My tiny local Radio Shack likes to brag that they have the largest parts selection in the region -- I can only imagine how poor the selection is at other stores.
If you think the crazies on this website are a little off, just try and talk to somebody who thinks it appropriate to carry a loaded weapon in a shopping mall.
Well, I'm not a gun owner -- and I'm unashamedly liberal -- and it does seem really unnecessary. But I don't really see anything wrong with it. That just seems like something that would happen to someone who normally carries around a loaded gun.
(The second amendment is pretty clear about the gun owners rights and their infringement -- I'm also not foolish enough to start tinkering with the Bill of Rights.)
I told him to get his hands of my stuff. He threatened to call the cops. I told him that I would like that so he would get his hands off my stuff. He then took said he would let go if I showed him my receipt. I agreed, but will never go back.
I wonder what you were legally allowed to do? He certainly had no right stop you and grab your things. Hell, I might have called the cops myself!
BES is often at fault. It's an outdated and poorly designed system, and it unfortunately creates a single worldwide point of failure.
Sorry if I doubt your claims, it's just that this statement doesn't make any sense at all. Just about everyone runs their own BES server, you know, so that phones have access to the trusted side of the network.
I don't know what the point of using RIM's hosted BES solution would be? I guess if you only needed basic management.
Still, it's just uninformed to call it a "single worldwide point of failure".
I'm saying wait for a few months until you get sick of it crashing, giving you useless notifications, and failing to send/receive email.
I see that you're not familiar at all with BlackBerry. I've been using them since the 7290 and can count on one hand the number of times I've had mine crash.
Yeah, I've not found anything that iOS or Android offer that would make me give up the usability, stability, and productivity ganes BB offers me over the competition.
Hey, I forgot about you! Are your feelings still hurt? I know that facts didn't match your version of reality, but I see that you've gotten over that:)
The PlayBook was always meant to be $500 accessory to a under $200 phone according to him.
Now, that's not very nice. That was never my position.
The two products were intended to be complimentary -- well, that is if you believe their announcements and advertising about the product.:) The tagline, iirc, was "Your blackberry, amplified".
The blackberry web browser was inferior until rather recently
If by recently you mean "It's been one of the best for almost two years, often ahead of others" then yes.
Developing apps for a BB was a mess compared to the iPhone
I don't know about iOS (I hear it has great tools) but it's significantly easier to develop for the BB platform than Android.
the playbook couldn't even read emails until the latest update.
Total Nonsense. The PlayBook had email from day one. If you didn't want to use bridge (why not?), you could download a third-party email app from app world and have email like any other tablet. Home users could just use web-mail like you do on your desktop, thanks to the fantastic browser.
I don't know that RIM needs a Steve Jobs -- they do have a clear vision and a strategy and roadmap for achieving it. What they need is good solid marketing. (That department is getting a long over-due shakeup.)
Did they ever get to two digit market share even with smartphones?
Wow, you couldn't just google this? Yes, they dominated the smartphone market until 2011 -- when they had 36% of the smartphone market and were still outselling Apple.
They're more reliable than your cell carrier. They're more reliable than the electric service in your house.
Apple's services have been out longer in the last year than RIM's services in the past 10. You want to talk about lack of reliability, take a look at Apple -- MobileME uptime was measured in days. Their biggest outage lasted 18 days!
RIM's biggest outage lasted less than 3 days, and only affect a fraction of their users -- and of that fraction, the majority saw only slow service or were out for less than 24 hours.
I recall their networking APIs made developers responsible for figuring out which transport mechanism (e.g., cellular, wi-fi) was available when they wanted a HTTP connection. That's nonsense.
It's one call to get a list of connections. It's the easiest thing in the world.
Besides, that's a good thing. If I write an app that pulls down a lot of data (say, for an update) I can alert the user if they're not on wifi or even just wait until the phone is on wifi, for example. You can easily think of many different reasons why an app should know what kind of connection you're on!
Oh, you mean "wait a few months for the QNX handsets" -- I can see how that would be disappointing, not being able to get your hands on one for a couple years.
The moment you start saying "click" and "double-click" in the context of a compact mobile device with a touchscreen, it's instant epic fail.
Except he's talking about a non-touchscreen phone.
Additionally, (for the most part) he's talking about short-cuts that make using the device faster and easier.
You'd be amazed at how much more productive a power-user can be with a trackpad and keyboard on a BB phone. With a phone like the 9900 (with a touchscreen) you gain the few advantages of a touchscreen without giving up the huge advantages of dedicated keys, keyboard, and the trackpad. (honestly, I don't know how anyone uses a touchscreen phone for typing beyond the occasional tweet without a trackpad for moving the cursor, selecting text, etc.)
What they should have done was switched to Android
If they had switched to android, they'd be dead already. QNX offers significant advantages over Android (and iOS) as a mobile platform. Becoming "Just Another Android Manufacturer" would be incredibly stupid. They'd be giving up every single advantage they have.. for what, exactly?
The Android player is just an attempt to close the app-gap (or at least get the press to shut up about it) and to encourage Android devs to include their new platform. It's a short-term strategy.
QNX is really impressive. The UI's we've seen so far are absolutely incredible (try out PlayBook some time, you'll be very impressed with the UI) With TAT and cascades, things can only get better.
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Wow, it's really really sad that this *still* upsets you so much. I don't even remember how long ago that discussion was.
I'm sorry, but RIM didn't promise a native email client until after the reviews started to focus on the "missing" email client.
I know this is really important to you, but I can't change the facts just to make you feel better.
Please, move on with your life!
The next step will be versions that can write the essays also.
Available for download the first weekend after the grading software becomes available.
You can read about it on Slashdot a year or so after it's in wide-spread use.
My tiny local Radio Shack likes to brag that they have the largest parts selection in the region -- I can only imagine how poor the selection is at other stores.
I hate the fact that I must currently rely on user-written reviews complete with shills and morons.
Ever been to a Best Buy? The whole staff is nothing but shills and morons.
(Apologies to both competent employees forced by economic circumstances to work at Best Buy.)
If you think the crazies on this website are a little off, just try and talk to somebody who thinks it appropriate to carry a loaded weapon in a shopping mall.
Well, I'm not a gun owner -- and I'm unashamedly liberal -- and it does seem really unnecessary. But I don't really see anything wrong with it. That just seems like something that would happen to someone who normally carries around a loaded gun.
(The second amendment is pretty clear about the gun owners rights and their infringement -- I'm also not foolish enough to start tinkering with the Bill of Rights.)
I told him to get his hands of my stuff. He threatened to call the cops. I told him that I would like that so he would get his hands off my stuff. He then took said he would let go if I showed him my receipt. I agreed, but will never go back.
I wonder what you were legally allowed to do? He certainly had no right stop you and grab your things. Hell, I might have called the cops myself!
I also know where your confusion comes (or maybe mine)
Eh, we were just talking past each other. I think we're both clear on the numbers.
What grew exponentially? Sales, revenues, and user base for starters.
This isn't complicated. It's REALLY hard to argue that in 2009 RIM wasn't the undisputed leader in the smartphone market.
BES is often at fault. It's an outdated and poorly designed system, and it unfortunately creates a single worldwide point of failure.
Sorry if I doubt your claims, it's just that this statement doesn't make any sense at all. Just about everyone runs their own BES server, you know, so that phones have access to the trusted side of the network.
I don't know what the point of using RIM's hosted BES solution would be? I guess if you only needed basic management.
Still, it's just uninformed to call it a "single worldwide point of failure".
I don't follow. Touchscreen UI's are pretty awful for anything except scrolling and clicking giant icons.
So ... that the phone is easy to use and has lot's of handy shortcuts makes it bad because it doesn't have a useless touchscreen?
I'm saying wait for a few months until you get sick of it crashing, giving you useless notifications, and failing to send/receive email.
I see that you're not familiar at all with BlackBerry. I've been using them since the 7290 and can count on one hand the number of times I've had mine crash.
Yeah, I've not found anything that iOS or Android offer that would make me give up the usability, stability, and productivity ganes BB offers me over the competition.
Yeah, battery life was horrible compared to .. oh, wait, that was the best.
Well, call quality must have suc ... oh, it was one of the best? Damn.
But their web browser .. oh, they have one of the best on the market? Shit.
Surely their management tools like Fusion suck -- oh, they're actually the capable products on the market?
What about editing documents on the go? oh, they do that better than just about everyone else?
I'll bet their clock app sucks! oh, it actually handles leap years and dst correctly, unlike some of the bigger players?
You're going to have to be more specific.
Just checking the numbers...
Nope, they aren't losing money. They've actually grown significantly since then and are pulling in much more in profits than they were in 2008.
Hey, I forgot about you! Are your feelings still hurt? I know that facts didn't match your version of reality, but I see that you've gotten over that :)
The PlayBook was always meant to be $500 accessory to a under $200 phone according to him.
Now, that's not very nice. That was never my position.
The two products were intended to be complimentary -- well, that is if you believe their announcements and advertising about the product. :) The tagline, iirc, was "Your blackberry, amplified".
But feel free to ignore that.
The blackberry web browser was inferior until rather recently
If by recently you mean "It's been one of the best for almost two years, often ahead of others" then yes.
Developing apps for a BB was a mess compared to the iPhone
I don't know about iOS (I hear it has great tools) but it's significantly easier to develop for the BB platform than Android.
the playbook couldn't even read emails until the latest update.
Total Nonsense. The PlayBook had email from day one. If you didn't want to use bridge (why not?), you could download a third-party email app from app world and have email like any other tablet. Home users could just use web-mail like you do on your desktop, thanks to the fantastic browser.
I don't know that RIM needs a Steve Jobs -- they do have a clear vision and a strategy and roadmap for achieving it. What they need is good solid marketing. (That department is getting a long over-due shakeup.)
Did they ever get to two digit market share even with smartphones?
Wow, you couldn't just google this? Yes, they dominated the smartphone market until 2011 -- when they had 36% of the smartphone market and were still outselling Apple.
Many many outages? LOL!
They're more reliable than your cell carrier. They're more reliable than the electric service in your house.
Apple's services have been out longer in the last year than RIM's services in the past 10. You want to talk about lack of reliability, take a look at Apple -- MobileME uptime was measured in days. Their biggest outage lasted 18 days!
RIM's biggest outage lasted less than 3 days, and only affect a fraction of their users -- and of that fraction, the majority saw only slow service or were out for less than 24 hours.
RIM is anything but unreliable.
Why make the programmer have to decide?
Because it's ridiculously simple to do, and it's very often a decision that the developer actually wants to make on their own?
Look like neither one of you have developed for BB. Android development is an absolute nightmare compared to what RIM is currently offering.
I recall their networking APIs made developers responsible for figuring out which transport mechanism (e.g., cellular, wi-fi) was available when they wanted a HTTP connection. That's nonsense.
It's one call to get a list of connections. It's the easiest thing in the world.
Besides, that's a good thing. If I write an app that pulls down a lot of data (say, for an update) I can alert the user if they're not on wifi or even just wait until the phone is on wifi, for example. You can easily think of many different reasons why an app should know what kind of connection you're on!
Wait for what? It's an impressive device.
Oh, you mean "wait a few months for the QNX handsets" -- I can see how that would be disappointing, not being able to get your hands on one for a couple years.
I've never been left wondering "now where do I find that feature?"
Really? I've had the exact opposite experience. (No problems with BB, Android left me searching and searching)
The moment you start saying "click" and "double-click" in the context of a compact mobile device with a touchscreen, it's instant epic fail.
Except he's talking about a non-touchscreen phone.
Additionally, (for the most part) he's talking about short-cuts that make using the device faster and easier.
You'd be amazed at how much more productive a power-user can be with a trackpad and keyboard on a BB phone. With a phone like the 9900 (with a touchscreen) you gain the few advantages of a touchscreen without giving up the huge advantages of dedicated keys, keyboard, and the trackpad. (honestly, I don't know how anyone uses a touchscreen phone for typing beyond the occasional tweet without a trackpad for moving the cursor, selecting text, etc.)
BB9? You mean the product that never existed?
Hey, why let actual knowledge about the company and their products get in the way of a good bashing?
What they should have done was switched to Android
If they had switched to android, they'd be dead already. QNX offers significant advantages over Android (and iOS) as a mobile platform. Becoming "Just Another Android Manufacturer" would be incredibly stupid. They'd be giving up every single advantage they have .. for what, exactly?
The Android player is just an attempt to close the app-gap (or at least get the press to shut up about it) and to encourage Android devs to include their new platform. It's a short-term strategy.
QNX is really impressive. The UI's we've seen so far are absolutely incredible (try out PlayBook some time, you'll be very impressed with the UI) With TAT and cascades, things can only get better.