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After weeks of speculation and rumor, Verizon Wireless have finally come clean about the launch date for the BlackBerry Storm 9530. Come November 21st you’ll be able to pick up your own touchscreen RIM smartphone; question is, should you? SlashGear’s Storm will be landing imminently, and we want to make sure your questions about this potentially game-changing device get answered.
So, what do you want to know about the BlackBerry Storm? We already know about its trick ClickThrough touchscreen, but exactly how well does that work – and would RIM have been better off sticking with a simple capacitive panel like on the iPhone 3G? For many, the Apple device will be the benchmark against which the Storm is measured, so we’ll be spending plenty of time comparing the strengths and weaknesses of each.
Will you miss WiFi? Is the camera good enough? Have RIM lost their BlackBerry mojo along with their hardware keyboard? Don’t hold back: leave your questions in the comments and we’ll do the best that we can to answer them once the Storm drops.
![T-Mobile Dash 3G by HTC gets unboxed, first-impressions [Video]](http://www.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/thumbnails_150x100/thumb_t-mobile_dash_3g_htc_1-480x457.jpg){kind=small}
No matter how good this phone is with touch or software this phone will have issues.
Only diehard crackberry and spiteful PC Apple haters will buy this phone. Just cuz they HATE Apple. (A very narrow mindset in my opinion.) I use OSX, XP & Linux BTW.
Once these hard core Apple haters realize how bad the lag is on this thing they will get so frustrated with it …..but not tell a sole due to pride…..
But, THE REAL KICKER and Blaring omission is the lack of Wi-Fi. For the life of me I can not understand the reasoning for not including such a useful chip. My guess is expense.
BTW this thing will get real pricey once they realize that need to shell out for more storage.
No App Store @ this time can not help the launch.
iJah420 says Time will tell all. Just a little reminder to everyone….. OH HOW THEY LAUGHED @ iPod in 2001…. the #ers speak for themselves and iPod does not show any SIGNIFICANT signs of slowdown. No matter what ALL you Apple Haters say out there… Steve Jobs is a genius.
Narrow minded review, which comes from a narrow minded reviewer…
oh gosh, another Apple humper. But let me ask you this…how do you know the lag will be bad? have you tried the phone out? i know i have’nt so how do you make assumptions? And with the Wi-Fi thing…do you really use your wi fi?! alot of my friends have iphones and they said theyve never used it. They always say, “why switch to wi fi? the 3G is fast enough”…so let me as you this iphone humper? Do you really know what to expect from this? Dont make your pre announced judgements until it drops. Try it out,and re assess, cus your comment is asinine
The biggest question I have is how is the browser. Specifically how well does it handle Google Reader. I use Reader 90% of the time I browse on my mobile and I would love to have a similar experience as on the iPhone or Android.
Pfft.
Talk about Haters.
I’m sure the iPhone is great. In fact I know it is. Except for the AT&T service. My mothers drops calls constantly, the reception has never been good, call quality is horrid.
Wifi wasn’t included because rim said they just couldn’t fit it in the device. Honestly, its not that big of a deal. Because if I have wifi access I’m going to use my laptop or netbook before I bother using a BB screen, even the Storm’s screen, large as it is is still sort of small.
Will the camera be good enough… its 3.2 mp, its going to be acceptable.
Oh, and for the love of God, learn to spell you twit.
iJah420:
Blackberrys come with the option of having a tetherred modem, which makes it essentially UNNECESSARY to have wi-fi. BTW, I am a new user to Blackberry and I absolutely can’t wait until this Friday so in your narrow-minded opinion, it is not just for crackberriers or iPhone haters. In fact, I find the iPhone pretty cool but I know it is unable to handle what I need for my business as a Blackberry would.
“Many smartphone owners, particularly business users, employ their handhelds’ Internet connections to access the Web via otherwise unconnected PCs or laptop computers. The ability to tether can come in extremely handy while travelling and visiting various hotels, airports, lounges, etc. that charge for Wi-Fi access. In such situations, you can simply connect your smartphone and computer and avoid Wi-Fi fees.
Currently, wireless carriers determine which devices can be used for tethering. Though AT&T BlackBerry owners can already pay a premium for tethering functionality, iPhone users still cannot–at least without “jailbreaking” their devices. AT&T has said that an iPhone tethering solution is in the works-but no specific details are available, so it could be some time before Apple smartphone owners can legitimately tether. “
http://www.itworld.com/mobile-.....page=0%2C1
I Use Skype on my iPhone. You need Wi-Fi for it.
I use Wi-Fi when @ home, office or friends. Skype words like a cham and it does not eat into my anytime minutes.
Web on iPhone is unmatched on any other device. Wi-Fi is reliable no timeouts and flakiness.
The sharing App allows me to browse my Computers files and transfer back and forth via Wi-Fi.
I control my iTunes music on my computer with Remote App for iPhone.
I get gmail on my iPhone as well as yahoo mail, exchange and mobile me mail.
its my iPod.
tethering is coming to iPhone very soon.
The video demos of the Storm on YouTube show the lag.
There are too many positives for iPhone when it comes to software.
Blackberry has a long way to go before it catches up to the App Store.
ijah420 says the software issue Storm cloud is going to rain over the RIM headquarters.
Just for fun……….
Do a search for blackberry speaker systems. What do u get?
Do a search for iPod or iPhone speaker systems. What do u get?
;)
What I would like to know is how does the mail app and browser compare to the Iphones.
Who is it that you think your talking to? At the time of your post nobody had even said anything yet? If you want to rant write it on a piece of paper or something. We come here to read the news.
As a Pocket PC smartphone user I would like to know if this is the device to make me transition back to blackberry.
I am on the Telus network because the coverage is exceptional. I on the coast outside of Vancouver and rogers is spotty and definetly doesnt work out on the boat. I used to carry a rogers blackberry and telus phone, a year ago i switch to the HTC s720 because Telus’s blackberrys were subpar and i didnt have to carry two devices. I must say i have really got alot of the HTC, although a major battle with telus customer loyalty to get the data plans in line with rogerts was needed. I stream news, live stock quotes, you tube, online radio stations and i tether it to my laptop when on the ferry.
Now first feature i like about the storm is the ability for me to keep Telus and use the Phone in Europe (GSM support)
I personaly went with the htc s720 over the HTC touch or flow or whatever its called because i like to dial, start and stop calls with one hand without looking at the phone, i have tried a friends iphone and ipod touch and find i have to focus on the screen to use it, not too good driving or boating. This full screen touch storm couild be even worse then the iphonefor one handed ease of use so that will be a huge factor for me. we shall see.
Blackberry ability to access my exchange email as well as my hotmail simply and efective will also be an issue, i want push automatic notification of new hotmail messages as well as exchange.
i dont use msn messenger but i do like windows media player and pocket office viewers.
So for me it will be battery life, lack of keyboard and how intuitive and fast the system responds.
I dont want loading times for contact sor call history or answering and hanging up calls.
Unfortunately, the iPhone has the AT & T network. I truely believe that is its (iPhone) BIGGEST problem.
I have the Verizon XV 6700 Windows Mobile phone. It has WiFi and I rarely use it as it is an energy hog. It eats my battery life. So I use the Verizon network probably 95% of the time. I think that most iPhone users need their WiFi because of AT&T poor network . With Verizon I don’t think I’ll need WiFi…Time will tell. At my home AT&T users can not get a signal. All Verizon users get 2-4 bars. Thus its a no brainer, if I can’t get a signal with AT&T then the iPhone is of no use to me. I would LOVE to have one but…coverage at home is paramount….
I can’t wait to try out this Blackberry Storm.
1. Skype is usless… you have a cell phone,.
2. See #1.
3. How can you say web on the iPhone is unmatched when you haven’t tried it on the Storm???
4. You can do the same with Storm provided apps.
5. iTunes is useless… it’s just another media player… I can sync media with the Storm.
6. All of the mentioned e-mail options are available on the Storm.
7. The Storm plays music too.
8. The Storm has tethering from the get go.
9. The YouTube videos show the beta OS and not the release version.
10. Name a positive? Like basic copy and paste functionality?
11. A new app store is launching with the Storm… also Blackberry isn’t plagued by the most monopolistic application development in the industry.
12. I say…. you’re an idiot… way to go iPhone fanboy… get your own opinion, not what Apple makes you think you should say.
The BlackBerry Storm is way better than the iPhone.
In fact it is also way more safer than the iPhone. Yep, I meant safer. I have my reasons… and here’s why http://smartphoneguru.wordpres.....the-iphone
I can’t wait to get myself the Storm…
iJah420
u seriously need 2 get off that purp Apple is giving u because I owned an IPhone 3G until I sold it a few days ago. I couldn’t take it anymore and AT&T was not the problem because I had more drop calls with the iPhone alone than I did the 5 years I have been with AT&T. My iPhone would freeze, Safari would crash constantly along with other apps, and the battery wasn’t that great. As for the Storm not having Wi-fi, that is a disappointment but hopefully it won’t come to the iPhone’s problems.
wifi is a lot faster than any wireless network out there, whether its verizon’s or at&t’s. downloading music, video, applications, or pictures goes a lot quicker (and it’s very noticable too) when on verizon’s network. my girlfriend has the dare, and to download the gmail supporting mail application, it took a very long time. the storm has limited apps at launch (like the original iphone) but the iphone has more (appstore). blackberry is launching an app store of their own, but that is slated to be pushed out to storm’s in 2009, not at launch! iTunes is not useless, considering a vast majority of us own ipods and would prefer iTunes over that Rhapsody service. The storm can never be an ipod, like the iphone is, as the storm puts multimedia third, behind email and phone internet. the iphone 3g puts phone first, but keeps the ipod as a major part of the phone. Some youtube videos actually show the release version of the blackberry (it’s already released on Vodaphone) and they all note that the storm is quite laggy.
now, i’m not an iphone fanboy (all of the above statements are actually either facts or majority decisions), so let me put a positive note about the storm. die hard business users will want it simply because they only want a business phone and blackberries are known to be for business (even though the storm has some media capabilites). the camera is better than the iphones, and the replaceable battery is a plus for some. the blackberry has copy and paste (easy to do, but some nitwits at apple have dementia and forgot to put in what every iphone user has been complaining about). and tethering, i love tethering, and i love verizon’s almost everywhere network. but tethering isn’t free, you know. the iphone 3g is getting tethering soon, but verizon once again has a larger network in the US. so overall, the blackberry and iphone are great products
I would like to know how the multi-tasking is on this device. I know you can multi-task on a BlackBerry but I have never done this myself. Can you use the IM app while streaming music, while browsing the internet on the browser, while still getting texts, emails, and calls?
WiFi is not a superior technology. It works well for you (c ricchshshs) because you found a sweet spot. Generally, you will not be as consistently lucky. It has limiting factors such as the backhaul speed, number of co-located Access Point (interference), distance from Access Points (adaptive modulation to lower speed), number of subscribers (collisions from carrier sense multiple access), other technologies using the unlicensed frequency, etc… It is generally not free and locations that offer free wifi have shady hackers sniffing the air and reading your data (trust me, I know first hand). Don’t feel too secure with silly encryption schemes.
Funny how iJah420 pokes fun at those psyched up over the Storm as having “very narrow mindset.”
Closing the door on the Storm before getting first hand knowledge puts him in the very same company. Not very smart.
OK, I think they asked for questions, not a flame war. I was thinking of getting an iPhone, but I don’t want to (a) put up with a $70 plan on AT&T (whose network is awful in Nebraska), and (b) having to add text messaging on top of that plan.
So my questions encompass both the service it’s on (Verizon) and the phone itself:
(1) What is the data plan that is needed,
(2) Are there any specs on how long will the clickscreen last, what is it made out of (I’ve seen a lot of cracked glass on iPhones); are there problems with its sensitivity (a comparison of the clickscreen vs. the iphone’s capacitive screen would be nice – if my hands are cold or extremely dry, my iPod Touch doesn’t always register)
(3) How well will it stand up to the elements (e.g., if you drop it once, will it break, or is it pretty sturdy feeling? Because I’m sure to drop it a few times)
(4) Dimensions (LxWxD)
(5) How’s the battery life (using different applications, with Bluetooth on/off, etc.)?
(6) How is the web browser?
(7) Is it as easy to use as a media device as the iPhone? Anything stupid about it – e.g., recessed headphones, or microscopic headphone jack, etc.
(8) Like the guy above mentioned, does it multi-task (playing music when browsing the internet or playing games), or is it single-function, like the iPhone?
And finally… even though the Alltel/Verizon merger has been blessed by the FCC, is it worth jumping services for this phone, or is it too much hype? I’ll have to go check it out myself in a few days just to test out how portable it is, but it would be nice to have someone actually work with it for awhile and then report back. Thanks!
Some one told me that you have to buy unlimited internet in order for the Blackberry Storm to work, is that true?
Dude….. the reviews are coming in like wildfire about the Storm and they are MIXED @ best!
The #1 issue is LAG!!!!! for the record I TOLD YOU SO.
What a PCO !@$*!!!!!
RIM is going to have nothing but problems with this device… The black storm cloud is forming over the RIM headquarters as I write. GOOD LUCK you bunch of storm chasers….
I’m done.
Do you have to pay for every text you send or get on the black berry storm
even if you have unlimited texting?
Dear slashgear system admin monitor nazi. You have confirmed my original post.
The truth hurts eh? Just keep putting you collective heads in the sand.
Thank you have a nice day.