I have been the owner of the Blackberry Storm for a week now. My impressions? I love it.
I must admit though that for all my love of gadgetry, this is my first “smart” phone, so much of my adoration might be due to that. Regardless, here are some thoughts.
Having instant access to email is wonderful. I host my email via Google Apps. IMAP + Gmail (Google Apples) = Amazing. It’s fantastic. I also have Google’s mobile Gmail client as well. It gives more of a true Gmail interface with Searching / Starring, etc but it is slower to update. The Blackberry client updates continuously, while the Google client polls every fifteen minutes. I’ve heard they will make this configurable in the next version, but I can’t find any concrete documentation saying so. If they do, it will literally be perfect.
The web browser works surprisingly well. On the Verizon network, I can browse the internet quite nicely.
I also enjoy the click screen very much. I was unconvinced of this feature when I first read about it, but it is actually implemented quite intuitively, and it works well for me.
The Blackberry Messenger is great for instant communication with other Blackberry users. I am also using the Google Talk client.
I have been pleasantly surprised by the quality from the camera – both for still pictures and video. The touch/drag zoom works very well.
Copying and pasting comes in quite handy, too.
I’ve also loaded a few applications:
The aforementioned Gmail Mobile Client – I already described it, but it functions as you’d expect – very well.
Google Talk – Instant access to other Google Talk users.
Google Sync – Flawlessly synchronizes with my Google Calendars and Contacts.
Opera Mini – This is a terrific little mobile browser. It is not optimized / fully compatible with the Storm yet, so there are a couple quirks, but it is more than useable.
Twitterberry – I’m not a hardcore “Twitterer,” but it is fun and Twitterberry is an excellent client that doesn’t rely on SMS messages.
Weatherbug – Don’t know why – maybe I am a weather nerd. I enjoy having the world’s weather forecast in my pocket.
YouVersion – YouVersion is a terrific Bible application from the LifeChurch team. It is not quite ready for primetime on the Storm though. It is useable for reading and searching though, which is what I guess is the main point. Unfortunately, it cannot download translations to my Storm right now, which would be very nice for the odd occasion when I don’t have a reliable signal. I’m sure it will be though. I’ve played with it on my dad’s iPhone and it works perfectly.
Youtube Mobile Client – It’s just what it sounds like. It let’s you kill countless hours on Youtube.
Flycast – Oh yeah, THIS is nice. In an office where radios aren’t allowed and streaming audio is blocked, this is a wonderful addition to my workday. Flycast allows you to stream radio via the Storm.
To sum up, I love my Storm and in less than a week, have become completely dependant on / addicted to it. I’ll never go back to a “normal” cell phone again!
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