And so I got a BB
I never get things because people do. Usability to me has always been based on personal experience. Well then, I finally got a Blackberry (9630; Tour) because I want something new to hack. And just that.
Oh my, what a UX!My relationship with the BB UX is a love/hate one. More of hate anyways. Sincerely yours, I hate the font to even start with. Then why do I have to pair my device with another then tell dude 'receive using bluetooth' before I can truly share? It wasn't even that complex in the days of infrared. But that's just a few. There are lot of things that are hidden from quick easy access on the OS. One plus I wont fail to note though, the message threading rocks. I just love the way messages are grouped together as conversations, just the way gmail groups mail conversations. And there is BIS and Pings.
Ignoring the price and service rants for the minute, the fact that for a certain charge for a week or month you can be connected with your social lines and the internet is cool. (Between me and you though, I can get more or less the same data bandwidth on a non-BB device and enjoy as much internet and social activity, except ofcourse the Blackberry Messenger). So with N1,400 I got Glo's BIS for a month and have been enjoying browsing happily on my phone. The only clause as heard, as against N3000 from other networks, is that I can only setup one email on the device. But who cares? I have 3 emails setup on my Nokia with 15MB free weekly etisalat easycliq data to take care of. The Blackberry Messenger (an IM for BB to BB convos) is another strong and interesting part of the platform. I can't deny it has saved me a lot of calls and helped with sharing quick information since the IM is always on as long as the subscriber is on an active BIS plan. Hack. Hack. Hack!
Winning developers is an easy thing. Just give them something they can easily hack and build on and see them make magic of your platform. And this exactly is what RIM did, making it easy for developers to communicate 'seamlessly' with every part of the OS from messages to contacts, BBM, notifications, calendar and a whole lot. Consequently, the way apps integrate with the platform is so intersting. For example, via the facebook app, my facebook friends' contact details syncronizes with my phone's contacts; I can set their birthdays to as well syncronize with the phone's calendar for reminder purpose; whether on or off, the twitter app notifies me (via a sound and notification light) when I have mentions and dms (same thing the facebook app does with new notifications); I can play Caro (a nut and zero game) over the BBM with any of my friends and a lot more. The other stories.
Besides other facts like I find the lack of shortcuts annoying (I do miss my Nokia's Ctrl+A, Z, C and co features when on it), apps experience on the platform has been lovely. It's a +1 over my Nokia S^3. For everything else, it's my S^3. I'm getting an android device soon and look forward to the intrigue of the platform. PS: Sorry for the poor formatting. Post was done via plain text on mobile.