So, we’ve talked a lot about Android last week due to Google’s I/O conference, but what about the other guys competing in this field? Research In Motion, the Canadian smartphone maker, is hard at work developing version 6.0 of the BlackBerry operating system, and if a video of a pre-release build is any indication, they’ve still got some work to do.
The video shows both new hardware as well as software. The BlackBerry 9800 is an upcoming slider device, similar to the Palm Pre, and in the video, it is shown running a pre-release build of BlackBerry OS 6.0.
I’ve never used (or even seen) a BlackBerry, so I’m not entirely sure just how far of a leap (if any) this pre-release really is, but if I compare it to my iPhone 3GS, I’m not particularly impressed. Sure, my iPhone is incapable of syncing (it ain’t syncing if it don’t go two ways, boys), but for the rest, it’s pretty much miles ahead of what I’m seeing here.
Animations are missing, the browser looks antiquated and unresponsive (especially the pinch-to-zoom is terrible), and some of the gestures look remarkably unintuitive (that sliding gesture in the blue bar). On top of that, that transparent icon thing appears to be doing unspeakable acts to icon recognisability.
Again, I can’t stress enough that this is a pre-release build, so we have to take that into account. Still, RIM is doing catch-up here on the software front, and has been losing market share to the iPhone and Android for a while now, so version 6.0 better be good.
I’ve not used Blackberry’s before and appreciate this is the just development build, but to me it looks like a carbon-copy of Android.
“Research In Motion, the US’ largest smartphone maker…”
I guess you mean Canada’s largest smartphone maker?
Edited 2010-05-24 21:14 UTC
The whole thing looked completely unresponsive. My friend has a Storm, and it does not have input lag like what that video showed. The photo app already supports pinch to zoom, and it tends to follow your fingers allot better.
And the transparent icon thing exists in current gen Blackberries as well, although they looked more transparent in the video.
Also, I noticed the video showed off a new discrete Youtube player. I wonder why. Youtube already works from the web browser.
Perhaps I missed it, but I don’t think I saw them show off any messaging apps (bbm, sms, email, etc). 5.0 started to bring sms to the bbm interface. It is like 90% there now. There are a few UI inconsistencies between the two that should be resolved. MSM and email still look old and ancient.
Also, why is the flash player green.
I’m sure if all three of you who want your data to be available to anyone who stumbles across your lost phone put in a feature request it’ll be considered with all the others. I’m similarly certain that the record and movie companies and even app developers would be delighted that you can give people copies of purchased products just by handing them your phone.
Of course you could always take responsibility for keeping your own backups. Oh wait, responsibility, never mind…
I guess that just leads to the real question: Who owns my phone?
If the answer is anything other than “Me” then I completely agree and would like to purchase a phone as apparently I do not own one.
What a surprise, mrhasbean defends Apple. Shocker!
If those reasons you list were really the real reasons as to why Apple is incapable of making a sync solution that doesn’t suck, then why, even if I properly authorise the new install and sign in into my iTunes account, do I still lose my phone’s contents?
The funny bit here is that before you authorise your machine+sign in into iTunes, you can’t transfer your applications. After signing in, you can. Why doesn’t this go for music syncing too? Especially music I did not buy through iTunes (all my music is ripped from CDs I own)?
The phone itself should’ve acted as a backup here. Why can’t I, after properly signing in into iTunes and authorising the new install, move the contents of my phone to the new iTunes? Why do I have to delete all music (legally ripped music from CDs I own!) from the phone, only to re-upload the *exact same music collection*?
Are you seriously so full of Apple you’re going to defend this?
Edited 2010-05-24 21:57 UTC
My Windows Mobile 6.1 based phone uses Google Sync. any contacts, email, or calendar events I make or receive on my phone automatically sync to my Google account. And any contacts, email, or calendar events I create or receive in my Google account automatically sync to my phone.
Music, Videos, or any other files can by transfered by copy paste with file browser or using the removable microSDHC card.
It seems as if Android is going after the iPhone market of home users that buy a lot of apps, but not the more business oriented users. With all the form factors, there really isn’t one that mimics the traditional blackberrry or Nokia E7x series of phones.
Edited 2010-05-24 21:57 UTC
Curve, Bold, Tour
Those are blackberry models, yes. Not sure what your point is. Mine was that there were not any Android phones that tried to compete with Blackberry.
Sorry. I completely failed a reading comprehension check.
I comprehended something along the lines of “Blackberry is neglecting the business market. None of their new phones offer their traditional form factor.”
After rereading, I have no idea how I came up with that.
random thoughts here:
So RIM buys QNX, and i want to like them because of this but i just hate teh black berry OS and i am not all that excited about 6.0. So even though RIM owns QNX, i stil can’t bring myself to like them.
Just like Palm’s (i know HP bought them) phones. I want ot like it because i love Web OS and its such an amazing operating system. But i can’t bring myself to get a Palm phone because it’s just not a good fit for me as a phone.
and then I come to Andoird. It’s a good OS (yes, poundmsack likes the android OS despite his mixed feelings towards google). And I am sure my next phone will be an android based phone (because nokia is taking to long to give me what i really want). But I really am not thrilled with google and i know damn well that OS and the google powered phones are just being used as giant statistic machines to gather all this info on everyone and everything so that advertisers and what not can make money and bla bla bla…
So I am stuck. damned if i do, damned if i don’t.
Oh right, this is a blackberry post, guess i should target this comment that way a bit.
My thoughts on the 6.0 pre release: it has a way to go, its a small step in the right direction, nothing to get exicted about, and the blackberry os will become obsolete as android and Win Phone 7 kill it (trust me, with the amount of deals MS is making, all of which have not come public yet, you are goign to see a TON of win phone 7, and thats a good thing, trust me).
black berry OS will die off, but hey, 6.0 will be a good release. but a good release of a sub par OS doesn’t excite me like it used to…
EXACTLY!!
That demo was a bit disappointing… I’ll admit, I don’t use my Blackberry for apps or media. I like to have a phone that works; my business depends on it. I have been through about a half dozen crappy phones, and I found myself back with Blackberry because of the call quality and signal strength. Places where other phones get no signal, my Blackberry almost always works.
I expect OS 6.x to be just a temporary solution, untill they use QNX. The question is, how will they utilise QNX at all? Maybe they will just use its cool OS infrastructure, but the surface (GUI) will be the same? Who knows. But let’s hope, that QNX as an OS does not die-off, it would really be a pity …
They could opensource it.