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Poll: What Would It Take For You To Switch To Blackberry?

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31–40 of 58 posts

Re: Poll: What Would It Take For You To Switch To Blackberry?

#34
post #20

BB could get my business if they doubled down on security, privacy and encryption. I'd love to see them end up with a product that was sort of like what Whisper Systems was trying to do with Android. In particular I'd love enterprise messaging that didn't need any 3rd parties to hold keys, and an ability to use some kind of removable smart card with a cryptographic processor that when removed rendered the phone data…

Look for secure microSD cards: they are smartcards with a microSD form factor and a couple of GB of normal flash storage. You can store private keys in there and negotiate certificates with a PKI server, resulting in a full-fledged S/MIME-compatible mail in your pocket. Take the card off: without your keys the BlackBerry cannot decrypt anything. Steal the phone unlocked: you have three attempts to guess the smartcard PIN. As far as I know, BlackBerry devices are the only mobile platform supporting such local hardware keystores natively.

It has taken years for Apple to implement on iOS half of the crypto available in BlackBerry devices, and they are still knee-deep in badly implemented security. Android and Windows Mobile are not even trying.

Re: Poll: What Would It Take For You To Switch To Blackberry?

#35
I recently switched from a BlackBerry to iPhone. Aside from my device being broken, I primarily switched due to the app ecosystem developed around Apple. As an (aspiring) UX professional, I felt I was missing out on a lot. I think the app eco system is a key point for most (and for a lot of consumers I think the difference between Android and Apple is negligible). Going from a BB to iPhone has me missing some of the "power user" features a BlackBerry affords. Maybe I should have gone Android

Some things about BlackBerry. The keyboard is superior to any other keyboard out there. The BlackBerry is perfectly adequate for lightweight users and IMO a much better messaging device (not strictly because of BBM, but because of battery life as well). RIM is in a weird place due to their enterprise service offerings, software and hardware. wrt Messaging, I think RIM missed out on an interesting acquisition opportunity. Instead of embracing and potentially folding in Kik to its BBM offerings, RIM decided to fight them. Folding in a service like Kik could have been great, I think.

Re: Poll: What Would It Take For You To Switch To Blackberry?

#37
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But today we have Swype, which is massively faster than a BlackBerry keyboard for typing emails and texts. I honestly can't imagine ever switching to a BlackBerry, unless I really needed battery life.

I haven't used Swype regularly. is Swype massively actually massively faster when it comes to two handed typing? I can easily see the performance difference for one handed typing, but I'm having trouble seeing power users reliably typing emails realizing much faster results with Swype.

I have a G2, which has a pretty decent physical keyboard as well as Swype. I can see how you might get pretty quick with Swype, but if you're a good typist, I think the keyboard wins out every time. If you are used to it, you get a sort of psuedo-touch typing ability going with it that I don't think you can yet duplicate on a soft keyboard.

Re: Poll: What Would It Take For You To Switch To Blackberry?

#38
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But today we have Swype, which is massively faster than a BlackBerry keyboard for typing emails and texts. I honestly can't imagine ever switching to a BlackBerry, unless I really needed battery life.

I haven't used Swype regularly. is Swype massively actually massively faster when it comes to two handed typing? I can easily see the performance difference for one handed typing, but I'm having trouble seeing power users reliably typing emails realizing much faster results with Swype.

The last few winners of the world record for fastest text messaging used Swype[1]. The fastest thumb-text record holder was 45 seconds[2], the fastest Swype record holder was 25 seconds.

Anecdotally, I used a phone with a keyboard and two-handed typing for 3 years, and my speed went from about 18 WPM to about 40 WPM after a month on Swype.

[1]: http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/8000/faste...

[2]: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5319376/ns/technology_and_scienc...

Re: Poll: What Would It Take For You To Switch To Blackberry?

#39
post #20

BB could get my business if they doubled down on security, privacy and encryption. I'd love to see them end up with a product that was sort of like what Whisper Systems was trying to do with Android. In particular I'd love enterprise messaging that didn't need any 3rd parties to hold keys, and an ability to use some kind of removable smart card with a cryptographic processor that when removed rendered the phone data…

Look for secure microSD cards: they are smartcards with a microSD form factor and a couple of GB of normal flash storage. You can store private keys in there and negotiate certificates with a PKI server, resulting in a full-fledged S/MIME-compatible mail in your pocket. Take the card off: without your keys the BlackBerry cannot decrypt anything. Steal the phone unlocked: you have three attempts to guess the smartcard…

Thanks very much!

Re: Poll: What Would It Take For You To Switch To Blackberry?

#40
I currently have a blackberry torch. When the phone works, it's amazing, and I'm very satisfied with it. However, there are a lot of little glitches that make using it a terrible user experience. Furthermore, a lot of the features on it are only able to be used with a blackberry data plan, such as social feeds and bbm, and most apps explicitly require data, and cannot be used if you do not have a data plan. If they fixed these issues, I would love my torch completely.
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