What are we missing by not using BB10?

[F123D]

Another member brought up BB10 and says we're missing out by not using it.

You guys don't know what you're missing by not using BB10. And I'm serious.

Anyone currently using or did use a blackberry care to share the pros and cons?

 

[mKTank]

I for one was very impressed by its heavy use of gestures. Seems like fast workflow is something they really focused on. I could see BB10 taking WP8's spot to become the third choice after Android and iOS, especially thanks to that Android app support.

 

[Lloydbm41]

I for one was very impressed by its heavy use of gestures. Seems like fast workflow is something they really focused on. I could see BB10 taking WP8's spot to become the third choice after Android and iOS, especially thanks to that Android app support.

That Android app support may not be there for much longer. Blackberry is essentially promoting pirated Play Store apps in order to try and get Blackberry users on board. I know the issue has been discussed at the Google-plex and on many podcasts over the past couple of months.

Google likely hasn't done anything at this point because the Blackberry user base is tiny and they probably expect the company to fold within 12 months. May not be worth the time or effort in Google's eyes.

And the BB10 UI can be easily replicated on Android. You don't need to touch any physical buttons at all, should you wish to do so. So, there isn't a whole lot I see people missing from Blackberry. They ported BBM and the UI is replicated. There are no other 'exclusive' blackberry apps that would make people want to convert.

 

[2298754]

In for this thread. I'm curious. What is so superior about BB10 that makes it better than Android/iOS?

I had a PlayBook. It was a pile of junk.

 

[MRU]

In for this thread. I'm curious. What is so superior about BB10 that makes it better than Android/iOS?

I had a PlayBook. It was a pile of junk.

Read my hands-on thread from months back....

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1611774/

Basically notification centre is great and having a centralised hub for messaging and other is very handy... and the way multitasking windows become widgets when minimised is very clever.

Other than that there is nothing that makes it superior - it's just different and sadly the lack of apps in blackberry world, the fact it still takes a couple of minutes to boot up from cold, the fact it still requires the odd battery pull due to instability, the fact that android apps support is touch and go - especially considering the overhead of running android apps within BB10 when BB hardware is quite a distance back from top tier android devices processor wise and GPU wise.

So yes. BB10 has some nice features, but sadly it's just not as mature or we'll rounded overall as iOS or Android 4.3/4.4

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That Android app support may not be there for much longer. Blackberry is essentially promoting pirated Play Store apps in order to try and get Blackberry users on board. I know the issue has been discussed at the Google-plex and on many podcasts over the past couple of months.

Google likely hasn't done anything at this point because the Blackberry user base is tiny and they probably expect the company to fold within 12 months. May not be worth the time or effort in Google's eyes.

And the BB10 UI can be easily replicated on Android. You don't need to touch any physical buttons at all, should you wish to do so. So, there isn't a whole lot I see people missing from Blackberry. They ported BBM and the UI is replicated. There are no other 'exclusive' blackberry apps that would make people want to convert.

Yes BB World is terrible. It's recommended apps are atrocious and literally full of ripped off android apps. BB decision to reward ANY developer with free phones and stuff meant there is a mass of app submissions to BB World - just sadly 99.999995 % of them are junk.

The fact then that BB recommend some of these apps in the store is shocking because it just shows there is NO quality control and points to the whole thing being an unsupervised breeding ground of rubbish.

It reminds me of Amdroid marketplace when it started. It took google a long while to clean it up and it still has problems itself with dodgy apps. But BB World is like the Wild West of app stores. You take your chances....

 

[CyanLite]

The thing I am most worried about with BB10 is how Blackberry is doing financially and in the market. Its market share is going down and majority of devices sold past quarter were BB7. I don't think Blackberry is going to last very long. Otherwise, BB10 is really awesome (minus the app store).

 

[cube]

BlackBerry is managing their cash flow very well.

The losses from last quarter are mainly depreciation of assets and inventory.

Now with the Foxconn agreement, they will seriously improve their inventory costs.

Sales have not been good, but they have done barely any marketing of their devices.

And they don't promote pirated apps. You can sideload pirated apps in Android itself.

What you should do is to buy apps at serious stores like Amazon's, or directly install apk's offered at own developer sites.

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I had a PlayBook. It was a pile of junk.

I was waiting for BB10 and was not impressed when the half-baked PlayBook was released.

Even when the first BB10 devices were released this year, it still lacked polishing.

The proper evaluation starts at BB10.2, which was released a couple of months ago, when I bought my Z10.

Someone could argue that the real showcase would be the upcoming release, with its ability to directly install apk's, and additional Android APIs, including native and Google Maps 1.0

 

[///M5]

Another member brought up BB10 and says we're missing out by not using it.




Anyone currently using or did use a blackberry care to share the pros and cons?

Hi,

Sorry for chiming in late.

Well, for me BB10 (Z30 specifically) has given me a boost in production. The Hub is just brilliant. They have taken the traditional "Notification Center" to the next level. I don't have to jump between different apps anymore (email, sms, bbm, whatsapp, fb, twitter, gtalk, ). Any 3rd party app can integrate smoothly into the hub rendering in literally never opening the actual app.

It's also the first phone that can get me through the day battery wise. Extremely smooth and never crashes.

I'd also like to highlight the sharing options; it's a breeze to share anything to any app. More like Android but way more polished and integrated with the OS.

The overal experience is unique. The native apps are a pleasure to use. Plus, any Android app can now be easily installed directly from the phone.

Just my .02.

 

[iRetired]

If BB would put 10 in a slider with a real keyboard and touchpad like my Torch, I'd be all over it. Maybe that's what BB is hinting at for later this year.

 

[sentinelsx]

No one is missing out by not using any smartphone too. These "missing out" posts are just more inadvertent shilling for the favorite company. I used a flip phone last month for three weeks and i survived well, the only thing i hated was having to type SMS using the tiny numbered keyboard.

 

[Hastings101]

I don't think you're missing out on much really.

Pros: - Blackberry Hub. I love having all notifications and the ability to send text/e-mail/social media and other messages in one place. This is really the main reason why I bought a Z10 and will probably stick with Blackberry until they die out or the competition adopts this feature.

- Using gestures to navigate most of the OS is so much nicer than pushing a button.

- Great multitasking

Cons: - Blackberry World still sucks as badly as it did on the old Blackberry phones and probably always will

- Installing Android apps is possible but requires a bit of an annoying work around (that would scare most tech illiterate people I know away) via an app called Snap if you want to install them directly from Google Play instead of getting them from random internet sites.

- Kind of buggy, even at 10.2.1. Never had the OS crash or reboot on me but sometimes system applications (like the Hub) freeze up which requires waiting several minutes or restarting the app.

 

[InuNacho]

That Android app support may not be there for much longer. Blackberry is essentially promoting pirated Play Store apps in order to try and get Blackberry users on board. I know the issue has been discussed at the Google-plex and on many podcasts over the past couple of months.

Google likely hasn't done anything at this point because the Blackberry user base is tiny and they probably expect the company to fold within 12 months. May not be worth the time or effort in Google's eyes.

I believe you're missing the point of .apk support. It's around to show developers how easy it is to take their already existing apps and port/use them on BB. Same goes for the end user, we can using nondescript methods use our purchased Android apps on our shiny new BBs.

They lost a lot of ground in the 7 to 10 transition, they have to make up for it somehow.

 

[cube]

- Installing Android apps is possible but requires a bit of an annoying work around (that would scare most tech illiterate people I know away) via an app called Snap if you want to install them directly from Google Play instead of getting them from random internet sites.

Or you can just get your Android apps from the Amazon Appstore, which were put there by their respective developers. I don't care if some apps are missing.

 

[InuNacho]

Or you can just get your Android apps from the Amazon Appstore, which were put there by their respective developers. I don't care if some apps are missing.

I use Share Apps which is available on the Playstore to transfer apks from my devices to essentially anything else.

 

[cube]

Or you can just get your Android apps from the Amazon Appstore, which were put there by their respective developers. I don't care if some apps are missing.

Now here's a bummer: you cannot log out from the Amazon Appstore, only uninstall.

 

[FFR]

Another member brought up BB10 and says we're missing out by not using it.




Anyone currently using or did use a blackberry care to share the pros and cons?

Don't waste your time. Bb10 is a doa platform, just like web os.

 

[ravipiero]

Its actually a decent os, with gesture and blackberry hub. But nothing more than that.

I thought I would miss blackberry hub when I switched back to iPhone, but I don't.