The best of both worlds | Bangkok Post: tech

OPEN Thought

I must admit that the BlackBerry and I had a shaky start. I did not fully understand it much other than an extension of the corporate data centre when I first encountered it and since then, things have gone downhill with it becoming a symbol of the elite that made me feel queasy. The last straw was the launch of the Bold 9700 complete with pictures of socialites (RIM calls them opinion leaders who people aspire to, or something similarly politically correct) and their BlackBerry pouches in glass boxes for us to marvel at.

It was soon after the 9700 launch that I was approached to test a BlackBerry, or rather, the new official Twitter client for BlackBerry.

"I am aware you are not a BlackBerry user," the calm voice on the other side of the phone said.

That was an understatement. My personal email signature was then, "Sent via push Gmail on WinMo. Now who still needs a BlackBerry?" Yes, Virginia. All Windows Mobile devices from yesteryear can now enjoy push email if you use Gmail's Activesync.

A day later I was in possession of a brand new flagship BlackBerry Bold 9700 leather case and and box and, to prove that RIM's representative had a sense of humour, a battered entry level Curve 8520 with a big sticker on it, "Property of Research in Motion."

I fired it up, and for the first time, got a glimpse into a world I had long dismissed as being silly. Little did I know it was the start of an adventure that led me to gain a new respect for the BB, as they call it.

While I was asked to review the Twitter client, I quickly realised I lacked the frame of reference to talk about it. I had never used TwitterBerry and was not going to install it to try out both to see how the official client is better. But rather it is a reflection on the strengths and weaknesses of the BB from someone who has been through Symbian, Windows Mobile and Android.

Physically the specs were a bit yesteryear. 320x240 screen looks like an old Super Nintendo game compared to today's PlayStation 3. The keyboard was lovely in feel though oddly it lacked one-touch often used keys like the full stop and at sign, instead needing a double key press for them. But I got up to speed on it in no time at all. The lack of a GPS was also distinctly economy-class in this day and age.

Setting the thing up was a piece of cake. Just turn it on, enter my username and password on Gmail and then I got push gmail. I did the same for my Yahoo account and got that on push too, as did my Nokia Ovi account.

Email is true push mail, arriving within a couple of seconds of the browser based gmail client. In informal tests, there is no significant difference between the BB and push Gmail on Windows Mobile and Nokia Messaging (when it works), usually varying by a couple of seconds as to which gets my email first. Android (Nexus One) is usually lagging the others by a further two or three seconds, but that is not even noticeable unless you have them side by side on the same table.

Push mail changes the nature of email. It makes it much more immediate and it changes the way you think. It blurs the line between instant messaging and email. No, you do not have presence as in knowing if someone is online or off, but it is instant if needed, and asynchronous if wished too. The best of both worlds. One's brain quickly becomes accustomed to the flashing light on the phone be it the BB light or the Android's trackball and checks it all the time as part of a new form of compulsive behaviour disorder that has earned the BB the nickname, the CrackBerry in the US of A.

BB has the BBM - BlackBerry Messenger. Like a version of MSN IM only for BB users. It works, but again, I felt it was a bit beside the point. After all, why not just use MSN or Google Talk, unless you actually want a barrier of entry so that peasants cannot join in the elite conversation.

What I found so different was the user interface. Now, going from a modern Windows Mobile to Sense to Android to Maemo does not feel as different as a BB. All are graphical and all seem to be designed for a smaller, handheld desktop with different interpretations and degrees of success in adapting to the paradigm shift of a desktop mouse to a finger or stylus on a small touchscreen. The BB is totally alien in comparison and is hard to explain. It is very economical with graphics and quite heavy on keyboard shortcuts. In a way, it is almost like comparing Lotus 1-2-3 to graphical Excel. It is like a very efficient, highly optimised text and keyboard UI, almost like a glimpse into an alternate future if Windows 3.1 never happened and DOS continued to evolve. But it works and I was hammering out emails with minimal UI fuss and so much efficiency in no time at all.

The client server architecture lends to the illusion of efficiency. Instead of the wait you get with other phones web-based user interfaces. Sending a message of any kind seems to be instant. It's not as it just queues it up and sends it in the background and once in a while during peak times there is an error.

The Twitter client was straightforward enough, though surprisingly given the BB heritage, it was not push, rather a frequent update interval of every five minutes or so. Again, it had lots of keyboard shortcuts and was efficient in a different way. But what surprised me was the level of integration.

The BB is famous for its single in-box. Everything, be it email, SMSs or even in this case Twitter direct messages end up there for one to read and reply to. So instead of firing up the Twitter client, one can reply to a Twitter direct message right from the in-box as a reply. The same goes for Facebook too. Nice, efficient and a far cry from the many user interfaces and windows on a typical desktop or phone. By far it is the most coherent UI on any smart phone platform I have used, and I have used all of the major ones.

The only problem with the Twitter client is how it flashes the BB's light when new Tweets come in. With my super busy Twitter stream, it means that it flashes it on all the time, virtually 24 hours a day, which rapidly lessens the value of the light in the first place. That, and the lack of true push Tweets. Re-tweeting is a bit clumsy with no option for an old-style editable RT. Is it better than TwitterBerry or other BB Twitter clients? I have no frame of reference. It is spartan but after using it I feel it is more efficient than anything available on WinMo though and the (feel of) speed and integration is even better than the Android clients, which is saying something.

It simply works with minimal fuss and minimal bells and whistles and it goes on and on. Battery life was on a par with a feature phone, if not a last-for-weeks dumb phone. You do not have to worry as it simply works whereas with other platforms, there are often niggles and workarounds. Sometimes Nokia Messaging or Activesync needs a total re-sync. Sometimes Android loses the microphone and needs a reboot. The BB just keeps going. Adding a new app like the official Twitter client does not require the learning of a new UI like the total UI difference between, say, Gmail on Android and Seesmic. It just works.

In that sense, it appeals to people who want a reliable, boring Japanese sedan rather than a high maintenance European car. Some people have better things to do with their day than tinker with their phones. Others, like myself, live and breathe gadgetry. The BB has its appeal, not the elite, snobbish phone of the super-rich I thought it would be, rather it is a predicable, not too expensive meal at S&P rather than cooking at home (Android) or going to posh places like Coffee Beans (iPhone). I shall miss it as I send the phone back to RIM, but I shall not go out to buy one myself, not any time soon.