PureBasic Forums - English

talisman wrote:Forget about HTC or any other company, iPhone and BlackBerry ftw
(Sent from my BlackBerry)

Love the evil grin. When you are older and diabetic, your eyesight just isn't as good as it used to be and most pda/phone combos are hard to use.

That being said, i've used and enjoyed HTC products for the past 8 (?) years and they have good and bad points, just as they all do.

Currently enjoying the HTC Touch HD and the higher res screen is so much better for my bad eyesight.

I have an iPhone, but the HTC hero looks like its a better device.

Fangbeast wrote:

blueznl wrote: - AmazeGPS - navigation package

How often do you use AmazeGPS? What sort of data charges have you racked up with it?

Do you know of a Free GPS application that just uses the satellite?

I use it quite a bit, but as I have a flat fee data plan, it doesn't matter much to me how much data it uses

I disabled data roaming, so no risk whenever I'm close to the border.

talisman wrote: blue, I'm up with a CurveBerry 8900 too
You might want to take Google Sync one step further by the way, it can do push Gmail for you as well (requires standalone Gmail application, but bye bye expensive BlackBerry Data Plan!)

... which is what I probably am going to do at the end of this subscription. When I bought my phone with a T-mobile subscription, I just didn't have enough time to delve deep into all possibilities, so I simply spent the bucks and took the standard push mail. There are supposedly also some other issues if you do not take the 'instant e-mail package' but I'll have another good look at that in another 18 months or so (two years contract).

IMHO music is excellent if not already iPod quality on BlackBerrys. Quick tip if you're not familiar with it already; hit the Mute key for play/pause, push down Volume Up/Down for changing the song. I'm with you on the

It's a pity they did not put a few multi media buttons on top, would have simplified life. One of the newer models (though inferior in about every other aspect ) has that.

battery though, I see myself charging the battery every second day if I play games or listen to music with my CrackBerry. I had a 8700c if you

I mounted a brodit carcit in my car, so I always charge it on the way to work and back. I've also purchased one additional micro USB cable, just in case.

The 8820 would last about four days, this thing about two, unless I use a lot of GPS and WiFi. Especially wifi is a power killer.

are inferior on iPhone versus BlackBerry. We (CrackBerry users) have threaded SMS too, but we also have AutoText (which iDon't)

In NL they charge you per SMS, so excuse me if I don't like that feature too much

What I don't like about HTC is that it is Windows Mobile with a polished UI on top, click an icon and you
are suddenly back in Winmo with ugly windows dialogs and stuff.

The iphone tries to bind you tight to one 'evil-empire' company, the same with the Blackberry. I can buy one
today, but has to switch to an obscure service provider to use it, which I will not.

Nother thing, the iphone is probably very low technical quality. One big insurance company here in Norway
claims it stands for 85% of assurance repair returns, Norways biggest service provider has now stopped
offering repair assurance for it.

The Nok has none of these problems. It is much cheaper than any Blackberry or Iphone and the build quality
is excellent. It's open source, and the software is consistent from top to bottom. And the specs.. etc.

Seems I have the money to buy one right now, so that is what I'm going to do. I think my friends with
iphones will turn as green as this one ->

The HTC Hero runs on Android, not Windows Mobile...

Ok, but it's inferior+ to the N900.
Th Nok N900 rules

If I was to choose between a Nokia and a HTC device (for being reliable), I'd pick HTC. Even if the Nokia has a higher spec, most people I know with the hispec Nokias have had nothing but trouble, especially from early firmware releases. I'd wait a couple of months for the new Nokia to be out then check a few forums to see what people think of the actual battery life and the crash rate.

I had a N95 8GB, nothing but trouble! The Nokia autoroute program is nice though.

The Nokia N900 is in a different class to any HTC, and HTC phones are Chinese, so I'm not so shure about the quality compared to the Nokias.

Nokia destroys tens of thousands of phones each year to make them more reliable, I don't think China manufacturer does that?

Nokia tested the slide-out kbd for 100000 times w/o problems before they let it go into production.

Anyways, if software chrashes is a concern, I think the Linux based Meamo 5 in th N900 is probably
just as good as the Android thingy in the HTC, or Windows 'blue screen' mobile for that matter.

Ok let me clear up some confusion...

@thefool This is threaded SMS (on the iPhone): http://www.quicklybored.com/wp-content/ ... ed_sms.png
BlackBerry OS 5.0 has threaded SMS built-in and the first device to employ the new OS is the Storm2. Updates for all current generation BlackBerrys will come soon, I can feel it

AutoText on BlackBerry is not predictive input like T9 on Nokia. Some (read: Pearl / Pearl Flip / Storm series BlackBerry) have predictive input built-in (called SureType). AutoText is like auto correction. If you're too speedy texting you might have some typos there and AutoText is the magic you'll never want to live without once you've tried it out. I've seen AutoText only for English, maybe some other languages are supported but for instance these kinds of corrections it makes automatically: i -> I, im -> I'm, acn -> can, dont -> don't. IMHO it is great, because you don't need to be so precise when typing yet the result looks professional. BlackBerry ftw!

Fangbeast: MGMaps is a free J2ME (supports BlackBerry too) map software (no real navigation), which uses the GPS only (NOT assisted GPS or A-GPS, you can set this explicitly in the options). Also, the older you are the more you should lean towards BlackBerry. I don't understand your reasoning! One awesome feature of EVERY BlackBerry is that you can configure the OS font. You can choose the style, size, family (IMHO BBAlpha Sans is best on eyes) and this setting (under Options -> Screen/Keyboard) changes the font EVERYWHERE. SMS/e-mail, calendar, tasks even the options menu, you name it. IMHO this is something many other platforms can't do no matter what screen resolution (and if you're after high res screens, get the Tour or Curve 8900).

@blue: I get charged per SMS too yet I actively SMS people as if it was IM. Still my monthly bill never exceeds 10 EUR (and the prices aren't that cheap either it's just that I skip data completely, living with WiFi )

WiFi is a power killer, but that's true for every other smartphone (iPhone isn't that innocent anymore, isn't it?). Anyway you might want to buy a charging pod for your Curve. It's so convenient to use and I've got used to just plugging it in right when I get home so it's always charging. Previously I never bothered charging because that meant to take the charger out and plug it in and blah blah... The charging pod is just easy to use and my Curve is ready to go at any time, just lift it from the pod without any cabling to worry about. Check eBay they sell for like 10 USD.

Dedicated Media buttons on BlackBerry? Brother, remember, these are originally enterprise and business grade devices. Media buttons haven't got that much demand in this sector, don't you think? The Curve 8520 you are referring to is kind of the first real consumer BlackBerry (with full QWERTY, the Storm is even more consumer grade). However sans trackpad I don't see the need to upgrade just because of dedicated Media buttons. Currently the Mute key + Volume Up/Down combination works just fine for me. Be grateful RIM put a powerful media player in your Curve, I mean... compare to something like 8800 series. Those are definitely NOT consumer or media friendly devices.

blue there is nothing you'll "lose" if you give up your BlackBerry Data subscription. Only e-mail. That can be workarounded though with Gmail + Google Sync or Funambol (I use the latter as it is WiFi friendly whereas Google products not). You can use the Hotspot Browser (WiFi) or download a special Service Book to use your carrier network (GPRS) and the BlackBerry browser (check out Anworm Service Book or similar on Google). Of course you can go the less hackish route and install Opera Mini or BOLT (my favorite). BIS is so overrated. When I had the chance I did activate a prepaid BIS (I was abroad, in my home country there is no BIS/BES). I don't miss the "true" e-mail much, in fact I grew up on the Funambol interface that I found it to be counter-productive to use the inbuilt e-mail client. Also BlackBerry App World isn't that great, I prefer to download my applications OTA (App World is filled with unnecessary crap like Apple App Store so why bother). The only thing I miss is the Facebook app, but there are some alternatives to that (like just firing up browser and go to m.facebook.com) so not a big deal IMHO.

@utopiomania: You know, there is the possibility of just buying the phone you like retail. I know that BlackBerrys are sold unlocked and unbranded too, maybe not in great quantities, but there is a market for such needs too (be prepared though to pay the full price, but for peace of mind and the possibility to use one's own carrier, why not?)

Lastly, the argument of Android vs WinMo vs Maemo is just unnecessary. Each and every phone out there utilizing any of these is most likely a very mature and stable device so all it boils down to is user interface and available apps. Pick what you like.

- talisman

@thefool This is threaded SMS (on the iPhone): http://www.quicklybored.com/wp-content/ ... ed_sms.png
BlackBerry OS 5.0 has threaded SMS built-in and the first device to employ the new OS is the Storm2. Updates for all current generation BlackBerrys will come soon, I can feel it

AutoText on BlackBerry is not predictive input like T9 on Nokia. Some (read: Pearl / Pearl Flip / Storm series BlackBerry) have predictive input built-in (called SureType). AutoText is like auto correction. If you're too speedy texting you might have some typos there and AutoText is the magic you'll never want to live without once you've tried it out. I've seen AutoText only for English, maybe some other languages are supported but for instance these kinds of corrections it makes automatically: i -> I, im -> I'm, acn -> can, dont -> don't. IMHO it is great, because you don't need to be so precise when typing yet the result looks professional. BlackBerry ftw!

Aah, the iPhone has autotext too then, also for danish. It works damn great
And yeah, the threaded SMS on the iPhone is also a great thing. Much better than the normal way, its much easier to keep track on conversations.

Oh if the iPhone also has auto correction thent that's great and brings up the device up to BlackBerry level (if not higher). Must be some new feature of a new OS though, because when I had the iPhone in use there was no auto correctio neither any option to enable such functionality. Which OS are you running on, maybe I'll get an iPhone for a month again just to refresh my knowledge

In order to make the BlackBerry top out there's something the BlackBerry platform has, which the iPhone, Palm, WinMo and even Android don't -- Java.

I'm running 3.1.2.
Can be a new feature since 3 though

The iPhone keyboard accelerates your typing because it tracks what you type, then suggests words, corrects spelling, and inserts punctuation for you. It even learns the words you use most often. The trick is to just type away and trust the intelligence of the keyboard.

It works great, its extremely rare i have a mistyped word thanks to the auto correction.
http://www.apple.com/iphone/iphone-3gs/keyboard.html

I'm sold Anyone want my BlackBerry Curve 8900?

Nah, just kidding. Will stick to full QWERTY for a while, but definitely going to upgrade to a touch screen device. Till then I'll just follow the news, seems like iPhone and Storm2 are currently the top devices (sorry, if I want touch then completely touch, no T-Mobile G1 or Palm Pre)

utopiomania wrote: the Android thingy

Better watch out for the Android thingy

"Google's open-source Android platform—which boasts one of the finest touchscreen interfaces out there, iPhone included—came slow out of the gates in fall 2008 with the solid, if uninspiring T-Mobile G1. We had to wait almost a year for the next Android phone in the U.S., but we finally got one this past August with the G1's follow-up, the HTC-made myTouch 3G (also on T-Mobile).

Soon after, what started as a trickle quickly became a flood. Sprint trotted out its first Android phone, the eye-catching, touchscreen HTC Hero, and then T-Mobile followed suit with the Motorola Cliq, its third Android handset ... followed by the Samsung Behold II just a few days ago. On Tuesday, Verizon Wireless announced it would launch a pair of Android phones before the end of the year, while Sprint announced its second Android phone—the Samsung Moment—a day later. Oh, and now there's rumors that Dell wants in on the Android action, with a new handset possible slated for iPhone carrier AT&T."

From a blog about the rise and rise of the Android: http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/patterson/57664

talisman wrote:seems like iPhone and Storm2 are currently the top devices

That's an interesting conclusion from a thread where two out of three iPhone users prefer an alternative device and we've been advised Norway's biggest service provider wont offer repair assurance for the iPhone because of it's unreliability.