Verizon Wireless Phones Get A Lift With The Blackberry Storm
2010
The 1st Blackberry came onto the scene in 1999, ushering in a new age in electronic combo devices. The Blackberry (before Blackberry Cellular Phones was originaly intended as a complicated pager. But its local messaging system was so effective that it earned a rabid cult following to the point of Webster’s New World School Compendium naming “crackberry” as the “New Word of the Year”. RIM’s latest, The BlackBerry Storm, is a shot at un-kinging the mighty iPhone, which appears to hold a strong grip on being the #1 selling mobile device. The Storm’s partner on this is Verizon, as it is being offered as part of Verizon Wireless, who is still reeling from its mistake of turning down Steve Jobs’ iPhone (Verizon as a carrier). If Verizon is trying to make up for losing the iPhone, at least it’s heading in the right direction. The Storm offers a widescreen touchscreen interface that has much of the same features as the iPhone but with some improvement for the touchscreen display. The outcome of these betterments are mixed. Not like the normal keyboard, the onscreen buttons are not able to keep up with terribly fast typing. Thumbing addicts, used to the old Blackberry style may not be in a position to rattle off messages with the same accuracy and speed.
The clickthrough interface needs a good bit of practice if you want to become accustomed to pushing the touch-sensitive screen down until there’s a click, in complete contrast to the seamless interactivity offered by the iPhone.
Similarly, as your finger is on it, the blue highlight confirming a given button’s active status is hard to see.
So if it is or is not to go down in history as a minor design issue or an all out error, is still to be determined. Last and maybe least of all, this Blackberry also doesn’t have the predictive spelling aid functions that the iPhone does. If you are a bad speller, the Blackberry isn’t going to be much of a safety net for you. The browser renders HTML completely and quickly, with context delicate page drag features enabling you to move around a given internet page. The only gripe here is that form fields are a little inconvenient to fill out. Though the browser has won high grades, the lack of Wi-Fi on telephones is rather mysterious. While Verizon’s EV-DO coverage is wonderful, there are many circumstances under which Wi-Fi would have been very useful. As for the robust, commercial design, Blackberry gets the thumbs up.
The payoff for leaving the tactile key board and trademark trackball behind is a faster, flatter, 3.25 in. awesome glass face. 4 familiar Blackberry keys lie at the base of the telephone, they are: Telephone , Menu, Back, and End / Power. The cellular device also comes provided with a mini USB key and 3.5mm headset jack. One possible drawback of the design concerns whether metal construction is superior to plastic. The phone is joined with the even so wonderful Verizon (for cellular service coverage) will keep the Storm well positioned in the race to cell phone king.