[Buckwheat]

Im curious. I spoke to a Verizon sales person yesterday and he said when asked that a official release was a week or two out for an OS and he said it would be .99. Now I dont know how accurate this info is but I hear alot of people saying .103 is a good. So my question is what would you expect to see different than .75 and would waiting to see the official release be worth while. Thanks

[XelhaBB]

Buckwheat,

If you went from .75 to .103 you would notice lots of different things. Off the top of my head I will say:

1. Less lock ups / glitching in general
2. More stable keyboard operations
3. Camera application functions better and faster.
4. Faster screen orientation from portrait to landscape and vice versa.
5. Smoother transitioning between applications

In general the phone will become more stable. But do not get the impression the Storm will run faster than ever. It will still operate at the same speed, it will just be more stable. The only thing that will cause the phone to speed up is a newer generation model. But you will definitely appreciate the improvements that come with .103.

IMO - go no further than .103 for now. Stay away from .109 and .112. I have seen far too many complaints regarding these beta OS builds.

[Buckwheat]

Thanks XelhaBB,I did download .103 and have been sitting on it for a couple days waiting to see if I wanted to give it a try.I am not overly concerned with the speed except changing from different apps.Stability is what I am concerned with and the camera issue. I was trying to take a video and it locked up so im hoping that would be resolved also. Otherwise it has been a pretty positive experience with the Storm. I think that I want to try the updated os before my month expires to give me a true idea of what the Storm can do and how it will be in the future.Thanks for all the help!

[Briman]

Originally Posted by XelhaBB

Buckwheat,

If you went from .75 to .103 you would notice lots of different things. Off the top of my head I will say:

1. Less lock ups / glitching in general
2. More stable keyboard operations
3. Camera application functions better and faster.
4. Faster screen orientation from portrait to landscape and vice versa.
5. Smoother transitioning between applications

In general the phone will become more stable. But do not get the impression the Storm will run faster than ever. It will still operate at the same speed, it will just be more stable. The only thing that will cause the phone to speed up is a newer generation model. But you will definitely appreciate the improvements that come with .103.

IMO - go no further than .103 for now. Stay away from .109 and .112. I have seen far too many complaints regarding these beta OS builds.

I have .103 and XelhaBB forgot a big one, QWERTY keyboard in portrait mode!
Some people say the accelerometer is faster but I'm not convinced. There are some negatives that go with betas. In this build, there's a slight memory leak which may require you to do a batt pull every so often. Mine lasts about a week. Also, you'll find that the batt life is less. Some claim cut in half from .75 to .103. I disagree about a 50% decrease but it definitely is less. The screen res is also a little lower than .75.

IMO I love the portrait QWERTY keyboard and I feel .103 is really a good for a beta. I'm going to stick it out on .103 for a while like XelhaBB recommends in anticipation for the next better release.

[jfults2000]

So I have read a lot that when you delete the vendor file to upgrade to a leaked OS you no longer have the browser icon. Is this still the case??

[nle801]

The browser issue is fixed when you re-register your device on the Verizon network.

[jfults2000]

Originally Posted by nle801

The browser issue is fixed when you re-register your device on the Verizon network.

I assume the re-register happens with one of the reboots when you install the new OS??

[XelhaBB]

Briman,

The portrait Qwerty appeared at .99 maybe earlier. I initially thought the Qwerty in portrait was cool...until I tried using it. It's simply more of a novelty because the keys are far too small to make the keyboard efficient. Unless you have tiny fingers, I mean really small kiddy fingers, IMO the portrait Qwerty is not all that. Especially with my big old mitts!

My battery life was unaffected by .103. My Storm experience only got better with beta builds .99 and .103. If you find your battery dying sooner, you either have a bad battery OR you aren't properly exiting your applications - leaving them running in the background. Always exit apps by pressing the BB key and closing from there.

IMO, battery pulls are a weekly necessity with all Blackberry phones. This is why there are quick pull apps for most models. This is not specific to the Storm and I think RIM is behind the curb in not developing a fix in this regard.

Buckwheat,

Your camera and video experience will be fine on .103. I used both features extensively at an outdoor concert this weekend without issue. It was the first time I used the video feature and the Storm did fine. So do yourself a favor and load .103!

[Rowdie]

Originally Posted by XelhaBB

Briman,

The portrait Qwerty appeared at .99 maybe earlier. I initially thought the Qwerty in portrait was cool...until I tried using it. It's simply more of a novelty because the keys are far too small to make the keyboard efficient. Unless you have tiny fingers, I mean really small kiddy fingers, IMO the portrait Qwerty is not all that. Especially with my big old mitts!

My battery life was unaffected by .103. My Storm experience only got better with beta builds .99 and .103. If you find your battery dying sooner, you either have a bad battery OR you aren't properly exiting your applications - leaving them running in the background. Always exit apps by pressing the BB key and closing from there.

IMO, battery pulls are a weekly necessity with all Blackberry phones. This is why there are quick pull apps for most models. This is not specific to the Storm and I think RIM is behind the curb in not developing a fix in this regard.

Buckwheat,

Your camera and video experience will be fine on .103. I used both features extensively at an outdoor concert this weekend without issue. It was the first time I used the video feature and the Storm did fine. So do yourself a favor and load .103!

I really have issues with this battery pull idea. What is it people think that fixes? If it's a real issue for all this time then W T F... basically that says to me that BB users have failed potential BB customers by not speaking about this issue with more gusto and not fighting for more action from RiM. It's one thing for a new device to require such action, it's a whole other thing for this to be a systematic issue that exists across all devices and has been on going for... since the beginning of time?

Anyway, did you also notice a drop in resolution of the screen as the first guy mentioned. That seems odd to me but it would certainly cut down how much time it takes to rotate the screen.

As far as portrait qwerty, err Trutype FTW! I really don't see why anyone would want to mess with portrait qwerty.

Seeing as my current jihad is about the random restarts, any news on that with the update? How much did you notice them before? How has that changed if at all?

[XelhaBB]

Rowdie,

For me, the battery pull is occasionally necessary for lagging and lockups. Every saturday I do a battery pull because it always gets the phone running better overall. I would compare it to running the defragmentation process on the PC's (when I had one - MAC now). I agree with you in that RIM should figure a fix for this or develop a process that runs in the background during operations.

I actually do recall noticing a change in resolution after upgrading the OS. Now I don't really notice it - maybe I am used to it.

However, your random restarts should end with .99 and above. None of the pesky quirks I encountered running .75 occur anymore. I am hoping the next official OS release is somewhere in the .140's. That would be awesome.

[Briman]

Originally Posted by XelhaBB

Briman,

The portrait Qwerty appeared at .99 maybe earlier. I initially thought the Qwerty in portrait was cool...until I tried using it. It's simply more of a novelty because the keys are far too small to make the keyboard efficient. Unless you have tiny fingers, I mean really small kiddy fingers, IMO the portrait Qwerty is not all that. Especially with my big old mitts!

My battery life was unaffected by .103. My Storm experience only got better with beta builds .99 and .103. If you find your battery dying sooner, you either have a bad battery OR you aren't properly exiting your applications - leaving them running in the background. Always exit apps by pressing the BB key and closing from there.

IMO, battery pulls are a weekly necessity with all Blackberry phones. This is why there are quick pull apps for most models. This is not specific to the Storm and I think RIM is behind the curb in not developing a fix in this regard.

Buckwheat,

Your camera and video experience will be fine on .103. I used both features extensively at an outdoor concert this weekend without issue. It was the first time I used the video feature and the Storm did fine. So do yourself a favor and load .103!

XelhaBB, I did the same. I upgraded from .75 to .99 to .103. I noticed that Buckwheat was going to make the jump from .75 to .103 so that's why I mentioned the QWERTY KB. It came on the .99 OS.

I'm a newbie to BBerries. I made the jump over from a Treo and I'm totally glad. My old 700wx had a keyboard about the same size as the portrait QWERTY keyboard on the Storm. So the storm portrait keyboard is familiar. Yeah, I've got mits too but if I want to type a lot, I'll go landscape.

My wife and I got Storms on day 1. I like loading beta OSs and such but shes' still on .75 (upgraded from .65). Side by side her battery runs longer and she's not savvy about turning off her apps. However, I am. Keeping unused apps closed is good advice. I have weatherbug and flycast. Apps like that seem to burn battery and leak mem. I do battery pulls frequently but my wife is using .75 and she rarely does batt pulls. She's a power emailer, facebooker, and txter. IMO I think .75 was more stable than .99 but .103 beats them both.

BuckW - I used mine at a concert too and the video worked great.

[Turbosteve]

Originally Posted by XelhaBB

Briman,

The portrait Qwerty appeared at .99 maybe earlier. I initially thought the Qwerty in portrait was cool...until I tried using it. It's simply more of a novelty because the keys are far too small to make the keyboard efficient. Unless you have tiny fingers, I mean really small kiddy fingers, IMO the portrait Qwerty is not all that. Especially with my big old mitts!

I'd disagree there, I went from .75 to .99 and have to say that the qwerty portrait keyboard is great. I have big hands (6'4 220lbs) and I have trouble typing in landscape as it seems like my thumbs are always selecting the wrong keys. But in full qwerty portrait mode my typing speed has nearly doubled and on top of that my accuracy has improved. I would not even consider going back at this point.

Best thing to do is to try it yourself and see what works for you.

Stephen

[cscotty]

Quick question....when we say .75, .99, and .103, we are talking about the platform right? I am currently running v4.7.0.76 (platform 4.0.0.96). Which set of numbers are we actually talking about?

Thanks,
Scott

[Briman]

Originally Posted by Turbosteve

Best thing to do is to try it yourself and see what works for you.

Stephen

I agree and if you don't like the QWERTY in portrait mode you can simply switch it back to SureType. It's an option in settings/screen/keyboard.

[XelhaBB]

Originally Posted by cscotty

Quick question....when we say .75, .99, and .103, we are talking about the platform right? I am currently running v4.7.0.76 (platform 4.0.0.96). Which set of numbers are we actually talking about?

Thanks,
Scott

Actually NO, we are talking about the version.

In your case you are running v4.7.0.76 or just .76.

Overall, to be quite honest, .75 is not really all that bad. The major difference
in the higher betas for me, such as .99 and .103, was an improvement in the accelerometer operations and more stability in applications. The camera also improved significantly with .103.

I can't fathom why some love the portrait Qwerty. I just played with it again and what a major pain! I guess practice might be the key. But I scream on the landscape Qwerty. The Storm just sits better in my big old mitts when rotated sideways. Two hands won't even come into play in portrait mode. A previous poster indicated his was a pretty big ole boy. Well he must have some pretty smalls hands to be able to scream on that Qwerty. But again, I do have an oversized pair of grapplers.