First 24 hours with a #Blackberry Z10 #mlearncon #lscon

I vowed to post my initial findings into use of the new Blackberry Z10. Not as a reviewer but a user.

Straight out the box I was excited. The look and feel was better than I expected. Slightly wider and taller than my iPhone 5 and feels thinner. Once I got the battery in the weight is pretty good too.

Surprised how long it took to boot up but once it did the screen is very good quality. Clear, precise, although reports suggest no Gorilla glass, so going to have to be a little careful. Considering a good quality protector as I have on the iPhone.

So to use.

Had all my mail, calendar and contacts set up in less than 10 mins and I was ready to go.

Uses imap not Blackberry services anymore so mail is not always pushed unless your server does so. Gmail does not, so there is a lag in getting mail as the smallest interval is 15 mins for retrieval. I first was a little phased by this but to be honest I realised that’s a generational thing. What difference if your email gets to me 15 mins after you send it. Do you need an immediate reply? Then send a SMS or some other immediate message service.

I compared the settings to iPhone. Actually they are the same, minimum collect 15 mins. My iPhone seems to get the mail quicker, or so I thought. Rebooting the iPhone just after the Blackberry synced reversed the timings and now the Blackberry gets mail quicker. iPhone does however retrieve mail every time you open the mail app, Blackberry does not unless you update it with a swipe and tap.

So to swipes. Wow is all I can say.
Took me a while to get used to which way to gesture for what and still making errors but responsive? Oh yes.

Swipe right and you get The Hub. A feature I am going to just love. All my mail, tweets, Facebook notifications, calls, calendar entries etc in one place. Very Blackberry, very nice. The flashing led to tell you of messages has been missed by me. One glance at the phone and I don’t have to pick it up to look. I think I am going to find it hard to break the looking at phone habit we all have gained.

Swipe left and you get a first screen of miniaturised running apps. If you are running an app swipe up and it miniaturises to this screen(s). One click and its full size click the X and it closes.

Swipe left again and you get to your app screens. Just like the other OS’s

Swipe down and what you get depends on where you are. From lock screen you get a clock, from apps you get settings, you can silence the phone etc from here.

Two fingers zoom and also two fingers on screen moves around.

In mail tap and hold brings in a toolbar from the right with all your commands.

Usage so far pretty cool.

Not tried BBM yet, all my ‘friends’ moved to iPhone. Anyone left?

Facebook and Twitter are exactly the same as iPhone.

Browser pretty good, fast and did what I expected a browser to do.

Best touch however is the keyboard. Puts the iPhone and Android to shame. These guys got this righter than right. As you type (hit most keys first time) words appear over the keys not in a bar but right on the keys. and you just swipe them into place. Hard to explain but my best explanation is ‘delicious’. No stupid iPhone unpredictive text! Today also need to look into selecting text and placement of cursor in text. I found this difficult yesterday, it’s not the same as the iPhone so I am sure it’s just me having to work it out. I do like the iPhone magnifier when you place a cursor.

App Store boasts 70,000 titles but a little light at this time on anything I am after. My favourite calendar Pocket Informant seems to have abandoned Blackberry, hopefully they will return, but I understand it is technically difficult or even impossible to link anything to the built in PIM at this time.

Today I will get to grips with the Calendar and PIM in general.

Biggest gripes of the day, Blackberry always shipped with a case. Not this one. Available from tomorrow so have had to order one. And transfer of music (not all as only 16gb on phone) took an age.

Battery, too early to tell as was plugged in most of the day. Today it is fully charged so I will find out.

More when I find it. But this is a real contender. If apps are as easy to write as they claim, then Blackberry are going to make it.

Don’t forget to check out my updated site. http://www.neillasher.com

Is Blackberry in with a chance for mLearning market #lscon

I have been watching closely for a while the story of RIM, now Blackberry.

Pundits have been quick to knock the recent advert in Super Bowl but maybe, just maybe Blackberry have got this right.

The King on the hill is Apple, without doubt, combine iPhone and iPad and it outstrips the nearest manufacturer competitor. However Android is winning the war slowly in many areas of the world from an OS perspective.

Saying that, at the recent LT13 exhibition there was not a single Android tablet on show. ( that I saw)

BETT was no different. I wonder what it was like in ASTD TechKnowledge?

Along comes Blackberry after a miserable few years on the back shelf and after a horrible PlayBook with what appears to be a very nice SmartPhone.

I was an avid Blackberry user till a few years ago, swapping as many did to iPhone. The upside was the fantastic tech and apps, the downside? I lost my keyboard. But have obviously got used to virtual. I am typing this from it. I still hate the way iPhone autocorrects. Or as I call it, unpredictive text. And I lost BBM. One other silly thing I loved and lost, the way the light blinks when there is a message.

So what has Blackberry done that makes me think the new Z10, pronounced zee ten, is going to make them a winner.

Well to start, price. It is cheaper than iPhone.

Then there is what Blackberry state as a magnificent, well designed and well thought out OS. It’s been a long time in the making, they know this is the only chance.

Then we are told that Blackberry 10 OS is the easiest to write for. This may be the key to success. Especially in the education or mLearning market.

So today for me starts a new era. My Z10 has just been delivered (No not giving up the iPhone quite yet). I will blog it as I find it over the next while and will start to create an App. See if I get further than the one I started with iPhone.

Info as I find it at neillasher