Notes from the field: Santa Clara
by Volker Weber
I have now been about 36 hours on the ground in Santa Clara. Yahoo is on the other side of the street, and Google or Apple are not far away. Currently I am stuck between my deadlines and information hiding on the vendor side. It took more than one leak to get all the information I needed to make it to the printing press in time. Everybody has been more than helpful, and in the end I am going to make it, despite some serious lack of sleep. Four hours from now the conference will go into full swing with the keynotes of top RIM management. At which time I can probably relax a bit more.
Without breaking any news, I have played with the BlackBerry Storm yesterday. I find it quite impressive. The not so obvious feature is that the device screen knows a soft tap and a harder press, where the screen actually gives away a little. The tactile feedback is very similar to the new touchpad on the Apple MacBooks. It feels natural, especially when typing on the onscreen keyboard. I find that keyboard to be a little bit better than the iPhone keyboard, but not good enough to replace a real keyboard. I am probably going to need a few days for a final say, but from the first experience, I would go for the Bold instead of the Storm.
What's really impressive is the turnout of this conference. I was expecting maybe 600 attendants, but there are more than 700 here. Everything is standing room only, with overflow rooms. Massive for a mobile developer conference.
Comments
And the free handset everyone will get ? A curve, pearl, or Bold ?
---* Bill
A Bold, a Storm or a Pearl Flip. I think I will take the Bold, even if it has the wrong keyboard. The Flip is out of the question, and the Storm is not yet available.
Update: when I tried to pick up the Bold, there were none left. Now they promised to send one. Still pondering the Storm though. Does not have Wifi. Dang.
Oh, they ran out? I picked up the Bold. :-) I am glad my last name is at the other end of the alphabet from yours! :D I was the last one to collect it in the first round.
And I think only the Bolds were unlocked. The Flip is tied to T-Mobile and the Storm to Verizon.
