What do you think of Crackberry Kevin's iPhone 3G review?

[JFSikora]

Well, the Round Robin continues on - and our arch Frenemy Crackberry Kevin reviewed all beloved device where can be read here: http://crackberry.com/round-robin-re...-frak-phone-3g

I went to bat for all of you defending our phone by having a bunch of conversations with Kevin regarding some of his views before he wrote the review.

"My on the go vs. stop and use theory was largely derived from observing my own behaviors in using both of these devices, but that doesn't mean they necessarily apply to everyone. For example, over at the iPhoneBlog member Bad Ash would argue till the cows come home that he's just as capable at using his iPhone 3G on the go and one handed as he is with his BlackBerry Bold (yes he owns both, though he's been an iPhone 3G user longer). And I'm sure he's not the only iPhone user who would argue this. Despite these types of arguments, it's pretty clear that RIM and Apple have different approaches and philosophies to the way they build their smartphones."

I made some impression but I'm afraid there is no converting him over to the good side. Sorry everyone...

But all of that aside, what did you think about his review?

[Brickman]

I personally felt Dieter's review was a bit more "fair and balanced". Kevin's seemed, IMVHO, to be written with a VERY hard slant towards "Why isn't it a BlackBerry?" A lot more Fanboyism than Dieter's I thought.

Of course that is the whole point of the RR I guess.

[JFSikora]

Originally Posted by Brickman

I personally felt Dieter's review was a bit more "fair and balanced". Kevin's seemed, IMVHO, to be written with a VERY hard slant towards "Why isn't it a BlackBerry?" A lot more Fanboyism than Dieter's I thought.

Of course that is the whole point of the RR I guess.

See I own multiple devices as well and while agree with - to a extent - they should be a bit biased some reviewers seem to be a bit too biased in my opinion. And I can't blame them at all, it's just the way I look at it.

[marcol]

I think it's very long and I'm going to bed now. I'll read it on my iPhone over breakfast, presuming I can spare the huge level of attention that Kevin would have us believe is required

[sting7k]

I thought his review was good from the perspective of a BB user. However I am always confused on somethings. One thing is specifically the mail apps. I've never owned a BB, I've played with some from time to time. I don't get why he complains about the iPhone's mail app, especially going from one account to another. If I am in one mail inbox and I want to go to another account I only tap 2 buttons. Is 2 taps too much? Then another 2 and I am in the inbox for the next account, or one tap and I am looking at all the folders for the account just like I was looking at the webmail version. He goes on about how he has to dig to go through what sounds like great pain to switch email accounts but I just don't see how it is so hard when it is only 2 taps on the screen. Maybe it's different when you have 12 different emails to check or something and I only have 2 but it seems easy to me.

I do agree about the notifications, they suck. And not being able to have different ringer profiles and all kinds of different tones is a pain as well. Especially when your sitting in a room full of people with iPhones and when one gets a message 8 people get out their phones to check.

And I think he isn't looking at the app store right. Yea there are a ton of crap apps and cheap .99 cent apps that do seemingly nothing. But there are also a ton of helpful and very nicely designed apps that help you get things done, read the news, and perform all types of cool things. I do have a page of just games but I also have 2.5 pages of apps that are all for various things; movie times, rss reader, weather checker w/ radar, wikipedia, google, music identifyer, itunes remote control, TV listings, unit converter, list/todos, wireless network drive, irc client, sport scores/stats tracking, a magic 8-ball to help with hard questions, and a bunch more. Like he said it is easy to go overboard on the apps a bit, and I am one of those people, but I don't just load it up with ibeer and fart sound generators.

[marcol]

Originally Posted by sting7k

I thought his review was good from the perspective of a BB user. However I am always confused on somethings. One thing is specifically the mail apps. I've never owned a BB, I've played with some from time to time. I don't get why he complains about the iPhone's mail app, especially going from one account to another. If I am in one mail inbox and I want to go to another account I only tap 2 buttons. Is 2 taps too much?

In my personal opinion, yes. Apple has a unified inbox in the desktop app and if anything I think it would be more useful in the iPhone app. It's definitely on my list of top 10 things I'd like to see Apple do.

[marcol]

Originally Posted by sting7k

I do agree about the notifications, they suck.

I think they could be improved for sure (the Android system looks pretty good). I definitely don't want a flashing LED though. I had it turned off on my previous phone (a Nokia E61) and actually went so far as to d/l software to disable them on the Treos I had way back when (where, IIRC, they weren't whole lot of used anyway). I find flashing LEDs ugly and annoying and I'm trusting that Steve Jobs and Johnny Ive do too.

[JFSikora]

Originally Posted by marcol

I think they could be improved for sure (the Android system looks pretty good). I definitely don't want a flashing LED though. I had it turned off on my previous phone (a Nokia E61) and actually went so far as to d/l software to disable them on the Treos I had way back when (where, IIRC, they weren't whole lot of used anyway). I find flashing LEDs ugly and annoying and I'm trusting that Steve Jobs and Johnny Ive do too.

See I disagree, I think if a hidden LED was put in somewhere I think it would be a nice feature. And if you don't like it, you could shut it off. What would it hurt?

[marcol]

Originally Posted by Bad Ash

See I disagree, I think if a hidden LED was put in somewhere I think it would be a nice feature. And if you don't like it, you could shut it off. What would it hurt?

As long as it really is hidden and can be shut off completely, I'm good with that

[cjvitek]

I thought his review was pretty good. It was a good representation of what a Blackberry user might expect and want from a smartphone.

I have long maintained (well, since I got my iPhone about 5 months ago) that a smartphone can focus on either the business/productivity end, or the media/entertainment end. I have yet to find a smartphone that can do both well. IMO, the iPhone focuses on the media/entertainment end, and then incorporates business/productivity. The Blackberry is the opposite.

Chris