Stormy Weather

I was one of those technophilic Verizon customers who refused to switch to AT&T despite the almost insuppressible lure of the iPhone. So of course, I waited in line to get the Storm.

I had a traumatic first day with it (but I should mention it was also the day I found out I passed the CA bar). I've never owned a BlackBerry, so I had to get used to the BB thinking too - the logic behind navigating it. Also, I'm no stranger to the iPhone, (which YouAreYou has), and I had certain preconceptions and expectations as a result.

There was a lot of frustration that first day. The accelerometer often fails to flip the screen upon turning the device. There are often lags when you select things or open menus.

But after a bit, I've grown to appreciate my BB. I learned a million tricks off the BB forums and crackberry.com. These tricks are not documented anywhere officially - it's like getting infinite lives in Nintendo's Contra (A-B-A-B-up-down, etc., you remember!). They make using the device not only easier, it's also like knowing a secret code.

I was not the only one who wanted to return it that first day. David Pogue of the NY Times gave it a scathing review. Today he posted some messages in response to that post. Here's my response to that:

A lot of the complaints are actually due to ignorance about how to use the device. One user complains, for example, that there's no way to get to a contact by entering a letter. This is untrue - you just need to set your contacts list as the default view and it has a Find box. There are several other complaints that are a result of people not knowing the tricks and tips, like sliding your finger down to make the keyboard go away. Many of those complaints indicate the people had had the device for only several days or even hours - they just didn't take the time to learn it. That's a huge factor in the complaints about the press-screen: you have to get used to it. People had to get used to iPhone touch-screen typing too.

Unfortunately, this is all BB's fault: their device is not nearly as intuitive and dumb-person-accessible as the iPhone. Verizon customers looked at this as their iPhone, but it just isn't. It's still a BlackBerry, geared towards professionals. (I can cut-and-paste, edit Word and Excel docs, transfer files with Bluetooth, remove the battery, add more memory, take video, etc, none of which the iPhone can do.) Its inelegance will remind you of Microsoft Windows: smart but stodgy, powerful but buggy. (A friend of mine called it the Hillary to the iPhone/Obama.)

While I don't love the Storm, I do like it. I know most of the problems are bugs that will eventually get fixed. And this, after all, is the price you pay for being an early adopter.