Should I switch from iPhone to Blackberry Bold?

February 23, 2009 2:17 PM

iPhone or Blackberry Bold with specific uses...

I have an iPhone and quite like it for music and the phone itself (and for Grocery Zen), but I hate hate hate it for making notes to myself, something I do very often. The lack of cut and paste and any advanced note taking software is terrible.

A friend has offered me a new BB for $80 (she won it but already has one). However, I've never touched a Blackberry before and wonder if its better suited to my purposes.

I use my phone for (in this order):

- note taking
- music
- phone / texting
- grocery zen (shopping list / recipe software)
- alarm clock

I do not browse the web on a phone or check my email (something previous askme questions about this topic have been concerned about). I do not use maps or look at youtube or watch videos. In fact, my preferences is to have my provider disable internet features on my iPhone.

So, would the BB be better for what I do?

Also, how do they synch with Macs regarding my contact list and music/cover art? Are playlists exported? Is it painless or painful? How are they for listening to music (is there forward/back/volume on the headphone, etc)?

Are there third party apps for things like shopping lists and recipes?

I'm on Fido in Toronto if that makes a difference.

posted by You Should See the Other Guy to Technology (9 answers total)

Not really answering your question but I was also annoying by note-taking on the iPhone and I tried out the ShapeWriter app. You're given a keyboard and to write a word, you don't press the letter buttons, rather, you move your finger from C -> A -> R to spell car.

Also, I frequently use EccoNote Lite - it's a self recorder that works pretty well.
posted by 913 at 2:21 PM on February 23, 2009

in my experience, blackberry synching on a mac can be pretty good for contacts and calendar, but i never found a music solution that worked for me. It's pretty cheap to get 4GB of memory into a blackberry and run some music HOWEVER it's not nearly as much fun because managing it is a chore and the interface on the BB sucks. Typing on my BB 8830 was much faster and enjoyable than typing on my iPhone. Lack of cut and paste is the BIG FLAW for iPhone.

I've been meaning to look for some voice to text software, that would solve a lot of issues for me.
posted by brandsilence at 2:37 PM on February 23, 2009

- note taking
- music
- phone / texting
- grocery zen (shopping list / recipe software)
- alarm clock

For your needs the Blackberry is:

- good
- lousy
- good
- dunno
- good
posted by Kwantsar at 3:30 PM on February 23, 2009

On the iPhone, some people make a Contact called "notes", and use the notes field to store such data. Then it will sync along with other contacts. Clumsy, but it works.....
posted by TDIpod at 3:36 PM on February 23, 2009

There's been some great progress made regarding BB/Mac music sync. A preview version of an official iTunes sync app for Mac is available here.

I personally think you'll prefer the BlackBerry for your purposes. I carry a BlackBerry (8900) for work and bought an iPhone for personal use and I find that I only really use the iPhone for web browsing, gaming and media functionality. Anything that involves typing like email or note taking ends up getting done on the BlackBerry. To be honest the only thing I'd miss with the iPhone if I didn't have it would be the games.
posted by saraswati at 4:44 PM on February 23, 2009

Seems like a blackberry would fit your needs better, but like everyone else has said anything more than 10 or 20 songs on would be painful to manage.

Also, I do a lot of note taking with the built in camera, which is awful on the blackberry and therefore not much use. If you take notes in this way I wouldn't recommend the blackberry.
posted by kinakomochi at 5:55 PM on February 23, 2009

Should you buy a brand new Blackberry Bold for $80? Yes. It will most likely fulfill you where the iphone can't, and if it doesn't you can always eBay it for a considerable profit.
posted by who else at 7:25 PM on February 23, 2009

Re: Music

This is certainly improving. I use my Bold for all my music needs. I have a 16gb card in it and it works well. The Bold has excellent sound output.

It's true, it's not as good as the iPhone for music management and navigation.

But, if you're willing to pay $20, there are a few pretty nice pieces of music software you can buy for the Blackberry. They pretty it up a fair bit.

And you can use MediaSync to Sync music from iTunes onto your phone.
posted by ChrisManley at 8:05 AM on February 24, 2009

Okay, so I got the Bold and have to say that it has been a nightmare. I was able to get music on it with the Media Sync program but haven't been able to get contacts, notes, calendar, etc, onto the unit. I downloaded PocketMac, which is apparently supposed to do all this, but it can't find the device even though I see it on the desktop.

I also searched the official BB forums and the problem is rampant, with not a single post from a moderator to clarify anything.

Anyone considering buying one of these things and you're on a Mac, I'd avoid doing so. Five hours fucking around with this tonight and I'm ready to throw it against the wall.
posted by You Should See the Other Guy at 9:12 PM on February 25, 2009