BlackBerry Pearl 3G 9100 / Code Name Stratus Review

BlackBerry Pearl is one of the not-so-famous smartphone in the market. Unlike the mainstream type Bold 9700/9780, Curve 8520/9300 and Bold 9800, Pearl series is definitely having the least user of all BlackBerry.

I once used the 8100 and 8220 and for me, Pearl series suit me the best. It is sleek, tiny and fit comfortly in the jeans pocket :) BlackBerry 8100 and 8220 is now somewhat primitive, you can't use BlackBerry Messenger latest version (5 something something) in those devices. It will then only  displaying hourglasses over and over again. I don't know perhaps you still could use the ancient version (no display picture, no status), I haven't tried it.

But the point is compared to the latest Pearl before Stratus (its Kickstart), this 9100 is much much much much awesome. It's like Bold 9700 in smaller size. So it's a huge leap from the 82xx series.

The difference between the 9100 and 8100
Image courtesy of crackberry.com

Meanwhile in the Indonesia (perhaps APAC) version is using the traditional phone style abc keypads, the 9100 inherit the SureType keypad just like its predecessors. The buttons are all of course well designed and no doubt about it this is the best SureType BlackBerry ever (for now).

The difference between 9100 and 9105
Image courtesy of mobilegazette.com

The other plus side is that this is also the BlackBerry with 256MB RAM that is upgradeable to OS6. It's official not hybrids nor leaked. The performance? Awesome! :)

The camera quality is acceptable. Since Curve 8900 / Javelin, I believe all the 3,2 megapixels camera in BlackBerry is all with the same quality. The minus is the small display LCD which is contrary to its plus - the smaller size.

For those who doesn't know yet, this BlackBerry 9100 is 99% identical with BlackBerry 9105 except for the keypads. You could also swap the keypads but you need to reinstall the OS then.

Last thing is the battery life. In my usage :

- 10 email accounts, 4 is heavy traffic total around 800-900 emails per day

- SocialScope update every 2 hours

- 4 BlackBerry Groups 

- Less than  10 minutes call / day

The battery will last around 24 hours before it goes low battery (below 10). Neat compared to my 2 last BlackBerry - Storm and Tour - this is a ten. :)

Conclusion? Compared to the upcoming 99xx and 986x which I could not expose freely yet due to NDA, I still stick with this Pearl :) Perhaps with one Android phone.. but haven't decided it yet. Stay tuned!

@romeo_tango

BlackBerry Storm 9500/9530 Recommended Games

Okay, there are tons of java games out there and sometimes it is annoying to be misguided by the cover art of the games. The graphic usually shaddy and bad gameplay made me regret that I once installed the games.

So here, I will give you hints of good graphic quality and of course good gameplay for your BlackBerry Storm.

Super KO Boxing 2

This is basically a classic Super Punch Out for your BlackBerry. It has nice graphic and gameplay (see! I told ya). You simply swipe your finger to punch, jab, hook and dodge. Also, it has cool special uppercut moves (with special effect: FIRE) if you fill the gauge with the combos. Definitely 5 stars mobile game for me. Trust me this game is extremely difficult so you will spend much time punching. There are variants of enemy and long championship option.

ROAD MANIA

Okay next one is handling a traffic junction. You should avoid crashes by swiping to accelerate car, truck or motorcycle and tapping on them to make them stop for a few seconds. There are 9 streets (see right pic) you could choose of course each with their own junctions and conditions. This one also not easy but we're all grown ups arent we ;)

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL

Similar to Road Mania, except this one we should land airplanes, jetplanes, chopper and air balloon to their designed lanes. There are 3 venue for this game the first one is to land the planes into mother ship, the second one is on the pic beside, and the last one is in the forest. Simply swipe the plane to the lane to create a path then they will automatically landed.

BERRY LABYRINTH

In this game, the goal is to put the silver ball into their designed pockets. How to play? The game will use the sophisticated accelerometer technology, you just simply tilt your Storm to move the ball. It also comes in Lite edition with levels limited only to 10.

So how was it? I already thought 4 will gonna fill up your Storm's 128MB Flash really quick so I'll stop now and will give you another hints after you upgrade to 256MB Storm 2 or 512MB Storm 3 (if any). And last part is, do you need to pay to get these games? The answer is YES. :)

Support the developer and buy the legit one okay?

Cheers.

@romeo_tango

Good BlackBerry Apps

It's been a while since the last time I reviewed applications for mobile phone. Okay, here are the apps I installed in my Storm currently.

OpenBeak

Between the famous UberTwitter and Twitter for BlackBerry, I choose this app because I need to tweet fast. You see, the moment we open this app, it will shows a pretty screen saying "what are you doing?" just like the picture below. Simply type and send to tweet. Fast right? It also has twitter standard features such as "See replies", "Friends Timeline", "Public Timeline", and also could upload pic to Posterous, Zannel, TwitPic, Twitgoo, or yfrog.

Just open their site and see for yourself. But for me, this app is important.

Image above is taken from orangatame.com

FourSquare

After Twitter, of course the most popular social networking tool is foursquare (just opinion, I won't install facebook in my BB anyway). 4sq for BlackBerry is useful to do.. 4sq things. 

Image above is taken from foursquare.com

Opera Mini 

We all need browser in our mobile phone nowadays. Opera knew that long before Microsoft realize it. And now Opera is the most popular mobile browser (another opinion which is most likely true) in the world. Of course I am still using the BlackBerry browser.... to download the Opera Mini. LOL... but I heard that OS6 browser will be amazing. Let's hope so. :)

CaptureIt 

Ever wanting to show some malicious bugs occured in your BlackBerry? CaptureIt is one of the solution. There are a lot of options to screen capture your phone just choose one and wisely. 

Image above taken from techmogul's web

GoogleMaps

Other important tool for a GPS-enabled BlackBerry (or without GPS also okay actually). The most fun feature in Gmap is Latitude. You could track your friend - of course with their permission - in the map in the whole world. Priceless! 

StopTilt

When first time holding Storm, I was very annoyed by its auto rotating screen. That's when I found this app. It will allow you to disable auto-rotation in specific screen. Useful but you should pay for it. I don't mind to pay around $4 (if i'm not mistaken) to buy this app. Perhaps you could find another free substitute and don't forget to tell me the name will ya ;)

I still have few apps installed in my BB such as GoogleSync, ForwardReplyEdit, CameraMute, Blink!, RadioOn, and QuickPull. You could find the use from its name right, so I won't take your time anymore. Cheers.

@romeo_tango

BlackBerry Storm 9500 Review

BlackBerry 9500 or codenamed with Storm was a splendid breakthrough from RIM. In my opinion, the Storm was one of the BlackBerry notable milestone since trackball. 

No I'm not exaggerating. Here are the reason why :

1. Storm is the first BlackBerry using touch screen and no hardware keyboard at all.
2. Storm is also the first 'multimedia' based BlackBerry as we could see it from the large display and storming audio.
3. Storm touch screen technology is also somewhat revolutional. It adopts the SureType into SurePress and also a mechanic on capacitive screen display which will make the user feels like clicking in a real button. Well, I am surely cannot explain the feeling perfectly using words, but trust me it works. Storm's virtual keyboard + clicking display is working really fine.
4. Have I mentioned that you could use a traditional 'abc' style keypad + qwerty + SurePress? Choose whichever suits you better. No pressure.
5. It has the best camera that BlackBerry ever embedded to its device -> 3,2 Mpx + Auto Focus.
6. It could record Video.

I'm currently using the official OS 5.0.484 for Telkomsel and it seems that everything went well until today. I have no complains at all using this device.

Well, actually there was one complain. I couldn't stand the auto-rotate feature that Storm has. Everytime I hold it wrong, it will automatically rotate and that is very annoying. I solve it by buying StopTilt software from CrackBerry or you could get it at Mobihand or in BlackBerry App World for $4,99 and that was the best software for Storm so far. LOL. 

Other application that I installed are : Google Sync, Opera Mini, OpenBeak, SmartBBattery, Quick Pull, and Forward Reply Edit. I also found a few good games : Labyrinth LITE, Shotgun, CoinToss for Storm, Lights Out, Flight Path and SL Blackjack. 

Actually there are still many good software but all I installed above are the free one :) Except for the StopTilt of course. 

At the end I would really recommend this BlackBerry for you who :

1. Needs a BlackBerry!
2. Likes Touch Screen
3. Likes to watch videos on your handheld (big screen!)
4. Likes to be different from other crackberries. In Jakarta most of the BlackBerry are Bold series and Curve series
5. Likes a new thing. Yes the typing might be stressful for some people (not me!) and trust me all you need to do is more practicing and typing as many as you can.

In Jakarta, or more specifically in Indosat BlackBerry mailing lists, the Storm is said to be sold for only IDR 2,5 million (around USD 270 at this moment). It's cheaper than BlackBerry 9630, BlackBerry 8900 and slightly more expensive than BlackBerry 8520.

BlackBerry Curve 8520 Review

I just bought TyTN II to replace my previous BlackBerry Pearl because I thought I need a more powerful device at that moment. But apparently my boss didn't agree with that so here I am, back using a BlackBerry which is fortunately is given for free. 

Curve 8520 FrontFace

Okay, this Curve 8520 (code name Gemini) has few improvements compare to the older model like Curve 8320. This are few notable ones that you could take for consideration when buying or upgrading to this 8520 :

• It's thinner than other Curve series
• The body is made from semi rubber material and plastic (very shiny plastic that will become oily in seconds you make a phone call)
• Trackpad! Of course. It's called modernization. :) Say goodbye to trackballs.
• Dedicated music keys which is useful... sometimes.. 
• A 256 MB Application Memory! This is huge and the most useful improvement.
• Theoritically up to 32GB microSD is possible
• A 512 MHz CPU Processor. Almost no hourglass (in my usage)
• A good battery lifetime. 

I have use this phone for almost a month and I felt satisfied using this BlackBerry EXCEPT for the lame qwerty-board that will make an audible sounds like "tik tik tik tik" when you press the keys so you will not be able to use the BlackBerry in the boring meeting. LOL. But seriously, if you don't need a GPS, good camera with auto focus and comvy type-board, go for this one. If not you might want consider the Bold 9700 (Onyx) though.

Back to the serious part again, I have an average of thousands of emails in numbers for a day, not too active in chatting, tweeting, sometimes browsing using the Opera Mini or WLAN and the battery is quite good actually. It will lasted for more than 15 hours a day in my usage. Compare to my old Pearl of course. I've been told and read that Bold 9700 has a longer battery lifetime. Perhaps due to the bigger capacity of the battery.

This Curve also available in CDMA network with code name "Aries" and official name Curve 8530. That's all I can say. :)

BIS Lite and Twitter Part 2

We have discussed about updating Twitter from Google Talk earlier and now I will share my idea of using  BIS Lite (Emails and Chat) to get Twitter updates.

Why am I doing this while you could just simply pay for full BlackBerry Internet Service? Well, it is very simple. I spend most of my days sitting in front of computer. Perhaps around 10-12 hours a day so it will be such a waste if I pay IDR 180,000 for BIS by Telkomsel. BIS Lite is already proven useful for me.

Nowadays, I get informations mostly from Twitter. Here are few useful tweeter fellows that you might want to follow :

• TMCPoldaMetro -> Jakarta's traffic information
• OKEZ0NE -> One of the biggest news portal in Indonesia
• kompasdotcom -> Biggest Newspaper in Indonesia
  
• BlackBerry -> RIM's official Twitter
• fp_pnp -> Forumponsel.com buying and selling Twitter. Never missed what you want to buy!
  
• GilaPromoDotCom -> Informations about promotions, discounts, sale and whatsoever
• jobsinindonesia -> do you want to work here? :)
• GamepadMagazine -> a Jakarta Gamer's Twitter
  
• ID_ARSENAL -> the official Arsenal FC - Indonesia supporter's Twitter
• engadget -> its Engadget.com
• boygeniusreport -> We're lucky that it's not about this boy, but it tweets about boy toys!

Okay, that was few of them on my list. Can you see how much information you'll get from Twitter? That's why I like to use it more than any social networking sites. Back to topic, to receive Twitter updates, we will use another third party helps. I always wonder why this third party is everywhere and the best part is they serve us for free! (horray for that.. for now...)

Here is the howtos :

1. We will use the service by tweetbymail. 
2. Simply just register your account
3. Go to setting
4. Click tab Updates and in "Sending updates to" type your email address and click "Set Updates"
5. And to get all your @replies click tab Trackings, type your email address and click "Set Trackings"
6. You should check your inbox because I use @live.com and @gmail.com and both of them filter the @twmail.com as spam or junk.
7. Done.

Enjoy :)

Blackberry Pearl 8100 Themes

By default, I never like the BB_Dimension_Zen in Pearl screen and in the first hour that Pearl in my hands I already have the thoughts of finding a nice theme. Then I browse a few BlackBerry theme sites and found none I like until I remember a famous Chinese forums which also have a BlackBerry sub-forum and I visited them, search all posts related to Pearl and found these two decent themes.

First one is Bold Theme for BlackBerry Pearl

This one is very nice and you could get it here.

The second one is Storm replica which I don't really like it, but better than anything else out there. Here is the screenshots :

 Home  Screen

Icon Screen

This Storm replicas is available here.

Both of the above links are alx and cod files so you could download from PC and install it via Desktop Manager. All credits of course for the creator and the uploader which I don't even know the names.

Why Blackberry?

That line is quite famous nowadays. I also keep wondering why should I use Blackberry while I found that PalmOS, Windows Mobile and the mass produced OS -Symbiote, eh Symbian- also could handle the Emails perfectly. I don't need the push mail technology while the pull mail is enough for me while other phones are also packed with touch screen, 3Gs and Wi-Fi not to mention some of them also have GPS inside. So what will we get by using these most-socialite-OS knowned as Blackberry OS and its handheld (note: the Blackberry is very famous OS knowned by celebrities and socialites, so they deserve that nick rite, the socialite OS? *grin*)

Well, after using Blackberry Pearl 8100 for a while, I notice the difference between pull and push mail and also what it meant by blackberrying or not to blackberrying. I like QWERTY phones because there almost no delay in typing something something not like in traditional phone keypad. The reason why I choose Pearl 8100 is because of its Suretype system which I found interesting. So, here I go with Pearl and enjoy the SureType technology. If you forgot how Pearl 8100 looked like, see image below.

Image source is courtesy of blackberry.com

SureType itself is surely a new thing for me. I've never used any of T9 system in my previous phones before but I know how it works and in my opinion, they both almost the same. But the half qwerty layout in Pearl gives the system predicts your typing more accurately and faster. If you don't believe it, buy one and try for yourself. :p It will take a time for you to get used with it but you could also used the boring multitap if you want it that way.

I am using Blackberry Service by Worry-Free-Axis-Blackberry and FYI, this is the cheapest unlimited BIS package you could get in Indonesia at this moment. It cost me IDR 4,000 / day. But I don't know if I would like to continue using this BIS as yesterday when I went to two biggest shopping mal in Jakarta (Plaza Indonesia and Kelapa Gading Mal), I found that my Pearl encountered a blank spot inside the building! I can't imagine if it happens at the critical moment. But as long as I'm in good signal reception area, I always connected thru EDGE and never GPRS. In other words, "its EDGE or never".

Back to topic, why I'm using blackberry? Here are my reasons :

1. Because I wanted to.
2. Because I need a QWERTY phone.
3. Because I need the BIS - unlimited internet for many things -
   
4. Because I need a new thing to play with. Palm is good, but it's so yesterday (hikz). WM is good, but their new products is kinda expensive (even the 2nd one is expensive here), never try Android, but for I think I'm gonna leave the Sym'bye'an for now.
   

Okay that's all for now. Must got to work... *yawn*