BB vs. iPhone

As I described yesterday, I got a Blackberry Curve 8330 last week as I look to expand my cell phone horizons. I still think the iPhone is the way to go, but the BB has some strong aspects as well. After 6 days with the BB I like it and could see myself keeping it if need be. It definitely does everything I want, possibly just not on the same level that the iPhone could. The main thing that I think I like compared to the iPhone is the fact that it has an actual keyboard and not that touch screen mumbo jumbo. I thuroughly enjoy texting and emailing and I can see myself getting discouraged with a touch screen cause I hate trying to pinpoint those little buttons on the screen with my finger tip. That isn't to say the BB is perfect, the buttons are pretty small and I find myself mistyping quite a bit, which for a texting perfectionist like myself is bad. I take pride in my texting spelling, puncuation, etc and want a phone that makes it as easy as possible for me to get things 100% right the first time. I think the first time I would try to type a long message on the iPhone I'd probably consider chucking it through the window cause it took so long. I'm sure it's something you get used to, and apparently the device acclimates itself to your typing style as well to help out. But, I still like the tried and true method of typing with the buttons, call me old fashioned.

The big thing that the iPhone pushes is it's AppStore. I would assume that the iPhone is the undisputed king in this category cause while I browse the Verizon and BB app stores, the selection is pretty slim for most things. There seem to be a lot of similar applications, yet none of them seem to be significantly better than any of the others. A good one that I've found and would recommend to everyone with a BB is called Poynt (go to BB App Zone, or www.poynt.com). It's one of those nav/business/movie type of apps, except it functions very well while looking pretty slick too. You can do just about anything, search for whatever, wherever, whenever. You can find movie times and even buy tickets through it which is kind of cool, and you can integrate it with Google maps if you've downloaded that (which you should, BB maps is amateur hour). It's free, and way better than paying $9.99/month for VZ Navigator (if you have Verizon). I gave Poynt 5 out of 5 stars and even sent in a review cause I liked it so much. A good weather app to get is from The Weather Network, it's free as well. As you scroll over it's icon on the phone it shows the current weather conditions, and the icon itself is a representation of whats currently happening which is cool. Not that I need animated raindrops to tell me it's raining outside, but I appreciate the effort. It has a nice current, short term, and long term forecast in a better format than Weather Channel mobile so that's why I dig it. As for sports apps, I've gotten ESPN and FoxSports but am not sure if one is really better than the other. ESPN is solid as you'd expect and I'd imagine I'll use it, especially come fantasy football season since that is the site my leagues are with. One app I would recommend not getting is called Viigo, it claims to be a jack of all trades in terms of news, sports, weather, etc, but doesn't seem to be very good at any one thing. It does have a flight search (which would be nice) and is on the verge of getting audio/podcasts which is the main reason I got it, hopefully they get that capability sooner rather than later.

I think the main things that will sway me to the iPhone will be the ability to use iTunes and all the good apps. Having tunes and podcasts on there would be nice. And the active GPS w/ Google maps is awesome when driving somewhere that you don't know where you're going. Also, the touch screen comes in handy here cause you can just slide your finger to move the map, rather than having to move the trackball and waiting forever for the map to readjust. Plus, I think there's an app that integrates the GPS with running/biking so you can track your workouts and possibly integrate them with your Nike+. That seems pretty cool, and since you have iTunes on there, you can take it with you on your workouts and it serves a dual function. While the BB does have GPS, there don't appear to be any apps that use it for this purpose. And I'd imagine there's some kind of iPhone porn app, does anything else really matter? No.

I'm not sure if the iPhone does this, but the BB integrates your Facebook friends with your contacts to put their FB pics on their contact info. Its funny to look up someone in your contacts and see their FB profile pic, that's pretty cool. I'd imagine FB for iPhone does this as well so it's a push. I like FB mobile as a whole, I'm interested to see the differences on the iPhone. So overall, I like the BB, I definately don't dislike it for any reason. I think the iPhone might just be a touch better. Everyone I know that has an iPhone says they love it and wouldn't trade it for anything, and from some of my weird friends, that's a big compliment. Even people I know that are scared of phones, computers, technology like it, so that's saying a lot.