Shazam Application Review

Posted on November 3, 2010 by Gunnar Saxon

Shazam is by and large one of the coolest applications currently available on the BlackBerry smartphone platform. Have you ever heard a song on the radio, fallen in love with it, and not known what it is (or not been able to remember)? Shazam allows you to place your microphone next to the speaker for approximately 5 seconds, after which it will make the sound to a song and tell you exactly what that song is (and tag it so you can have it later).

The user interface is very simple. All black, white lettering, blue highlighting. Not much can be said about the UI, as it is very bland. However, it is still aesthetically pleasing, and the text (despite being rather small) is very easy to read.

Accuracy was that which I was most skeptic of. How in the world could a sound byte of my music direct this application to a song? To my surprise, even some of my more obscure music or less well known music was immediately picked up. The only thing that confused Shazam was certain remixes (particularly dubstep remixes). All the songs that you identify (or tag as Shazam calls it) are put in a list in which the most recent tag is at the top. You can then go through your various tags.

The nice thing about Shazam is all the extra features it gives you after a song has been tagged. It allows you to look up the lyrics, gives you extra information, and even recommends song that you may like (some of which were other songs that I already listened to). While those who aren’t hardcore music buffs (like myself) might not find this app particularly useful, it is more centered around those who like their music and like it a lot.

Shazam is offered in the Encore version ($4.99 in App World), which allows recommendations, unlimited tagging, and a laundry list of Shazam’s best features. It also comes in the free version, which is limited to 5 tags a month. You get a week long trial of the Encore edition when you download the free version. If you’re currently a Shazam user, or you’ve decided to try it out for the first time, please let us know!

BlackBerry Curve 8530 vs BlackBerry Curve 9330 (3G)

Posted on October 27, 2010 by Gunnar Saxon

The 8530 is what started it all, at least for me. Almost a year ago (mid-November), I picked up my first BlackBerry and have been mildly content with it ever since. Of course, when I first bought it, I knew nothing of build quality, memory, internet speeds, etc. I was just enamored by my first bout with a smartphone. When I started writing for BBerryDog and learning more about RIM, I started to expect a lot more of them than what I got with my 8530.

…Enter the 9330.

I have to say that I am not blow away by the 9330, but it is a huge upgrade over what I am using at the current moment. It’s easiest at this point to compare and contrast the two phones. While the similarities are astounding, the difference make the 9330 well worth spending extra cash on.

How They Compare

The form-factor of the 8530 and 9330 is almost identical. Upon using the 9330, I found that there was no familiarization period with the keyboard as they are practically identical. Both phones still have the dedicated media keys on top (which I have mixed feelings about), a 3.5mm headphone jack on the top left, mini usb directly under the jack, and 4 soft keys (a volume rocker on the right and two programmable shortcut keys on either side). The camera resides at 2.0MP with no flash on both devices.

I am overjoyed that they kept the form-factor of the 8530 when making the 9330. One of my favorite parts of my phone is that it is so light and thin at 3.7oz and 0.55”. The phone is extremely pocketable, making it great for just sliding in and out of your pocket. My biggest problem with this “upgrade” is that RIM failed to deliver a better camera on the 9330. 2.0MP is just atrocious, as smartphone cameras go.

How They Differ

As far as appearance goes, the only difference between the two is that the 9330 has a shiny, gray bezel around the face of the phone and also lacks the rubber spacers between the 4 face buttons (send, BlackBerry button, back, end/power). According to the specifications offered by Big Red (Verizon), the 9330 and 8530 have the same screen resolution, but I have found that the 9330’s screen has a much more crisp looks to it. I noticed darker darks, lighter lights, and overall better contrast.

Both phones use a 1150 mAh battery said to give you approximately 252 hours of standby time. For the past few days, I have been using my 8530 only for texting and calls (calls have lasted a total of 6:37 with 217 texts) and the 9330 for tweeting (50+ refreshes plus my own tweets) and browsing. The 8530 had to be charged once on Friday in the middle of the day. Both phones had been off the charger since 6 and both had gone through the rigors of being enclosed in cement containers (classrooms). The 9330 still held half of it’s charge after tweeting almost all day. I had sent 4 texts from the 8530 and was in the yellow (under 20%).

My favorite part of the 9330 has to be the keyboard. If you’ve ever used an 8530, the keyboard is the most unstable phone keyboard I’ve ever used. The keys slide all over the place, often resulting in mistypes and buttons not being completely pressed. Thankfully, I did not run into this issue with the 9330, as the keyboard is very tight and responsive. The trackpad was also wobbly and poorly constructed on the 8530, which is not the case with the 9330. The 9330, above all else, has fixed all the issues I had with the physicality of the 8530.

So Should I Spend My Money On This?

My simple answer would be no. If you want the best BlackBerry you can get your hands on without breaking the bank, then the 9330 is definitely the way to go. The 8530 is really what got me to where I am right now, but I can’t, in good conscience, recommend it to anyone, not with the other devices out today. If you don’t plan on being a hardcore user, and the BlackBerry is mostly just for email, then the 9330 wouldn’t be a terrible choice. However, if you want a high-quality smartphone you should probably go with something like the 9650. It’s a little more expensive, but I would definitely say that’s your best bet.

Socialscope Twitter application for BlackBerry

Posted on October 22, 2010 by Gunnar Saxon

Socialscope is so much more than just another Twitter app for BlackBerry. The words that really come to mind when thinking about Socialscope are “social media hub.” Now, you may have noticed I didn’t say social-network hub, and that is no mistake. Socialscope not only allows access to Facebook and Twitter, but also FourSquare and Flickr. But this is NOT about all of those. This is purely a review of the Twitter app portion of Socialscope.

The first thing that I noticed about Socialscope was how simple it is. The colors are simple, not over the top, and one can access everything in Socialscope from the BlackBerry menu key and the [+] sign in the top bar of the UI. Simplicity of use is a big plus with Socialscope, and definitely one of the better points

The is most definitely the most aesthetically pure Twitter application I’ve ever seen. The UI is based on a white background, black text, and blue for highlighting. The @-mentions (as it is with most Twitter apps) are highlighted in yellow and DM’s are blue. The yellow highlighting is, sadly, sometimes very difficult to see. If you turn your BlackBerry and look at the screen at an angle, you can see the yellow very well, however when you stare straight at your device, it is very difficult to see.

The keyboard shortcuts are one of the big selling items within Socialscope. Most are rather self explanatory, others may take some time to get used to (Note: these aren’t all of them, there are some duplicates):

U – update (C also works)
R – reply
V = favorite
L = refresh
K = reply-to-all
F = quote/retweet

Pros

Simplicity of UI
Basic and easy to read UI
Keyboard shortcuts
Low battery usage
Easy access to multiple Twitter accounts

Cons

Private beta (go to http://getsocialscope.com to sign up)
Network issues every once in a while. Must do a battery pull to correct
Keep you “too connected” (for those networking-addicts like myself)

If you’ve not used Socialscope, I would strongly recommend that you get over to the site and sign yourself up for an invite. Also, make sure to let us know in the comments below if you’re already a Socialscope user and if you like it! Tell us what your favorite part about it is! And, if you would like, feel free to follow the BBerryDog team on Twitter:

Taylor – @PDCasper
Alex – @dqmhose
Me – @lovexxreverie
Kyle – @FoodNoLiquor
Jamie – @Mr_Jivy
Josh – @thejoshseawell
Jon – @Stromson
Jon Jaffe – @JJaffy

Review: Verizon BlackBerry Curve 3G 9330

Posted on September 30, 2010 by Taylor Martin

I bought my very first BlackBerry Curve a little over four years ago, and I loved it. After making a jump up to the Tour, I have written off the “cheaper” feeling of the Curves and Pearls and decided I would stick with RIM’s higher-end devices from then on. Last week I received a Verizon BlackBerry Curve 3G, and my mind has somewhat changed. I’ve been carrying a Torch for about a month now, and I love it, but it isn’t perfect. One of my gripes is the size, weight, and the sliding hinge. One thing the Curve 3G brings to the table is a lightweight, slim feeling, and it doesn’t exactly feel all that cheap.

I have never been a fan of the 8500 series, at all. They were cheap, felt cheap, and had a lot of build quality issues like loose keyboards, wobbly trackpads, etc. I’m pleased to say, RIM has stepped up their game some with the 9300 series, and they actually feel like they were made with quality in mind. I wasn’t uber excited when I got the 9330, but it’s made me reconsider how much I actually like the Torch and made me want to go back to RIM’s standard front-facing QWERTY, wafer style device.

What’s good

I’ve always love the Curve style keyboards. The fret-style keyboards on the higher-end devices are great, but the letters are all smushed together. With the Curve, you have letter separation and a more “clicky” keyboard, which I’m fond of. With these keyboards, you get more feedback and I used to have a lot less typos when I was using one. Having the Curve 3G for a while made me miss my old keyboard from my 8330.

With the updated hardware, there is now ample on-board memory for applications and no need to pull your battery every couple days to free up unused memory. I didn’t really experience a whole lot of lag either while I was using the device, but that’s subject to change over time and prolonged use.

I love the build quality, size, and weight of the 9330. I was skeptical at first, seeing that the 8500 was a flop in the design sector. The 8500 and 9330 have the same body style and look almost identical, but the 9330 feels like it was made out of more dependable material. The back and sides of the 9330 are rubberized which gives you better grip on the phone and helps against bumps and drops. The dark chrome bezel gives the Curve 3G a much more luxurious look and feel, and I’m really digging the colors that they’re coming out in. It narrows the gap between the Curve and Bold series, and gives the Curve a little more professional look rather than toyish. I also love the texturized battery cover. Anyway, the Curve 3G is easily pocketed and barely noticeable in the pocket. My Torch is large and clunky. It was nice to have a barely noticeable device for a couple days to relieve me of my pocket weight.

What’s bad

As you would expect, the Curve only comes with 512MB of internal flash memory (storing pictures, videos, etc.), which is fine in combination with a memory card, but if you want to store music or videos on your 9330, you’re definitely going to need that extra storage space. My problem with this is that RIM obviously wants to direct their Curve series devices towards media players as well. They offer the multimedia buttons on the top edge of the device, but only give you 512MB of built-in storage? I know they’re trying to keep cost down on the devices, but flash memory isn’t exact the most expensive thing anymore.

I also don’t understand RIM’s mentality behind leaving the Curve 3G’s camera at 2.0MP. Even messaging phones have better cameras than your low-end BlackBerry devices, and that should be. The camera doesn’t even have a flash either. You would hope RIM would at least want to match 3.2MP considering their devices are going to require a data plan anyway (pictures taken with 3.0MP and greater will use data rather than picture messaging plans on most US carriers).

The 9330 on Verizon will ship with BlackBerry OS 5. The device is BlackBerry 6 ready, but in my personal opinion, the device should have launched with BlackBerry 6 to begin with. From my experience in wireless sales, over half of the people with a phone never hear about OS updates and remain frustrated with their device. Some may eventually get inquisitive and look it up, but it’s more likely than not that they will remain on 5.0. RIM is in a tough spot right now and can’t afford to be making decisions like this one.

The browser on the 9330 is just as horrifying as we’ve all grown accustomed to. BlackBerrys (right now) are not great tools for browsing the internet unless you’re in a bind and absolutely have to. Nothing has changed in this department on the 9330, but once BlackBerry 6 is released for it, it will sport the new, shiny WebKit browser. The new browser on BlackBerry 6 is somewhat better, but it isn’t exactly the greatest available. If you’re a first time buyer and looking for an internet browsing device, steer clear. This device can do it, but sometimes it’s more trouble than its worth.

The battery life on the 8500 series was less than desirable, and such is the same with the 9330. It isn’t horrible, but BlackBerry is known for its excellent battery life. I made it through a day with the 9330, but just barely. I have always been a heavy user, especially with being such a Twitter fiend, but I seemed to cripple the 9330′s battery pretty quickly. I didn’t have a whole lot of time with the device, and I’m not sure whether I just need to use some of my techniques to prolong the battery life, or if it really wasn’t that great in comparison to what I’ve grown used to with my Tour and 9700.

Conclusion

If RIM had bumped up the camera a notch, given it a flash, and given it BlackBerry 6 out-of-box, the 9330 would have been nearly perfect. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the device and would definitely recommend it to someone seeking a cheap smartphone on Verizon, but if you’re looking for a great experience out of a device rather than an okay experience, I would suggest the Bold 9650 or waiting patiently on a Storm 3. There is a huge gap between the higher-end devices and entry level BlackBerrys. Of the lower-end, the 9330 is the best I’ve seen yet and I expect it will be much better once BlackBerry 6 is released for it. If you already have an 8530 and you’re looking to upgrade, I say wait. Right now you’re not going to notice really any true difference beyond look and build quality. Once BlackBerry 6 is out for it, you will be entering a new world of BlackBerrys.

If you’re just coming to BlackBerry for the first time, the 9330 may be for you. It’s affordable, looks great, and does just what BlackBerrys to best, BBM and email. If you’re interested in getting a BlackBerry Curve 3G through Verizon, you can expect to pay $29.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate. For a full spec-sheet on the 9330, click here.

ÜberTwitter application review

Posted on September 28, 2010 by Gunnar Saxon

As some of you have most likely read, I am a huge ÜberTwitter proponent. You may have also noticed that many of my rants on ÜberTwitter were on how much I love it and a few things I would change here and there. Please remember though, while the application itself is not without it’s flaws, I find that it is the best standalone Twitter client on the BlackBerry platform at this time. I place emphasis on this bias as ÜT is not for everyone.

First and foremost, ÜberTwitter is a feature rich and beautiful Twitter application. But lets start from the top and break it down chunk by chunk. Beginning with ÜT’s new icon, it is far from bland or ordinary. The notification bubbles that you are used to seeing (those little black and red stars) have been replaced by different colored flowers that correspond to whether you have new tweets, direct messages, or @-mentions in your inbox. Once inside Ubertwitter, you sign in and verify your account. After this is done, a whole laundry list of options appear before you. Some of those options include the ability to automatically update your Gtalk status, which Twitter picture service and 140+ character site to use, and (my personal favorite) which theme you would like to use to skin the application. While most other Twitter apps are often rather bland, one of ÜT’s biggest selling point is that it is a gorgeous, yet functional, application. Direct messages and @-replies are accompanied by colored speech bubbles (green for direct message and yellow for replies) in order to help differentiate tweets. Despite the fact that the tweets are vividly highlighted, they are still very readable. Now that I’ve touched on several features, I’m going to go Clint Eastwood on you with The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly.

The Good:

- Fast and easy to use Twitter client
- Fully customizable
- Many options for the most finicky tweeter
- Easily distinguishable direct messages and @-mentions
- Small application size
- Works well on low and high-end BlackBerrys

The Bad:

- No support for multiple Twitter accounts
- Can get laggy at times
- Some themes tend to make tweets difficult to read
- Eats excessive battery compared to Seesmic and SocialScope
- Twitlonger support tends to be slow

The Ugly:

- Takes between 1 and 10 seconds to open a profile with 4-bar 3G connection
- Plan on doing battery pulls or soft resets once a week or more if using a lower end phone (such as the 8530).
- Did I mention that this application eats your battery life?

While it’s very plain to see that the bad and the ugly are more abundant, but, quite honestly, the good carries much more weight. As a power Twitter user, it can be very very difficult for me to find a client that I can put my full weight behind and really know that it’s going to get the job done. In my opinion, ÜT is definitely the best openly available BlackBerry Twitter client on the market today. ÜberTwitter comes in both a ad-supported, free version, and a paid, ad-free version. The ad-free version will cost you $4.99 and get you unlimited upgrades for a year’s time. If you use Ubertwitter already or have decided to give it a shot, let us know what you think of the application by leaving a comment below!

Review: BlackBerry Wireless Headset HS-700

Posted on September 21, 2010 by Taylor Martin

I’ve never been a huge believer in Bluetooth headsets, but I’ve recently been converted. Upon receiving the BlackBerry Wireless Headset HS-700 I was skeptical about how to go about a review and not being too harsh. It isn’t easy reviewing something that you’ve already got your mind made up about. Regardless, I broke open the packaging and lo and behold, my concept of Bluetooth headsets changed. I’ve had a few in my day, mostly for playing video games online, but a few months back I purchased a Plantronics Voyager Pro. While it was a nice headset, I never should have bought it. The long boom made me feel like an idiot out in public, and I would rather not use it outside of the house.

The HS-700 is different though. It’s sleek, slim, and barely noticeable to the wearer. Of course, I would still look funny wearing it in public (everyone does) and feel weird talking on it anywhere besides the comfort of my home or car. The difference though is the quality of it. Bluetooth headset manufacturers have made leaps and bounds in design over the past two years.

After getting through all of the packaging and finding the right earpiece to fit my funny shaped ears, I proceeded to pair it with my Torch. Pairing was painless, as it typically is these days. I turned on the headset and it went straight into pairing mode. If you’re unfamiliar with the pairing process, no fear, the headset speaks instructions to you and walks you through the entire setup process. Once paired, you should have the ability to answer calls, use your voice commands, and listen to podcasts, music, etc. through your headset. Up to this point, there was no real surprise, but I was still impressed with how easy everything has been made for someone who may not deal with Bluetooth a lot, or is unfamiliar with it. The next thing on the agenda was testing call quality, which turned out to be surprisingly great. I had no problem hearing the person on the other line, and they had no problem hearing me. I have since bought a Jawbone ICON and have had slight issues with people hearing me, but I’ll go ahead and claim that user error.

Simply put, the HS-700 works and it works well. Setup is easy as it talks you through everything and helps you straight out of the packaging. The help doesn’t end after the setup process, the headset will talk to you every time you turn it on. To some, this may be annoying, but I rather enjoy it. Before, Bluetooth had three functions, on, off, and pair. Now you have menus and other features built-in that extend what can be accomplished simply by talking to a tiny, battery-powered device that perches in your ear. To enter the voice commands, press the button on the outside rim of the headset. If you ever need help on a voice command menu, just say, “What can I say?” and it will give you all of the voice commands for whatever menu or submenu you are in. I found the voice commands very nice and simple to navigate and came in handy seeing as the headset has features that extend beyond the two-button hardware. Probably my favorite feature of the HS-700 comes with the AD2P capability (stereo Bluetooth, meaning you can listen to music via your headset), which is a voice command. Simply press the voice command button and say, “Play.” If you have a song that has been paused, it will simply resume. Unfortunately, if not, you will have to start up the music manually via the BlackBerry device. I was hoping that the voice commands would allow you to shuffle all or something like that if music wasn’t already playing, but no bother, it’s a cool feature nonetheless.

Probably my favroite thing about the HS-700 is how it turns on. Most Bluetooth headset are turned on by long pressing the talk button. When this is the case, sometimes you aren’t sure if you’re turning it on or off, or if you’re putting it in pairing mode. After dealing with Bluetooth devices for a long time, I’ve learned otherwise and learned the color-coded, morse code-like language from Bluetooth devices. The HS-700 is turned on by rotating the earpiece around. I really like this, it’s unobtrusive and just simply works without confusing you. The problem is, sometimes I’ve seemed to rotate the rubber fitting and find myself having to adjust that almost every time I put the device in my ear. Even still, I love the way this headset it turned on.

The downside to the HS-700 is it’s lack of features. In comparison to other devices in its price range, it has a lot of extended features with its voice commands, but some other devices offer more features and extended capabilities. With the HS-700 you can just talk to your headset, tell it to answer or ignore a call, etc. It can speak directions from a navigation application to you, or play your music. Now let’s look at the Jawbone ICON. With the ICON, I have extra easter eggs for using it with a BlackBerry. I can install an application on my BlackBerry that shows me the battery life remaining on my device. It also did not come out of the box with AD2P (stereo Bluetooth I was talking about earlier), so I couldn’t listen to music on it. This is one of the main reasons I wanted another Bluetooth, listening to Podcasts and possibly music was a nice selling feature. Since the ICON didn’t come with it out of box, I went to the website and learned that you can update the software on the ICON, change the voice that talks to you, and install applications that let you compose messages straight from the headset. All of this comes for $99.99 versus the $129.99 for the HS-700. Both are undoubtedly high-end Bluetooth devices with more capability than I would ever need out of that technology at the moment, but for the price, you’re not quite getting the same bang for your buck with the HS-700.

Maybe RIM can learn from Jawbone’s support for BlackBerry devices and really propel their own Bluetooth devices beyond the competition and offer something really cool and futuristic. Overall, the HS-700 is one awesome little Bluetooth. Personally, I love it. I give it 8 out of 10 stars. It’s sleek and slim, has amazing build quality, and just plain works really well. It’s much easier to figure out than most others, and offers great noise cancellation and excellent mic quality. If you’re looking into buying a Bluetooth to accompany your BlackBerry, definitely give the HS-700 a look over. Like I said, it doesn’t quite stack up to the Jawbone ICON with the applications and such, but it holds it own for someone who isn’t looking for applications and software updates on a device that is supposed to be plain and simple. The HS-700 works like it is supposed to straight out of the box, and I’ve yet to have a single problem out of mine.

For more information on the HS-700, you can visit the site, here. You can purchase your very own HS-700 at your local Best Buy or ShopBlackBerry.

Graffiti Radio app review

Posted on August 25, 2010 by Gunnar Saxon

Graffiti

If you’re anything like me, you listen to very obscure music. If at any given time you can be listening to Animal Collective, the Wu-Tang Clan, or Ratatat, then this is the application for you. More after the jump!

Capture on 08-25-2010 11-10-53

As you can see, Graffiti’s UI is relatively simple and easy to use, although it can be laggy at times. Graffiti is a legitimate radio station (for those of who use an hd radio, you may already to listen to it), so you don’t get to ‘choose your station’ such as you would on Pandora or Slacker. Despite this, Graffiti plays a laundry list of interesting hiphop, electro, freak-folk, experimental, and folk bands to keep even the biggest music snob happy. Not only will you hear the aforementioned, but also the music that inspired that particular band.

As a whole, I’ve grown to like Graffiti. It plays a lot of music that I like, but has also opened my eyes to different bands or new music that I have grown to like quite a lot. If your music taste is diverse enough to match mine, you will love the variety that this application puts into the palm of your hand. Grafitti can be found in the BlackBerry app world for free (and deleted just as easily, so it’s worth a try). If you give Graffiti a shot, let us know below whether you liked or disliked it.

BBerryDog

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Category Archives: Reviews

BlackBerry Curve 8530 vs BlackBerry Curve 9330 (3G)

Review: Verizon BlackBerry Curve 3G 9330

Review: BlackBerry Wireless Headset HS-700

Graffiti Radio app review