tail -f findings.out

I picked up a BlackBerry Storm last week and have been playing with it, cursing at it, installing on it, and configuring it since. I have come across some pretty awesome applications that I wanted to share, as well as a few comments on the phone in general. My last phone being a Samsung U740, any new smartphone would be a big step up. And while I really wanted an iPhone (but couldn’t due to AT&T’s relatively poor service and higher prices), the Storm has not disappointed.

The primary annoyance I have with it is its speed. Application response, portrait/landscape orientation switching, and general use can be a little sluggish at times. It’s nowhere near unusable, however, and various issues, such as the orientation switching, have been improved via phone updates. I was also put off at first by the touchscreen, my first touchscreen phone experience being that of the iPhone. But the more I use it, the more I appreciate it. I was blessed with sausage links for digits, so the ability to see a button highlighted before pressing it is helpful. Also the select/copy/cut ability is quite useful.

What really started improving the experience for me was installing certain applications.

Favorites Apps

• Weatherbug: After experiencing flashbacks of the wretchedly annoying piece of spyware of the same name on PCs of yesteryear, I found the Storm client to be perfectly useful. Perhaps they have cleaned up their act. Once you configure your location, the icon (which you can add to the Home menu), shows an image of the current weather, along with current temp, high and low for the day. The temperature information is also added to the top of your home screen. Install link.
• Flickr: This application allows you to upload images from your phone directly to your Flickr account! Awesome! If you have a GPS-enabled phone, you can also geotag the photos as well. Install link.
• Google Maps: Google Maps that you know and love, but optimized for touchscreen mobile devices. I like it better than the Storm’s built-in maps application because of the satelite view option.
• YouTube: Wonderfully optimized for portrait view and a touchscreen, this allows you to search and view videos on YouTube. Search results are horizontally scrollable in a fashion reminiscent of Cover Flow. Lots of fun!
• FlyCast: Streaming radio, tons of channels (over 1000) and genres, easy to use! You can also install a PC version and do cool things between them, but basically all I care about is lots of streaming music on the go.

Gotchas

• Missing applications:
  As I started installing applications, I ran into a number of cases where the application would say it was installed successfully, but was seemingly nowhere to be found in the Applications folder or the Home menu. After calling VZW PDA support (keep that number handy: 866-221-4096), it turns out that they were all located in the Downloads folder. You can just move them into the Applications or Home folder and all is well.
• GPS:
  You might expect to be able to use the Storm’s GPS capabilities with any GPS-aware application, but you would be thinking wrongly. Sadly, only certain applications (the built-in Maps and VZ Navigator so far) can currently access GPS information. Verizon support told me BlackBerry may make an update at some point to change this, but for now, no satellite love.
• Updates:
  Get them. The Storm is BlackBerry’s first touchscreen, so there is a lot of learning going on for everyone. Updates often improve performance and fix a lot of annoying bugs, so get them as soon as you can.
• SureType:
  While the native phone interface allows you to switch between the landscape QWERTY and portrait SureType/MultiTap, some applications (mainly those not made for the Storm) only allow SureType. And it’s profoundly annoying. It takes me about 10 times as long to type things in, especially email addresses. Not much you can do about it.

All in all, the BlackBerry Storm is a useable, fun, and powerful device. It might not fulfill all your dreams, but it can add a lot of computing resources to your mobile arsenal.

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