CrackBerry.com’s Kevin got his hands (and signature green coffee table) on RIM’s next-generation touchscreen BlackBerry, the Storm 2, aka 9550, aka “Odin”. And his early thoughts?

• the hardware is much nicer
• the click screen is more user-friendly
• the operating system is basically the same

Is 2/3 enough? Says Kevin:

In going hands-on with the 9550, it becomes clear that this next-generation Storm is really an evolution of the original Storm. Yes, it’s better in every respect, but I’m getting the impression it’s sort of like when a new model year of a car comes out – it doesn’t make the old one instantly obsolete.

TiPb was pretty tough on the original Storm, though so were many BlackBerry faithful (it was basically cast as the Vista of Smartphones, after all). Any chance the Storm 2 will turn the touchscreen form factor around for RIM? Anyone see it as a threat to the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3.0? Or is it still about RIM providing that diversity to people who want the BlackBerry experience, and would never consider another device, touchscreen or no touchscreen? And if it disappoints, will RIM still lay the blame on consumer expectations in a post-iPhone world?

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The Competition: Hands on with the BlackBerry 9550 Storm 2 “Odin”

Seriously, I’m beginning to heart RIM’s co-CEOs almost as much as I heart Steve Ballmer. Give the mobilemen a venue and a mic, and we get blog gold each and every time. Chronology will help context here:

Mike Lazaridis on touch screen devices:

THERE’S a reason that R.I.M. is averse to the iPhone’s glass pad. “I couldn’t type on it and I still can’t type on it, and a lot of my friends can’t type on it,” says Mike Lazaridis, R.I.M.’s co-chief executive and technological visionary. “It’s hard to type on a piece of glass.”

This almost the very moment word leaked that RIM was set to release an “Apple Killer” which became the lamentably launched BlackBerry Storm. When reviewers and users alike generally panned the device’s initial, buggy software, Jim Balsillie said GlitchWare was the new Black(Berry):

[RIM and Verizon] made the crucial Black Friday deadline “by the skin of their teeth,” after missing a planned October debut. Mr. Balsillie said such scrambles — and the subsequent software glitches that need to be fixed — are part of the “new reality” of making complex cellphones in large volumes.

Now to put the disrespect cherry high atop of Storm owners frustration sundays, Lazaridis returns with this brain-boggler:

“That’s our first touch product, and you know nobody gets it perfect out the door. You know other companies were having problems with their first releases.”

The iPhone was Apple’s first touch product, and while iPhone 1.0 may have been limited in functionality (and 3.0 may still have boxes yet unchecked), it’s hard to take anyone seriously who doesn’t think Apple not only nailed their first touch product, but their very first phone product of any kind.

Maybe because 1) Apple wasn’t rushing for a Black Friday sales-focused deadline, 2) they weren’t trying to clone a competing device’s feature set, and 3) they cared about user experience more than 1) or 2)?

Many people still use an original iPhone 2G, some even still run iPhone OS 1.x. Storm owners have only themselves to blame for not waiting to buy Storm 2 instead? Ahem. Pitchforks to the right, torches to the left, north to Waterloo!

That said, if Dancing with the Canadian Stars ever becomes a reality, I would still vote for RIM’s co-CEO to take on the Woz role. Let the Laz dance! Ballmer could lend him the Monkey Boy choreography and we just know CrackBerry Kevin would bring out the push-powered voters!

(via Engadget, headline via Jeremy on Twitter)

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CEOh-Snap! Storm Owners, RIM Says Your Device is teh Sux and it’s Your Fault for Buying It

Lately the forums have been on fire and leading up to another iPhone release it is bound to be one wild ride. So now is a perfect time to get yourself registered and join in on the conversation.

Just yesterday Rene started a interesting thread, Are You Running Your iPhone 3G on EDGE and Why? While I understand why some of you may choose to EDGE over 3G, for me, I like to live dangerously, 3G or go home. How about you? Stop by and let Rene know what you think.

This next thread was started by Crackberry veteran forum moderator, Duvi. He simply wants to know, do you think the next iPhone will come with a flash for the camera? Feel free to speculate all you’d like on that one. I’m going with no, it will not have a flash.

Next up we have a thread that yours truly started, it’s simply about the latest iPhone rumors. Is there an EDGE only iPhone in the works? How about a CDMA version for China? And before all of you Verizon hopefuls start to get exited – no, a CDMA version from China would not work on the Verizon network. They use different frequencies. Thoughts?

Poor RIM, I can’t remember such a hyped phone that pretty much just flopped from the very beginning. Enter the BlackBerry Storm. It seems like the in thing to do these days is ditch your Storm for an iPhone 3G. Not a bad move in our opinion and we welcome forum member whsingleton to the good side!

You heard that the App Store is approaching 1 billion app downloads right? Well you could win a $10,000 iTunes gift card and Dizzy wants to know, what would you do with a $10,000 iTunes gift card?!

Our last thread for today comes to us from Ivoryplum. Ivoryplum wants to know what is the average sync time with iTunes? I honestly can’t complain with my syncing. How about you?

So there you have it folks, some really good threads for all of you to check out. Just remember to register first!

See you on the forums!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

From the Forums: Camera Flash? EDGE Only iPhone?, BlackBerry Storm, iTunes Gift Card, and Sync Time?

Every spring, the interweb gadgeteratti turn their attention towards rumormongering Apple’s June iPhone release. So what does the BlackBerry world do? Try to wedge in a little next gen Storm chatter.

CrackBerry.com rounds up some rumors from Slashgear and BGR and appears to get confirmation from Tweakers.

The code name just might be “Odin”. The Storm, of course, first leaked as the Apple Killer (AK — yeah, that turned out well…) but was originally code named the Storm, then became branded as the Storm so was re-code named (code re-named?) as Thunder. This time fears that media disdain and user dissatisfaction may have reached levels where the Storm brand itself is radioactive could get it changed again. What’s with Odin? Father of thunder-god Thor (we get the connection!), one-eyed lord of the Aesir, gallows-god…

But what’s the iClone aspect this time? Why trying to tout a long missing feature as a big upgrade, of course! Sure, the little berry has long supported copy/paste and MMS, so no luck there. But — wait for it! — this one may actually have WiFi! (If Verizon doesn’t strip it out as per usual…).

Yeah, that should distract attention away from whatever little device Apple was planning for WWDC…

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Attack of the iClones Part Deux: Storm 2 Warning

Zara from M0bileChic sent in this video, comparing the Apple iPhone against the BlackBerry Storm and Google Android G1. It’s fun, it’s fair, and we can’t let the CrackBerry.com commenters get the last word in so let her — and us — know what you think.

And if you’re hungry for more smartphone vs. smartphone action, check out our last Smartphone Experts Round Robin, where we looked not only at our own iPhone 3G and the Android G1, but the BlackBerry Bold, Palm Treo Pro, and HTC Fuze.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Friday Fun Video: iPhone vs. Storm. vs. G1

We’re not sure if picking on the BlackBerry Storm is even sporting anymore, and you know, we probably wouldn’t even bother if RIM hadn’t styled it the “Apple Killer” even while bleating that they “couldn’t type on glass”. Well, according to BlackBerryCool.com, it turns out some other people couldn’t type on the Storm’s specific type of glass either: the US Government:

“The BlackBerry, to me, is a utilitarian tool,” said Rodell Mollineau, communications staff director for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). “It’s not easy to send e-mails on that thing. It is not a good touch screen, and it’s not like the iPhone, where there are so many other great features to it.”

Dear US Government, next time just read TiPb — we could have saved you lots of frustration (and who knows, maybe even restored your childlike sense of wonder!)

Oh, and get more iPhones!

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Washington: You, Storm, are no iPhone!

Wow, the Storm launching to a buggy, bashed start must really have bothered the marketing drones at RIM, especially when the iPhone 3G outsold in its second quarter outsold the Storm in its debut by almost 2 to 1… How else can we explain this cute little “shot” just taken at Apple?

Of course, we all know in the real world the Apple would have spun around, Kung-Fu style, and caught RIM’s little BerryBullet in it’s bitten-out teeth. Then… Skeedoosh! Massive shock-wave leveling everything this side of Waterloo.

Seriously though, why would anyone end any ad for a touch-screen device by saying “no one can touch it”, especially after all the complaints about this particular implementation’s usability…?

Still, hung-over as we are from the CrackBerry birthday bash, we’ll link up the romanticized little RIM version so you can lend us your thoughts…

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Friday Fun Video: BlackBerry Takes a Non-Subtle Shot at Apple

A friend of mine works as a rep for a carrier and so, in the middle of my BlackBerry Round in the Robin, we made a deal: she would let me test drive the Storm and I would let her try out both the iPhone 3G and the BlackBerry Bold (don’t tell Kevin!)

Sidebar: She is an avid BlackBerry Pearl user who, disappointed with the lack of current Qwerty hotness on the CDMA side, was very impressed with the Bold. She is also an avowed iPhone hater. Or rather she was. While I don’t think Apple’s little touchscreen wonder won her over, she was amazed at the apps, especially things like Google Earth. The Storm… suffice it to say she wasn’t a fan.

Okay, fine, what was my take? Read on…

First time I picked it up I was immediately unimpressed with the build quality. Again, the iPhone is an iconic, singular slab of glass, metal and it-doesn’t-blend composite backing. The Bold, while lighter and not quite as solid, is still a Cadillac when it comes to build quality. The Storm felt cheaper somehow. I’m not sure what gave it that feeling, but it was definitely there.

I turned it on and was greeted with a very familiar BlackBerry experience. I used to dislike the word “experience” in that context — and it’s overused — but Kevin nailed the BlackBerry model when he said they currently provide the BlackBerry experience in a variety of form factors. You want a front facing Qwerty? Bold or Curve. Candybar? Pearl. Flip? Flip. And now, you want a touch screen? Storm.

The looks was similar to the Bold but stretched out over an iPhone-eque full touch screen display. I’m still not sold on the discoverability (Dieter’s word) of their iconography. The neon wireframes take a little while to visually distinguish and remember, especially without labels like the iPhone has, and extra-especially when you can have multiple similar ones in close proximity. The BlackBerry interactive metaphor of select vs. execute translated better than I’d presumed, however, with touch replacing scroll and press replacing click rather intuitively.

Yup, the whole-screen button held together — in that narrow circumstance. Typing wasn’t nearly as as bad as I feared. Actually, having heard so many bad things about it, I ended up surprised at how, well — not good — but not bad it was. Having to press down emphatically each time was slower than the iPhone, and did give me momentary pangs of BlackBerry Claw-itis in my forearms, but all in all I think it was an innovative idea from RIM and I’m glad they tried it. No doubt Storm 2 (Blizzard?) will improve on it still.

Where the whole-screen button failed, however, is where it needed to succeed most: the touch. It jiggles and slides around inside the frame. That’s stupefyingly incomprehensible to me. I tried playing BrickBreaker and as I attempted to move finger around to control it, the screen moved with me! Not only was this annoying, but it destroyed a large portion of the direct interactivity a capacitive screen is supposed to enable. Total touch fail.

When I laid the device flat on a table and tried to swipe and gesture, the combination of ridiculous teeter-totter speaker-feet and jiggly screen made it all but comedic.

RIM and Apple both make truly excellent integrated hardware and software devices, but have very different focuses and philosophies. The Storm may have been trying to bring the best of both worlds to Vodafone and iPhone-rejecting Verizon, and while I think it’s an important first step, needed innovation, and valiant attempt, I don’t think the Storm is ready for prime time yet.

Apple built the iPhone OS specifically for touch, and RIM adapting their already dated Java MicroEdition foundations while workable, certainly isn’t ideal.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

BlackBerry Bonus: TiPb vs. Storm Hands-On

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• Download Directly
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Background Reading

• TiPb’s 2008 iPhone Holiday Helper Gift Guide
• Kevin’s iPhone Gift Pick: Blueant Supertooth 3 Bluetooth Speakerphone
• CEOh-Snap! RIM Boss: Touchscreens Stink — Let’s iClone One!
• CrackBerry.com BlackBerry Storm coverage
• TiPb’s BlackBerry Storm coverage
• Smartphone Experts Round Robin

Credits

Thanks to the the iPhone Blog Store for sponsoring the podcast, and to everyone who showed up for the live chat, or sent in questions!

Our music comes from the following sources:

• I Called You — iPhone Remix by Pete Leidy
via Sneakmove iPhone Ringtone Challenge

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb Presents: iPhone Live! Podcast #4

David Pogue blogs a follow up to his scathing review of the BlackBerry Storm, and notes:

I’ve always thought that that vocal sub-population of Mac fans make up the world’s most watchful, most hostile grass-roots lobbying arm.

But now I see that I was wrong. There’s an even nastier one: the BlackBerry nuts.

So this is how they want to play it, eh? The iPhone starts beating the BlackBerry in sales (and Windows Mobile in market share!), so they put out the Storm to rain on the touchscreen parade, AND go after the title of craziest cult fanbase?

Think the cult of Apple will really let them get away with that?

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Apple Passes BlackBerry in Sales Share – BlackBerry Passes Apple in Nut Share?!