BB or Android?
 

Hello, my Flip, as many of yours, are growing old in terms of apps and OS stability (such as frequent random reboots of the Pearl and Flip). Any advice to new Android based smartphone or new generation of BB? I think that the Linux based Android OS is more superior than the JAVA based BB OS.

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"More superior"?

What do you need from a smartphone? Which provides your "must haves" and the most "nice to haves" at the lowest overall cost?

How about faster apps in multi-tasking mode without "crash and reboot" which is the hallmark problem of BB OS?

If you research, you'll find out the "hallmark" of BB is in fact its stability. On the other hand people like trying new things. I hear good things about the EVO, give that a go.

I find it very difficult to understand the need to "multi-task" on a handheld device. It is difficult enough to do one thing at a time. IMHO, you don't have the horsepower, screen resolution or real estate or the ease of use to be very effective at more than one task at the time.

I have been using BlackBerrys for years and recently picked up the EVO. The EVO is amazing when it comes to browsing and media. However, it comes nowhere close to the BB in battery life, notifications, and notification customizations. I didn't realize how much I would miss this. Exceptions on the BlackBerry for SMS, email, calls, etc for individual contacts are something I miss a lot.

It boils down to what you need a device for. There are some 3rd party apps that kind of pick up where the Android OS lacks, but it's only a work around and not as smooth as the BB does natively.

Nothing concrete to add, except that I was thinking the exact same thing.

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My blackberrys have always been fast enough, I don't see the crash and reboot problems.

If you think another device brand is going to solve your problems, more power to you.

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Well, I can listen to Pandora and read email and browse the web (particularly wap.balckberryforums.com) at the same time. I can open notes and cut and paste into an email, or whatever. That's multi-tasking to me, and it's no sweat on a blackberry. I don't know what the OP wants wrt "multi-tasking". But agree some people expect too much from mobile devices some times.

I think you hit the nail on the head. It seems to me that the OP is looking for any excuse to leave BlackBerry and trying to find reasons to justify it.

As I stated above, the BB is great at what it does. If you want more multimedia on a device, then that's a reason to look elsewhere. But for multitasking, the BB does it well.

OP, the slowness is most likely related to your memory and most Android devices don't have a ton of on board memory. About as much as any newer BlackBerry has. However with 2.2 (when available), you can install apps on the SD card in Android.

One word... "Spellchecker!" I recently returned to the Blackberry platform after owning an Android (Samsung Moment). I use my handset equally personally and professionally and thus far the Blackberry is the most reliable, stable dependable handset that I've owned. Additionally, battery life on the Blackberry completely out performs any of the Androids. Oh did I mention that the Android OS does not have Spellchecker? Try out a new handset and see if it works for you. However, I'm sure we'll see you back sooner or later. Just like I did. :) Take care and Keep Learning.

EdBBLuva

I don't know about the Moment, but the HTC EVO does have spell check.

Menu > Settings > Language & Keyboard > Touch Input > Text Input > Spell Correction.

Also, you can add words to the dictionary by going to

Menu > Settings > Language & Keyboard > Touch Input > User Dictionary.

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Yeah, it's all compromises. I say the blackberry is fast enough, and it is for me.

If you are choosing a device for specific purposesn the choice is easy. It may not be blackberry, but it should be easy to decide what meets your needs.

But if you want the "best" then you are asking about culture and style and such. And it is hard to be cool sometimes, isn't it.

The real cool is getting what does the job at the least cost to you and not caring how it looks. Then you'll be ahead of the curve on cool.

There's a difference between YOU multitasking, and the DEVICE. The device doing it is when you're listening to music whilst running another app. Or email being notified whilst you're in another app. Most non-multitasking OS's allow limited controlled multitasking for their own internal built in apps - any phone will give you a SMS notification whilst doing other things, for example (the internal app to receive the SMS is in effect multitasking whith whatever else you're doing on the phone). The difference is when the OS allows any (even 3rd party apps) to keep running in background if they want. Why might you need this on a phone, you ask?

- Consider a 3rd party GPS app, for example... If allowed to multitask you can continue to track a location, re-route, etc whilst listening to music, being on a call, whatever, and the app can notify you when you've reached a certain location or needed to make a turn.

- Consider a 3rd party app that might monitor RSS feeds. You could have a pop-up or notification when a new posting was made on a web site regardless of what else you were using the phone for at the time.

Non-multi-tasking phones can do a what appears to the user a similar effect. They do this by freezing (suspending) an app when it goes into background (task switching). So when you switch to them (to paste content from another app, perhaps) you return to the background app exactly where you left it. That's fine - so long as there's no use for an app to actually DO anything when it's in background... Task switching is often fine, and saves power, but there are some apps that multitasking is useful for...

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EDIT Double post.

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But I was talking about the device and not me. Pandora does not pause when I switch to another app.

To my belief, the blackberry does do multi-tasking, and does it by your definition. Examples abound of add-on and aftermarket applications that run and update in the background. So, again, I don't understand what the OP means if he/she is saying it does not.

Well, I am glad that this thread generates a ton of great discussion. Not to say that we have to jump ship from BB but to know the competition. I would like to stay with BB since I have it the days from 7100, 8700, 8100, etc. However, it really needs upgrade its OS to handle memory better when "multi-tasking", if that is a convenient word. Case in point, if you use UMA/Wifi network connection, browsing Google map, and pick up a call from a friend, see what it will do - you will see the little clock ticking or "reboot"!

I guess I really need to understand how you can be having a conversation on the phone and still feel the need to surf or read email??? I can understand checking the calendar but not talking and reading and/or surfing at the same time.

If I were talking to you face to face and you were doing that, i would consider it to be very rude and walk away.

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I haven't used google maps in years, since it was 1.X or 2.X, but generally speaking I'd blame the developer for the way an aftermarket app ran poorly or bogged down my device, and not the device.

To be fair I can see myself sitting on the side of the road using a map/nav app and having a call come in. I wouldn't want the device to bog down and me be unable to answer the call. But I have been using the device and had calls come in and I've never had that problem. I've been on the road with blackberry maps running, had a call come in, answered it, said, "I'll call you back", hung up, and blackberry maps didn't skip a beat and kept on tracking me. Not that I think UMA makes a difference, but I use it every day and I don't see a performance difference between wifi, EDGE and 3G except download speeds. App performance otherwise is the same.

In short, if you got a problem with Google Maps, blame Google Maps. But as said before, it boils down to what's important to you. If Google Maps or whatever is a priority for you and runs crappy on one device but satisfactory on another, then go for the other. It doesn't make one or the other good or bad, other than good or bad for you, but not for everybody.