No Storm at vowe's magic flying circus
by Volker Weber
While RIM usually send the latest gear right away, I have not received a Storm. And last week I met a fellow journalist from a news service who just got his. I think I have an idea why RIM did not send one. Read David's scathing report.
Update: Incoming message from RIM. Device is en route.
Comments
Ouch, that's quite damning. I'm one of those people who doesn't believe in one device for all functions, you always get compromises somewhere. Archos wins for video, iPod for music, and without doubt the Bold for e-mail and business stuff. So I'm certainly not convinced by a touch-screen for a phone - give me the Bold's (or Curve's or 8800's) keyboard any day. I'm even glad the Archos 605 uses a stylus for it's touch screen. I look at the screen of my wife's iPod touch and think that it would drive me mad watching a movie thru the smears and fingerprints.
Makes you wonder if RIM were reacting too quickly to the iPhone when they really didn't need to. Until Apple get the APIs in place and some sort of enterprise-grade feature-set, BlackBerries should win in the business world which is RIM's sweet-spot.
I don't like to mix up iPhones and BlackBerrys. Notes and Exchange shops have very differening views here. I know of more than one Exchange shop that recommends iPhones to their user base (yes, that is from the office of the CIO). Does not happen in Notes shops for obvious reasons.
I have had very limited exposure to the Storm, but I found out everything that David wrote in the first couple of minutes. Interestingly enough I was allowed to shoot photos of the Storm but not videos. My guess is, you should not be able to see how poorly it performs.
Some time has passed and RIM has newer software for the device. Things may have gotten better. Fewer reboots and such. I will eventually get one for review.
For now I stand by my assessment that you want a Bold. Over any other BlackBerry. Not necessarily over any other device, labeled "business" or not.
Currently, the largest billboard here in Dortmund is for the Bold. Sized about 120 by 10 meters, it is wrapped around the signature "U" building and hard to miss from train or car. I always felt that having this giant billboard is coming close to crying out "We are in Fear".
That's for the Storm of course. Mixed up those names.
Over at The Inquirer, they've cried foul on that review.
Now, The Inquirer doesn't show their workings for their claims on 90% of the apple reviews being positive, nor do they do much else.
It's pretty much a character assassination as articles go.
On the one hand, I wonder why there would be smoke without a fire. On the other, I wonder if there's just a spat between the two reporters.
Overall, I think I'll want to see a few more reviews before I decide anything.
Not that I'm likely to let go of my E90 anytime soon though - I'm more than happy with it...
An update... I had a go with a Storm yesterday, and attempted to enter my name into the address book. Admittedly it was sitting in a security holster in the Vodafone shop, and I was keeping half an eye on my daughter and her friend. But my God it was difficult. And actually, I didn't succeed.
The scrolling and overall response is pretty poor compared to the iPod touch and iPhone.
