I think I’ve found it…

My Photoshop skills are legendary!

Here are the things that I want – no one platform covers them all, so I’ve nicked the best bits from each.

Blackberry

Here’s what BlackBerry provides that is missing on other phones.

Physical Keyboard

This is the big one. I’ve tried all of the touchscreen keyboards out there – nothing comes close to the physical click of keys.

I’m aware of a few Androids which have a keyboard – but they tend to be older models or underpowered and aimed at the teenage text market.
The Dell WP7 phone has a keyboard, but appears to have been abandoned by Dell.

Start up speed.

You never really switch a BB off, it just sleeps. That gives it a phenomenal start-up speed. When you shut it down, it also tells you when it’s planning to wake up – either due to an alarm, calendar, or because you set an “auto on” timer.

WP7 does have a very fast boot time – much speedier than that of Android. But there’s no auto-on / auto-off feature.

Deep Twitter Integration

I can’t believe no other phone has this. If I receive an email which contains a hashtag or @name, I can click on it and my Twitter client opens up. Same in calendar, documents, and (ISTR) web pages. Even if the text isn’t linked it was clickable.

Spell Cheque & Auto Text

Spell checking is available on WP7 – but not to the same degree as BlackBerry. The auto-text feature on BB is brilliant, I can type a short code and text is automatically filled.

• dt – prints the current time & date, perfect for note taking
• sig – prints my standard contact details
• ht – (one I created) prints the hashtag of the event I’m following

Android

Android is my main device. It’s not without its deficiencies – but here are the bits I wish others would copy.

Time of Day Email

Perhaps the best feature of the Samsung Galaxy S – and not something I’ve seen elsewhere. I can set a peak and off-peak schedule for my work email.

At 1800 during the week I stop getting work email – and it all comes through at 0800 the next morning. During the weekend, I get no work email. This is one of the major features which keeps me on Android.

FLAC and OGG

I’ve ripped all my CDs to FLAC. I hate the fact that I have to transcode all my music in order to listen to it on a portable device. All the high end Android phones I’ve tried play FLAC natively.

Open

I like the fact that I’m not tied down by the operating system. If I want to replace the lock screen, the email client, the web browser, I can. And I do.

If the device manufacturer abandons my phone, there’s a huge hacker community who can keep it running.

WP7

I’ve not had the greatest success with a Windows Phone – but there are some elements that I love.

Interface

The Metro Interface is amazing. It’s fast and fluid and generally really well laid out.

Camera

I found the camera to be very responsive – both at focussing and snapping. The integrated QR scanner was also a cut above the rest.

iOS

Media hype / Coolness

It’s a little depressing that all the media and developer attention is focussed on a minority platform like iPhone. Just for once, I’d like a cool game like Whale Trail to come out first on something other than iOS.

Misc

• Lanyard hook. Ever since smashing my BlackBerry, I’ve worn a lanyard strap.
• Front facing camera. I’m the only one I know who likes video calling.
• Trackpad. Even the best touch screen can’t get the fine grained accuracy of a touch pad.
• Removable storage. I like being able to choose how much I carry with me.
• Mass storage. I’m not always at a computer where I can install “media transfer” software. I just want to be able to plug in a USB lead and copy what I need.
• Call recording. Must admit – never had a phone that can easily do this. Always wanted it though!
• Removable battery. When the going gets tough, I don’t want to have to be chained to a wall-wart. The ability to buy higher capacity batteries is also handy.

What Hath Thou Wrought?

Essentially, I’ve created Homer’s Car – a monstrosity no one other than me could love.

So, tell me what would be in your perfect phone?

In early March 2010, my beloved BlackBerry Bold took a tumble out of a cab and died. I’ve been an Android man ever since. Magic, Hero, Nexus, Galaxy – all great phones, but none could hold a candle to the ‘berry.

Or so I thought.

A Torch In The Night

A good friend of mine – who updates his phones as frequently as I do – offered me his discarded BlackBerry Torch. How could I refuse a chance to get back to a real phone?

The main thing that was bothering me about Android was the lack of a physical keyboard and the general instability of the platform and radio software.

The Torch is a phenomenal BlackBerry. The action on the slider is exquisite. The keyboard is a joy to pound away on. The email and calendaring are rock solid with a powerful and practical UI. The browser has improved immeasurably. The range of apps is much broader than a year ago – and includes the all important trifecta of Foursquare, Dropbox, and Expensify.

And I hate it.

Everything That’s Wrong With The BlackBerry

There are some minor niggles – that’s fine – you get them with every phone. But the Torch has some fundamental flaws which, in my opinion make it unsuitable for day-to-day use. They are as follows.

The Price

The handset itself isn’t particularly pricey compared to other smartphones – but the cost of extra services is extortionate.
For the first day, I couldn’t work out why I wasn’t able to get any email – then I realised, you have to buy a special BlackBerry data plan in order to get email and Twitter. What the…?

I just don’t get it. Ok, it’s only an extra fiver a month but… for what? My Android and Symbian devices don’t need a magic data plan. The Sainted iPhone has many precious qualities – but it doesn’t care what price plan it is on. Data is data is data! Why is BlackBerry any different?

Then, I realised that I couldn’t get my work email through. This hadn’t been a problem on Android – I just clicked on “Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync” on the device and my Calendar and Email were all set. Want that on a BlackBerry? That’ll be an extra £28 per month.

WHAT THE JUDDERING FUCK?

I understand that BlackBerrys use some weird VooDoo to connect to the Interwebs and have mail sent to them faster than a speeding bullet. But is it necessary to spend an extra £336 a year on them? No.

The Restarts

It seems every time I uninstall an app, or add an email account my phone wants me to reboot. The BlackBerry is famed for having a “suspend” function – when you switch it off, it just goes to sleep and can be woken instantly. Something Android would do well to copy.
But for cold restarts, it takes a bloody age.
What makes it worse, is that official advice after provisioning the service is to pull the battery out, wait a minute and put it back in again. It’s not the easiest thing in the world to pull a battery out of a handset on a crowded train.
I’m not the biggest fan of Apple – but they’ve got some things right. If your platform needs constant reboots – you’ve failed. If your hardware regularly had to be disassembled – you’ve failed.

Data Connectivity

Network coverage is always variable – that’s a given. But BlackBerry adds another complication into the mix. Sometimes I can have perfect data reception and still not get any email! Why? Because the phone has lost connection to the BlackBerry mothership.

I don’t know if this is the fault of my network provider, the BlackBerry servers, or the handset. I don’t much care. It doesn’t work.

Again, I don’t have this problem with any of my other phones.

This is coupled with the radio’s obsession with 2G. I can be in an area of perfect 3G coverage and the radio will still lock on to 2G. Restarting the radio usually wakes it up and it can find 3G – but I’m reliant on speed; I can’t spend my life in the radio settings menu.

OS6.0 and Speed

I’ve been using BlackBerrys since the black and white days. I’m now running the very latest 6.0.0.448.

Despite the marketing hype, there’s no practical difference between OS6 and OS5. The kinetic scrolling is adequate – but slow. The browser renders better – but is slow. App world has more functionality – but is slow. The range of apps is great – but they take ages to start up. The camera has more mega-pixels and a bunch of great focus modes – but it’s slow to start, slow to focus, and slow to take pictures.

Slow slow slow slow slow slow slow! Both BlackBerry maps and Google Maps wheeze through the motions like they’re about to collapse at any moment. That’s assuming the (slow) GPS has locked onto anything even vaguely resembling a signal.

I get that this isn’t a multi-gigahetrz device. But it crawls along like an old Nokia.

I think the comparison is apt. BBOS is, now, as out-dated as Symbian and just not fit for the modern age. While I hope RIM don’t got down the WP7 route – they need to move their next generation of handsets to their QNX platform. The BlackBerry OS is highly practical – unless you want to work with any sort of speed.

Minor Niggles

Those are the big ticket items. The ones which ensure that on Monday I’ll be on the search for a new phone. Here are the minor annoyances.

Screen

The screen isn’t AMOLED. After spending a few months with an AMOLED screen, there really is no going back. Blacks and blacker, colours are more vivid, they’re easier to read in sunlight, and they dim down to a level that’s easy to read in the dark.

Key Proximity

The “answer” and “BlackBerry” keys are on the same plastic button.

It’s one of those design flaws which really grates after a while. A simple dividing line would make unsighted use of the buttons so much easier

On-Screen Keyboard

The letters on the OSK don’t change chase when you hit the shift key. That’s really annoying. Added to the fact that the OSK just isn’t as precise as other keyboards really lets the phone down.

Contact Synchronisation

I’m not sure if this is the fault of Almighty Google – or RIM, but when I sync my contacts, their photos don’t come across.
I’ve got a dreadful memory, so I’ve spend ages making sure each of my contacts has an image associated with them. Compare and contrast…

Pre-Installed Crap

Bloatware has always been a problem on mobiles. The annoying pre-installed software which you can’t delete. BlackBerry is better than most, in that it will allow you to delete some of the crap – but not all.

Most annoying is the podcast app – mostly because it doesn’t work in the UK. Why pre-install something that won’t work? More to the point, why is a simple podcast downloader region locked?

A special mention to Vodafone UK for continually pushing out service books for the (discontinuted) Vodafone 360 service, and the non-working Poynt service – even in the face of hostile customer feedback.

The Good

There are a few great points about the BlackBerry that make me sorry to see it go.

• The battery is stonkingly good. I got through a whole day of surfing, emailing (on 2G) and the battery was still at 45%. On Android I’m lucky if I get to lunchtime with half my battery intact.
• The keyboard. I had a play with the HTC Desire Z – it has a fine keyboard – but it’s nothing compared to the ergonomics of the Torch. In addition, the shortcut keys make using the phone a pleasure. Hitting M on the homescreen to go to messages, hitting T in the browser to go the top of the page, etc. Great for power users.
• Auto on-and-off. Useful if, like me, you don’t want your phone waking you up in the night – but do want your emails waiting for you as the alarm goes off. This is tempered by the fact that you can’t suspend email delivery. On my Galaxy, I set a peak schedule so I don’t get work emails interrupting me at the weekend.
• Multiple sound profiles. Again, beats the pants of Android. I can quickly select different ringtone profiles, set custom alerts for different people – even have an emergency call over-ride my silent settings.
• Tabbed Browsing. My Galaxy seems to top out at 4 browser windows, the BlackBerry doesn’t seem to have a limit that I’ve hit.
• BlackBerry Protect. This is an excellent free service which lets you track your device if it has beeen stolen, back up your data, send it messages, and wipe it if needed. Yes, there are apps available on Android, but nothing as comprehensively good as this. The only problem being that it doesn’t work on BES.
  

  BlackBerry Protect

• Finally, a niche example. Hitting ALT+RBVS in the browser brings up the source code of the page. Invaluable for web-nerds like me and not something I’ve ever seen built in to any other phone.

Now What

Paying an extra £28 per month for a device which is no quicker at receiving email than my Android? No thanks.
When RIM rejoins the real world and realises that it doesn’t own the push email market any more – and can’t charge like it’s the only game in town – I’ll be back.

For now, it’s off to find a phone with a great physical keyboard and good battery life.

The Windows Phone 7 Dell Venue Pro?

The Android Motorola Pro?

I don’t know yet – but at the moment, the BlackBerry platform has lost its way – and I’m not making any more compromises when it comes to my phone.

Feel free to use these as templates – but please remember to change the QR Code!

BlackBerry Torch

Windows Phone 7

(I think this is a little too wide – still came out well)

This has been a really tough NaBloPoMo for me. Work has been frantic – meaning that my lunchtime blogging has been restricted to a quick bit of copy editing. I’ve also had some wonderful new toys to play with – which has distracted my attention.

But the biggest problem? My Android phone. Don’t get me wrong, I love Android – but for typing, it’s nowhere nearly as good as my BlackBerry was. I spend a lot of my time on trains, so I’m used to being able to bash out a fairly lengthy post or email. That’s just not possible on my Nexus One.

There are three major problems with the Android’s onscreen keyboard.

• It takes up so much room, you can only see two lines of text. Annoying if you’re writing a long document.
• The accuracy is very hit and miss. It’s no worse than other onscreen keyboards – but it’s just not as good as a physical keyboard.
• The auto-correct feature is pretty good – but I miss the BlackBerry’s integrated spell cheque.

The general consensus on Twitter seems to be that the HTC Desire Z is the best Android phone touting a real keyboard.

I’ve yet to try it – but the keys look similar to the awful N97 “dead flesh” keyboard.

The Motorola Milestone has a better looking keyboard and is a similar price.

I could type around 60WPM on a BlackBerry keyboard – so whichever phone I get needs to be at least as good as RIM’s offering.

With that in mind, I’m also considering going back to BlackBerry – the new Torch 9800 looks incredible.

I’ve been playing on the most recent BlackBerry emulator (something more companies should provide) and it really could be the phone for me. Touchscreen for quick use, keyboard for long messages, I know the email and calendaring options are better than Android. But will I find OS6 too restrictive after the freedom of Android?

There’s also Windows Phone 7 to consider. I really like what I’ve seen of WP7 – but there aren’t any phone with keyboards available in the UK. Both the Dell Venue Pro and the LG Optimus 7Q may make it over here – but there are no timelines.

Finally, there’s the BlueTooth keyboard accessory. Amazon have Mini Bluetooth Keyboards from £15 – although some of the high end ones go for ten times that.

It would mean carrying yet another gadget – to go with the phone, solar charger, video glasses, Kindle and whatever else I have on my person – but could it bridge the gap? I find that I can’t type for very long on a laptop keyboard. The only device I’m comfortable typing on with all 10 fingers is a Microsoft 4000 Ergonomic (although I’d love to give a Maltron a try even if they are a bit pricey though). Would a BlueTooth keyboard be as easy to type on?

So, which phone would you go for if you needed to do extended bouts of typing or blogging?

Orange

Take a look at the latest offering from Orange – a large UK mobile network operator.

Orange Advert on Guardian

Spot it? It’s the microscopic banner hidden away on the mobile site of the Guardian newspaper.

The advertiser has little choice in the poor placement. And it’s not their fault if the Guardian has resized it. Let’s take a look at the full size animated GIF.

Orange Advert

Ah.

Still, I’m sure the rewards for the eager-eyed viewer are magnificent….

Orange Badvert - click to embiggen

Not so much.

The potential customer is presented with a poorly resized image. The only link at the bottom takes them to a seemingly identical page.

Orange Badvert 2 - Click to embiggen

What Else Does It Do?

So, let’s look at the purchase experience.

Oh, there isn’t one. No nearest store finder. No mobile YouTube video showing off the phones. No click to call so you can buy one right now.

Nothing.

To recap, a tiny banner takes you to a poster. That’s it. No though has been given to the unique opportunities that mobile affords. There’s no way to convert an interested browser into a paying customer. If we’re being honest, there’s not really enough information in this microsite to justify an advert.

It is small, feeble and pointless.

Lessons To Learn

Ensure that your advertising assets are available n a variety of screen sizes. Small adverts are hard to click on. Worse still, they may be completely ignored.

If you can’t resize your images, unplug your computer and go home.

Think about what you want to achieve from the advert.
Are you trying to increase sales? Give the potential customer a direct route to purchase from you.
Are you trying to excite or interest potential customers? Provide enough interesting information. This isn’t print. You’re not limited by page size – only by your imagination.

Take advantage of the medium.  Mobile is so much more useful than print.  Orange seem stuck in the mindset that a single image is all an advert needs to be.

Message To Orange

You’re a mobile company.  Make your adverts reflect that.  You should be promoting excellence – not mediocrity.

Getting my contacts from BlackBerry to Google was simple. I exported a VCF of all my contacts from Outlook and imported them to Google. Simplicity. Everything worked. Syncing back to Android was easy – input Google account and password and hey-presto. But that’s where it all broke down.

The address seems to be stored correctly. Right?

Wrong!

When we go in to edit, rather than “Address”, “City”, “Postcode” fields – Google just gives us a plain text field.

What Happens In Android?

At first glance, everything looks correctly formatted. But let’s go in and see how the data is represented within the address book.

As you can see – everything is represented on just one line.

We can edit it correctly on the phone to look like this.

Well, that’s a bit off effort (especially with over 500 contacts).

How does it look back at Google Contacts on the web?

Recap

It’s the year 2010. We can’t even synchronise addresses correctly without mangling them along the way. I sometimes think it would be easier to outsource my address book to Indian and have minimum wage labour ensure all entries are correct and up-to-date.

Dead BlackBerry

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Due to a crazy taxi driver (are there any other kind) and a violent swerve, my BlackBerry Bold 9000 is no more. Bereft of life, it rusts in pieces, and other such Pythonesque metaphors.

Arse. I truly feel like I’m missing an extension to my body. There’s a symbiotic relationship which develops between a geek and his phone. It entertains me, informs me, keeps me on time and allows me to rapidly communicate with a variety of methods. In return, I feed it electricity, load it up with useful programs, decorate its skin and snuggle up to it.

I miss it so much.

Every Cloud…

Now’s a prime time to choose a new smartphone. So many new models on the market. Which to go for?

What I look for in a mobile

I’ve had many many phones. Some wonderful (Treo 180) some dire (Apple iPhone). I know exactly what I want and what I need.  For a device that I use several times an hour every single day, I don’t want to compromise on any aspect.  Perfection is what I demand.  So, what was it that made the BlackBerry Bold the perfect phone for me?

• Physical keyboard.  I do a lot of typing on the device.  I’ve used soft keyboards (Android, iPhone, Storm) and they just don’t do it for me.  Even with the haptic feedback, it’s just not the same for speedy typing.  I liked handwriting recognition on the Treo 180 and the Nokia N97 – but in terms of speed & accuracy a physical keyboard is a must.  More than that, it needs to be a good keyboard.  The keyboard on the N97 is dreadful – it feels like a cheap calculator.  The N810 has an awful layout and virtually no travel on the button push. I need raised keys and to feel a click so I can touch-type.
• Exchange integration.  I use my device for work.  Things which I regularly use my ‘berry for are were: email and calendar sync’d over the air.  Address lookup – if I meet Jo Blogs at work, I can type her name in to the address book and look up her email, phone number, address etc (if she’s in the corporate address book).
• The BlackBerry Enterprise messenger is also really useful.  I don’t use IM for personal use much any more – but work runs on it.  Sadly it’s basaed on Microsoft Office Communicator rather than anything open or useful.
• Quick start-up.  When you shut down a BlackBerry, it effectively goes into “suspend” mode.  I switch it on first thing in the morning and it’s on and receiving email instantly.
• Auto on-off.  At 2300 every weekday, my phone shuts down. So if I’ve forgotten to switch it off, I don’t get disturbed during the night.  At 0700 it wakes up and gets to work.
• Multiple email accounts.  I want to reply from 1 enterprise and 2 personal accounts.
• USB interface for charging.  Batter life isn’t massivly important and I’m never away from a power socket for a few hours.
• Compatible with Linux for charging, reading files, tethering.
• Speed dial, form factor, excellent hierarchical bookmarks structure.
• GPS & Mapping.
• Good browser.  I like the modern RIM browser – I know they’re moving to Webkit, but I don’t find the current one so bad.

Well, so far it looks like I’m going for a BlackBerry. Right.  Not quite.

What I hate about BlackBerry

• No front-facing-camera.  I like video calling. I’m the only one in the UK who does, apparently.  But with more 3G phones coming on to the market, I’m hopeful that more people will come round to it.
• Lack of updates.  It seems to take ages for any new developments to come out of RIM.  I understand why – you can’t fiddle around too much with business critical devices – but I like shiny new features.
• Speed. Perhaps it’s running OS 5.0 on the 9000, but everything seems a little sluggish.  I’m very quick with my fingers yet I often feel like the ‘berry isn’t working as fast as I am.  Once you’re running IM, SocialScope, Facebook and Weather at the same time and everything slows to a crawl.
• Camera. I like the flash and the geo-tagging, but the quality of images isn’t wonderful.  No focusing also impacts scanning QR codes.
• Video recording – low quality and sound is often out of sync.
• Calendar – only shows a single calendar. I don’t want my personal appointments on my work calendar.
• Media player. While it plays some .avi files better than Android, it won’t do .ogg or .flac, the interface is sub par.

The Android Intervention

With my dearly departed long gone, I’m reliant on my Android device. An HTC Hero.  It is a stunning device.

• Gorgeous screen, very responsive.
• Browser is good.
• The camera is great although sorely lacking a flash.
• It integrates with Microsoft Exchange reasonably well – although I haven’t got it fully working yet.

But – and there’s always a but…

• HTC. They are very unresponsive to customer queries. No software updates for the Hero, even though they’ve been announced.  Again, I understand the reasoning, but I don’t want to be stuck on Android 2.1 when 3.9 is out.
• Slow start up.  I don’t want to wait 60 seconds for my phone to wake up.
• Lacking in functionality – although it has plenty of add on software, some at cost.
• Lack of keyboard shortcuts.  I rely on these heavily – as described in my comment to The Really Mobile Project.
• Such tie in to the Google Eco-System.  If I ever want to leave Google, I’m not sure how the phone would cope.

Others

I’m big on Linux. Despite the slight disappointment with Nokia’s recent efforts, I’m intrigued by the N900.  I think I’d like to play with it for a day – especially the keyboard given the disaster of the N810 – before comitting.

I’ve tried a 3G iPhone running OS3.0.  It’s a toy and really not suitable for me.

Windows Mobile is… lackluster.  I can’t wait for Windows Phone OS 7.0 Mobile (or whatever they’re calling it today).  Besides, I don’t run Windows on my PCs – I can’t think of a reason to run it on my phones.

What else is out there?  Bada? Doubt Samsung call pull it off.  Pre? I want to like Palm, but it’s restricted to a single device and only on one network. Symbian? Hopefully it will be resurrected but after the disasterous N97 and the abandoned N95, it’s dead to me.

Choices

I think it boils down to three phones.

BlackBerry 9700

Bold 9700

This is the “safe” choice.  It’s the next model up from my smashed 9000.  I know it does everything I want.  I like the idea of replacing the trackball with a touchpad.  Good that it’s got the new standard USB charger, even if I’ll need to buy some new cables.

On the down side, it’s a bit boring.

SonyEricson Experia X10 mini pro / Motorola Milestone / Droid

My Android choice.  Has a keyboard and avoids HTC.  I don’t know how hackable it will be.  Given it’s one of SE’s & Moto’s first forays into Android, I’m concerned about how committed they’ll be to the device.

Would really like an Android with a decent keyboard – there are just so few of them about.

Nokia N900

Nokia N900

The outside choice. I generally love Nokia hardware – but their software sucks.  As innovative as the N810 was, they really dropped the ball in providing updates to their original Maemo software.  I’m slightly wary about how well this will be supported.

The keyboard looks ok, but the oddly placed space bar puts me off, as does the lack of ergonomic consideration.

Your Opinions

I’d love to know what you think.  Which phones rock your world?

This blog is a personal comment and does not represent my employers, Vodafone Group.  Nothing in this blog should be considered an official position on any phone, platform or manufacturer.

NB1: I primarily use SocialScope on my BlackBerry. SocialScope’s terms of use prohibit me from showing screenshots of their beta. Hey, guys, I want to show everyone how great you are!

NB2: Screenshots taken on a BlackBerry 9000 running OS 5.0

First Impressions

I’ve never understood the need for a EULA. They’re long, confusing, boring and a terrible way to make a first impression on your customers.  Twitter for Blackberry has a 30 page monstrosity.

EULA Hell

No one reads them, no one cares, find a better way.

Good

This app really shows off the power of the BlackBerry SDK. It’s a pity that more developers don’t make full use of it.

Tweets show up in your message list….

Message Integration

…and can be opened from there.

Open From Message

Images can be sent directly to TwitPic.

Send To Twitter

Apps like SocialScope and UberTwitter also hook in to the OS so that you can click on any #hastag and @name and be taken directly to that page within the app. I wasn’t able to ascertain whether this functionality was available in this app.

Bad

Limited view space.  At best, you can view 2 tweets at a time before scrolling. That’s not a very efficient use of space.

The Tweets Went In Two By Two

Poor navigation.  You can’t simply scroll left or right to move between pages, you need to scroll all the way to the top, or open the menu.

Navigation

The software also doesn’t remember which tweet you were on before you left.  It always refreshes the timeline and jumps to the top.  This is really annoying and it’s a problem solved in both UberTwitter and SocialScope.

Ugly

Missing loads of features that many users have become accostomed to.

• URL expansion.  bit.ly/fjhgkdfhg means nothing – use their API to expand the URL
• Embed images and media. Show a preview of flickr images, YouTube videos etc.  At the moment, it only appears to do TwitPic.
• No OAuth!  This is partly due to Twitter’s broken mobile OAuth support.
• No autocomplete. SocialScope will show a list of your friends when you type @ to allow you to quickly select them.

Conclusion

This app is amazing… if you’ve never used UberTwitter or SocialScope.  I also found it to be marginally slower than the other apps.

Based on the evidence I’ve accumulated, mobile advertising is subject to a lot of hype and not a lot of professionalism.

Take this example as seen on my BlackBerry 9000.

Flickr iPhone Advert

First off the bat, it gets my phone wrong. It should be using the User Agent to determine which advert to serve.

Well, let’s be a good consumer and click on it any way…

iTunes Web Interface

What the deuce?!

It has taken me to the Desktop version of the iTunes installation page – despite knowing I’m on a mobile!

What Should Have Happened?

• My phone requests the advert.
• Advertising agency serves up a device specific ad.
• I click on the ad.
• The ad server sees my User Agent
• For iPhone, it should automatically redirect me to the App Store
• For BlackBerry / Android / S60  etc, it should automatically redirect me to the native app store
• For everything else, it should automatically redirect me to http://m.flickr.com/

How Can It Go So Wrong?!

I’m making the assumption that this is an advert by flickr.  It may well be an advert by a third-party who have a (chargeable) app for iPhone.

Even if it is the latter – why are they advertising on BlackBerry?  Or, rather, why is their advertising agency wasting their marketing budget by showing an advert on a device which can’t support the content?

Make Sure Your Advert Works

It’s not rocket science.  If people can’t get to your product, they won’t spend money with you.  They’ll also get a negative impression of your brand.

Getting the client was fairly simple, but could be better. Simply visiting http://seesmic.com was enough to bring up a mobile friendly page with download instructions.

However, scrolling down presented this mess.

You simply can’t rely on users to know what make, model or firmware version they have. Use the user-agent string to do as much of the hard work as possible. If a user tries to install an incompatible version, it won’t work and they’ll blame you.

The download itself is a sprightly 172KB and installs very quickly – it also doesn’t require a reboot.

Once you’ve signed in, the main interface is very simple. UberTwitter, for example, presents the user with complex set-up options on the first run. Seesmic gets straight to the action.

Seesmic is entirely menu driven – there are no shortcut keys. UberTwitter allows me to hit R for reply – on Seesmic, I have to delve into the menus. Luckily, they’re short and have obvious names.

Reading a tweet gives the usual option, hashtags and @s are hyperlinked – as are web addresses.

On usability flaw, the cursor is at the top of the screen. A user has to scroll through the “Web” hyperlink before getting to the links within the tweet.

Again, because there are no keyboard shortcuts, everything has to go through the menu.

Searching is problematic.

Pressing enter doesn’t start a search, it inserts a new line.
The search button isn’t the first thing you get to when you scroll down.
While the results are standard, this odd error message kept popping up.

I encountered this error several times.

Writing new tweet has some great usability touches – and some real clunkers.

The closer a user gets to filling the 140 characters, the more red the screen turns.

URLs can be automatically shortened and images can be added. This shows one of the great usability failures of Seesmic.

Rather than use the BlackBerry’s file select utility, it uses its own – and it’s dreadful. Ugly looking, no ability to search, slow, no preview. Overall, a real let-down.

I don’t know why companies often insist on creating their own versions of well established system functions. Especially when they add nothing and remove plenty.

Sending a tweet was continually problematic for me.

Although it eventually relented.

Seesmic also makes great use of notifies, showing you on your home screen how many unread tweets you have.

Overall, Seesmic isn’t a bad client. There are a few rough-around-the-edges bugs and the file selection is atrocious but other than that, it works. Power users like me will miss the shortcut keys of UberTwitter, and UT’s system-wide integration (uploading photos, capturing hashtags in emails etc.).  It lacks other features such as in-line photos, ability to see followers and friends, it also has no way of marking a tweet as a favourite or seeing favourites.

One feature it does have – a first in mobile twitter clients – is the ability to view lists.  You can’t add, edit or create – but you can see the lists you have created or are following.

Conclusion

Seesmic works well enough as a basic twitter client for BlackBerry – but there’s nothing exciting about it.

What’s really annoying is that there’s no automatic propt to tell you there’s new firmware. I wonder how many people out there are cursing their BlackBerry without realising that a simple firmware update will give it a new lease of life.

The process worked more-or-less flawlessly. Just make sure you’re fully charged and prepared to wait an hour.

When it goes wrong, you can come a cropper – take a look at this advert for the BlackBerry.  Somehow a character has crept in to the text which can’t be rendered by the browser.

BlackBerry? Advert?

Immediately, one gets the sense of a poorly tested advert – one which probably goes to a dodgy site. Right? Wrong! Take a look at the page source – it clearly points to the official BlackBerry site.

HTML Source Code

Test, Test and Test Again

I’ve no idea what character is meant to be represented in that advert. But I know that the error should have been caught in testing.

• Test your advert to see if it works.
• Test your advert to see if it displays properly.
• Test your advert on multiple handsets.
• Test your advert in multiple browsers.
• Test your advert on devices which use a different language or character set.
• Test your advert before and after setting it live.
• Test your advert to make sure the ad-network isn’t mangling it.

Like Bronzey or Silvery – But Made of Iron

The handset I used to test this was a BlackBerry.  Do you want to see what happens when you click on the link? Do you?

What A Mess

Yes, the site is the BlackBerry Pearl product page. The desktop version.  The version that the BlackBerry can’t render properly.

Just in case it’s not obvious, I’ll spell it out for you.

• A mobile advert should point to a mobile-friendly site.
• If you’re a huge, multi-national company who manufactures mobile phones, make sure your website has a mobile friendly version.
• Test your adverts on your product.

These mistakes aren’t acceptable. For a company of RIM’s size, it beggars beleif that this advert was approved without any apparent testing.

The regular BlackBerry browser is… how can I put this politely… sub-optimal. For reading mobile-friendly sites it’s perfectly adequate – but for anything more complex it tends to choke.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s “good enough” for most basic browsing needs, but a lack of tabs, half-arsed JavaScript implementation and idiosyncratic rendering choices make for a somewhat frustrating browsing experience.

Enter Opera Mini 5 (beta).  Opera has been knocking around for ages. Their desktop browser is solid and their mobile browser has always been rated highly. But how does it compare to the BlackBerry’s native browser? Let’s find out!

The Good

Opera Mini 5 beta

From the first launch you can tell that a lot of care an attention has gone in to Opera Mini. The startup screen has visual bookmarks – AKA speed-dials.

Start Page

There’s an impressive amount of animation – similar to App World – and the user interface is fairly snappy.

The new menu bar gives quick access to all the functions Opera has to offer.

New Menu Bar

Extended Menu Bar

Pages start in “Zoomed Out” mode so you can get an overview of the page.

BBC News - Zoomed Out

A click of the track ball zooms in. Here you can see how well the text and images are rendered.

Zoomed In

Tabbed Browsing

Opera Mini handles tabs wonderfully. Because Opera sets itself as the default browser – any link you click on in an email is opened in a new tab in Opera.

Lots of tabs

Closing Tabs

Text Selection

The native browser is very good at text selection – so is Opera.

Text Selection

Text Selection Instructions

Highlighted Text

Copy and Search

The Bad

Missing Letters

As you can see, there is a missing letter on this page.

Spot The Missing Letters

This happens across websites with no seeming pattern other than the last letter on a line.

No YouTube

The native BlackBerry browser passes YouTube links to the media player.

YouTube? What's That?

Opera doesn’t do anything with the links. I didn’t expect it to have a fully-fledge flash player – but the least it could do is pass streaming media to the in built application that will handle it.

Poor Text Entry

The text boxes look nice, but have serious flaws.

Poor Text Entry

They don’t respect the normal BlackBery conventions. There’s no auto-correction, holding down a letter doesn’t capitalise it. Sometimes hitting delete removes all the text. This is infuriating.

Miscellaneous

There are a collection of things which prevent me loving Opera Mini 5 (Beta).

• Lack of standard BlackBerry keyboard shortcuts.  I can’t press K for Bookmarks, P for Page Address, nor T to jump to the Top of the page.
• Inability to send links.  If I’m reading an interesting page on the BlackBerry browser, I can send it via email or SMS – no way to do that with Opera.
• Can’t open links in a new tab. I know it’s a bit churlish to complain when tabs are a new feature.
• Clicking “Back” returns you to the top of the previous page – not you last position on the previous page.

Conclusion

There are some annoying faults in Opera Mini 5 (beta) – but the clue is in the name – it’s a beta.  The browsing experience is so good, I can gloss over the missing letters and the poor text entry.

The fast rendering and tabbed browsing are enough to keep me using it for now.   Looks like RIM purchased Torch Mobile just in time!

Back then I concluded that Dabr wasn’t quite up to snuff – how wrong I was! In the last year it has come on leaps and bounds. I’ve even contributed a few suggestions and lines of code.

Without a doubt, Dabr is the best general mobile web client for Twitter.

As my main device is a BlackBerry, I wanted something that integrated a little better. The Facebook app hooks in with email, calendar and even adds profile pictures to the address book. Is there anything similar for Twitter?

Enter ÜberTwitter - the finest client for the BlackBerry that I’ve used. Here are the reasons why…

Top posting

Top Posting and Reply Highlighting

Every web client I’ve found imposes the wrong reading order! Take a look:

Alice: Oh, I see!
Bob: Because it makes it hard to follow a conversation.
Alice: Why?
Bob: No.
Alice: Is top posting a good idea?

Previously, whenever I loaded up twitter, I was faced with the newest tweets first. This means coming in at the wrong end of the conversation. Although hard to show in screenshots, ÜberTwitter overcomes this by keeping the cursor on your last read tweet and loading the others above it. So you scroll up to read in the correct order!

Feature Request

I’d rather scroll down – or have the option of reversing the reading order. English speakers read top to bottom.

GPS Integration

GPS Integration

You can add your location in real time. This is also useful for searching nearby.

Seach using location

Picture Integration

Image Thumbnail

Full size images

This is something which Dabr also does very well.  If a tweet contains a link to a picture, you can see the picture inline.

Sending Pictures

Upload pictures from the gallery

Again, Dabr allows similar functionality by posting via twitpic.  But because ÜberTwitter is an application, it hooks in to the OS to allow you to post straight from your photo gallery.

#HashTag Integration

Hashtags in Facebook

Hashtag search

When you have a hashtag in a non-twitter message, you can click it. I’m not sure if this applies only to the Facebook app.

Others

I don’t intend to comment on every aspect, so here are some representative screenshots.

Trending Topics

Take a picture from within the client

Detailed follower information

Counts character usages and alerts when you're over the limit

Conclusion

This may be a beta product, but it is much better than most *shipping* software!
There are some minor niggles (can’t block or unblock, no alerts on new replies or new messages) but it is otherwise complete.

If you’ve got a BlackBerry, you owe it to yourself to get ÜberTwitter.

You can grab it by pointing your ‘Berry at http://blackberry.mobi/appworld.

First off, it’s very good looking. A good layout showing featured apps. Underneath are links to Categories, Top Downloads, Search, and My World (where you can see what you’ve downloaded)

There’s a fairly large selection of applications already available – not as many as iPhone, but this is a lot newer. The applications have a more professional feel. There are a few “fart” apps – but not the hundred which clog up Apple and Android.

The Top Downloads section is well arranged

Interestingly, RIM have chosen PayPal to handle the billing. This means they don’t need to do deals with carriers or set up their own payment gateway. I can’t help but wonder how much they will have to give away on each transaction and how many people will be turned off after suffering PayPal’s lousy customer service.

A note to Apple – you don’t need to sign up to PayPal in order to download free apps. Take the hint!

Again, a well arranged My World section allows a user to send in reviews for the apps.

The recommend functionality is well integrated.

If you have AppWorld installed, your ‘Berry will recognise the link and attempt to open it in the AppWorld, rather than the browser.

This is where it starts to go wrong. If you try to open the link in the web browser, you don’t get taken to a mobile friendly page. This is simply inexcusable.

Overall, this is a really solid offering from RIM. They’ve taken their time and come up with a quality product. Very interesting to note that while there are some free and sub-$9.99 applications, there are some apps ranging from $49.99 to $200. Wow. These apps are obviously targeting business users who haven’t quite get their head around the credit crunch yet.

Only two things spoil the party.
1) Pricing is in USD – there doesn’t seem to be an option for GBP or CAD (the AppWorld is currently only available in US, Canada and UK).

2) I made it crash

While a loading screen is running, hit the BB button, then select “Read Reviews”.
The crash is nothing too serious, but it does point to a little lack of testing.

Very impressive RIM, let’s see how it evolves.

.tel is yet another top level domain to go with all those other highly profitablepopular ones. You know, like .biz, .museum, .info, etc.

This domain is different – this domain is single purpose. .tel’s raison d’être is to abolish the business card. No more handing over little cardboard oblongs, in the glorious future, we’ll just say

“Visit aitch-tee-tee-pee colon slash-slash edent dot tell… No… Tell. It’s spelled TEA-EE-EL. Yes. Just one EL. No, I don’t know why. Here, let me write it down for you on a little cardboard oblong…”

So, as you’ve guessed, I’m not the world’s biggest fan. But I was “lucky” enough to win a free domain courtesy of TelReg. As I’m a freebie customer, I don’t think it’s fair of me to critique them in any way – but I’m sure going to critique the whole .tel idea.

First of all, why not take a look at the site. edent.tel. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

Yeuch! What a dull looking site. There is, at the moment, no way to customise the look and feel, I can’t even add my picture (not that it would make the site look much better…). I can, however, add some very limited information.

Now, I’m not a professional usability expert – but even I can point out the dull text, the huge dead space, the reliance on scrolling. Yeuch.

To make matters worse, there is a mobile version of this page. Seeing as most of the people to whom I’d give a business card will have a mobile phone, this makes sense. Let’s take a look at it in two popular phones.

iPhone 3G.

BlackBerry Bold (9000).

Yeuch! Again, no panache, no style. Just dull dull dull text. You’d think that the .VCARD link would be the top link, wouldn’t you? That would be a basic usability feature. But no.

As an aside, the iPhone can’t even download the .VCARD. This is the fault of Apple.

But the .tel people shouldn’t even offer a link to a phone they know can’t support it.

Anyway. As I’ve said, I’ve got this free for a year. A few hours in and I can’t see myself renewing it. If .tel can improve some of their basic flaws and improve their customer perception, I might reconsider.

I sort of like the idea. But I prefer SyncML sites. Take ZYB – (owned by Vodafone, who own me. Yes, I am biased) – if I give you my ZYB address, and we connect, whenever I change my address or telephone number it is automatically updated on your phone. Smart. And also pretty. Two things that .tel is not.

This is a quick review of some of the mobile Twitter interfaces and how well they work on the BlackBerry. I’m just looking at mobile web interfaces (for now).

Mobile Twitter

First off – the official mobile Twitter interface – http://m.twitter.com

It’s fairly plain and uninteresting. At the bottom of the screen, we see a few options.

You can even perform basic follow / unfollow activity.

At first glance, it seems ok. Most of the basic functionality is there. If all you want to do is read your stream and post – it’s fine.

But! Thanks to the Twitter API, there are a plethora of different interfaces.

Slandr

Let’s look at Slandr.

Wow! Straight away we can see the difference. Avatars are displayed – as are adverts – and there’s a whole heap of extra functionality. Those icons beside a person’s name are “reply”, “Direct Message”, “Favourite” and “Retweet”. It really saves the wear and tear on the thumbs to have quick access to those functions.
There’s even more at the bottom.

Conspicuous by its absence on the official interface is “Replies”. Slandr quickly gives you access to any messages you’ve been sent – either directly or in your friend stream.

There’s also a wicked search page.

The only problem with it, is that you cannot bookmark your searches. So, if you’re following a particular subject of hashtag, you’re out of luck. You’ll also notice that hashtags aren’t clickable.

Twitstat Mobile

Twitstat is a great site for gathering stats about your twittering. Their mobile interface is also pretty good.

It’s clean and well spaced. Although you may see fewer tweets at once, it’s much easier to read than other interfaces.

The little icons allow you to favourite, reply and – oddly – “LOL” someone. Disappointingly, they rely on JavaScript. I keep JS switched off on my BlackBerry for performance reasons.

On to the features that make Twitstat stand out.
Reply highlighting. When scrolling through a load of tweets, it’s easy to miss ones directed at you. Twitstat helpfully colours the tweets to make them stand out.

The “ego” link will return all the tweets that feature your name.

Hashtags are clickable and can be bookmarked.

Anyone who follows twitstat, will have generated for them some details about their tweeting.

I post a lot about beer…

Not only will Twitstat expand some links run through URL shortening services, it will also place flickr pictures in-line.

This is probably the most useful aspect. It’s so annoying to have to click through to find out what someone thinks is cool. Much better to see the full URL so that I can determine if it’s a link I want to visit, if I’ve seen it before or
if it’s BlackBerry friendly.

Dabr

Finally, on to dabr.

Lots of options – but the screen is quite cluttered. Again, it has the ability to reply, DM, favourite and retweet.

The basic search functionality is good. It allows bookmarking.

Hashtags are also clickable.

Profile pages allow you to see followers, which is a nice touch.

It does have a couple of bugs. The input field isn’t limited to 140 characters. This means you don’t get notified if your tweet is too long. It also claims to do reply colouring – but I can’t see any colouring in the BlackBerry browser.

Conclusion

All of the alternatives are better than the standard m.twitter.com interface. I find myself using Twitstat for reading and searching – but as it doesn’t allow me to follow new users, I flick back to Slandr quite a bit. Twitstat has cooler features, but Slandr is more useable. Dabr is fine – but it doesn’t have anything to make it stand out from the others.

Geek Stuff

These device used was a BlackBerry 8800, running firmware 4.5.0.37. The screenshots were taken using JL_Cmder.