Friday, May 18, 2007

Happy with messaging, disappointed with GPS so far

The OS is more colorful in blackberry land.. nice themes... The only thing I miss so far is Windows Live Mobile on the Q... that was pretty much perfect for finding POIs, directions, and traffic- with the exception of lacking GPS.

So far I am disappointed that the builtin mapping app on the 8830 doesn't use the built-in GPS and Google Maps can't seem to get a signal lock. I need to try Telenav, though I am leary of paying $9.95/mo.

Email was ok via Exchange push on the Q, but it's way better on the blackberry. Filters, filing, all kinds of cool stuff.

I was never happy with any IM clients on the Q... IM + had trouble connecting, Mundu crashed, the web version of Yahoo Messenger worked but required manual refreshes. The Yahoo! Messenger app for blackberry is great. (Note: I work for Yahoo)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mike, thank you for the swift response!

I will be using the 8830 for e-mail, IM (MSN), web surfing, playing music/videos when I am on the road, and viewing .doc/.xls/.pdf files.

I will miss all the 3rd party software that's on the windows mobile platform! I use core player (multimedia player) a lot when I am on the road. How's does the 8830 handle audio/video? Do you recommend upgrading from the Q?

One last thing, what's the verdict on the battery life in real world use?

Thanks for your opinion!

Sody :)

Berried223 said...

Mike, thanks for the 8830 impressions, been really curious myself, especially about the Verizon/GPS issue.

Speaking of, might I suggest you try out Infospace's Find It!:

http://mobile.infospacefindit.com/

It seems to be the best GPS-integrated Blackberry app, and got rave reviews on BoyGeniusReport.com as being the best Blackberry info/maps/etc app.

I'd be really curious to see if that works for you. Let us know if you try it!

Berried223 said...

By the way, here is the BGR review of it:

http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2007/02/25/infospace-find-it/

I noticed on the site that there isn't an 8830 version for Verizon yet, and the older 8703e version might lack the GPS features, so if you try it you might want to try downloading the Cingular 8800 version.

Mike VC said...

sody: I am not sure about viewing .doc/.xls/.pdf files... but I will try it soon and let you know. Audio/video seems like it will be good but I hear the 8830 doesn't support the A2DP profile... so I guess thats the other thing I will miss about the Q, it made a pretty good MP3 player with bluetooth headphones.

berried223: Thanks! I was frustrated looking for info on the 8830 myself so I thought I would share with other info-seekers. I will definitely try Find it! :-)