Experiment Failed

Having toiled with the old BlackBerry Z10 for the past week, I was beginning to realise how doomed the system was. It came as no surprise that even BlackBerry themselves had given up on the operating system, jumped ship and gone all Android.

At the end the reason was pretty obvious. The operating system was slow and antiquated with poor third party support and bad battery life.

I hope that the new Priv would carry the pluses of the old models. The excellent email service if not the poor software implementation, the best software keyboard on any platform and the slick high quality hardware.

The Priv would be hitting this shores next week and I for once would be eager to try it. If the quality was there, I wouldn't mind buying one. But the rumour has it that it was going to be expensive. Well into the iPhone category.

It would be a tough ask, but I would be willing to try. But for the moment, goodbye Z10. Goodbye BlackBerry OS 10.

Ironically, this entry was typed using the Z10 excellent keyboard ...

Firing up an Old Flame

I had been looking up the review for the upcoming BlackBerry Priv and felt that the phone certain got potential. On the one hand, you have the great hardware and keyboard - both physical and software - which came with BlackBerry plus the flexibility and the established platform that was Android operating system.

I have invested a lot in Android software, so it would make perfect sense to port over into another Android rather than plod along with BlackBerry OS, which may be going nowhere soon.

While waiting for it to be available at the shop, I thought I rekindle my love for BlackBerry. I went back into my digital cupboard and dusted off my old Z10, got it charged up and updated the OS.

Hmmm! Sluggish but usable. Now I realised why I left the phone in the cupboard in the first place. The main problem j had with the phone was not the hardware, but the software. And the worst part was navigating through the trove of emails in the so called Hub. To erase the email in bulk took some prodding. Then came the problem of trying to jump from email to the next. It appeared that you needed to load each emails individually rather than sift through them fast such as in the Android or Outlook.

And that was just for starters. It get worse with the other third party apps. They were just slow and sluggish. Therefore marrying the good of BlackBerry and Android made perfect sense. The keyboard on the Z10 itself remained peerless. Even better than any Android or iOS keyboards.

Still waiting for a unit to try. Hopefully the wait would not be that long.

My Z10 gone LTE

After a good year using the Z10, I decided to upgrade. Not to a new system as such, but to an upgraded version of the same phone. The Z10, LTE version. Shame that it only came in White. Pricewise, it had certainly took a dive. There was no guarantee if BlackBerry would continue making phones. In fact, they were talking about selling their phone portfolio.

Why did I upgrade? Well, Maxis offered LTE at no extra cost and my workplace was covered. And the price, it was under RM800! I just couldn't say no to that! It was too good an offer.

As it stood, the keyboard was miles better any I had ever used, including the iPhone. I was not ashamed to admit that. The App Store was improving although it still lack plenty in the imaging department, but who in their right mind would be using a BlackBerry for their photography right?

I pray that BlackBerry would continue to soldier on. They had plenty more to offer on the platform I was sure, even if the profit margin was against that ...

Another Look at BBM

The clinic had been slow this morning which I couldn't really complain as it had been hectic since I returned from the break. And tomorrow going to be busy again.

So, I spent some time going through the news. It was all dominated by new releases from CES - Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas. New cameras, new phones, TV and the likes. But what cough my eyes was the iteration from BlackBerry on their new version of BBM. Still due to be released, but it promised to be true cross-platformed.

It was compelling enough an announcement that I booted up my Z10, and installed the BBM on my iPhone. Just to see how well it worked.

The main problem with WhatsApp was the fact that you'd need to give away your phone number. With this, it was like giving away your email but minus the possibility of spam - although I was sure that would come.

So, I would want to give BBM a try yet again. Good luck to me!

Another go at the Z10

Anita has never been a fan of walking, especially when we were talking about walking from KLCC all the way to Pavilion. But with the new walkway - fully air-conditioned - she didn't mind. It was a nice walk and on a busy Saturday afternoon with the crowd and all, we didn't really feel the distance. Anita actually stayed at Pavilion while I pressed onwards to Low Yat. I was there to survey for a laptop for the society.

While there, I finally had a chance to have a feel of the Z10. A nice slick device, fast and responsive buy with a lame camera. I meant proper lame. After about 15 minutes, I still couldn't make up my mind if the phone would be a useful addition to my daily activities. Will the connectivity be better than the combination of iPhone and Nexus 4 which I carry now? Maybe the BB Chat is by he only one missing, but I never had any investment in that. I still rely a lot on Google and the cloud for my productivity apps. I don't think that by he BlackBerry OS was mature enough to support my need at the moment. Maybe it would improve.

So, I would have to do a bit of homework and hit the forums to find out a bit more about the Z10. Maybe it could turn out to be a hidden gem. We shall have to wait and see ......