[csurfr]

Originally Posted by kmhphoto

Having experienced both side by side, for me the iPhone is superior. Others may prefer the Blackberry.
The more I use the Curve, the more I like it and will probably keep both phones. Neither is a clear winner.

Having both an iPhone and a Curve, I have to say the only downside to the iPhone is Push. Sure, Yahoo! has push with the iPhone, but I don't really want a new email address just to get my mail instantly. That said, my Curve hasn't been used in the the past 2 months. The battery life could be better, but you're using a desktop browser and it's transferring a lot of data. Of course it's going to drain the battery more than the BB wap browser.

[Josh615]

Originally Posted by Runamuck

What's fascinating to me is the Apple iPhone is first generation while the Curve is what now.....8th generation? The differences between the two aren't so far apart. That should tell you something.

Saying the Iphone is 1st gen and the BB is 8th gen and that they have the same features is retarded. Yes, this is true. However, when did BB first come out? 2001? Somewhere around there. The technology of today wasnt around when BB were in the 1st generation days. If Iphone didnt have more or less of the same things as BB today, Apple would be getting their asses blown out of the water. Had Apple released the Iphone back in 2001, it would have been just as "crappy"-- by todays standards-- as BB was then.

[alib21]

Originally Posted by Anthony569

Just wondering if there's kindred spirits on here.

Went from a common boring flip (after too many years than I care to admit) to a smartphone last week. First choice was an Apple iPhone before being disgusted after a few days and switching to the same BB (8310 Curve) that I got for my gf last Christmas.

My issues....

1) Battery drain was ridiculous. Literally two charges a day. Bought a very-protective case that apparently wasn't also battery-heat-friendly. Even had to cancel the WiFi for damage-control on the battery, which made streaming on YouTube a joke on ATT's current EDGE network.

2) Had to have the the fingers of an anorexic dwarf to make the keypad for texting, email, etc. reasonable. Too many annoying touch-keypad crossovers.

3) Customer-service finger-pointing between ATT & Apple was enough to make a consumer of both seriously contemplate a wrist-slit out of frustration.

4) Ringers? Don't get me started....wow. Stock was predictably lame, and only the best-of-the-best hackers... with alot of free time on their hands....could go there when it came to circumventing iTunes in lieu of taking it in the arse with "approved" songs/ringtones.

So I returned the iPhone and got the same 8310 Curve that I bought my gf for xmas...one of the best decisions I ever made in the tech-spectrum. Might be $15 extra a month on my ATT plan for RIM vs. an iPhone - but well worth it.

Ditto, Ditto, Ditto & Ditto, don't forget about the volume & speakerphone!
I just feel bad, because I jumped on iPhone bandwagon so fast I also convinced my husband and sister to do the same. Happily 2 out of 3 of us are Curve owner's, one of us is waiting for a good deal on a red Curve (anyone know of one, let me know)

[Anthony569]

Originally Posted by Runamuck

I'm one of the not-so-few who actually like iTunes. And try as I might to enjoy the media player on my Curve, which is "ok," it's just not my iPod.

I like iTunes and iPods also. Just not the iPhone. I'll never be one to say that a Blackberry's platform music-wise is better, especially since coverflow came out from Apple.

Originally Posted by Runamuck

Getting ringtones onto the iPhone, even without jailbreaking it, is pretty trivial. If you can go thru all the hassle of converting a video to play properly on your Curve, you should be able to get ringtones onto the phone without paying iTunes for them.

It may be possible, but you'll also have a stroke doing it. I use my usual favorite prog (Wavepad) to slice and dice my mp3's into ringtones. With BB, it's as easy as dragging the into the ringtones folder on BB's Desktop Manager. I don't think any iPhone user could describe their workaround in one sentence. Takes like 10 steps and they don't always work, especially if an Apple update nukes it. Updates are optional, of course...but if you want the update's "improvements", you also have to sacrifice their wrist-slaps.

Originally Posted by Runamuck

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out. If you are a Windows user, there's even software out there to automate the process and do all the big mean hacking stuff for you.

Ouch. I'd hardly call myself a hacker. Just try to minimize my bottom line on having to pay for overpriced audio that can be gotten for zilch with the right tools and enough ingenuity to get something done without having to put on a labcoat...I don't have that kinda time.

Originally Posted by Runamuck

Customer service issues?!?!?! LMAO. Don't even get me started about finger pointing at a cell phone carrier. Apple's Genius Bar is the BEST customer service I've had from any consumer electronics maker in my frickin' life. Make an appt, go into the store, walk out with your problem fixed. Try that at Tmobile or Verizon! Walk into THEIR store, they pick up their phone, call some customer service rep then HAND you the phone. Gee thanks for being absolutely worthless to me! Gimme a friggin break. Apple is awesome at customer service. I bought my phone at AT&T but the first one had a slight issue with the screen. I walked into the Genius bar and walked out with a NEW (not a refurbed) phone within 20 mins.

Genius Bars are in 36 states. The other 14 might beg to differ with you.

Originally Posted by Runamuck

I LOVE the larger screen on the iPhone. I'll trade battery life for a more readable screen and a highly serviceable browser experience.

So did I. But with a dead battery, an enjoyably large screen is kinda-sorta moot.

Originally Posted by Runamuck

But lets be fair...the iPhone is an iPod with phone features.

I may be wrong on this...but I did read online...offhand, can't remember if itwas a CNET review, think it was...that if you deadbeat on your ATT bill (hey, people lose jobs all the time) or for whatever reason part ways with ATT service, the phone becomes a very expensive paperweight and even the iPod functionality is inaccessible. A tech at an ATT store thought that was "possible" but wasn't sure. I'll invite others here to support or correct me on that.

Originally Posted by Runamuck

Really, it's been kind of fun to have both an iPhone and a Curve. I'm holding what many consider to be the best of the best in the marketplace. What's fascinating to me is the Apple iPhone is first generation while the Curve is what now.....8th generation? The differences between the two aren't so far apart. That should tell you something.

Tells me Apple should stick to iPods and let RIM handle phones, at least as they compare at the moment because Apple has important kinks to work out overall vs. Curve just needing a few browsing tweaks to make it more "fun" in addition to being a corporate emblem.

All I know is, I have a near full-charge at the end of the day after heavy use and comparing that to my near-dead-by-5pm iPhone was a big selling point. Most important thing I look for in a phone is that it's....well, on. I'm not giving Steve Jobs $90 every year for new or better batteries...nice upsell. Alot easier to replace my Curve's ticker myself and (for half the cost.) Time for Apple to at least start making devices with reasonably-priced, user-replaceable batteries.

[Runamuck]

Originally Posted by Josh615

Saying the Iphone is 1st gen and the BB is 8th gen and that they have the same features is retarded. Yes, this is true. However, when did BB first come out? 2001? Somewhere around there. The technology of today wasnt around when BB were in the 1st generation days. If Iphone didnt have more or less of the same things as BB today, Apple would be getting their asses blown out of the water. Had Apple released the Iphone back in 2001, it would have been just as "crappy"-- by todays standards-- as BB was then.

I'm afraid you missed my point Josh. Completely.

RIM has been, and continues to be, the leader in US market share for smartphone/PDA devices. They've done very well in the corporate sector because they do something VERY well and that's integrate with corporate systems.

Only recently have they tried to move outside of the corporate community by introducing phones with cameras and media. They are trying to move into the consumer space. Arguably, their first market entry for the average text-and-picture phone crowd was the Pearl.

It's THAT space that Apple wants, not the corporate space. And they plan on using their "walled garden" of iTunes to do just that. And considering less than 8 months after launch they are now the number 2 smartphone provider in the USA, while RIM claws it's way into that same segment to try and win new market share....well, this will be interesting.

Again, I've both devices. I see a place for both in the world. But for non-corporate use, the iPhone is in a class by itself with the Blackberry playing catchup before they even realized a foothold.

[jessep28]

I have a coworker who got an iPhone over Christmas and we are having a heck of a time trying to get his work email to sync up correctly without issues to our mail server.

I don't have a problem with the iPhone but I could never buy one. Blackberry for the premium you pay in service plans have the best devices hands down.

Although I'm interested to see what Palm has brewing when they get their Unix based OS released in the next 15 years (or maybe not if they shelve it again).

[Anthony569]

I also don't think the Apple $100 price-slash for the double-gig model after the initial iPhone release didn't exactly win over the hearts and minds of non-Apple-fanatic consumers re: trust and going forward. The rebate backtracking was too little, too-late.

Obviously based on the current sales-leveling for iPhones..besides returns, alot of folks are now doing a wait-and-see. Can't blame'em, really. But in the end, it all boils down to individual preferences.

Me, hey look...I simply like my BB and I'm gonna stick with it, regardless. If you're an iPhone addict, more power to you (pardon the pun, considering current battery concerns.) The BB browser may never match up to iPhone but the overall device features, etc. makes me confident that I made the right decision. And I'm not even Enterprise (my company naturally doesn't allow personal BB's on their servers.) For the sake of staying in tune with my boss, etc...I just forward my work Outlook to Gmail.

And with a 4 gb memory card...I can even spare myself the need to buy another iPod to replace my broken Nano (don't care much for video vs. music so no need for large storage anyway.)

All-in-one device now and a very happy camper. But to each his/her own. It's what a diverse and competitive market is all about.

[davistld01]

Got my first BlackBerry (8300)...then traded it for my first iPhone. After several exchanges back and forth with Apple Care...I gve up on the iPhone and came back to BlackBerry. I love my new 8310...and it's a rock-solid device to be sure...

...but I do miss the iPhone a little if for nothing more than the media features and the inherant "coolness" that it exudes.

I have a $100 rebate card coming from AT&T soon (I hope!)...and I have been seriously thinking about snapping up another 8gb iPhone as a secondary phone...since I can get it for $299 after the rebate card.

For those of you who have both the BlackBerry and the iPhone...how do you use both devices, as the data plans for the phones are totally different? I would appreciate some feedback on this, since I am not about to give up my BlackBerry BIS plan just to have another iPhone.

[CMatthews]

I'm also one of the people that went from the Curve to and iPhone and back to Curve. As much as I like Apple products and their support, I own the new the Dual Quad Core Mac Pro running at 2.8GHz with 10GB of Ram, and a 15" MacBook Pro, but the iPhone could be better.

From the media stand point it is awesome, but really wish the volume were as loud as the Curve's. I use my Curve a lot for listening to music, but don't mess with the video side of it much other than some short video clips.

I do really like the email on the iPhone, but the push email on the Curve is hard to beat, I can't understand why Apple didn't offer push email for .Mac subscribers.

iPhone is a much better device for web browsing, even with Opera Mini on my Curve its not as good as the Safari on the iPhone.

For now I'm sticking with BB devices, especially now that Slingplayer will be coming to them, and the possibility of a 3G model in the future. However if Apple were to step up and make a better 2nd generation iPhone i would possible switch to it.

[Runamuck]

Originally Posted by davistld01

For those of you who have both the BlackBerry and the iPhone...how do you use both devices, as the data plans for the phones are totally different? I would appreciate some feedback on this, since I am not about to give up my BlackBerry BIS plan just to have another iPhone.

I carry my Curve in my backpack, check it frequently throughout the day for email on my Exchange server. I have all my phone calls forwarded from it to my iPhone. I _sometimes_ use the Curve (actually an 8320 from Tmo with H@H service) for VOIP calls via UMA, and then mostly when travelling internationally. But that's only when the dang thing works for me. It's pretty much a data-only device for me now.

The iPhone gets used non-stop for voice and data, primarily email for all my non-work accounts and to do stock trades and such via my website stock portal. That's something I could never do with my Curve's browser...just was too slow and/or didn't work half the time. I'm actually a bit surprised at how MUCH web browser activity I do on the iPhone. Since it's the first full-featured browser I've used on a phone, I don't find myself booting my laptop to do simple things like book orbitz flights or other "full" website activities. I've even started using it to make forum posts and find myself much more active on my accounts now as a result of same.

Then there's video. I was pretty proficient at converting vid clips to my Curve. It's very doable, has a nice screen, etc. But with the iPhone, I find myself ripping entire DVD's to the thing now, or doing a lot more with episodic TV shows I synch up via iTunes. I download the shows I wanna see from my DVR, convert to MP4 and take them with me. Since I travel so much, I've actually started to keep up with shows like Weeds, Sarah Conner Chronicles, etc. now...where in the past, I wouldn't. Again...convergence. One device and I can do it all. And podcasts round out my custom "ear news" each day now.

I'm getting 5-6 hours of full-screen use of my iPhone per day. Although my Curve definitely has a better battery scheme, it hardly got used as much as I just used it for email and phone calls....nothing else really was as enjoyable to "burn the battery" for on that device. I synch up to iTunes enough that I get to top off the charge pretty frequently, and my car already had an iPod adapter built-in that works fine for my iPhone...charges and connects to stereo...I don't suffer the interference problems I've heard from others. Hey, if the iPhone battery is going dead on me...that means I'm USING it to the fullest, so I don't worry so much about that. In normal phone/wifi use only, I can easily go a full day between charges..could go 1.5 to almost 2 full days on the Curve in a pinch. But again...didn't use it as much as I am the iPhone either.

I scaled down my minutes on Tmo on the Curve to bare minimum, kept the data plan intact. Company pays for that anyways. I have the $99 plan on AT&T for the iPhone, and company pays for the voice portion of that. So basically...I'm only paying for a data plan for my iPhone right now.

[kmhphoto]

Originally Posted by davistld01

For those of you who have both the BlackBerry and the iPhone...how do you use both devices, as the data plans for the phones are totally different? I would appreciate some feedback on this, since I am not about to give up my BlackBerry BIS plan just to have another iPhone.

We "purchased" - they were free on contract - 4 Curves from T-Mobile UK. Two with unlimited web-n-walk + BB e-mail. The other two with unlimited web-n-walk.
Then using the sims from the 2 without e-mail, added the APN details into the iPhones.

[broch]

Originally Posted by Runamuck

I carry my Curve in my backpack, check it frequently throughout the day for email on my Exchange server. I have all my phone calls forwarded from it to my iPhone. I _sometimes_ use the Curve (actually an 8320 from Tmo with H@H service) for VOIP calls via UMA, and then mostly when travelling internationally. But that's only when the dang thing works for me. It's pretty much a data-only device for me now.

The iPhone gets used non-stop for voice and data, primarily email for all my non-work accounts and to do stock trades and such via my website stock portal. That's something I could never do with my Curve's browser...just was too slow and/or didn't work half the time. I'm actually a bit surprised at how MUCH web browser activity I do on the iPhone. Since it's the first full-featured browser I've used on a phone, I don't find myself booting my laptop to do simple things like book orbitz flights or other "full" website activities. I've even started using it to make forum posts and find myself much more active on my accounts now as a result of same.

Then there's video. I was pretty proficient at converting vid clips to my Curve. It's very doable, has a nice screen, etc. But with the iPhone, I find myself ripping entire DVD's to the thing now, or doing a lot more with episodic TV shows I synch up via iTunes. I download the shows I wanna see from my DVR, convert to MP4 and take them with me. Since I travel so much, I've actually started to keep up with shows like Weeds, Sarah Conner Chronicles, etc. now...where in the past, I wouldn't. Again...convergence. One device and I can do it all. And podcasts round out my custom "ear news" each day now.

I'm getting 5-6 hours of full-screen use of my iPhone per day. Although my Curve definitely has a better battery scheme, it hardly got used as much as I just used it for email and phone calls....nothing else really was as enjoyable to "burn the battery" for on that device. I synch up to iTunes enough that I get to top off the charge pretty frequently, and my car already had an iPod adapter built-in that works fine for my iPhone...charges and connects to stereo...I don't suffer the interference problems I've heard from others. Hey, if the iPhone battery is going dead on me...that means I'm USING it to the fullest, so I don't worry so much about that. In normal phone/wifi use only, I can easily go a full day between charges..could go 1.5 to almost 2 full days on the Curve in a pinch. But again...didn't use it as much as I am the iPhone either.

I scaled down my minutes on Tmo on the Curve to bare minimum, kept the data plan intact. Company pays for that anyways. I have the $99 plan on AT&T for the iPhone, and company pays for the voice portion of that. So basically...I'm only paying for a data plan for my iPhone right now.

sorry but this only confirms suspicions:
buying stuff over unsecured networks (iPhone has only wep support = no security at all
while Curve supports WPA2

It takes ~2-3 mins to break WEP.
This is serious limitation for anyone using "full featured browser" (Safari) on the phone.
This only feature (WPA2) also makes Curve way above iPhone browser reach.

This is more or less like OS X being most secure OS in the world (which was proven incorrect many times, and latest OS X release made in only laughable).

Apple's Genius Bar is the BEST customer service I've had from any consumer electronics maker in my frickin' life.

nahh, I don't need an appointment: got to the Verizon shop and fixed my problems instantly.
I do remember though all sorts of problems with different Apple products though and getting appointments was not really helpful.

No, Apple's service is average. In some places better and in other worse.

I think that you can justify anything you want including wep for any financial transactions, iTunes limitation and so on.

[geggyta516]

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8310/4.2.2 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/102 UP.Link/6.3.0.0.0)

Since January of 2007 I've gone through the Samsung Blackjack, palm treo 750, Pearl, palm treo 750, 8800, iphone, 8800, ATT Tilt, iphone, and now finally the Curve. (I have an addiction)

While the iphone does some really cool things, there is nothing like the blackberry keyboard and messaging system.

I now pledge to only upgrade my phone to a newer blackberry when available. Anybody want to buy a slightly used iphone?

[Sith_Apprentice]

lol, i feel your pain on that addiction. many members that BBMessage me know how often i change PINs on just my personal device, let along my work one.

[andrewyeoh]

Simple solution! Become an banker and they'll provide you with a company 8800 and pick up an iPhone for your personal use