Back to Black (Berry)

There was a time when everyone I knew was using a BlackBerry. Matter of fact, one of the best ways to stay in touch with my BB friends was through BBM. 

That must have been sometime in 2009 or so. For us back then, text messaging was no just match to how well we stayed in touch through BBM. I had convinced many of my friends back then to get a BB just so we could stay in touch through BBM no matter where they were in the world.

My BlackBerry Curve’s BBM was truly filled with contacts. I’d plug away on the keyboard, quickly firing off messages and e-mails to my friends and colleagues. 

I made sure that I knew just what the latest BlackBerry cell phone available was so that I could see just how much better the system for BBM had improved. And the Push e-mail function was so effective that no matter where I was I never missed an incoming e-mail and that was good, whether for work or otherwise.

But I noticed that, last year, because of the problems faced by RIM, the company behind BackBerry, many people started to switch to other cell phones. It was also at about this time that apps like Whatsapp, Viber and recently Line, to name a few, had become the best way to stay in touch minus the costs of a text message.

It was also about that time that the other smartphones had started to make great things with so many applications and the rich web browsing they offered. While all this was happening, sadly, BlackBerry clung to its phone software.

I found myself having less and less contact on BBM and more and more using other apps, and my BlackBerry Curve became useful just for the Push e-mail function that still was, as far as I am concerned, the best ever.

BBZ10: Heaven sent

Recently, BlackBerry announced the release of its latest smartphone, which is equipped with new BlackBerry 10 operating system, a complete overhaul of the BlackBerry you’ve known. Even the company name has been overhauled; no longer RIM, or Research in Motion, it’s just calling itself BlackBerry.

“That’s a BlackBerry? Where’s the keyboard?” That’s the main reaction I’ve gotten to the Z10. The phone looks nothing like the typical BlackBerry with a physical keyboard and almost everything like an Android phone or iPhone. It has a large 4.2-inch 1280 x 768-resolution display and a thin body with a soft-to-the-touch back. 

I was able to get a chance to test run the BBZ10 recently and I was re-captured by its dual-core processor, 2GB of RAM and LTE.

But, much like all the other smartphones, when put to heavy use the BBZ10 battery only lasts, at most, 10 hours. I set up the BBZ10 and went to see just how effective and efficient it was with heavy e-mailing, Tweeting and surfing the Web.

I must add though that a plus with this cell phone is that the back cover of the phone comes off, allowing you to replace the battery. I was also told that there are plans for BlackBerry to sell a portable charging accessory, which contains a second battery for the phone.

The BlackBerry 10 operating system is built around pages of apps. Swipe to the right and you will see pages of your applications, swipe to the left while on the first page of apps and you will see your open applications, or what BlackBerry calls Active Frames. Apps are minimized on this page and you can see a snapshot of what is happening inside the app.

Swipe left again from that page and you’re at the BlackBerry Hub. The Hub is a messaging portal where you can view all your messages in one universal Inbox, including your e-mails, BBMs, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn messages. You can log in to all those accounts when you first set up the phone. It’s a nice and convenient way to manage your messages. And yes, the phone still has the blinking red light to let you know you have a new message.

And then there is the keyboard

There’s one part of the phone that is actually easier to get used to: the virtual keyboard on the screen. It only took me a few minutes of typing on the virtual keyboard before I got the hang of it.

For my fingers, I liked the way the keyboard keys are well spaced. BlackBerry has even put in distinctive frets to separate the rows of letters and used white letters on black keys. On top of that, there is that fun software that picks up your mistakes and learns with you as you go along typing. As you are typing, small words appear over the next letter you might tap. If the keyboard guesses the word you want to type correctly, you can swipe it forward to put it in your sentence. I love how it learned my vocabulary — like “oks” for “Okay.”

The Z10 with BlackBerry 10 comes with many of the standard preloaded apps you’d expect — photos, video, BlackBerry’s BBM app (which now supports voice and video calls), important social media apps like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Foursquare, and a new Maps app. 

While BlackBerry World is said to have with 70,000 apps, Instagram and YouTube aren’t available yet for the new operating system. BlackBerry has Facebook, Twitter, Rovio (Angry Birds), Skype and others, but many of the popular apps are not yet available for the BlackBerry 10 platform.

Going black?

I really like the way the BBZ10 is a fully modernized BackBerrty. It’s fast, has a mobile browser that beats many of the others, and an outstanding software keyboard. 

The BBZ10 is just what the techie doctor ordered for BlackBerry. 

Many of my friends have asked me whether it’s time to shift back to BBM — I think that the time is coming. A few more of the most popular apps on BBWorld that many people are so into, and then I can start rebuilding my BBM contact list.