A week ago one of our Youth Pastors and I were chatting over lunch while we waited for an amp to be repaired. As is common our conversation circled around new technology, how the church can utilize technology, and how some technology has taken a strong grip on our lives. I have come to believe that email is the poor mans instant messaging; or at least there are a lot of people out there who think so. Often I walk across the church and someone will invariably ask me “Did you get my email yet?” So how do we regain control of our lives and put the MAIL back into email?
Tag Archive - blackberry
Blackberry v Android – The race begins
Today RIM and AT&T have launched the new Blackberry Torch 9800. Despite having a dumb name this device looks amazing. 
The integration of a QWERTY keyboard and a touch screen really does fit my need for a cross over device. Despite only having a 3.2″ display, a 5MP camera and no HD to be found any where, the new OS6 does bring lots of modern social media functionality to the blackberry. To quote one blogger “it’s not all that future proof” of a device but RIM has been leaning towards tried and tested more then bleeding edge.
Rogers and Bell, the two major carriers in Canada have also said they will be carrying the Touch, but typically, the launch date and pricing are to be determined. This gives me some time before I sign on the dotted line to look at a few more Android devices that are slated for launch in Q3. As I have said before the iPhone is not an option in my mind, as I depend to heavily on my current blackberry as my primary communication device. The new Torch will allow me to keep my beloved QWERTY keyboard and move into a touch screen device.
The one thing I hesitate the most on is the lack of open source roots. I love the open source community and believe that open source development has the potential to be superior to closed source development teams. However RIM does have an advantage of developing the hardware as well as the operating system. This advantage can help make the device a more stable and reliable marriage of software and hardware, but it can stifle creativity for third party applications. Although RIM doesn’t have the walled garden style of application approval that Apple has, RIM has built some hedges around their core functionality which I feel limit some of the developer creativity. I think a more open development environment would bring a new wave of amazing applications for the blackberry.
With that said I still have a couple of months before I can arm twist my carrier into a slightly early hardware upgrade. Until then I look forward to getting some hands on time with a Torch or two (I have friends on the inside at RIM) and I wait with anticipation for some of the new Android devices slated for release over the next couple of months. Now if I just had a friend on the inside at Samsung or HTC.
iPhone v. BlackBerry v. Android
Let me start by saying I love my blackberry. I’ve been using a blackberry for about 5 or 6 years now. My current unit is a Bold 9000 and despite some battery issues and the lack of an official OS5 I’m very happy with it. For the last 2 years my wife has been using an iPhone 3G and she loves it. I tried for many years to get her into a smart phone but she wouldn’t do it. She saw the blackberry as being too corporate and as a teacher, that’s foreign ground for her. But I kept taking her to the phone shops and showing her the iPhone and one day she said “maybe she could see using it”. So I buried that in the back of my mind and 3 months later she opened up her new iPhone at Christmas. And since then she can’t imagine going back to a dumb phone.
Scooby-Doo? Where Are You?
I remember fondly as a kid, rushing home after school to watch Scooby-doo. The gang always trying solve a mystery and with out a doubt Scooby and Shaggy get lost in the process. Now before everyone goes off on a tangent about the hidden messages and inappropriate content, let me stop you now and warn you that you’ll be treading on sacred grounds. Continue Reading…
Drupal vs WordPress
With the launch of WordPress 3 I figured it was time I tried out wordpress again. It’s not that I don’t use WordPress, I just didn’t personally use WordPress. I setup and host a number of blogs for our Pastors and a few friends, but I once tried WordPress and it got spammed. And I mean spammed bad.
Now there are some Drupal users out there that are going to think I’ve lost my marbles. Why in the world would I want to give up the power and flexibility of Drupal to use WordPress? But it was a Drupal loving friend that once said “Using WordPress is like calling up your favorite truck dealer and ordering one in blue. Using Drupal is like calling the manufacturing plant and asking them to send you all the parts.” And for a blog that often gets neglect for months on end, I just need a blue truck.
One of the other added bonuses to this move (and yes I do see this downgrade of sorts to be a bonus), is that I can update my blog (hopefully more regularly) from my blackberry while on the go. The gang over at Automattic have released a blackberry app designed specifically for WordPress. What could be better.
So my next post will be a little more nuts and bolts of how I migrated my old Drupal data to my new WordPress Blog. Check it out and if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask.
Blogging from the Blackberry
So I switched my blog from Drupal to WordPress. The reasons for this are numerous and I will go in to greater detail in a later post. Suffice it to say, I didn’t switch because I don’t like drupal any more, but I do like the convenience of being able to update my blog from my blackberry and WordPress does this amazingly.
Some of you will think I’m nuts for blogging from a blackberry, but it truly is my primary method of communication, so typing long messages like this really doesn’t bother me. And no I have never suffered from blackberry thumbs.
So now that I have shown you how easy it is to blog while on the go, will you make the switch to wordpress? Let me know in the comments.
Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
Blackberry vs. iPhone
I’ve been a very happy blackberry user for a number of years now and would highly recommend it to anyone who spends a larger portion of their day away from their desk where they can’t be reached by telephone or email. I’m not one of these guys that feeds into the immediate response delirium that has forced so many people to be available 24/7, but I do see the importance of timely responses. And thus, as I don’t get to spend much time at my desk, I carry a blackberry.
And then last Christmas I bought my wife an iPhone. We had talked in the past about how much she hates blackberries (She’s a grade 1 teacher), but one day at the mall we stopped and looked at the iPhone and she said “I think I could get used to something like this”. So I stored that chunk of wisdom in the back of my brain for a couple of months and bought her a shiny new iPhone for Christmas.
Now she can’t understand how she lived with out it. She has all her school meetings, our kids appointments and everything else she used to forget about until the last minute, stored on her iPhone. She’s extremely organized with it now. But the part she likes the most is the fun silly games she can download to pass the time while waiting at the dentist or doctors office. A feature that, until the recent App World launch, was ackward and often pricey on a blackberry.
I have spent some time playing with all sorts of iPhone apps and I have to say, I’ve started to consider switching. Not because my blackberry doesn’t do what I need it to do, but because that’s all it really does do. Don’t get me wrong, App world has opened the door to a slew of new programs and games, but Apple has rounded second base in the app distribution game (over 25,000 apps and 1 billion downloads), while blackberry chose to bunt and is desperately trying to make it to first base.
So what is stopping me from making the switch? There are a couple of things that bother me about the current iPhone (OS 2.?) that are holding me back. The first would be battery life. Maybe it’s how my wife uses it, but the idea of not getting a full days use from a single charge is disheartening. Second would be the inability to have TSR like apps running in the background. I have a few blackberry apps that run in the background that I’m not ready to give up (ReQall, Gtalk, Twitter). Thirdly would be keyboard and I don’t mean the lack of one on the iPhone. Personally I don’t mind the UI keyboard on the iPhone, but I do wish some times it would go landscape. After a few years of being a berry user, I’m all thumbs when it comes to typing (yes the punn was intended). Lastly would be the speakers. The other night we were looking at movie previews on our respective smart devices and the speaker on my blackberry blew the iPhone out of the water. Considering the iPhone is also a multimedia device, I would expect the speaker to be better. I guess that is why the iPhone comes with such nice headphones.
So what are your thoughts? what do you use, are you happy with it and would you switch?
