The BlackBerry Thread

[MrMastodonFarm]

Thanks. Just wasn't sure how'd they do it. Didn't know they could tell when it's tethered.

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by MotoRacer

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

Do they currently have iPhone or Android users? If so, there's a good chance you don't need to wait for BES, since it does ActiveSync.

[Azure]

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?

Well, with MTS they do it because they don't have a proper billing system setup so you the can track usage.

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by MrMastodonFarm

Thanks. Just wasn't sure how'd they do it. Didn't know they could tell when it's tethered.

Some carriers will use a different APN for tethered mode, others will do deep packet inspection and look at the browser identifier header on HTTP requests, they can examine TTL on the packet (since it goes one more hop from the originating device, via the phone, to the network), etc.

There's a bunch of ways they can figure it out.

[psicodude]

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

Do they currently have iPhone or Android users? If so, there's a good chance you don't need to wait for BES, since it does ActiveSync.

We decided to say screw the BES exactly for this reason. Unless you need to push apps and/or policies, there is no point. We have about 5 Z10's in the environment now and they all work perfectly off Activesync. Setup was pretty much identical to Android/iOS as you would expect.

[Barnes]

My Fido app displays tethered data as well as phone data usage separately. Thankfully it all comes out of my 6GB bucket (for now).

[sclitheroe]

NHL GameCenter Live is out as a native app for the Z10. Runs great, pretty happy to have a 3GB data plan.

Can MLB At Bat be far behind? Sure hope not!

[Cheese]

Getting my Z10 next week. Love what I'm seeing and hearing about it.

[sclitheroe]

Latest OS update has greatly improved battery life on the Z10. I didn't have complaints previously, but I definitely notice that its lasting longer between chargers. It was looking like a every-night recharge for me previously (which is unusual given my usage patterns), but now it's every other day or so, the same as my iPhone 4 was.

[chemgear]

http://gizmodo.com/5988920/blackberr...-ever-be-there

After all, BlackBerry did say at launch this past January that BlackBerry World had over 70,000 apps for its latest operating system. Not too bad. But really, which of the most obvious and popular apps on Android, iOS, and even Windows Phone might you see on BB10? Here's the full rundown, straight from the developer's mouths.

[burn_baby_burn]

Sucks that the only BlackBerry that offers MLB At Bat 2013 is BB10. Our house has been able to get rid of two out of three BlackBerry's so far in the past couple months. The only one left is my work phone. Hopefully my company see's the light and gives us something better to use in the future (management team all have iPhones).

[drPepper1]

Just picked up the z10, liking it quite a bit from the galaxy s2 (also a great device). It feels like an actual phone, not a gimmicky toy. The hub is awsome, along with the ability to multitask. Only downside i've noticed so far is lack of apps, my bank app and netflix are the two i'd like to see on there. Instagram and skype I could careless for. Also their Maps can use some improvement, but it does offer google maps at the app store for about $5.00. Also new flick text is pretty sweet, coming from using swype text.

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by drPepper1

Also new flick text is pretty sweet, coming from using swype text.

The best part is how it learns words and phrases you use frequently when selecting what words to present on the keyboard - I've had a couple times now where I've been able to flick almost complete sentences (which maybe says something about the creativity of my communications, but regardless..)

[browna]

Anyone get the Q10 today? Seeing as my work phone (Bold) work is starting to need more battery pulls than usual, thinking I can make the issue sound more dire, and acclerate the process into a new one from work.

All the reviews sound pretty good, can't imagine, outside of some features that will taking getting used to, that it'd be anything more than a step up.

[TurnedTheCorner]

When does Wind get it? I imagine not til later in May or early June. I may look into it then.

[sclitheroe]

We deployed BES 10 at work, and my Z10 is now configured for Blackberry Balance. I have never been a big fan of mobile device management software on personal devices, but I really like how this is implemented compared to iOS.

Essentially, you have two user accounts running at once, and you can toggle between them, with different wallpapers, different apps, different sets of documents, etc. It's not terribly interesting - it really is two user accounts under the hood, since QNX is a multi-user OS at it's core (iOS is too, but Apple exposes none of this to developers or users. In fact, many processes on iOS run under different user accounts under the hood)

What gets me though, is the way the Balance feature works with the Hub, and mail/contacts/calendars/tasks/etc - when the work side of the phone is locked, all of my work stuff just melts away, and all I see in the hub is my personal stuff, with a small banner at the top indicating that the Work side is locked (and how many new items are hiding behind that lock). Click on it, enter my password, and all of the work stuff folds back into the hub, in correct chronological order. When I'm not at work, the phone is purely a personal device - all the work stuff is hidden away out of view, but available should I need it.

It's smooth, quick, and has been stable - it's really, really well implemented. I would have thought it would be a major memory/performance pig, but as far as I can tell, the device isn't using any more RAM than normal (I normally have 1GB of RAM free after a clean boot, and I've got the same reported with Balance enabled) There's other things I haven't explored (because we're not really leveraging them) like a company app store (via BB App world on the Work side of the device), but overall in my usage so far I'm quite impressed.

[Rathji]

So you need to unlock it twice to access work stuff, or is it a separate login?

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by Rathji

So you need to unlock it twice to access work stuff, or is it a separate login?

You can do it one of a couple ways. You can have a phone passcode, plus the work passcode, or you can tie the work space passcode to the phone passcode, making it a single passcode. You can also have the personal space with no passcode, but the work stuff passcoded.

Having no phone passcode, but a work passcode is neat - swipe up any time on the phone and boom your in with no typing. If/when you need the sensitive work stuff, you just unlock that.

The passcode entry is one weak spot on the current version of the OS - instead of a large "dial pad" like you get on iOS, you get the stock keyboard, so even with a 4 digit pin, the tap targets are much smaller, so it's a little slower to get into than an iphone with its big numbers.

[Rathji]

That's not too bad. With those options you pretty much anyone would get something that doesn't annoy them.

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by Rathji

That's not too bad. With those options you pretty much anyone would get something that doesn't annoy them.

Yeah, I really like having swipe to unlock with no passcode into personal stuff, and then passcode into the work stuff if i want it.