Its certainly been an interesting few days with the Pre. And honestly, if I was coming from Windows Mobile I suspect I would have taken to it like a fish to water. But, the truth is that my whole way of computing has changed since I moved to Blackberry- I want to do everything one handed, I want to do everything without interacting with my screen, and I want to have a keyboard that invites me to type my heart out. The Pre, unfortunately, does none of these things. It has a lot of eye-candy, some real innovation, and logic that just cannot be denied- but at the end of the day, I was bored.
According to "ILoveBlackberry" I spend an average of 3 hours a day on my Bold. Most of that time is spent on SocialScope, catching up on Twitter and Facebook. I spend a considerable amount of time on Viigo reading news articles and lately checking out Friendfeed. Its a fantastic combination of hardware and software- I have a small group of heavily used applications that are my go-to heavy-hitters and are enhanced by the fantastic keyboard that is exposed and always ready for quick entry. Another surprising discovery I made about myself is that my lifestyle is better suited for a non-touchscreen device. I frequently have my hands full with my purse, a diaper bag, my son's small, squirmy hand, and my phone. Having the Bold, I can grab hold of it anywhere, and not have to worry about what I might be activating. With a touchscreen phone, I constantly need to check and make sure its off and not ringing and that I haven't accidentally answered the phone.
The other thing I really very heavily on is being able to tell, just by looking at it, what's going on with my phone. I installed BerryBuzz months ago and this intelligent software flashes my LED light a different color for different notifications. I've never liked using sounds on my phone, because I inevitably forget to turn them off at the most inopportune moments. However, with this I can tell from a flashing green LED that there is some kind of weather advisory happening, blue that I have a new email, purple that someone is trying to IM me, and orange for a text message. Because the Pre has no notifications until you turn the device on (as do a large number of Windows Mobile phones and the iPhone), you really rely on the audio cues to know what's happening.
So, while I find the Pre to be a much-needed shot of adrenaline the market needs right now, I am looking forward to its next iteration, the Eos, to see what they get right in that device.
According to "ILoveBlackberry" I spend an average of 3 hours a day on my Bold. Most of that time is spent on SocialScope, catching up on Twitter and Facebook. I spend a considerable amount of time on Viigo reading news articles and lately checking out Friendfeed. Its a fantastic combination of hardware and software- I have a small group of heavily used applications that are my go-to heavy-hitters and are enhanced by the fantastic keyboard that is exposed and always ready for quick entry. Another surprising discovery I made about myself is that my lifestyle is better suited for a non-touchscreen device. I frequently have my hands full with my purse, a diaper bag, my son's small, squirmy hand, and my phone. Having the Bold, I can grab hold of it anywhere, and not have to worry about what I might be activating. With a touchscreen phone, I constantly need to check and make sure its off and not ringing and that I haven't accidentally answered the phone.
The other thing I really very heavily on is being able to tell, just by looking at it, what's going on with my phone. I installed BerryBuzz months ago and this intelligent software flashes my LED light a different color for different notifications. I've never liked using sounds on my phone, because I inevitably forget to turn them off at the most inopportune moments. However, with this I can tell from a flashing green LED that there is some kind of weather advisory happening, blue that I have a new email, purple that someone is trying to IM me, and orange for a text message. Because the Pre has no notifications until you turn the device on (as do a large number of Windows Mobile phones and the iPhone), you really rely on the audio cues to know what's happening.
So, while I find the Pre to be a much-needed shot of adrenaline the market needs right now, I am looking forward to its next iteration, the Eos, to see what they get right in that device.
Comments