"Pleasure to use" is still only a comparitive term, however.  Even the
excellent browsing experience on the iPhone proves that browsing for
anything but basic information is a chore on 4" screen regardless of how
good the rendering engine is.

"Editing software" like Office Mobile or Docs to Go you mean?  No offense,
but I'll take local storage over "cloud computing" any day, since the former
doesn't rely on connectivity.  It's hard to read a Google Docs document on
an airplane, despite the irony of actually being "in the clouds" yourself!
;-)

I think in retrospect, that's why we'll see more web-apps and server-based
solutions like Windows Live Search, Google Maps, or even the iPhone webapps
that scrape internet content and display it in a mobile-friendly way.

Take that Trulia real estate thing you posted about earlier- given the
option of trying to parse MLS listings on a phone browser from a typical
ad-laden realtor's website, or using a polished app that displays the
listings intentionally for a small screen and sends addresses to your GPS
software, etc., Trulia all but guarantees you'll use their services over
anyone else's.  Similarly, (I realize I wax poetic about WLS often, but I'll
do it again!) Windows Live Search is an app that completely eliminates the
need to use a web browser for a variety of tasks- movie listings, phone
lookups (business, residential, and reverse lookups), traffic, weather, real
estate listings (not as nice as Trulia's), local community events listings,
and more are all accessable from inside one app, and all the information
links to the GPS/Maps application and Contacts.  I don't need to browse
411.com, Hollywood.com, Accuweather, etc. like I used to for common "mobile
information" tasks- the UI resides on the phone, and only the actual data
needs to flow back and forth, not the "pretty package" (webpage) it's
generally wrapped in.

You HAD to use the "P" word didn't you!  ;-)  You know Pandora is the only
app you've got that I'm jealous of!

4phun <vic.healey@gmail.com> wrote in news:38c37649-8943-45d2-b983-
767cba54c8d1@z72g2000hsb.googlegroups.com:

Meet me in Cottagefille,  SC,  and we'll see ow it compares to Alltel
EVDO.

The LG Voyager was the first "iPhone killer", now it's the BB Bold. You
can't blame BB for the manner in which writers attempt to generate interest
in their reviews.

And I agree with you about manufacturers trying to develop a phone that has
its own strengths rather than constantly trying to make their own iPhone.

At 27 Aug 2008 17:17:04 -0400 David G.Imber wrote:

Yes, but is that RIMs fault?  If Car and Driver publishes a story telling
us what a crappy SUV substitute the 2-seater SmartCar is, should we blame
Smart?

Journalists know that right now, you can't write an article about
cellphones without mentioning the iPhone.  

That's sort of what they're trying to do, just very, VERY, badly.  Verizon
claims their LG enV iPhoney is "better" because it has not just a
touchscreen, but also a keyboard and "The Network."  The advertising
message of Sprint's Samsung Instinct (as far as I can tell)  is "just as
good, and it's cheaper!"  HTC hides the awkward stylus-based WinMo UI under
an equally awkward finger-based UI and calls it the "Diamond."  (I'll leave
the obvious "world's hardest-to-use smartphones named after the world's
hardest substance" jokes to our resident fanbois...)  

I completely agree, and that's what makes the Bold refreshing- no "iPhoney"
here- RIM just took everything already good about the Blackberry (hard
keyboard, email, PIM, security, an improved what was lacking the most-
(browser, media player, etc.) and made _a better Blackberry_, rather than a
inferior copy of the iPhone.  (I'm REALLY hoping RIM doesn't forget this
when they make the upcoming  touchscreen-based BB "Thunder.")  

I think if phone manufacturers spent more time writing good software, than
writing bad advertising copy, they wouldn't need to "kill" anything.