The LULZ ensues. RIM tries to be hip with ‘Boom Boom Pow’ on the introduction of BlackBerry 6 (video embedded).
In Fergie’s own words: “you’re so two thousand and late”
On the surface, BlackBerry 6 OS looks like a definite improvement on the finger usability department. (Then again I have not used a Storm/Storm 2, but the general concensus is that it’s just a rehashed version of the OS that’s on the keyboard-equipped BlackBerries with a few superficial touch-friendly interface elements on the surface - but dig 3 levels down on the options and the ugly text menus from BlackBerries past rear their ugly head. “Painting lipstick on a pig”, as they say.) I probably wouldn’t mind going back to a BlackBerry if my company clamps down on iPhone users again.
0:13 - Drawer-style applications “window”, as is on Android and on webOS
0:15 - Tapping on “Media” shows more icons (yay, folders. At least they didn’t pull an iPhone and forced users to use annoying multiple “home pages”): Pictures, Music, Video Camera (makes sense so far…but Ringtones?)
0:17 - The Music app looks like a reskinned iPod app on the iPhone, with Coverflow in tow instead of displaying vanilla album art in the Now Playing screen. While you’re in the ripping off business, I wish they did the Zune instead; Microsoft’s less heirarchical “Metro” UI feels much less antiquated
0:34 - She gestures with her left hand and then we’re whisked to what looks like an “Extended Search” screen with a pre-populated search for “will.i.am”, proceeds to tap on on “Search YouTube”, and the mobile version of YouTube returns results. Does this suggest a universal/OS-wide gesture for (contextual) search?
0:40 - screen auto-rotate kicks in as a “Video Player” app comes up (and she does that finger flip again - or is she just naturally that sassy?)
0:47 - “Pictures” app resembles the iPhone’s “Photos” app too much, only this time with what looks like search and file organization buttons at the bottom toolbar
0:54 - Here we see that a tap when a photo is shown triggers a 9-item contextual menu with nice, big icons (that I remember from Tweetie for iPhone 2.0)
0:56 - Sassy lady steps out; in comes the obligagtory (dancing) corporate shill - every BlackBerry’s kind of man
0:58 - Guy taps the iconic envelope that’s been on every BlackBerry sold and VIOLA, window shade with recent SMS, missed calls and upcoming appointments! I don’t even care if this is a rip-off from Android’s notification window shade; it’s a design elements that just make sense. iPhone 4 can’t touch this.
1:02 - Our favorite shill taps on the sender’s name and we get another one of those 9-item contextual menus. The “Email (name)”, “View Contact”, “Call (name)”, “Text (name)”, “BBM”, “Show Address” options explain themselves pretty easily, but the following buttons intrigue me:
(name) - What else is there to do with the contact other than Email/Call/Text/BBM? (I demand that they list “Poke” as one of the next options)
Switch - switch to what? Another contact? Another app?
Full Menu - now this button scares me; I’d venture to say it will show the full list of options for (name), as you would when you press the BlackBerry key on older BB’s
1:06 - Shuy Gill (yes, I’ve given him a name) taps on the call button which spawns oddly familiar buttons: “Speaker”, “Mute”, “Swap” and “Join”.
1:07 – Do a pirouette + fix your tie and you’ll be treated to what looks like an application switcher of some kind. Tap the home icon and you’re back to the home screen. Bonus: note the “Favorites” category off to the right of a scrolling list in the bottom row of icons
1:13 – Do the finger twirl, and you also get to search the Calendar for “freedie”! (sic)
1:26 – oh bai bai Shuy and herro annoying preppy prick
1:29 – P.P. shows us you can do the swipe to your “Favorites” from the home screen (*cough*Metro*cough*) – easy access to your buddy “Sean Arnold” from the 70’s
This time I have a bone to pick – why are the options different from what you get when you tap (name) from the Email app? Call (name)”, “Text (name)” and “Email (name)” are all the exact same buttons from the menu shown in 1:02, but why are the same buttons in different locations? This kind of adaptive interface is disorienting.
”IM” and “BBM (name)” which are essentially both IM applications – can’t the latter be an option under the generic “IM” category?
What is “SN”? (and why is the icon sparkly?)
”Move” and “Unmark as Favorite” make sense in this menu, but why not implement deal with this in a different way (e.g. iPhone’s tap-hold-move, and an “X” button overlay for the latter). “Conservative” is akin to “elegant”, with what little screen real estate we have here, people!
The ubiquitous “Full Menu” is here again – but didn’t the Storm and Storm 2 both have the BlackBerry button too, so remind me why we need this again?
1:37 – College boy tests his buddy Sean Arnold: “Where r u” – No auto-correct or spell checker? Shenanigans! Further, this brazen demonstration of bastardized English suggests RIM knows its market very well.
1:43 – RIM’s Torch Mobile acquisition has apparently not gone to waste – Coverflow!
Cue more app-switching fade-in, fade-out eyecandy
1:48 – “Social Feeds” app shows what appears to be integrated Twitter and Facebook status updates. Tap on a name and it provides options to interact with that person via AIM, Twitter, Live, Google, BBM, Yahoo, Facebook and MySpace. This must be the longest list of third-party services we’ve seen natively supported on a mobile device. See that “Filter” option up on top? Handy.
1:56 – Yet another use of the 9-item graphic menu. Except for the “Full Menu” button, I have no bones to pick this time because this is actually a different menu with different buttons (i.e. a that the 9-item menu may be a standard OS-supported control and developers are encouraged to leverage this)
1:57 – The Twitter app is bland-looking, as do traditional BlackBerry apps
2:16 – Cue token sentai pose, for posters and stills to be distributed for cheap otherwise known as the “press kit”
Where anyone who has ever menstruated would not have named a product that
I’ll preface this by saying I am very much underwhelmed and I’m not the only one. I do not think it’s because of unmet expectations over the hype machine around this device; but that this thing is really just a bigger iPhone (no, I don’t buy the “it’s not just just an iPhone because third party developers will augment where Apple has fallen short” argument - the iPhone already has that down by spades). After two iPod touches and an iPhone 3G, I cannot justify the need for it, nor find any reason for its existence.
(the title above, by the way - I quoted from @hchamp on Twitter)
According to Engadget, Apple set out to make a tablet as far as 2002, but somewhere along the way, digressed and birthed a more pocketable device in the form of the iPhone. From a business perspective I imagine it’s easier to make a marketing case for a mobile phone, a product with an already-established consumer base, than one that flies in the face of excess baggage from past failed attempts and $300 netbooks in the middle of a recession.
I’ll back up a bit and just point out that both the iPhone and this newfangled device are really just “software in gorgeous hardware” (words of Steve Jobs from one of his past keynotes, I forget which one exactly). Keep this in mind as you read the next section:
My contention is that I’m sure more people would have been blown away if Apple released this derivative of Mac OS (which I’ll now refer to as “OS X iPhone” moving forward) in the tablet form factor before they did on a handheld device. OS X iPhone is, by far, the best implementation of what a “tablet PC” should be.
Imagine then three years later, Apple introduces the same OS X derivative in a form factor that could fit in the palm of your hand - and BAM! You get a second wave of excitement over what’s essentially the same product (i.e., OS X iPhone). Your third salvo (or second, as would be more likely) would be the App Store (and we all know how well that worked out for the OS X iPhone ecosystem).
But history has it already: Apple had sprung up for the smaller device first and we find ourselves in the extreme opposite ends of the argument.
Still, had Apple released this thing first and iPhone second, I’m sure I’d still gravitate towards the latter.
One more thing: this awkward situation that we have right now where iPhone apps run on the bigger screen by blasting the pixels 300% will just be a fleeting moment and soon enough we should see custom-designed applications that should look better than 8-bit Mario. Because all apps are be distributed through the same App Store that’s currently on the iPhone, the next wave of applications (with their additional bitmaps suited for the larger form factor) will almost definitely blow up the size of application binaries, which translates to longer download times (I wish Apple just got rid of the 10-megabyte cap on what can and can’t be downloaded over 3G and/or WiFi), with zero benefit to iPhone-only users such as myself.
Right now, the only thing I’m excited about is the release of Bioshock 2.
