[postproductionguy]

Hey all,

I thought I'd seek advise on coming back to the BB world. Quick background, I'm a past BB Bold 9000 owner through work, and I loved that Bold! When I left the company, I moved to an iPhone 4, basically because I'm a broadcast editor who spends his life cutting film and video on Macs. I just figured it was a natural progression to go with something that syncs so well with a Mac. After a few weeks I couldn't deal with the touch keyboard anymore, I missed the wonderful feel and speed of the Bold keyboard. I returned to Blackberry with the purchase of the Torch 9800, since it had a keyboard and the convenience of a touch screen. Like many BB loyalists, I was disappointed with the difference in browsers, apps etc., plus the fact that the keyboard wasn't the "Bold 9000" I craved, not to mention I wasn't crazy about the sliding operation of the Torch. Still, I forged ahead for over a year with my BB, until 3 weeks ago when I figured it was time to give the iPhone another go with the iPhone 4S. For 3 weeks I've been enjoying the phone, but of course I miss the push email, BBM, keyboard etc. Sunday I was in the AT&T store for a case and it ends up it's the launch day for the Bold 9900! Naturally I picked it up and started playing with it, re-discovering the glorious feel of my previous 9000, AND, it has a touch screen. I thought, wow, exactly what I'd want in a new Blackberry! I realized had I payed attention and knew that this beauty was launching, I would have chosen it over iPhone 4S. Now I have a week to return the iPhone and grab the 9900, but for some reason I can't pull the trigger? I read that the battery life isn't great on the 9900, but other than that, it looks like a great Blackberry. So, a few questions: Is this the great Blackberry I believe it to be? Are there any Mac users having good syncing experiences with it? Is a battery fix coming, or already here? And if anyone cares to offer any arguments to help me pull that trigger, I'd welcome advise. Thanks!

[Preroll]

Originally Posted by postproductionguy

Hey all,

I'm a broadcast editor who spends his life cutting film and video on Macs. I just figured it was a natural progression to go with something that syncs so well with a Mac.

And if anyone cares to offer any arguments to help me pull that trigger, I'd welcome advise. Thanks!

I do engineering/system support for the post editors, audio engineers, and graphics artists at my job. I work for one of the networks in NY. From a video standpoint, I was quite impressed with the performance of the video camera. Yes it's not as good as an HDCAM Sony perhaps but it still produces a fairly decent picture for a phone and I found it easier to use than converting videos from my iPod Touch. We use Final Cut Pro here (not version X of course) and if you have Perian installed, it will read the .3GP format from the phone. I use MPEG Streamclip to transcode the video into Pro Res 422 with a Quicktime container wrapper and then import it right into Final Cut Pro. Works great!

As for the battery, I bought the JM-1 Charging Bundle which allows me to swap batteries with an external charger so I don't worry too much about it since I have a spare. Not too up on Desktop Manager or any other apps that are used with the Mac as I still use the PC to do the OS updates and backups.

Have fun!

[fortlauderdale]

The phone great. I too have the backup battery but have rarely utilized it. It is a very small battery and very easy to carry. I'm a moderate phone user, heavy emails & txt. Several APPS.

[GQBalla]

how did you get the iphone 4s before the 9900??? you say it was the 9900 launch?

the 9900 launched before the iphonee 4s...

but anyway.

i switched from iphone 4 back to blackberry because of the physical keyboard.
period.

[Dubdub]

I switched from the iPhone 3gs back to the BB, first to a 9800 and now to the 9810. Used the 9000 prior tot he iPhone. iPhone just didn't do what I wanted it to do and how I wanted it to do it.

I use a Mac. The Mac DM version works just fine. No problems for me. I use Google Calendar sync to keep my calendar in sync across multiple platforms/computers.

Battery life really depends on how much you use it. I have no issues with the 9810. As with any Lithium battery, you should keep it topped up when near a power supply and don't let it rundown past 20% on a regular basis. That being said, there have been battery problems with the 9900. I suggest that you peruse the 9900 section for more information, but keep in mind we usually only get the bad, rarely the good.