerry Thread

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by Azure

So Blackberry Hub is where you can get all your messages, social networking alerts, emails, etc, etc on ONE app? Because I would love that.

Exactly that. It's always running (no launch time waiting), and accessible from everywhere with the little j-hook swipe. Begin to swipe up, and you get the "peek" which is a set of icons on the left side corresponding to the unread counts for the various services. If you want to look at them, continue the gesture to the right to go into hub, or just let go, and you fade back into whatever app you were in.

Even more interesting, going forward, is that 3rd party apps can hook into the Hub as well for alerts, notifications, content, etc. Imagine RSS integration, or a PodCast app that is Hub driven, severe weather alerts, etc.

Sounds like it would be a mess (and in the default view it could be if you're a super-high volume user), but you can narrow down your view to a per-app or service view with two taps, and I've also discovered that you can go into a tree-view of all your services, and drill down and navigate that way. For example, you can navigate down the folder structure of your email, and then right below it, navigate through your Twitter mentions/dm's/sent items, etc.

It's also got all kinds of niceties you won't get on say the stock iOS apps - I particularly like being able to select an item, or a date divider, and select "mark unread below", which marks everything before that point in time as read. So it's super quick in the morning to look at email, twitter, facebook, etc, action the high importance stuff, and dump the rest as read.

It's pretty cool, and like I said earlier, a hugely refreshing change from chasing down alerts among 7-8 apps that might or might not be on one screen on iOS.

[OldDutch]

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

It's pretty cool, and like I said earlier, a hugely refreshing change from chasing down alerts among 7-8 apps that might or might not be on one screen on iOS.

Thanks for all this info. Great to see another solid alternative option to iOS, Windows, and Android.

I have thought all along that Apple still makes the best hardware hands down. iOS is very long in the tooth though, and could be the undoing of Apple. It is so stale, I would rate it as functional only now. Live tiles are common, and Apple has yet to get that integrated. The notification system in iOS is bolt on, and not really all that useful. The lock screen is blank, and con't be customized.

Just like BB, evolution is leaving Apple behind. Unless iOS 7 is a major upgrade iOS is going to start to enter inferior territory just like BB did.

I may not buy a BB, and I by no means think these features are killer to get them out of 3rd place. I mean just look at Palm Pre to see how a great OS didn't connect enough to save it. However, I am glad we have these innovators out there to help push forward mobile OS design. In the end, we all win.

[sclitheroe]

Cool discovery of the day - using file manager, you can select a bunch of files and add them to a zip file, which you can then email, copy to Dropbox (which is just another folder basically in file manager), etc.

I know, I know, Android has probably had this forever (although I don't know), but I thought it was pretty neat.

[sclitheroe]

Another cool discovery today - Contacts. Same as iOS, your contacts have all their affiliated services linked up, so the device knows who is on twitter, facebook, linkedin, etc.

Where it gets seriously cool though is that there are two more tabs for each contact - the first is the Updates tab, which shows all of their activity on social networks lately (eg. tweets, facebook posts, status updates, etc). The second tab though is killer - Activity. This shows all of your interactions with them, such as emails back and forth, phone calls, texts, upcoming appointments/meetings with them, etc.

Really neat (and just a little bit stalkerish to click on a contact just before a meeting and see everything that's been going on, but I guess that's why people share)

[Slava]

Can it make its own WiFi hotspot?

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by Slava

Can it make its own WiFi hotspot?

Yes, I just checked.

[onetwo_threefour]

Originally Posted by Slava

Can it make its own WiFi hotspot?

Even my Torch 9810 on BB7 could do that, so that's not new...

[Slava]

Originally Posted by onetwo_threefour

Even miy Torch 9810 on BB7 could do that, so that's not new...

Oh, sorry. Mine is a little older and can't do it! I am debating about an upgrade here and just wanted to be sure that I can connect my tablet....otherwise its back to the Playbook regardless.

[onetwo_threefour]

I wasn't calling you out. My buddy had the Torch 9800 and I don't think his could make a hotspot, while my 9810 could. Was just mentioning it as BB wasn't quite as far behind the curve as some people think.... The 9800 was a real lemon as far as I can tell. He picked up the Z10 on day one because he's been pulling his hair out with the 9800 for 18 months. I'm actually sticking with the 9810 for now as I still don't trust the screen keyboard, although I do like the haptic feedback and might play around with his phone to see if I think I can get used to it. Right now though, I'm still more or less perfectly happy with the functionality of my 9810.

My 9810 hotspot works quite well, allows my wife and kid's iPhones and wife's iPad to connect and works well.( and my Playbook of course)

[burn_baby_burn]

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

Other stuff in no particular order:

What is the camera like? I know by the spec's it is much improved over the 9900. However, I like how the camera with the trackpad can be used with one hand. I used my wife's iPhone 5 recently to take a bunch of pictures on vacation and thought it was horrible to use. Maybe I just need to get used to it, but I really didn't like the pinch to zoom and then running my finger along the slider.

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by burn_baby_burn

What is the camera like? I know by the spec's it is much improved over the 9900. However, I like how the camera with the trackpad can be used with one hand. I used my wife's iPhone 5 recently to take a bunch of pictures on vacation and thought it was horrible to use. Maybe I just need to get used to it, but I really didn't like the pinch to zoom and then running my finger along the slider.

This guy has some great pics shot with the Z10:
http://jtinseoul.wordpress.com/

His two most recent blog posts are shot with the Z10, the older ones past the black and white transit shots are mostly shot on a Canon 5D.

I haven't played around enough with the time shift and stuff to really have a good opinion, but I can say it's a huge step up quality wise from the iPhone 4. It doesn't have the HDR or panoramic modes of the iPhone 5 (although the HDR mode is no great loss, it tended to look worse almost every time I used it compared to the normal version)

[burn_baby_burn]

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

This guy has some great pics shot with the Z10:
http://jtinseoul.wordpress.com/

His two most recent blog posts are shot with the Z10, the older ones past the black and white transit shots are mostly shot on a Canon 5D.

I haven't played around enough with the time shift and stuff to really have a good opinion, but I can say it's a huge step up quality wise from the iPhone 4. It doesn't have the HDR or panoramic modes of the iPhone 5 (although the HDR mode is no great loss, it tended to look worse almost every time I used it compared to the normal version)

Toronto looks pretty bleak. Or at least through his lense.

[Azure]

Being able to make your own WiFi Hotspot is great, except if your carrier doesn't allow it which a lot don't.

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by burn_baby_burn

Toronto looks pretty bleak. Or at least through his lense.

Yeah for sure.

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by Azure

Being able to make your own WiFi Hotspot is great, except if your carrier doesn't allow it which a lot don't.

Which Canadian carriers don't allow it, just out of curiosity? I've always had it with both Telus and Rogers.

[Azure]

MTS doesn't allow it.

Unless of course you pay 'extra.'

[MrMastodonFarm]

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

Which Canadian carriers don't allow it, just out of curiosity? I've always had it with both Telus and Rogers.

Yup. I've seen this being an issue in the States but haven't heard any in Canada. How would a carrier limit this anyways?

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by Azure

Being able to make your own WiFi Hotspot is great, except if your carrier doesn't allow it which a lot don't.

unless you're on Android and rooted, so you can setup a mobile hotspot regardless of what the carrier tries to enforce. does the Blackberry have any kind of rooting or jailbreaking method?

[MotoRacer]

Waiting for work to upgrade BES then get the z10. tick tock tick tock

[Anduril]

Originally Posted by MrMastodonFarm

Yup. I've seen this being an issue in the States but haven't heard any in Canada. How would a carrier limit this anyways?

They would be able to tell that your data is being used to tether other things and would then change your appropriately.