January 16, 2010

• After much procrastination, I finally upgraded my Blackberry Storm 9530 to the 5.0 Operating System. This essentially makes my Storm into a Storm 2, except without the wi-fi and the surepress 2.0. The reason for the delay on my part is because I really wasn't looking forward to setting up my customizations and apps for my phone once again, plus there's always the chance that I'm going to lose my e-mail, text messages, contact list, and calendar data in the process of the upgrade (as reported by some users). Well, after installing a new OS to my PC, I decided why not go ahead and install the new OS to my phone.

  First thing I did was use the backup data option on the Blackberry Desktop Manager, for the "just in case" situation. Then I went ahead and began the process of the upgrade, which I believe took about 30 minutes to do. After it was done upgrading, the first thing I noticed was that my data stayed! E-mail, text messages, contact list, calendar data, and even most of my currently installed apps were not deleted (Blackberry messenger messages were erased though). There were some apps that needed to be reinstalled (like Facebook), but to be fair the upgrade software did have a short list of apps warning of their uninstall during the process. The only thing I needed to do afterward with the apps that did stay where they were, was to reinstate my username/e-mail, passwords, etc... to them; as if I just installed them on my phone for the first time. Some of the settings stayed though, which is a nice plus. I did have to re-customize some of my icons to my home screen, as well as put up my wallpaper again, but that's not a big deal at all. I got to give R.I.M. a great job on making the upgrade nice and easy, with no hassle.

  The 5.0 O.S. for the Storm may at first glance seem like there's no real difference, but the truth of the matter is that while the changes look and feel subtle, there IS a difference. I read user reports saying how the Storm feels like a new phone after the upgrade, and I've got to admit that I too had that feeling. There's a certain subtle aesthetic change to the GUI, that it looks better than before. The main major not-subtle improvements that I noticed are the media player (video, music, photos) and the SMS/MMS format, which I thought were changed for the better. It also added a proper file manager function to the list of default apps, which is a very welcome surprise. The overall speed of the phone also feels faster than before, and it's probably because the memory management for the applications works better. For some cheap thrill, I also do like the "bounce" that the screens and menus makes whenever I "slide" things. Things are just a little bit more streamlined that it's a significant improvement overall.

  You hear and read a lot of crap about the Blackberry Storm, but I honestly think that it's a great touch screen phone. If you argue about the amount of apps that the phone has, sure I concede to that and admit that the iPhone and Droid is where you should go for the sheer number of apps. I understand that the majority of users just cannot seem to adapt to the "surepress" (*click*) screen over the traditional touch screen, and that's the main hurdle to liking the Storm. For those of us who can adapt to the surepress and agree with it's philosophy of "separating navigation with confirmation," then the Blackberry Storm really is the touch screen phone for us. Now with the 5.0 O.S. the Storm is even better.

  • 5:05 am
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