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BlackBerry Launches Square-Screened Passport Phone
New submitter Andrewkov writes: BlackBerry released its new Passport phone today. It has a square 4.5" screen and a physical keyboard, and it's aimed at corporate users. The company hopes the larger size, Siri-like voice recognition, 30-hour battery life, and improved security will buoy its market share. Early reviews are not terribly favorable — the Wall Street Journal says BlackBerry is still behind on the software, and "The bulky, awkward design and the unfamiliar keyboard make it hard to justify finding space for it in a pocket or bag." The Verge said, "[T]he Passport got in the way of getting work done more than it helped." Re/code calls it a phone only a BlackBerry user will love.
I can tell you the only BlackBerry I enjoy using is the 9900/9930. It's the best work productivity messaging tool I've found. It's not a toy, like my Samsung personal phone.
I once took an excursion to Reddit, and later HN. Unlimited up/down voting sucks when dealing with a hive-mind.
What it comes down to is that it just lacks the development community. People will only spend the time developing apps if it is going to make them money... and with the majority of the user base in android and iOS devices, it's just more reasonable to develop for those platforms. Not to mention, the square screen means you'll have to pretty much rethink the whole layout of you apps. But I guess it'll be useful if you're just going to check your email or make changes in a calendar (I guess it is true that blackberry users are probably only going to do that anyway).
I wish it were, on this topic...
But does it bend?
Stop Computers/Cars Analogies on S
Square screens are probably the only way to stop people making vertical videos.
Who has been asking for square screens? And other than people who are die-hard fans of the company, who wants anything from Blackberry?
My brother was visiting recently, and his POS BlackBerry (no idea what model) wouldn't charge from a standard USB, it kept complaining it needed a special cable.
Seriously guys, WTF is the point of using a standard connector if you need a magic cable or charger?
Sorry BlackBerry, but I think this is just one more product which the market nobody really wants.
The Playbook I bought my wife was a steaming pile of useless.
I certainly won't be buying anything from BB anytime soon.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
"Unleash the power of the pyramid"
http://theoffice.wikia.com/wik...
1.3L, 3 moving parts, 280 HP, no Turbos, wanna Race? RotaryNe
All that space, just to fit the keyboard. Why not a snap-out keyboard like the HTC phones used to have (and that people were pissed off when they stopped making).
Trying to launch one week into the shadow of the massive iPhone 6 launch?
Guaranteed burial and gross embarassment by comparison.
Execution matters, and now we'll see an execution.
Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
Especially considering I haven't heard much criticism of the current generation of Windows Phones, except for that pertaining to lack of apps.
I think someone would have to actually buy one for anyone to criticize it...
I just want a good tough phone with nothing except for the phone and minimal software for the phone to function installed. Nothing else. If I want to install a browser, cal, etc.. then I 'd do it after wards
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
Hard to recognize if you were talking about Apple or Blackberry.
Or maybe deep inside Apple owns Blackberry, and pushes it just to compete (unfavorably) with itself?
...thanks for cherry picking the worst part of every review. Most reviews seem to like it, appreciate it, but are on the fence about the size and form factor.
"it requires no less than three taps on different install buttons, at least two loading bars, and a fair amount of patience before you can actually use the app you're trying to install."
Heaven forfend.. installing apps is exactly how much time spent on a phone? 0.1%?
of shareholder equity before they close their doors.
Unless Blackberry corrects these issues (issues like ergonomics are still missing from latest one), I don't think they'd be able to sway market.
I use a Blackberry. A BB Bold, to be precise. It makes me look with pity upon iOS / Android / Windows Phone users. Security is tight, the OS is as stable as QNX ever was. Someone here complained about the thing getting hot when used for gaming. Heck - a BB is **not** a toy, you use it for doing business. Apps ? Over more than 2 years, I downloaded exactly 2, for very precisely described needs. All the rest I need ( email, contacts management, evernote, calendar, LinkedIn ) was **already** on the phone when I got it. If BB goes down, I'll have a major problem. If not, I'll be one of their staunchest supportes. But then again - I use NetBeans as an IDE, and drive a Saab :-)
Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
1. They don't spy on you and give all your data to Apple. 2. They don't spy on you and give all your data to Google.
No I'm sure they give the data to someone else I'd rather not have it, like the NSA or foreign governments. If you actually trust any smartphone vendor to keep your data private you're being naive.
3. They don't leak all your nude selfies to the internet as was recently demonstrated with many celebrities.
Yeah that's a really big problem for most of us... [/sarcasm]
Look, if you care about the security of your data, don't use smartphones.
Fixed that for you.
Just FYI:
1) The touchscreens now are very different than the Storm's. Also, the software is entirely new and designed around touch support from day 1.
2) No overheating issues on ANY modern Blackberry (Q10, Q5, Z10, or Z30)
3) You can run Android apps. Pick any free one you want, no problem. You can even run Netflix.
4) Battery life is about on par with modern smartphones. A little better than the Galaxy series.
5) Not anymore. BlackBerry OS 10 does away with the need for any special wireless provisioning. Any SIM works fine.
In other words, all your issues are fixed, and have been for about a year now.
I use a Blackberry. A BB Bold, to be precise.
I'm sorry. My mother had one of those. One of the worst interfaces on a smartphone I've ever had the miserable experience of using. Absolutely hated working with it when she needed something fixed.
It makes me look with pity upon iOS / Android / Windows Phone users.
Can you hear the sound of the rest of us not caring?
a BB is **not** a toy, you use it for doing business
I use my iPhone for "doing business" quite successfully thanks. I could say the same about quite a few Android phones I've worked with too. BB has precisely zero features that make it better than the alternatives for "doing business" that are relevant to me. It does however have quite a few things I don't like that make it worse for me for non-business use though.
Square phones are for square people.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
That reeks of sour grapes. "I don't want to play the games I can't run! I don't want to download the apps that aren't available!"
My iPhone is **not** a toy, I use it for doing business. I have roughly a zillion apps, for very precisely described needs. Only the bare basics were on the phone when I got it, and I was able to pick a great SSH client, slick personal finance app, excellent public transit apps, a nice RPN calculator, my bank's app (so I can deposit checks by taking pictures of them), Yelp for when I want to take my team to a good dinner on business trips, a few instant messengers (because I can't get all my friends to "upgrade" to the ones I like), a document scanner with OCR, our corporate chat client, an outstanding GTD system (wassup, OmniFocus?), and a passel of games for idling away downtime at the airport.
I'm sure a BlackBerry would meet my needs if I had very few needs. But then again, I use Unix as an IDE and drive a minivan.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
Personally, I have an iPhone 5 and as it is now starting to suffer hardware problems (my model has both the "lock" button failure and the premature battery death problems) I had considered using the BB exclusively. On the plus side, the Z10 battery lasts all day -- ALL DAY -- the UI is very modern and usable, and the capability to use up to a 128 GB SD card is nice compared to my iPhone's locked in 16 GB which I constantly have full.
The downside which keeps me from going to BB is still apps. I don't have many iOS apps but what I realized I do have that I cannot replace on BB OS are: native Gmail client, Amtrak (I do a lot of train travel), online banking, Netflix, PBS Kids (for the little ones to use at restaurants and such), and iTunes (seamless sync of music collection). I know some of those apps have substitutes or workarounds, but I will be frank: I don't want to have to f*ck around for it to just work. That is why I left Android after having one from 2010 - 2012 for the iPhone, it was too much crapware and hassle with my music collection.
That's my story, so feel free to "Ask a BlackBerry User Anything" and I will give you my two cents.
so of course nobody could possibly be interested in this format either, right? I mean look at it! its like holding a piece of toast up to your ear. And who wants to be able to read a whole email without having to swipe left right up and down and lets not forget pinch and zoom. Thats just plain boring. And with this great economy we're in I can totally slack off at work and watch videos half the day so all those pixels best be showing my videos (and pron!)
It might have been an older version in 10.0, but we're up to 10.3 now which is pretty much up-to-date in terms of Android support. (Even 10.2.1, which most currently-shipping devices run, is fairly up-to-date.)
The OS/2 effect is going strong. It worked so well for IBM, so Blackberry chose to adopt that strategy.
Been off of BB since the first iPhone came out. You're full of shit. Nothing in the AAW ecosystems can touch blackberry email/contacts/calendaring even after having almost a decade to catch up. I wouldn't go back to blackberry, but to claim it isn't a better alternative at those three tasks is either bold faced lying, or you've never actually owned a blackberry.
You must have missed:
This Or This (or countless others), any one of which is vastly worse than the things you list - only one of the items you list is a security issue. And the last one you list affects Android devices also (wow, a large flat object can be bent! How amazing!), not to mention the iCloud brute-force attempt was not even used to gather data, meanwhile Android has no real backup solution for users AT ALL. Way to spend a hideous weakness into a strength.
Simply put, using Android is noting the very real threats to security faced on that platform, recommending it to a non-technical person is ethically the same as giving them walking directions through the worst part of town and laughing at they head off.
I'll let you have the last response as you are blind to all weaknesses in your platform, just as lemmings are blind to the cliff ahead...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley