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In Love With The Curve
I am blogging this while we are driving back from long island. The gotham gal does the driving in our family so I am not breaking any laws of man or nature
One week into Curvedom and I am loving it. The best blackberry I've ever owned and I've had at least a half dozen since my pager style device in 1998
The camera is the thing that I've wanted so badly and now have. I've been shooting and emailing to flickr all week. If you want to see the quaity, check out my flickr badge on the right sidebar. Its not 7MP quality like I get on my Canon, but convenience trumps quality in my world.
I will be photoblogging a lot more from now on. I always have my blackberry on me. I don't always have my canon ob me
The form factor is also great. Super light. Great feel. I know many people think it feels flimsy. I think it feels thin and I like that
The thumbwheel took me all of a couple days to grok. Its as good and maybe better than the scrollwheel.
The software is basically the same that I've come to love. The blackberry makes sense to me like no other phone interface I've ever used
There's one drawback. Battery life. I charge my blackberry every night. Always have. Its like brushing my teeth. I can't sleep right if my blackberry's not charging at night
But a nightly charge isn't enough for the curve if you broswe the web and take lots of photos on a daily basis. I am not sure if its the camera or the browsing that kills the battery but I know that I have to charge intraday to be sure of making it to bedtime. And that's not so great
Bottom line is I love the phone and give it a 4.5/5. If they fix the battery life issue the phone is perfect
I've had a bunch of questions on how I got an unlocked AT&T Curve. Apparently you can't get them in the AT&T stores. I just googled 'unlocked curve' and found a bunch of stores selling them on the web. I can't recall the name of the store I went with But it started with mobile (duh)
Unlocked phones are the wave of the future. I don't want my carrier and my phone connected in any way. Carrier is dial tone. Phone is functionlity. That's the way it should be and will be some day
Long Curve Short iPhone
June 21, 2007 Venture Capital and Technology | Comments (15)
Comments
"Unlocked phones are the wave of the future. I don't want my carrier and my phone connected in any way. Carrier is dial tone. Phone is functionality. That's the way it should be and will be some day"
I agree and can't wait for it to happen. I sucks that the carriers use extortion or otherwise make it hard to upgrade a handset without extending a service contract. I typically pick one up on eBay when I get a hankerin' to try a new handset.
The desired state will be more likely to come if/when everybody's talking on the same technology. Right now it's a strategic decision to build and market any CDMA/TDMA/iDEN/AMPS handsets unless the manufacturers can get guarantees from carriers. Apple didn't do anything to help usher this better world. While I think they’ll sell a crap load of iPhones, I think that will be a mistake in the long run for them. Business folks who happen to be gadgetheads will not go to the trouble of terminating contracts with other carriers just to get an iPhone and crappier coverage/service. Not even for something as cool as an iPhone.
Posted by: Tony Alva | Jun 21, 2007 2:36:14 PM
Fred,
I totally agree with your analysis of the curve. I was at first afraid that I wouldn't be able to do as much with the trackball as i could with the touchscreen on my Treo.
I've quickly learned that this is not the case. Because of the time and energy and good design that has gone into the Blackberry user interface, you can pretty much be guaranteed that when you click on something with the trackball, you'll be given the exact contextual choices you wanted.
I think of it as "right click" for my smart phone.
The only thing that's getting me right now is the fact that i can't find a reverse polish notation calculator for the Blackberry. I had an HP 12c emulator for my Treo, and am somewhat missing that.
Besides that, though, this thing smokes my Treo 650 in terms of usability.
Posted by: Pete Kazanjy | Jun 21, 2007 3:32:36 PM
I have the BB 8800. No camera unfortunately, but another great device. Can't imagine not having a keyboard on a mobile device.
On a related note, just got a new Dell XPS machine with Vista Ultimate on it for the office. Cost me $1100 or so. Have it hooked up to existing dual monitors. Although I have an iMac at home (which is great), to go Mac in the office for a comparable machine would have cost me 2500 or so (either the big 24 iMac or a Mac desktop pro). So 2x the Vista machine. Cost aside, the Vista Ultimate machine with Office 2007 has been excellent.
In a nutshell, although I like AAPL especially iLife I also really like the new MSFT / Dell stuff.
Posted by: Bill Davenport | Jun 21, 2007 3:49:33 PM
you may be short the iPhone but I'm willing to wager $5 you will not be short AAPL before June 29th. ;-)
Posted by: Robert Seidman | Jun 21, 2007 5:14:03 PM
Fred - The pics on Flickr look great. One thing though - the largest size was 1024x768. Not sure if the phone is not set to the highest res, if it's down-resed when uploaded or if that's your max setting in Flickr. You may want to check that out.
Posted by: Dan | Jun 21, 2007 6:08:15 PM
Great post, you just got lazy with the short iPhone so that post is a 4.5/5
neutral maybe :)
Posted by: howard Lindzon | Jun 21, 2007 7:47:08 PM
My Curve came today. I can't wait to take it for a spin!
I'll undoubtedly end up w/ an iPhone as well and will post a compare/contrast on my blog as soon as I can.
I suspect the Blackberry will end up being my phone/email device and the iPhone my music player/browser.
Posted by: Greg | Jun 21, 2007 11:05:25 PM
Fred, What's your opinion of the media player?
Posted by: Cortland Coleman | Jun 22, 2007 12:08:18 AM
I got mine a couple of days ago and cant get my hands or eyes off of it!
Curious on what your top 3 third party apps are on it?
I am a "Switchr" - from Palm :)
Installed Viigo (from Virtual Reach) after asking a question on LinkedIn Answers (I used to work there) and love this RSS Reader. Wondering if you had any other recommendations...
Posted by: Mrinal | Jun 22, 2007 1:02:40 AM
The Curve is amazing - what third party software does everyone use with theirs?
Posted by: Dan Buell | Jun 22, 2007 3:43:31 AM
I don't care about the blackberry business but I LOVE that the gotham gal is the driver in your family. I totally dig a guy who's secure enough to cede the driving to the better driver, regardless of gender... :)
LC
Posted by: Lindsay | Jun 22, 2007 9:49:28 AM
Opera Mini, some sites might have issues with the default browser.
Helped my boss installed this for his banking site.
Posted by: Jacob Pang | Jun 22, 2007 10:42:00 AM
Fred
Been a reader of yours for a while. Keep it up!
One drawback and one cause for celebration which weren't mentioned in this post:
1. Drawback: No recording video. Very disappointing (but hardly intolerable)
2. Cause for celebration: Type name or number from home screen and phone app finds who you're looking for (inspired no doubt by WM5, which did this first and still achieves this perhaps a little more elegantly, but still a GREAT feature to have on deck).
Posted by: Jason White | Jun 22, 2007 11:23:33 AM
I thought your wife driving was breaking a rule of man AND nature :-)
The time is eventually coming when everything will be a flat rate data connection, but the handset market will not go fully unlocked until there is either enough alternative connectivity ( wi-fi wimax, ? ) to allow unlocked phones with multiple radios and IP based apps ( both voice and web )to have the current sales volumes without the distribution channels that the carriers provide.
I think that somebody will have a hit when a device maker comes out with mylo/DS/PSP type device that has a hit web app already, then adds a cell radio ( GSM/CDMA ) and a VoIP client that can use cheap post-paid topups or a low-rate data plan.
The iPhone is the first crack in the carrier's dam, because it allows a web based app access to a handset, explicitly, without a mandate to go through the carrier's network. It is a great harbinger of things to come.
Posted by: Craig Plunkett | Jun 23, 2007 12:38:57 PM
Seidio is selling an extended "humpback" battery for the Curve. They claim that it extends battery life 140%! I'm a repeat purchaser of their cases and holsters but have never tried their batteries. Link below.
http://www.seidioonline.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=841
Posted by: rweissmark | Nov 25, 2007 8:22:27 PM
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