Greg and Kat's blog

The outcome of my new phone search was a Blackberry Pearl 8110 from Rogers (who was also my old carrier).

When I first got the phone, I knew it would be pretty reasonable, being a Blackberry and all. But, the more I use it, the more I think it may be the Best Phone Evar™.

1. I can sync the contacts and calendar with Linux. OpenSync and the OpenSync Barry plugin do the job nicely. I had to edit one line in the Barry source for it to recognize the Pearl (which has a different USB product ID than earlier models). That’s way less pain than I thought would be involved.

2. The interface isn’t exactly intuitive, but it is at least consistent. The trackball thing will move you around, the menu button will bring up a menu, the other keys will be used to enter characters or as shortcuts.

   Typing is quite easy because of the two-character-per-key QWERTY keypad (instead of 3–4 character alphabetical keypad on most phones), and “SureType” (their predictive text entry thing).

   Generally, it appears to be designed for people who want to get shit done, rather than for 17 year olds with ADD. This is no surprise, considering RIM’s heritage targeting the business market.

3. It’s physically surprisingly small. It’s exactly the same thickness as my RAZR (when closed), slightly narrower, but a little taller. I think the RAZR is deceptive: it’s thin when open, but not crazy-thin when folded.

4. It’s possible to install software on the phone (although I have to use the Windows connector software to do it). There are a couple of good sources of software: RIM’s software page, Blackberry Freeware, and probably others I haven’t found yet.

   The one thing I’d like to install but haven’t gotten to work is the Blackberry Facebook application: it’s installer uses some piece-of-crap ActiveX component that crashes every IE I’ve put it on and doesn’t work on any other browser (including the provided Rogers browser on the phone).

5. Four words: Google Maps for Mobile. This is a free application that basically provides a nice phone interface to Google Maps. But, it’s clever enough to know where I am in two ways. First is the built-in GPS, which it picks up magically and puts a dot on the map where I am. Second, it can read info from the cell towers and estimate its location within some margin of error.

   That means that it always knows where it is, unlike most GPS units (that don’t work without a clear view of the sky). It can immediatey estimate its position from the towers and narrow once the GPS kicks in. Frankly, GMM makes me feel a little funny in my special areas.

6. I have also installed Opera Mini which, as mobile browsers go, it quite nice. I’m actually shocked how usable it is.

7. It’s made by RIM, a Canadian company that hires many SFU co-op students and grads.

Of course, many of these things aren’t unique to the Blackberry and would apply to most higher-end phones. There are certainly some imperfections, but I’ll hold off on writing about those until I’ve lived with the phone for a while: I’m sure I’ll find more.

I have a few technical things about the setup that I’ll blog about at some point as well.