teh TODDtastic webLog-a-majig

I’m working on giving back the the people by providing an easy, free over-the-air host for blackberry apps.

The site is http://www.otadrop.com

So far, I don’t have much there, but with time I will. I am currently working on the back-end. It’s going to be all database driven, so it’ll be nice and dynamic. If I have the time, I will also make it so you have to login and such to drop an OTA package.

In the mean time, if you need an OTA package hosted… just let me know. I’ll be glad to host it until I get the site up and running.

For those that want it… 4.7.0.83 has been leaked for the Storm.  People are reporting a lot of great improvements with this leaked update. Improvements to the camera speed and accelerometer is apparently even faster.

Personally, I will wait for an official release to install. Reading through the forums, I found that works at Verizon mention that there is supposed to be an official update released Tuesday night. So, it definitely isn’t much of a wait.

I will report on my experiences once the official release is out.

Update (12-27-08): Still no official release. But 4.7.0.85 has been leaked.

Upfront, let me say that I am pleased with my decision to get this phone. Also, let me say that after my initial reaction, I was quite critical of the phone overall. So since I recommend it in the end, I can honestly say that it is not nearly as bad as many reviews say.

It takes some getting used to, but once you are used to it, there is no major problem with it. Remember that a lot of reviewers only spend a few days with the phone and that a lot of users may have been turned off by it after seeing it in the store (like I was initially).

I will break this down into sections. If you’d like me to comment more in a particular section or add yet another section, please let me know.

Read the rest of this entry »

Last night I read up on the Blackberry OS and found some reasons for the terrible lag I experienced when I looked at the phone yesterday. People suggest the lag could be due to having a bunch of programs running in the background.

So I made another trip the the local Verizon Store… and went to play with the Blackbrry Storm again. I went to the “switch programs” thing and found a ton of thing running because all people do is play with every little thing on the phone. I killed of a bunch of them… and I have to say, the lag was less terrible. I could push the Blackberry Button and the menu would fade onto the screen very quickly (which was not so when I first looked at it).

I also had time to check out the camera….. which was of great quality.

I spent more time with the keyboard… which I really think I can get used to, especially the SureType style when it’s in Portrait.

So, I think I’m going to get it. Maybe. Still have to think about it.

Update: I ordered it. Due to high demend, tho… it may not be shipped until Dec. 15th. But that’s ok, I can wait.

So… let me just start off by saying I was extremely excited about this phone ever since I heard about it. The only thing I was unsure about before I clicked order was the touch screen typing deal. So that is what I went into the Verizon Store to check out… other than that…. I was completely sold. And I was perfectly willing to say forget it if I thought the typing interface was bad.

Well… I soon found out there was more I should look at.

Holy shit this phone really sucked.

I was at the Verizon Store for a good 45 minutes checking out the Storm… and other phones. I bounced between other Blackberries and smartphones… just to confirm that smart phones aren’t as bad as the Blackberry Storm.

Again… I was very excited for this phone… and I was quickly turned off upon finally playing with it.

The typing was actually not too bad. It wasn’t perfect… but neither was my typing on the Curve. So I attribute that to the fact that I’ve simply never owned a smart phone. It did feel limiting in terms of speed, so… take that review with a grain of salt.

I continued to play around with it… and I quickly concluded that the interface sucks. The lag on this device was so bad… I wasn’t sure if I had clicked what I wanted to click, clicked the wrong thing, or if the phone had simply crashed. A good 5 seconds later… you get your answer… which was often that you had clicked the wrong thing. That really kills the experience with this phone.

Since I had never owned a Blackberry and never really used one, I went and played with the Curve and the World Edition Blackberries. The interfaces on those phones was just fine.

So… take this mini-review as an initial reaction to the phone… I will try to go back at some point and see if a second chance will make up for it. But for now… I don’t want this phone anymore.