BlackBerry Z10: Daily driver, thanks to these 10 apps and shortcuts
Summary: I have been using the BlackBerry Z10 running the BB10 OS as my primary smartphone, and for the most part, it works just fine thanks to these 10 apps and web pages.
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(Image: ZDNet)
YouVersion Bible
YouVersion Bible is also an Android port, but it works well for me, and lets me access my content and complete my daily Bible reading and devotions.
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I do Remember, yes I do.
Remember app
Tasks
BlackBerry is outselling the competition in the UK
"Outselling the iPhone5 and the Galaxy S3 in the UK's Largest Retail Store and Crushing them in Business Sales"
That has been my experience too.
BB hardware has been behind to the point that it has affected the user experience. With Z10 I think the hardware has caught up. I really do not want a phone with a screen too much larger than 4" because it becomes awkward to wear. And I need fast access to my phone.
Looking forward to having the BB experience on some state of the art hardware.
Couldn't agree more
Nobody wants it
more apps will come
It's the future that counts.
It's the superior OS that matters most. It doesn't matter if an app isn't there, it's what this OS can do now and in the future.
- iOS is limited and still single process minded, kind of like what a Celeron was to computer chips in the late 90's early 2000's. Inexpensive and great for doing one thing at a time, but iOS stuff ins't the cheapest, it's the most expensive and by far.
- Android is very good, but it's open sourced, plagged by malware, totally unsecured and doesn't contribute much to North American business. I would even go as far as banning this cellphone OS from any Business outside of Asia due to all the cyber spying and security threats.
- Windows is a phone that needs to be there for business and having the ability to easily port over applications made for Win XP\Win 7 is important. But it is very very late in the game and unfortunately, the OS is huge huge bloatware! up to 30gig for a full Windows 8 OS and the battery life just will never be there. Windows RT which is easier on the battery life, is also the same type of OS that plagued the Netbooks. They can do one thing well at a time and that's it.
- The BlackBerry 10 OS (QNX and same as the Playbook) is an OS that has actually proven itself time and again in so many other platforms that most people would never know about. Computing power for Nuclear Power Plants, Satellites, Planes, Cars, Trains, Cisco routers, Web Servers and so much more. BB brought this to a cell phone and tablet, and it works, and works very well. And it has the power to do so much more in the future and what developers can do with this OS will be amazing. And the power drain from a super secure OS that allows for true multi-tasking is not as high as one would expect. It lasts a work day in heavy usage, and will last on stand by mode for a long time.
I would love to see what Linux can do! and I would also have to say that Symbian is an excellent OS, it's just lost way to much market share to be relevant, but in this business things can change in a year.
What I want...
Easy/cheap hotspot tethering to tap into 3G (good enough) or 4G for my Wi-Fi only Nexus 7 tablet, or sometimes, my Win7 based netbook.
I am hopefully not making a bad assumption that Blackberry has an email client that can somewhat keep up with Outlook in juggling mulitple POP and IMAP email accounts, without screwing up my message threads in Outlook.
A means of imaging the phone and storing the image on PC media to rebuild a replacement phone should my Blackberry be stolen or destroyed.
A separately encrypted, locally stored, database of private information I wish to carry with me (e.g., logins, frequent user accounts, credit card numbers and contacts, passport information)
Latitude
you're assuming Google wants them to have Maps and Latitude
Glympse
Google Calendar Synch
Google sync
Z10 / Benefits
Don in Vegas
Touch Screens
"let me access my content and complete my daily Bible reading and devotion"
Apart from that, I think BBOS10 is quite good, very similar to MeeGo on the Nokia N9 but rather related to the enterprise (BB balance etc.). As a private user, I'll probably still choose MeeGo (SailfishOS) in favor to BBOS10, but lets see what the future brings...
Let it die peacfully...
The Z10 is far from ready. We've tested several Z10s and we come back with the same quality issues as with the old Torches, curves, and bolds. Constant lockups, mail delivery issues, bugs galore (especially with the browser) and a constant need for rebooting. These are what we see with Android BYOD's as well, but Blackberry was supposed to be better than that in the enterprise.
iPhones and Windows Phones get it when it comes to the #1 reason for a smartphone in the workplace; mail. The EAS implementation on the Window Phone just works. No BES reactivation or ludicrous service book problems. EAS on the Z10 is as dependable as with an Android still running Froyo. Abysmal.
We swapped over from BB to Windows/iPhones late last year and the response has been amazing. Our CIO was running a Z10 as a daily tester. It was unceremoniously ditched a week later. We asked for a replacement because it died constantly and couldn't perform easy tasks like, oh, you know... syncing mail. We gave 3 of the Z10's to field reps and they all asked for their Lumia 920's back. Our CEO (a very forward thinking man) requested to use a Z10. 2 days later he went back to his 920 (previously an iPhone and Galaxy Note user, too).
The only positive reviews I see from REAL people are those that have been stuck in OS6/OS7 devices for so long that the Z10 looks great compared to those old bricks. Most people I see that love the Z10 haven't spent as much time on the other platforms as we have and don't have the sheer number of devices in their environment to really see a good pool of data.
I try give Blackberry the benefit of the doubt for now, however. It's a new platform, but the bugs need to fleshed out faster. Right now, we see no benefit to moving backwards.
Like the James 2 bible versus