I bought a Hero, but am still waiting to get it from Best Buy online, so I haven't had a chance to play with it in person yet. My curr phone is a Blackberry Pearl, and I'm wondering what some of you previous Blackberry owners miss about your old phone, so I can start looking for workarounds now. A little background, when the Samsung Instinct first came out I picked one up right away and promptly returned it within about 3 days. There were so many things about the Blackberry that I had taken for granted that were not available on the Instinct, and I'm just wondering if there are some of the same issues with the Hero. For example - if I want to call Joe Smith from Sprint, I could dial his phone number, dial by spelling the first or last name, activate voice dialing, lookup in contacts under his name or the company he works for. Is there anyway to do the same thing with the Hero, or do I have to lookup by contacts first name only, etc. Are there any other issues along these lines with little things you had on a Blackberry that you really miss on the Hero? Are there any programs avail as workarounds? Thanks for the advice
The biggest thing I miss and I'm actually considering a tour for it would be the messaging capabilities of the blackberry. I'm really getting tired of rrcieving some messages 5-15 minutes late if at all. Or having the phone lag if I'm recieving a message. Also having errors if I'm sending a message and recieving one at the same time.
Id have to agree with the statement above... also the call program lags sometimes, so if Im scrolling through the list of recent calls and click on one.. if there is a lag, sometimes it will call the last person I spoke too instead...
I came from a curve and a tour and the only things I honestly miss is blackberry messenger and the physical keyboard. The Tour is a great phone and after using a BB I never thought I would use another phone but the fact that you have to pay for most great apps on the BB and slow browser speed on the BB makes me LOVE the android market and my Hero even more. The lag sometimes does get to be annoying but I am sure that it will be fixed in the new firmware udates to come. Every new phone has issues and it seems that they are working on fixing the issues with the android phones fairly quick.
The hero has the contact search as you dial/hit the letters of the contact. I found out this is something the iphone does not do...bummer. my pearl, all though not 'flashy' worked better. I will be going to the pearl 2 when sprint releases it.
I'm hoping the 2.1 update will fix the messaging problems. Im hoping its out before the 13th if not I think I'm jumping to the tour.
Another former Curve/Tour user here. I switched to Hero 30 days back and put my unscratched, beautiful, trusty Tour back in the box. There are definitely a couple of adjustments you have to make, life on Hero is NOT life on BB. First and most highly missed item is the BBM. but, if you download Handecent, you can fully customize everything about it, from font to size, bubble size and theme. There is sometimes a little lag, but I find that only occurs if all your contacts are associated with a photo. Actually Handecent pops up the texts as they come in and you can quickyl reply, delete or view contact, really cool. I really missed the Tour's keyboard for quite some time. I almost switched back. The only thing that stopped me from doing so is that one afternoon I was trying to convince myself to switch back so I pulled out the Tour and opened a blank message. I started typing like "oooh look at me, look at how fast and accurate I can type on this keyboard versus that on-screen crap Hero has, oh I miss you BB Keyboard." then I look at the boring screen. then I pick up Hero and say, "let's do a test" so I type another paragraph on the Hero, confidently without any reserve, guess what, the Hero had less errors and took less time to type then the Tour!!!! WOOHOO, +1 to Hero. I spent a lot of time customizing my Tour, downloading themes and progs to get the feel I wanted. I haven't been nearly as drawn to spend hours upon hours searching for customization with the Hero, it just IS customized. Download these apps first: Screebl (set screen timeout to 15, set leave on angle settings - saves battery) Proximity Sensor (locks screen during phone calls - MUST HAVE) Advanced Task Manager (Manage memory and apps, -MUST HAVE) Handecent SMS (better than stock message service) ^ Font Package, 4 available Lock 2.0 (Awesome) Google Search (Android version) "battery widget" (good to keep clear eye on battery) OI File Manager (if you're use to the exploration abilities of BB, get this) Dolphin Browser (speedy browser, better than Opera) iMap Weather (has live radar, basic weather app is worthless) Meebo im (closest thing to BBM, but still fars very short) Note Everything (good solution if your note Savvy, voice, text and paint notes) Unavailable (auto responder for texts, nice every now and then) ROBO Defense (BEST GAME EVER) This is all I have, good luck. Remember, give yourself a week or two to fully adjust to the hero before you let any doubt enter your mind. I promise you won't regret the swap!
I really miss the blackberry server abilities, ie; install email even with pop3 accounts, and the calendar being able to accept appointments from emails since it handles VCAL. This is my biggest gripe with the "smartphone". Other than that, you can keep the BBM. Handcent works great for me. Blackberry OS is ancient technology. Blackberry Server works beautifully though. If I could figure out a way to get my pop emails instantly and accept emailed appointments into the calendar I would be very very happy.
I came from a Curve, and a Tour, so far I miss the instant "push" services for emails and sms, and I also miss the BB calendar and how it notifies you of appointments etc. compared to the Hero notifies you, meaning more options on the BB as to how long for reminders etc.
So, if you recieve an email appointment from someone with a blackberry or ???, you can forward that to gmail and accept it? I have tried this and it doesn't work for me. Or are you saying that you use gmail for your pop accounts to get a more "push -- like" email notification?
TMac, Yes, just the "push" aspect. As far as I know there is no quick way to turn an email into an appointment. I was just addressing the first part of your request, speedy email delivery. jd
I get reminders just fine on my phone...quite comparable to my bb...what do you not like about reminders on the hero?
I have had the 8130 Pearl, 8330 Curve and the Tour. I have to agree with the email comments about push. I am interested in how to "push" my pop3 account at work from its server to my gmail account. That would do it for me. One thing I've never really heard anyone address is the security setting that I used on the BB's. In Options, then Security you could set it to not receive emails unless from someone in your contacts dbase. I know that isn't a great deal for a lot of people, but kept me from getting spam. I do hate how hard phones on WinMo and even Android have to work to get email by polling for it at allotted time intervals instead of being dumped into the phone like a text messege. I totally believe that's why battery life on the BB's is sooo much better. That said...will not go back anytime soon. The funtionallity of this phone is enough to keep me, just WishWishWish for more.....aren't we spoiled.
On mine, it depends on which one is set to poll next. For Instance; if the computer is set to search for email every 3 minutes in Outlook and the phone is set for every 30 minutes, it depends on how it falls. If your computer just finished checking, then 20 seconds later your phone happens to reach its 30 minute search time, the phone finds it first. Nothing like direct push though. Gmail works quick, but not my pop3 for that very reason.
I have gmail's notifier, don't get to set an option on how often it polls...my phone is set for 5 minutes or something, but seems like as soon as I get an email, my phone is beeping (or whatever it does) letting me know i have an email
i came from a curve to droid..... i miss thecomfortablity of the scrren and menu ( but that is just a matter of getting the droid just the way i like it.) *the email and how it came through * i also miss how the battery would last all day. it wasnt great i had to charge it evrynight but my droid i have to charge it like twice a day
Coming from an 8830, I miss the world capability as well as the physical keyboard, instant emails, battery life, and the quick shortcuts like: holding down a key to capitalize a letter pressing "c" or "r" for compose or reply while reading emails I was considering upgrading to the Tour but after playing with it, I noticed there wasn't much of a difference from the 8830 - an updated OS and better screen but not much else. Android's OS coupled with HTC sense makes the blackberry OS feel antiquated. I love the Hero and I don't think I could ever go back to a blackberry.
