GreenZoner egypt: blackberry z10

<div dir="rtl" style="text-align: right;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> <img alt="Back to BlackBerry closing time" data-src-height="531" data-src-width="800" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2013/02/dsc04286-1361316647.jpg" /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;">I've had the opportunity to use it in every likely scenario, including a nine-day trip to Spain for Mobile World Congress. Now comes the moment of truth: have I become a BlackBerry convert? Is the Z10 my new daily driver?<br /> <br /> Unfortunately, it's not. But before the BlackBerry fan base breaks out  the torches and forms mobs, this isn't a denunciation of the phone or its OS.  Quite the opposite, in fact. I decided to pursue this experiment for a  few reasons: it's the best way to learn a brand-new operating system, I  genuinely am interested in how well it handles regular day-to-day use  and a month gives me plenty of time to form a solid idea of the  platform's potential and future. Is it possible to have a great deal of  admiration for a phone while simultaneously rejecting it as my daily  driver? Yes. After the break I sum up the highlights of BB10: what  works, what doesn't and what simply needs a little nudge or two.   </div><h3 dir="ltr" id="title0" style="text-align: left;"> What works for me</h3><div class="image-container" dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;"> <img alt="Back to BlackBerry closing time" data-src-height="411" data-src-width="619" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2013/03/dsc04279.jpg" /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> <em>Gestures</em>.  BB10's gestures are natural and intuitive. In the first week of my  trial, I had become so accustomed to BB10's gesture-based UI that I  started trying to wake Android devices by swiping up on the screen. Most  gestures on BlackBerry 10 are easy and they give the platform a fair  amount of uniqueness that you can't find on iOS or Android.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> <em>Active Frames</em>.  BlackBerry's multitasking performance is among the best (if not the  best) I've used on any phone, as opening any running application is  almost always an instantaneous transition -- even with graphics-heavy  games. I also have a love / hate relationship with the Active Frames UI;  quick access to my recent apps is nice, but having it take the form of a  "home page" without any ability to customize it can be frustrating.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> <em>BlackBerry Peek</em>.  To be frank, my favorite notification method implemented on any mobile  OS is the status bar on Android, mainly because it's easily accessible  and navigable the vast majority of the time (it gets hidden in certain  apps). That said, BlackBerry Peek is also a refreshing departure from  standard notification systems; swipe up to "peek" at how many  notifications you have, and swipe to the right if you want to view them.  They're also easy to ignore if you so desire.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> <em>BlackBerry Hub</em>.  Although it's not perfect, Hub is the best implementation of a  universal inbox I've used so far. Since it's built directly into the OS  and has integrated nearly all of my preferred methods of communication, I  can catch up on emails, texts and tweet mentions without exiting to  different apps.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> <em>Emails</em>. I enjoy the email experience on  BB10... for the most part. I love having the option to lump my messages  all together in a universal inbox or tackle them one account at a time.  It handles attachments incredibly easily, HTML5 looks great and mail  gets pushed to the inbox right away (I often receive emails on the Z10  before they arrive on my Mac).</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> I also appreciate that a  conversation view is offered. But there's one critical flaw that I hope  can be tweaked: even though I can go into a specific thread, each  response in that thread is presented as an individual email, and there's  no way to navigate through the entire conversation without first  backing out to the thread list and then going back into the next  response. iOS is structured in a similar way, but it offers navigation  arrows on the top-right corner to let you quickly move through the  entire thread.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> <em>The keyboard</em>. This is BlackBerry's bread  and butter, and the OS doesn't disappoint here -- at least, when it  comes to performance. It's the best stock keyboard I've ever used.  However, the inline word prediction feature, while really cool in  theory, failed to increase my typing speed. I switched to the in-column  view, in which you can choose from three words on the top of the  keyboard, and was much happier.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> <em>Flash Player</em>. In full  disclosure, I'm not an avid user of Flash, but I do prefer at least  having the option to use it when I need it. I'm happy that it can be  manually turned on or off at any time, thus giving users actual choice.  This is a solid competitive advantage for BlackBerry, even though I  can't envision many people switching to a different OS just for Flash  support.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> <em>Sideloading Android apps</em>. Runtime for  BlackBerry came through for me on a daily basis because it allowed me to  use several Android apps to fill gaping holes in BB World (case in  point: Flipboard). Don't worry; native apps will eventually come in to  take care of that problem. The problem is, relying on Android ports as a  workaround to support your ecosystem is not an ideal long-term  solution. Sure, it may encourage a few more devs to think about writing  apps for the platform, but it's not going to magically change the  industry. Most users won't know or care to sideload apps, so BlackBerry  has to work hard to make sure those users don't <em>have</em> to in order to get the best possible experience.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> <em>Updates. </em>Before  the first month was over, BlackBerry issued a significant update  promising to improve power management for better battery life, low-light  camera performance and third-party app performance. Given the horrible  battery life I've experienced, I'm excited to give it a try;  unfortunately, the update didn't arrive in enough time for me to give it  a thorough test, so I'll have to report back later. However, a quick  look at various BB forums indicates that it does a much better job at  retaining a charge.</div><h3 dir="ltr" id="title1" style="text-align: left;"> What needs some work</h3><div class="image-container" dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;"> <img alt="Back to BlackBerry closing time" data-src-height="411" data-src-width="619" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2013/03/dsc04285.jpg" /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> <em>BlackBerry World</em>.  I'm not going to condemn a nascent ecosystem for its app selection. No  market blossoms in the space of one month, and the reality is BlackBerry  has actually done a fairly good job of making sure the right pieces  were in place for BB10's launch -- at least, it's done better than any  other first-edition platform. Most users (especially those on the  enterprise / corporate side) will likely be satisfied with what's  available in BB World, unless they absolutely need Netflix or Instagram.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> There are a few areas of World itself that could use some improvement.  It should check for (and install) updates automatically -- or at least  make it an option, if not mandated. More filters are needed without  diving deep into subcategories and other seldom-used lists. Lastly, with  Android ports comprising 40 percent of World's app selection, each one  should be specifically listed as such -- especially when they're paid  apps.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> <em>Data monitoring</em>. This needs the most work, since I  still haven't found any way to monitor my data usage at all. I sorely  missed this feature in Spain, because I had a pre-paid data cap and  didn't want to run out in the middle of an important event. If  BlackBerry doesn't come up with a solution, a third party needs to step  up.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> <em>Maps</em>. The native maps solution on BB10 is my least  favorite of the major platforms. It's way too basic altogether, shunning  important features like <span>transit directions, walking options,  offline maps, distance between two points, a bird's eye or Street View  feature, more POIs and Zagat- / Yelp-style reviews.</span> I preferred  the Nokia Here web app; this speaks volumes to Here's impressive  capabilities, but I shouldn't have to use it as a replacement to a  platform's native maps app.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> <em>Using web apps</em>. BlackBerry  is using web apps as alternatives to a few native apps, and I hope this  is only a short-term solution while the company cooks up other options.  There are two examples of this practice that especially need attention:  the Facebook app, which takes you into the browser for a large number of  its services, and YouTube, which is just a shortcut to its home page.  These options are better than nothing, but they fall far short when it  comes to the user experience.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> <em>Tweakable settings</em>. I like  choice. If something doesn't work for me, it's nice to have the ability  to tweak it so it does my bidding. Sadly, BB10 lacks a lot of these  customizable settings in many core apps, such as the camera, music and  video players, maps and more. This could be a symptom of being a  first-edition OS, where many minor features end up on the cutting-room  floor as the dev team focuses on getting the major stuff right, so  hopefully these smaller things will be addressed in the next update.</div><h3 dir="ltr" id="title2" style="text-align: left;"> Conclusion</h3><div class="image-container" dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;"> <img alt="Back to BlackBerry closing time" data-src-height="411" data-src-width="619" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2013/03/dsc04723.jpg" /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> While the Z10 won't be my daily driver, I can answer the questions I  raised at the beginning of my experiment: does it fit my daily work  flow? How does it hold up against its rivals? And does BlackBerry have a  future? First, work flow: I was able to accomplish almost all of my  daily work routine -- even when I was in Spain for nine days -- but a  large chunk of it was only made possible by sideloading Android apps and  finding other workarounds. Basically, I had to make a lot of  compromises and do a lot of research in order to get it to function the  way I needed, and many tasks became more time-intensive than they would  have been on other platforms. I'm happy that these methods helped me get  through the month unscathed, but ease of use, accessibility and speed  are crucial to me.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> Second, how does it hold up against its  rivals? There are plenty of good qualities in BB10, but BlackBerry needs  a hook -- in other words, iOS and Android users won't hop out of an  ecosystem they're comfortable with unless there's a very clear reason to  do so. The new and improved BlackBerry is the best first-edition OS  I've ever used, but the true competitive advantages are few and far  between: solid enterprise / BYOD support (areas in which iOS and Android  are quickly catching up) and the BlackBerry Hub. BB10's gesture-based  UI and built-in Flash Player get honorable mentions, but I can't see  very many people making the jump on those features alone.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> Again,  this isn't a condemnation of the OS. After 30 days, I've discovered that  I like the Z10 and the BlackBerry 10 OS a lot more than I had  anticipated, and I believe it will be an ideal platform for a large  number of power users, heavy communicators and corporate hotshots. It's  just not the most ideal option for me right now. And as every major OS  has done over time, it will evolve, add missing features and iron out  the wrinkles (BlackBerry has already pushed out its first update, so  it's off to a solid start). Which takes me to my final question: does  BlackBerry have enough time to keep blossoming? The only way you can  drive to your destination is to look forward, not at the car in the lane  next to you; I believe BlackBerry is going in the right direction now,  but it can't sit idly by and watch its competitors speed ahead again.</div></div>

the BlackBerry Z10 my very own and use it as my everyday device

I've had the opportunity to use it in every likely scenario, including a nine-day trip to Spain for Mobile World Congress. Now comes t...

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<div dir="rtl" style="text-align: right;" trbidi="on"><hr dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" />                                     <div class="image-container" dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;"> <img alt="BlackBerry 10 for 30 days" data-src-height="532" data-src-width="800" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2013/01/rim-2013-01-24-600-12.jpg" /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> I confess, I'm intrigued by BlackBerry 10.  Surprised? So am I. It's been easy to pre-emptively count BlackBerry  out of the smartphone wars based on its performance over the last two or  three years, but there's an element of mystique and personality that  have made me quite curious to give the new OS a shot. While Wednesday's BB10 launch  answered a lot of questions, it also raised a lot of new ones. Most of  the mysteries revolve around its ecosystem, hardware quality,  competitive advantages / disadvantages and if the platform can persuade  Android and iOS users to switch. As a former Pearl and Curve owner, I  want -- nay, <i>need</i> -- to determine for myself how well BlackBerry's latest effort holds up against its rivals. Thus, I have decided to use the BlackBerry Z10 as my sole device and daily driver for thirty days.<br /> <br /> From now until March 3rd, I'll experience nearly every aspect of BB10:  the UI and its learning curve, its performance and battery life,  BlackBerry World, the highly praised virtual keyboard and how well it  can handle my work load. I'll even use the phone at MWC, a major  international trade show in which I'll be even more dependent on my  mobile than usual. Throughout this process I'll be documenting my  thoughts, feelings and emotions and deliver them in a regular series of  weekly posts. By the end, we'll see whether or not BB10 can win my  heart; is it a suitable replacement for the average iOS or Android user,  or does the company still have a difficult path ahead of it? Time will  tell, and I'm eager to find out.</div></div>

Back to BlackBerry: one editor's 30-day trial run

I confess, I'm intrigued by BlackBerry 10. Surprised? So am I. It's been easy to pre-emptive...

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GreenZoner egypt

T-Mobile to begin selling BlackBerry Z10 to business customers March 11th for $249.99 (update)

the BlackBerry Z10 my very own and use it as my everyday device

Back to BlackBerry: one editor's 30-day trial run

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