The BlackBerry Thread: Hello? Is anyone here???

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > The BlackBerry Thread: Hello? Is anyone here???

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Femur: Jan 10, 2004; I REALLY NEED TO SHUT THE FUCK UP

Thanks, I will try to call them, because it is not available on the online thing.

# ? May 2, 2011 07:01

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# ? May 14, 2024 22:56

Scaramouche: Mar 26, 2001; SPACE FACE! SPACE FACE!

Thanks for the advice on Bolt, got it working just in time as my main PC at home just stopped working (the pop spilled on it may have contributed). I can browse the forums off the phone which is nice, but the weird part is the video playback just doesn't work at all. Last night I was watching an LP just to see if I could and I had to find the URL in Bolt (since default browser chokes on the forums) and then copy it to the default browser to play the video. Still far more functionality than I was expecting out of a pokey Bold 9700 though. Unfortunately though it makes me want more... I'm looking iPadward and not liking the feel of things...

# ? May 2, 2011 18:52

teethgrinder: Oct 9, 2002

To get video working in Bolt: Under Preferences, click the "Media Setting" button. Then just follow the prompts.

# ? May 2, 2011 18:57

Spatule: Mar 18, 2003

Here is an hilarious headline courtesy of Bloomberg:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-02/rim-introduces-touch-screen-bold-phones-to-challenge-apple.html

Hopefully I'll get this one from work...

# ? May 2, 2011 19:02

Scaramouche: Mar 26, 2001; SPACE FACE! SPACE FACE!

teethgrinder posted:

To get video working in Bolt: Under Preferences, click the "Media Setting" button. Then just follow the prompts.

Yeah I've done that. Method 1 doesn't work, and method 2 does in their little wizard thing (in that I can see the test video, but not in browser). The strange thing is, even youtube doesn't work (mobile or desktop). In fact the only thing that does is the shiba inu ustream http://www.ustream.tv/sfshiba. Otherwise it just sits there 'connecting...'. I've got an okay workaround for now, but it'd be nice to be able to use blip/viddler/et al.

# ? May 2, 2011 19:36

Ropes4u: May 2, 2009

The 9900 could be my next phone!

# ? May 3, 2011 02:38

Beardless Riker: Apr 14, 2005

I'm so glad my top-of-the-line-just-a-minute-ago BlackBerry won't be getting an official update to OS7 even though the phone and OS6 only launched half a year ago. Thanks for being so good to your customers RIM.

# ? May 3, 2011 04:21

Yuns: Aug 19, 2000; There is an idea of a Yuns, some kind of abstraction, but there is no real me, only an entity, something illusory, and though I can hide my cold gaze and you can shake my hand and feel flesh gripping yours and maybe you can even sense our lifestyles are probably comparable: I simply am not there.

Beardless Riker posted:

I'm so glad my top-of-the-line-just-a-minute-ago BlackBerry won't be getting an official update to OS7 even though the phone and OS6 only launched half a year ago. Thanks for being so good to your customers RIM.

The current blackberries are probably not able to run the new OS well at all considering OS7 is launching on a machine with a 1.2 Ghz processor with 768 meg ram and 8 gig internal storage. A Torch has a 624 MHz processor and 512 meg of ram and also lacks a lot of the new hardware of the 9900/9930. You might get an interim step a sort of OS7 lite as they were discussing back when OS7 was call OS6.1 but it's unlikely that even a current top of the line will be able to run full OS7. I feel your pain as a Storm 2 owner who got left behind in the OS5 to OS6 transition but the Storm and Storm 2 simply didn't have enough ram to run the touchscreen version of OS6.

# ? May 3, 2011 04:33

FlapYoJacks: Feb 12, 2009

Eh, I wouldn't worry about not being able to update to os7, I really think that the next big thing out of RIM will be their QNX based OS.

Might as well wait it out.

# ? May 3, 2011 06:34

Duckman2008: Jan 6, 2010; TFW you see Flyers goaltending.; Grimey Drawer

Yuns posted:

The current blackberries are probably not able to run the new OS well at all considering OS7 is launching on a machine with a 1.2 Ghz processor with 768 meg ram and 8 gig internal storage. A Torch has a 624 MHz processor and 512 meg of ram and also lacks a lot of the new hardware of the 9900/9930. You might get an interim step a sort of OS7 lite as they were discussing back when OS7 was call OS6.1 but it's unlikely that even a current top of the line will be able to run full OS7. I feel your pain as a Storm 2 owner who got left behind in the OS5 to OS6 transition but the Storm and Storm 2 simply didn't have enough ram to run the touchscreen version of OS6.

Right, and the Torch should have had the hardware to run it. One way or the other, one thing I will agree with every day of the week is that for the last year RIM has screwed its customers on software updates. Neither Android nor Apple are perfect, but at least with either you can expect a top of the line handset to be officially supported for a year.

The BB Curve 8530 launched January 2010 with 5.0something. 8 months later (I believe it was August) BBerry launches the Curve 9330, which was EXACTLY the same except the 9330 got 6.0, the 8530 didn't.

Now the Torch, Style and a bunch of others also get screwed over. I'm not expecting perfection, but a 6 month timespan even for a medium phone is pretty lovely, let alone Blackberry's high end flagship phone. I hate to say it, but people cry bloody murder when Apple decides to stop supporting device upgrades, so I think we can hold BBerry to higher standards than 6-8 months.

# ? May 3, 2011 21:13

teethgrinder: Oct 9, 2002

At least the old BlackBerry goes on working as it always did. Apple completely crippled 3G models with new firmware and then doesn't permit downgrading. They probably should have been cut off from firmware updates instead.

# ? May 3, 2011 21:23

JohnnyCanuck: May 28, 2004; Strong And/Or Free

Do we talk about the PlayBook in here, or in another thread?

# ? May 4, 2011 12:32

Yuns: Aug 19, 2000; There is an idea of a Yuns, some kind of abstraction, but there is no real me, only an entity, something illusory, and though I can hide my cold gaze and you can shake my hand and feel flesh gripping yours and maybe you can even sense our lifestyles are probably comparable: I simply am not there.

I have been posting about it in the non-iPad tablet thread but I think this thread is as good a thread as any to discuss it since the majority of people using or interested in the Playbook are BB users. I have a 64g Playbook from which I am posting.

# ? May 4, 2011 18:01

Lunchtray: Jan 24, 2007; I was all of history's great robot actors. Acting Unit 0.8. Thespomat. David Duchovny!

Yuns posted:

I have been posting about it in the non-iPad tablet thread but I think this thread is as good a thread as any to discuss it since the majority of people using or interested in the Playbook are BB users. I have a 64g Playbook from which I am posting.

Everyone at Rim's keynote speech @ BlackBerry World got a free Playbook. That's something like 4000 ppl. I think that means we've got like 6 more incoming to work on.

# ? May 4, 2011 20:54

Jonny Quest: Nov 11, 2004

Yuns posted:

I have been posting about it in the non-iPad tablet thread but I think this thread is as good a thread as any to discuss it since the majority of people using or interested in the Playbook are BB users. I have a 64g Playbook from which I am posting.

Overall what's your opinion on it?

Supposedly it can access the SD card in bridged Blackberry, is it fast enough to stream music/movies/whatever from it? Essentially can someone get by with a 16GB version or is the 32/64 vital?

# ? May 4, 2011 21:29

Yuns: Aug 19, 2000; There is an idea of a Yuns, some kind of abstraction, but there is no real me, only an entity, something illusory, and though I can hide my cold gaze and you can shake my hand and feel flesh gripping yours and maybe you can even sense our lifestyles are probably comparable: I simply am not there.

straw_ewe posted:

Overall what's your opinion on it?

Supposedly it can access the SD card in bridged Blackberry, is it fast enough to stream music/movies/whatever from it? Essentially can someone get by with a 16GB version or is the 32/64 vital?

I love it but it is still a bit rough around the edges since it is a new system. The is a lot of stuff coming shortly in updates that is not on it yet.

Bridged files (files on your BB sd card) can be accessed but they haven't enabled bridged music and video yet only MS office and pdf and business docs like that. I expect this to change in an update.

16 is too small for most especially since after formatting, system and apps. You have maybe 14.7 g in storage. Most will do well with 32g. I have about 8 gigs in music and 20 gigs of video on mine so I went with the 64 g plus I have a 32 g micro sd card in my bridged Storm 2 which will be more useful when they enable media fi,e bridging.

# ? May 4, 2011 22:37

Jonny Quest: Nov 11, 2004

Thanks! Something I haven't found is can the Playbook access files from a Windows share? I see lots about how you can see the Playbook as a shared drive from Windows but not the other way around. It would be nice to just stream media from my home server.

# ? May 8, 2011 12:35

Yuns: Aug 19, 2000; There is an idea of a Yuns, some kind of abstraction, but there is no real me, only an entity, something illusory, and though I can hide my cold gaze and you can shake my hand and feel flesh gripping yours and maybe you can even sense our lifestyles are probably comparable: I simply am not there.

straw_ewe posted:

Thanks! Something I haven't found is can the Playbook access files from a Windows share? I see lots about how you can see the Playbook as a shared drive from Windows but not the other way around. It would be nice to just stream media from my home server.

The Playbook can share via wifi but not stream yet. However, it has just finished certification for DLNA and DLNA support should be rolling out soon. Not sure whether the DLNA support is both streaming from and streaming to. Most people have been using Orb to stream media from their windows boxes to the Playbook.

# ? May 8, 2011 15:24

General Dire: Apr 24, 2008

Is there any way to browse the forums from your blackberry? I have the Torch if that helps.

# ? May 11, 2011 12:28

teethgrinder: Oct 9, 2002

BoltBrowser works on earlier BlackBerries. It probably has at least basic functionality on a Torch.

# ? May 11, 2011 13:20

Cowcatcher: Dec 23, 2005; OUR PEOPLE WERE BORN OF THE SKY

General Dire posted:

Is there any way to browse the forums from your blackberry? I have the Torch if that helps.

The forums work fine on my Torch. The text in posts scales to screen size, so if you zoom in and pan to the right it will fit nicely even in portrait mode.

# ? May 11, 2011 14:48

iCaPpY: Sep 18, 2007; WHERE'S
MY
CHIPPY??

Cowcatcher posted:

The forums work fine on my Torch. The text in posts scales to screen size, so if you zoom in and pan to the right it will fit nicely even in portrait mode.

Chiming in, forums work fine on my 9700 with OS6 on the defult browser so it should be fine on the torch.

# ? May 17, 2011 00:54

psylent: Nov 29, 2000; Pillbug

teethgrinder posted:

At least the old BlackBerry goes on working as it always did. Apple completely crippled 3G models with new firmware and then doesn't permit downgrading. They probably should have been cut off from firmware updates instead.

I was one of the people who got screwed over by that. You can hack your way back down to a previous version of iOS (and I did), but it's not easy.

# ? May 17, 2011 04:28

Scaramouche: Mar 26, 2001; SPACE FACE! SPACE FACE!

iCaPpY posted:

Chiming in, forums work fine on my 9700 with OS6 on the defult browser so it should be fine on the torch.

Really? Every forum page for me on my bold in default browser has been 'this page is too large I am going to crash now'. I had to switch to bolt to even load the forums.

# ? May 17, 2011 06:08

particle409: Jan 15, 2008; Thou bootless clapper-clawed varlot!

Random question: I just updated the OS on my 9650 Bold, and it erased the themes I had. The one I was using was an Android theme, and I liked it a lot better than the regular BB theme. It wasn't Droidberry http://crackberry.com/introducing-droidberry it was some other Android theme. Anybody know what I'm talking about?

# ? May 18, 2011 23:04

JohnnyCanuck: May 28, 2004; Strong And/Or Free

Scaramouche posted:

Really? Every forum page for me on my bold in default browser has been 'this page is too large I am going to crash now'. I had to switch to bolt to even load the forums.

Are you on a BES? Because there's a setting BES admins can change in the internet policy that restricts "large pages" from loading.

If you're not on a BES, then I have no clue what might be going on.

# ? May 20, 2011 04:02

Yuns: Aug 19, 2000; There is an idea of a Yuns, some kind of abstraction, but there is no real me, only an entity, something illusory, and though I can hide my cold gaze and you can shake my hand and feel flesh gripping yours and maybe you can even sense our lifestyles are probably comparable: I simply am not there.

I even browse the forums on my Storm 2 with the OS5 browser so an OS6 webkit browser should have no problems.

# ? May 20, 2011 04:21

Scaramouche: Mar 26, 2001; SPACE FACE! SPACE FACE!

JohnnyCanuck posted:

Are you on a BES? Because there's a setting BES admins can change in the internet policy that restricts "large pages" from loading.

If you're not on a BES, then I have no clue what might be going on.

I am on BESx, but I'm the Admin and I didn't ever set such a policy. I'm at home now and can't be arsed to log into check, do you know if it's applied by default?

# ? May 21, 2011 01:31

bhlaab: Feb 21, 2005

I just got a Blackberry Curve 9300 a week or so ago and a data plan to go along with it for 200MB a month. I tend to be near a wifi connection most of the time, which I'm basically pretty sure my blackberry is connecting to instead of the 3G data network.

But now AT&T is reporting that I've been sending 3K of data every couple of hours-- including 7:00 this morning when I was not awake and as far as I'm aware no apps were running in the background.

Now I doubt this is going to cause me to go over 200 megs a month, but I'm still wondering wtf is sending this data out. Does the Blackberry just automatically poll the data network and then charge me for it? Is there some way to track how much of my data I'm spending and what programs are doing it?

bhlaab fucked around with this message at 01:51 on May 22, 2011

# ? May 22, 2011 01:48

teethgrinder: Oct 9, 2002

I can't remember if I've mentioned this before, but I have to recommend Instamapper/GPS Tracker: http://www.instamapper.com/

If I'm going biking or taking pictures, I turn on the GPS Tracker app and just throw my 9000 back into my pocket. The data can then be exported from the website in standard GPX format. I use it to track my biking performance with Strava and automatically geotag my photos with a Lightroom plug-in.

It's all of 32.5 KB too, by far the smallest app I've ever downloaded on here.

# ? May 23, 2011 16:15

Das Volk: Nov 19, 2002; by Cyrano4747

I stopped using my blackberry on Verizon in favor of a Droid device recently. Can I give my wife my old BB and have it run on Metro PCS? It looks like they're CDMA but I can't determine if they're compatible or not.

# ? May 23, 2011 19:52

TITTIEKISSER69: Mar 19, 2005; SAVE THE BEES
PLANT MORE TREES
CLEAN THE SEAS
KISS TITTIESS

What happens to your BB email address if you start using a non-BB phone? Can BB email be checked on e.g. an Android phone? Also, what if you switch carriers?

# ? May 23, 2011 20:43

Duckman2008: Jan 6, 2010; TFW you see Flyers goaltending.; Grimey Drawer

Das Volk posted:

I stopped using my blackberry on Verizon in favor of a Droid device recently. Can I give my wife my old BB and have it run on Metro PCS? It looks like they're CDMA but I can't determine if they're compatible or not.

You'll have to have someone flash it. Be very careful, mostly because its really hard to get internet running on a Blackberry when flashing. You should be able to get voice and texting. Not sure if Metro does roaming (i worked for Cricket), but usually flashed phones have a hard time with it.

Could be worth it, just bear in mind there is a risk of glitches or problems with any flashed phone. I'm sure Metro will take it.

# ? May 24, 2011 18:04

JohnnyCanuck: May 28, 2004; Strong And/Or Free

Scaramouche posted:

I am on BESx, but I'm the Admin and I didn't ever set such a policy. I'm at home now and can't be arsed to log into check, do you know if it's applied by default?

Yeah, there's a deafult. I found this BES KB article that should help:

http://www.blackberry.com/btsc/KB17318

quote:

BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0

Open the BlackBerry Administration web site.
On the left pane, under BlackBerry Solution topology, expand the BlackBerry Domain menu.
Under the Component View, expand the MDS Connection Service, and then click the name of the MDS-CS service.
On the right pane, click General.
In the General section, select Edit Instances at the bottom of the page.
Change the Maximum data amount permitted per connection (KB) field from the default of 1024kb to a value greater than the size of the page that is being requested.
At the bottom of the page, click Save all.
Restart the BlackBerry MDS Connection Service to enable the settings to take effect.

# ? May 24, 2011 19:16

synthoric: Mar 8, 2009

I think I must have accidentally deleted a text message chat conversation.

Is it possible to recover just that one chat from backup?

# ? May 26, 2011 13:02

Scaramouche: Mar 26, 2001; SPACE FACE! SPACE FACE!

JohnnyCanuck posted:

Yeah, there's a deafult. I found this BES KB article that should help:

http://www.blackberry.com/btsc/KB17318

Thanks, changed the setting, resent the policy and it's working now. I still need to use Bolt for video sites like Ustream et al but I actually like the default browser (in OS6 mind you) better anyway.

Just a general comment, but man it seems like everything is updating lately. I had 5 App Center upgrade notifications today. Weird thing is App Center disappeared from my all list after the last update.

# ? May 27, 2011 20:28

JohnnyCanuck: May 28, 2004; Strong And/Or Free

...And now I'm having an issue where I can't update one of my apps. BeBuzz has an update, but every time I try to grab it from App World, it tells me that the app "is not available for download from BlackBerry App World".

Oddly enough, I was able to update other apps (Weather Eye) just fine. I've tried updating App World and running battery pulls, but no luck.

# ? May 27, 2011 21:42

Corrupt Cypher: Jul 20, 2006

Hey guys, I'm finally upgrading my ericcson 810i. I'm not looking for a super high featured phone, really just email and some minor browsing/reader capabilities. I'd love to wait for the new Bold Touch but based on there being no release date and work pressuring me to get a new one I think I'm just gonna upgrade now. So, the question is: should I get a Torch of the current Bold? Have you guys found your Torches are holding up well and the battery life is okay? Or since it's just for business should I go with the standard brick bold?

# ? May 28, 2011 18:45

chocolateTHUNDER: Jul 19, 2008; GIVE ME ALL YOUR FREE AGENTS

ALL OF THEM

Corrupt Cypher posted:

Hey guys, I'm finally upgrading my ericcson 810i. I'm not looking for a super high featured phone, really just email and some minor browsing/reader capabilities. I'd love to wait for the new Bold Touch but based on there being no release date and work pressuring me to get a new one I think I'm just gonna upgrade now. So, the question is: should I get a Torch of the current Bold? Have you guys found your Torches are holding up well and the battery life is okay? Or since it's just for business should I go with the standard brick bold?

If you really have/want to go blackberry, just get the current Bold. It's got a decent webkit web browser on it and the battery life is great according to my two friends who have them.

# ? May 29, 2011 02:19

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# ? May 14, 2024 22:56

Scaramouche: Mar 26, 2001; SPACE FACE! SPACE FACE!

My BESx environment supports Torches and Bolds so I've had some hands on with both (currently have a Bold). If it doesn't matter in the end (e.g. you're not paying for it) I'd go with the Torch just for the bigger screen. Both phones are internet enabled enough to do a lot, but I sometimes wish the screen was just that little bit bigger on my Bold. That said it's efficient for email, very simplistic browsing, social media, music plaery, etc., but that extra screen real estate would be nice for videos and photos.

The Torch touchscreen is a non-starter really for me because I hate virtual keyboards, but it has a slideout for the real keyboard. The only downside there is that it gets to be a bit of a handful fully deployed; I have large hands (1.5 octave span) so it doesn't bother me, but it might others.

That said, the current generation bolds (up to 9780) and torches are apparently being orphaned in regards to OS updates anyway (http://www.gsmarena.com/blackberry_os_7_announced_old_devices_not_supported-news-2590.php), which makes the wait for the Bold Touches that much more compelling.

Again if I had to choose 'right now' with price not being a factor it'd probably be the Torch (well it'd actually probably be an android phone but that's another matter). However keep in mind that either of them right now won't get the OS upgrade.

If price is a factor, the Bold is a really good, relatively feature rich phone whose only real sacrifice is the smaller screen size (assuming you get the Bold 9780 with extra RAM).

# ? May 31, 2011 02:00

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > The BlackBerry Thread: Hello? Is anyone here???

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