blackberry
My Most Used Apps On My @BlackBerry 10: @Blaq, @Nemory
I thought i’d write a post on the apps I use on my @BlackBerry on a daily basis. You will quickly understand why I don’t really care for the other ecosystems. It’s fantastic that they offer millions of apps but how many of these apps are quality and how many of these apps does a person really actually use?
I do have apps on my phone that I use from time to time but the following three I use daily.. so here we go from most used to least (daily):
@Blaq
The best native @BlackBerry 10 app for twitter out there. The interface is so clean and up until recently updates were coming in at a pretty good pace and the updates were always great. The ease of which you can switch from account to account is amazing. In general anything u want to do from composing a tweet to re-tweeting to liking etc is a breeze. Just an awesome app. Unfortunately updates to this app have been scarce recently…I should probably say non-existent… my guess is that Jerome has abandoned it.. I recall him tweeting about the uncertainty of BB10 as being the reason. It’s a shame.
#Inst10
This native app created by @Nemory is an instagram client and it too is a pretty awesome app… very clean and smooth. The only thing it’s missing right now is the ability to post videos and also re-gram videos. Neither work. I inquired a few times from the developer if there is an ETA and I never really get a straight answer. Oliver says instagram changed the APIS and he’s working on it. The only thing I question is why @iGrann, another native instagram app was able to figure it out. Right now when I want to post a video I use @iGrann instead. It doesn’t make sense to have to do that. I think with Oliver it’s more about the fact that when he moves on to another app he tends to abandon the previous ones. Don’t get me wrong I appreciate all the work he’s done. He is the only one showing continued effort towards BB10. Although I realize he’s a one man shop and there are so many hours in a day at the same time I feel that he needs to be sure to provide what is needed. His apps are not free nor on the cheap end of the spectrum.
A good example is his scope10 for periscope.. $2.99 for an app that I would consider useless in its current state. Nothing new from it since Nov 2015. This is an app I would certainly buy if it offered what it should.. which is a lot more than it does now.
#Face10
This is another app written by @Nemory and as u may have guessed it’s a native facebook app. I don’t spend a lot of time on FB but when I do I opt for this app most times and not the now html5 browser version BlackBerry put out.
The one thing I noticed though about apps written by @Nemory is that initially when u install the apps.. for a period of time after you get the desired notifications sent to the hub but then with time they just stop. Installing his headless stabilizer app does nothing to help the situation. I don’t have that pblm with @Blaq so I have to assume the issue is with his coding and not the OS. Another thing that happens is that with time when u launch his apps they lag and actually lock up the phone for a significant amount of seconds but I noticed that clearing the cache helps this situation.
As for #Android apps I use daily and this just recently… these two games… to keep my mind sharp 🙂
A shout out to these other apps I use but not daily: #QuickPost, Enpass, cloudvert, screen recorder, fancytran, gasbuddy, iShrink, photostudio, dropbox and box.
As you can see though I don’t have nor need much.
You Know What Really Grinds My Gears? Sage and not the kind you eat.
Well it sure didn’t take long for me to get irked about someone/something… Get a load of the following 2 screen grabs from a site that will remain nameless 😉
full disclosure.. i did not read either posts nor do i know either author personally.. i do know of Simon Sage because at one time he was writing for CrackBerry.com. I don’t necessarily think he was exclusive to @BlackBerry (and that’s ok) but he wrote a significant amount of articles. I have to assume that at that time he was a fan of BB10 and enjoyed the user experience and then at some point things changed and he no longer contributed to @BlackBerry in any form. That’s OK too.. tastes change, people move on, etc etc…I think Simon left around the same time as Kevin Michaluk who’s doing whatever it is he’s doing now. Anyway – what really irks the shit out of me is that “Bye Bye BlackBerry” jab…because it is one.Was that really necessary? I mean compare it to the other article…what did the jab add to the article? Go ahead, write and help people understand how to switch over (for those who want to) but use some professionalism. I really don’t get this “hate on BlackBerry” mentality. I really don’t.
SERENITY NOW, serenity now!!! I need me some #Festivus RIGHT NOW!!
Things That Make You Go Hmmm: Case of the flip-flops and not the kind you wear.
When you are heavily invested in something or someone it is very difficult to be completely objective.. it’s only normal. Being a @BlackBerry enthusiast I am no different. I love what @BlackBerry 10 offers but there are times when I wish that it did and offered things that it currently doesn’t. I am not oblivious to that. Outside of @BlackBerry I have not had first hand experience with any other mobile OS… atleast extensively. A lot of times we form opinions based on hearsay or 3rd hand information… and I am certainly guilty of that as well. Having written that and not having had extensive hands on with iphones I can still say without any hesitation that my hatred for #Apple runs deep. Well ‘hatred’ is a harsh word. But ya, hatred. It really has nothing to do with their products but more with what they do and who they are as a corporation. In my opinion they’re just bullies… force stuff down your throat as how things should be and when things go wrong (and there’s been plenty) make no mistake it is always the consumers fault.. or the classic spin they put on everything and just sweep stuff under the rug. No doubt having the cash flow allows them that luxury.
Olivia Munn has a great perspective on Apple.. her answer to the second question is spot on..
http://www.cnet.com/special-reports/olivia-munn/interview
So where am I going with this? I’m not sure yet. Lol. As with other areas of my life I believe in loyalty. And from recent personal experience I can tell you that loyalty to some means shit! Loyalty is why I continue to support @BlackBerry, not only because it’s a Canadian company but also because I like what they stand for and last but not least their phones have always been impeccable in design. I am a visual guy. U need to grab my attention that way. Sounds shallow but c’est la vie. As for the BB10 operating system? An amazing, smooth, multitasking, get things done quickly operating system almost noone in the world knows about. A tragedy. When the iPhone first came out, innovation wise, no denying it was a wow!!! But hardware? Ugly and boring as hell… over the years no doubt the look of the iPhone has improved with great strides and dare I say it, a good looking phone…but innovation? What’s that? It’s like #Apple can’t handle both at the same time. It’s so bad that after the recent iphone SE announcement the iphonians and ifanboys are left being excited about the apple band!!! The band!!! Lol. Seriously.
When it comes to having an open mind I try my best to be as open as possible… I don’t always succeed.. have there been times when I re-tweet an article that is anti apple? Of course. Do I get passionate about things I hear that are hypocritical on any side of the OS spectrum? Sure I do. Hypocrisy hit home recently and hard… Does all of the hypocrisy that comes out of #Apple rile me up? Yes it does. Do I lose sleep over it? No I don’t.. am I someone who flip flops like a fish out of water on things? No i’m not. I’m not perfect by any stretch but I try to have convictions. This brings me finally to my point. Through @BlackBerry and its community I have met a significant amount of people through various @BBM groups and @BBM chats. One such character was a huge and I mean huge @BlackBerry advocate and up until very recently would bash #Apple like it was going out of style. From group discussions, to private, to @twitter.. it went on and on and on. Recently things changed; for one his wife works at apple, has for many years but given he owns a business he found himself in a situation where all his vendors transitioned to using iOS only built apps (which is disturbing to say the least) so that ruled out BlackBerry 10 (since it can run android apps). Interestingly enough as he’s been using the iPhone for some time now his tune has changed. He certainly still promotes BlackBerry but not necessarily with that passion he once had but at the same time what has changed is his attitude towards #Apple, to the point that if someone else shits on #Apple he takes offense. Remember this is the guy that was shitting on them not too long ago and would join in on the shitfest when others started the ‘shit on #Apple’ party. Don’t get me wrong, there is no place for shitting on anyone or anything. I try to be objective when I have discussions re apple and android for that matter and the only place I take a dump in is the toilet but stuff like this gets me and it doesn’t go unnoticed. So what’s changed now? Apple hasn’t changed its ways and how it operates and he couldn’t digest that stuff before and now all of a sudden? I don’t get it. Anyway, we’re all entitled to change our minds and attitude towards things. It’s our right. But he should keep in mind that what goes on the Internet stays there forevah!!! Hope he atleast went back to his old tweets and cleaned house.
Maybe down the road that will happen with me; you know, sporting an iphone. Haha. I kid. That will never happen… i’ve said it before if @BlackBerry (God forbid) goes the way of the dodo bird I will begrudgingly go #Android if there isn’t any other option. #Android isn’t any better but they annoy me less. I guess.
I used the word ‘shit’ or a variation quite a bit in this post. Oh well, shit happens! 😉
Amazing How BlackBerry Continues to Polarize
*UPDATED* boy I feel silly… the Dave in my screen grab isn’t Dave from UTB after all because UTB Dave is Dave Mathews.
I don’t really follow other story lines like I do BlackBerry. It’s amazing what this company is able to create in terms of reaction and emotion. We basically have the die hard,loyal,purists that can always find the positive in any news that comes out regarding BlackBerry. You have of course the trolls that just live on bad news.. and finally you have those that support BlackBerry but worry and don’t know who to believe. Right now I am in that last group.
It’s been an interesting week for BlackBerry to say the least. We had some project manager quoted as saying that the future for BlackBerry is Android… and bam… the storm it caused was unreal. Hand it to BlackBerry to quickly put out a post on ‘Inside BlackBerry ‘ to once again reiterate their commitment to BlackBerry 10. Here’s though what I thought could have been done differently. They reiterated their commitment in a post that was dedicated to the release of the Priv in India.. so the article was 99% about the Priv with a few words about their commitment to BlackBerry 10. The better option should have been to separate the two even if it meant that the article about BlackBerry 10 was a repeat of what they wrote a few months back. The other concern I have is that at no time has BlackBerry mentioned that their commitment to BlackBerry 10 will go beyond 2016. I tried to voice this on a channel and I got this from a Dave…. which I assume is Dave from UTBBlogs..
Now don’t get me wrong.. I admire the positive spin these guys put on everything BlackBerry. I listen to their blogcast religiously every Saturday morning. However, I personally could have done without the ‘pssst’.. what are u ‘Pssst’ing me about? I don’t know that I wrote anything that is far fetched and incorrect. Of course I absolutely want to be wrong. Let’s face it if come 2017 BlackBerry pulls the plug on BlackBerry 10 noone can accuse them of lying because they have not shown any roadmap for BlackBerry 10 beyond 2016. Chen can easily fall back on the fact that their commitment was only for 2016. Anyway only time will tell.
Yesterday news came out about layoffs and that Gary Mr BBM himself was leaving BlackBerry as well. One need not imagine what stir that caused. And every time news like yesterday happens u have guys like @JT_Teran putting out his ‘if people can’t realize that BlackBerry 10 is dead I don’t know what else to say’ tweet. Tweet it enough times and I guess JT at some point you will be right… and then you can tell everyone I told you so. Oh brother.
I recently saw a tweet that predicted BlackBerry 10 disappearing in about three years which is the time he thinks will take to get Android enterprise ready. We’ll see… the fact is that we can twist and turn information the way we want to.. spin it.. deny.. whatever… in the end only Mr Chen knows what he has planned. *le sigh*
After A Full Week with my BlackBerry #Passport : The Regret
You see what I did there? My post headline implies my regret over getting the BlackBerry Passport. That’s what you call click bait. Getting someone to click on a link and then the post turns out to be something else altogether. Nowadays anyone can be a ‘journalist’… writing junk… and when it comes to BlackBerry there is so much of this garbage out there but have no fear that’s not the case here. I do in fact have a regret… that I didn’t buy this beast of a machine sooner!
I am a BlackBerry enthusiast and have always had phones with a physical keyboard. From the Bold 9900 to the Q10 to the Classic… I also prefer a small form factor. Or so I thought.
I have been on the Passport for a little over a week now and using it as my daily and only driver… here are my thoughts so far.
The size: being a small form factor guy I was a little concerned. When I first laid eyes on the passport I thought it was such a great idea and so different but couldn’t see myself getting one. I thought it would be too big. I was wrong.
The quality: it’s a BlackBerry. That should be enough. It feels fantastic in the hand and solid as can be. I have never dropped a cell phone in my life (believe it or not) but I know that if this phone would fall I wouldn’t have to worry. It will never happen though. Not on my watch! 🙂
The performance: there is a reason I refer to this phone as a beast. It’s fast. Dang it’s fast. Love my Classic but no contest.
The Battery: what the hell is a charger?
The Display: nice and big. Can’t possibly complain about that…of course I have to be careful what I am viewing 😉
The Keyboard: what can I write about the BlackBerry keyboard that hasn’t already been written. It’s a BlackBerry… again enough said…but i will write this…QUALITY!!! I adore typing on this quality keyboard. The fact it’s touch sensitive. Innovative Genius.
The one speed that is lacking right now is me… I must admit that even after a full week the three row keyboard has affected my typing. I am a ninja on the classic. I do have moments when I am flying but there are times when I studder. As I usually have Blend on at work the plan for next week is to stay off blend and just type, type, type on the Passport. However as I tweeted a few days ago the force is strong with this one so I know that soon I will become the ultimate Jedi working this beast.
Working the phone with one hand is not too bad… but then again it’s really not meant for one handed use anyway.
So has my Passport garnered some attention ? It has.
I had a friend comment ‘what the f@@k’ is that when she first saw it… it might have been ‘what the hell is that’ but no matter. Lol
I love showing what the keyboard can do.
I will be putting this beast to work this season as I am involved with our local semi pro soccer team as assistant coach and social media guy. Should be a blast.
As is the case with all my previous phones I have ordered a screen protector and I opted to get a skin versus a case. I tried a skin on my classic and found it not only to be cool but it allows the sexiness of the BlackBerry phone to exude and not be hidden by a case.
I wrote this post on the Passport.
When New really means “New”
Today I learned that it’s always important to listen to your gut…on the weekend while at a restaurant I had the opportunity to creep on this guy working his @BlackBerry #Passport.. I did my best to be discreet about it ;)… these few minutes of creeping got me in the ‘I must have one’ state of mind…normally what I do when I want something is wait a few days to see if the urge goes away. After a few days I still had the urge so I sat in front of my laptop and proceeded to order the #Passport off of shop BlackBerry… and of course it’s ‘out of stock’.. Go figure. Ain’t it always the case.
Today, I decided to check if anyone is selling a Silver Edition #Passport here locally.. I found what I thought was a reputable ‘store’. Their site looked legit and all. They were advertising ‘a brand new, factory unlocked’ phone. They also warned that there are a lot of ‘black market’ phones that are sold ‘out there’ and to be careful with that. I got myself in the car and drove 40mins to pick it up. Once there, my gut started to churn and churn hard. Store it was not (Yoda I am).. it is a location inside a building..ok. Hey I was there so might as well not judge a book by its cover, right? I proceeded to ask for the #Passport and that’s when the warning signals that I should not purchase the phone continued:
1) box is alot tattered
2) box is OPEN
He had an explanation for both.
I asked repeatedly if it was new. Yes, he reassured me that it was with a one year warranty with his establishment. In good faith, I purchased the Silver edition #Passport. Part of it was truly because I want to be trusting of people but the other was the excitement of holding a silver edition passport… it felt so good!!
I drove 40mins back home and started to work the phone. I tried to power it on and couldn’t ; dead battery. Another alarm. Charged it and fired it up. I expected the initial set up screen.. nope. It booted to the home screen and it was in French. Hmm. Sound alarm #2… or I should say #4. I then proceeded to go to the settings and selected ‘BlackBerry ID’… and I see credentials for Yanis “something” from France. Fine. Let’s factory reset this phone. I proceeded to wipe the phone, started to go through the set up when I get to a screen that required the BlackBerry ID that is linked to the phone because BlackBerry Protected anti theft is enabled. I was dead in the water stuck and couldn’t proceed. Of course now I am pissed so I pack up everything, call the guy, gave him some lip and drove once again 40mins to return the phone and get my $$$ back. Very deceiving to advertise something as ‘new’ when in fact this phone was clearly used. Shady, shady, shady. All in all with the back and forth 4 hours of my life wasted!!
Anyway to say I am disappointed is an understatement.. I did get a chance to work the #passport a little and indeed having only 3 physical rows is different and I was a little slower with the typing but I can tell I will get used to it quickly enough. I also really love the feel and I honestly don’t find the phone to be big at all. I can easily work it with one hand too.
Now I will patiently wait for it to be available on shop BlackBerry again. I am truly looking forward to rocking the @BlackBerry #Passport !!!
BlackBerry (Berryflow), Star Wars and Fantasy Football
My two week Xmas break started this past weekend and although it started well yesterday not so much. It sucked mostly because of the #NFL. I participate in football pools (yes, plural) so my sundays are a different beast during the NFL season. I participate in one pool where you have to pick a winner against the spread. Over the last few weeks I was making great strides and was getting close to the top 3 which is where the money is and then yesterday happened. The other pool is a Fantasy Football team pool. I finished the season in 3rd (week 1-14 is the season) and yesterday was week one of the playoffs (Weeks 15-17). I lost mainly because my two running backs Lacy and Allen COMBINED for a whopping 1 point. However, that’s not even the sad part. I could have still won had I used Newton instead of Palmer. I used Palmer on the recommendation of @JameyEisenberg from CBS Sports who I emailed for some help. Alrighty then. I am now relegated to the consolation rounds where there is no money. Boo.
Thankfully I had tickets to Star Wars yesterday so I was able to get distracted for a couple hours. The movie did not disappoint. It actually stayed true to the originals and although there were a couple meh moments it was all in all a fantastic movie. You know a movie is great when it keeps you engaged and it doesn’t feel like a long movie. Chewbacca as always delivered his lines with such passion ! ;)… i’m glad to see that the storm troopers are no longer bad shots anymore like they used to be. I mean in the original Star Wars trilogy you could practically stand right in front of them and they’d still miss you!! Lol.
After a few hours of distraction I came home and decided to watch the Berryflow podcast which had as invited guest @MichaelClewley of BlackBerry. Keep in mind that as I write this I did not get to see it live so what I watched appears to be a shaved down/edited version… I think.. it was 30mins long. 30mins I will never get back. During this 30mins not once did they discuss BB10 which I thought they were going to discuss.. so that pissed me off.. The other thing that really pushed me over was having to hear both @Bla1ze and @Jmznvs tell @MichaelClewley they like the “cool direction BlackBerry took with advertising ” the #PRIV when they’ve been both mocking and questioning said advertising since the very beginning. What hypocrites. Seriously.
So in a nutshell that was my mostly lousy sunday.
BlackBerry Brand and Perception
Over the weekend we were up north in Mont Tremblant for my company’s Xmas party weekend. It was an amazing time as it always is.. Anyway saturday night during our party the conversation turned to smartphones and as it was revealed that I have a BlackBerry it happened… I got the ‘omg you still use a BlackBerry ‘ comment. Admittedly our conversation didn’t last too long but based on what I was hearing it was clear at 100% that they are thinking of the BlackBerry of yesteryear. I think we can all agree that BlackBerry sat on its ass far too long before it ‘acted’ but my god what to make of folks who also have failed to move forward with their thinking!!! It’s really a shame because it is this continued struggle that has held BlackBerry back from progressing more than it has. This inability to shake off this perception of what they were vs. what they actually are now.
It is such a pity that this perception still exists and a true shame that BlackBerry wasn’t able to push BlackBerry 10 well enough to change this perception. Such a powerful OS that didn’t catch on..It makes me sad. It does. A true shame.
Not getting a Priv. Not Getting a Priv. Got a Priv.
Nope. Not me. I am still on my trusted and excellent #Classic. As an avid BlackBerry user and supporter I make it a point of frequenting BlackBerry related blogs. Since the rumor of an android running BlackBerry started to surface one fellow, let’s refer to him as ‘B’.. on his weekly podcast was adamant that although he would support the #Priv and wish @BlackBerry success with it, he would not get one because he is so anti android. I actually lost count the times he said that. Well, he got a @BlackBerry #Priv. Anyway, we are all entitled to change our mind on things. Still. Makes you wonder. In fairness to him though… atleast for the moment his main daily driver remains his #Passport but he will continue to use the #Priv and put out his thoughts on it along the way. It was good to see on their last podcast that he got some razzing for going back on his word. I mean where is your conviction !!! Lol.. ah, so be it. Admittedly the phone is gorgeous. I, however, stand by my word that I will remain a BlackBerry 10 user to the end!!! I am loyal as fuck!! Hard to find this nowadays.
My ‘Joe Dirt’ Review of the BlackBerry Priv
Alright. Here we go… I will review the #Priv without actually having one. That’s right. I will review the #Priv based on all the unboxing/initial impression videos that are out there on the BlackBerry #Priv. And there are many!!! It’s unreal though. Again, I go back to my earlier post about the struggle within. On the one hand I am happy about all the effort and attention it’s getting, on the other I question why this effort couldn’t have been the same for BlackBerry 10.
Anyway… I have no plans to review the reviews. Although that would have been funny. I have watched 12 videos so far.. I suspect more are coming… what I know is that I will not be getting a #Priv any time soon… nor do I think I will get the #Vienna. I am pretty picky and the general sense I am getting from all the videos is that I won’t be happy with the hub experience and certainly the lack of peak. I also gather that I will in fact not be able to do things quickly as I do with BlackBerry 10. I want to believe that with time the BlackBerry productivity tools will mature but I highly doubt to the level I am used to with BlackBerry 10.
So who’s this #Priv for? In my opinion.. anyone who hasn’t experienced BlackBerry 10. Plain and simple. With BlackBerry 10 u get spoiled and so moving away from it will be a disappointment.
My hope is that BlackBerry 10 never goes away. I don’t know if that will happen. If that sad day comes, that BlackBerry 10 goes away I will begrudgingly go the route of a BlackBerry #Android. For a few nights after that I am sure I will cry myself to sleep but eventually I will accept and I guess assimilate.
Full disclosure… my son has a Z10. He’s a BlackBerry fan and eyeing the #Priv and I am looking to get him the phone..therefore I will get up close and personal with it at some point.
My Random Thoughts 