[ubizmo]

I recently bought an unlocked Storm on eBay; I'm awaiting delivery. I currently have a Curve 8900.

My reason for getting the Storm is, I recently installed the Barnes & Noble eReader on my 8900 and I like it a lot, but I'd like it even more if the screen were bigger. I had an opportunity to see the eReader on a Storm, and it looks good.

I went to a Verizon store and spent some time playing with the Storm's touch screen. After reading all the criticisms of it, I was hesitant. But I found it wasn't bad at all. And I've read the thread on this forum about improving its performance, so I'm hoping that will be okay.

The 8900, of course, has WiFi and 256 MB of memory for apps. The Storm has no WiFi, and only 128 MB of memory, although it has an additional 1 GB of "onboard memory," which the 8900 doesn't have. I'm not sure what the point of that is, since it also comes with an 8 GB SD card. Does it have some other point?

Currently, with all the apps I have installed on the 8900, I have a whopping 130 MB of free memory. That's fine, since the 8900 has so much memory to begin with; but I take it that this means that those same apps won't all fit onto the Storm. Is that correct?

I notice that while the 8900 supports the AMR audio format, the Storm doesn't. This is the format used by the native Voice Notes app on the 8900, so I take it the Storm Voice Notes app uses a different format--or maybe there isn't a Voice Notes app on the Storm?

Does the Storm have any way of doing something like keyboard shortcuts?

Is there anything else I should be thinking about, besides deciding which apps to sacrifice?

Ubizmo

[JSanders]

the 1gb of onboard memory is just extra, for media and such without interfering with your application memory.

The Storm voice notes are also saved as AMR format.

With no keyboard, there are less shortcuts to apps, but that is easily solved using an application like QuickLaunch.

You'll enjoy the large screen, for sure, I do.

[ubizmo]

Originally Posted by JSanders

the 1gb of onboard memory is just extra, for media and such without interfering with your application memory.

The Storm voice notes are also saved as AMR format.

With no keyboard, there are less shortcuts to apps, but that is easily solved using an application like QuickLaunch.

You'll enjoy the large screen, for sure, I do.

Thanks for the info. Much as I dislike taking a "backward" step in terms of computing power, the screen is ideal for the eReader. The absence of WiFi won't affect much for me, except Pandora and Virtual Radio, I suppose. It remains to be seen whether either of those will be worth bothering with via Edge.

It's interesting that the Blackberry "device comparison" page doesn't list AMR as a supported format for the Storm, even though it still uses it.

Prior to the 8900, I had an 8320. On that device, I'd typically have 17-20 mb of free memory, out of 64 mb physically available. It seems odd to me that on the 8900 I'd have only 130 mb available, out of 235 mb physically available. Granted, I put a few more apps on the 8900 than I could have on the 8320, but not really that many. I kept up with the beta OSs on both devices, but I find it hard to believe that the OS on the 8900 takes up that much more space than the 8320 OS. So...I guess it's hard to predict what memory usage on the Storm will look like until I actually have it up and running, with stuff loaded onto it.

Interested as I am in using the eReader on the Storm, I'm hoping I won't notice a large setback in overall functionality. If I do...I suppose I'll go back to the 8900.

Ubizmo

[Dubdub]

Read the FAQ article on buying a used BB from eBay. That will tell you the problems to expect to have and how to fix them.

[zerog46]

The memory difference is probably due to the newer OS on the 8900.

[ubizmo]

Originally Posted by zerog46

The memory difference is probably due to the newer OS on the 8900.

Thanks. What's considered a "safe" margin of free memory on the Storm? And, on the subject of memory, will MaxMem work on the Storm?

I'm a little nervous about this, since a lot of people seem to be having issues of one sort or another. But...it'll be an adventure!

Ubizmo

[JSanders]

On reboot, I have ~30mb file free.

Like any other, about 12-15mb file free, I do a reboot, every few days.

[ubizmo]

I received the Storm yesterday, activated it and installed the .151 OS last night. So far, the device is pretty much unusable, since it doesn't hold EDGE long enough to do anything. In particular, the app for which I wanted a Storm in the first place, the B&N eReader, seems to kick the device back to edge instantly, and it stays there for quite a while. If I can't figure this out fairly quickly, I guess it's going to go back on eBay.

Ubizmo

[JSanders]

You've set the TCP/APN?

Does the B&N eReader have connection settings for BIS, TCP or ?

[ubizmo]

Originally Posted by JSanders

You've set the TCP/APN?

Yes. I've tried both wap.voicestream.com and epc.tmobile.com, and I don't notice any difference.

Does the B&N eReader have connection settings for BIS, TCP or ?

No. It just installs and runs, supposedly. It did on my 8900, anyway.

My sense is that the bigger problem is the extreme fragility of EDGE on this device, at least with T-mobile. The B&N eReader causes it to drop to edge, but then so does the browser, at least some of the time.

Ubizmo

[ubizmo]

I did love the larger screen. I was underwhelmed by the touch screen, but probably could have gotten used to it. But after wasting the better part of two days trying to get stable EDGE--and failing--I gave up. I've looked around at other threads here and on other forums, and I've formed the impression that people on AT&T get better results with unlocked Storms, and those of us on T-Mobile get the worst of it. I do see that at least some people on T-Mobile are getting the Storm working okay, but I wasn't one of them.

It was especially frustrating that the one app that I particularly wanted to use, the Barnes & Noble eReader, was the worst offender, in terms of causing the device to drop EDGE and not get it back. So it's back to the Curve. Thanks to the people who tried to help me out.

Ubizmo