Verizon Internet/Blackberry Storm??

A couple questions for those that may have…or had verizon internet and or the Storm.

We are pushing to take the final step…wireless!! We’ve got rid of the home phone years ago. Computer is still hooked to a cord so we are testing out the wifes blackberry world tethered to the puter. So far it works as fast as our dsl, some pages faster, some a little slower…all in all I’d call it equal. We don’t have much for internet options where we’re at. From what I understand, the storm should be a little faster than her current world.

So…do you have verizon internet?? What do you think of it..reliable?

Storm users? Any feedback? How are the pics? The ones I saw looked good but I didn’t have time to really go over them either.

I’ve read some Storm reviews… people saying the click screen suks. Then the good reviews just say those people don’t know how to use them??

Our plan for now is to keep testing the tethered BB for a while. Unless plans change we’ll both be buying the Storm. We like the fact we can get phone/mp3/camera/internet all wrapped in one…but how well does it all work??

Any input is appreciated.

BIRDDOG

I have sprint, and I’m running a touch pro, honestly it works really nice when I’m tethered to my laptop, haven’t dumped the cable at home,because I stream music/tv from that computer to my cell phone, otherwise I could totally live without the cable. I get a little over 1 meg download speeds. More than good enough.

I rarely tether anymore the phone alone suits my needs nicely.

Wish I could see 1mb download. I just ran a test for each, got 400 hooked to the wall and 380kb tethered. Sometimes it’s a little better/worse…depends on the time of day. Like cave man speed compared to yours.

My location doesn’t help!

I’m not much of a techi…I assume if I tether when I’m in town, my download speed would be comparable to yours??

BIRDDOG

BD, I’ll type more later, but I have this setup and would give just about anything to get rid of the storm.

BIRDDOG,

If you want the BB for tethering, get the Curve. I wouldn’t go near the Storm ever again. If you just want the access, get the USB727 or the UM175. I have several of both and they work great.

Here’s a link to a URL that briefly touched on the Storm. Brief discussion of Storm

Ok, had to get the kids out the door.

I’ve had the Storm since Dec 5th. I’ve read the book, front to back. I’m very, very unhappy with it when it comes to typing. It’s very painful even finding phone numbers when driving. I need to get better with the voice dial feature. Unless you have transparent thumbs, I’m not sure how you can type more efficiently with these things. God forbid you misspell something and have to got back in a sentence. Apple still rules the world as far as touch screen goes.

The response times on the device are horrible. It never knows when to stay in a portrait or landscape mode. Even if slightly tipped it changes on you. Next, it gets confused and it’s nothing to wait 5-10 seconds for the processor to figure out what mode you are in.

The positives, the browser is AWESOME. Compared to any other device I’ve used. Only my wife’s Itouch is close to this. The camera is OK. The pictures below are from yesterday.

As a tethering device, it’s OK. I feel it’s still very slow, but I’m also accustomed to T1 + speeds at both work and at home. However if you current DSL is similar to the old device, this will be better if you can get 3G service at your house. How much, I’m not sure.

I have a Dare and got 30 days of free internet. Hated it. I suppose if you didn’t have internet or wanted it in the boat to see radar it would be OK but not as the only internet connection. I think Verizon also has an air card but that is $60.00 a month which I think is high.

Yeah you should be real close to it, give or take in town. I’ve been doing it for a good 5-6 years, not until this phone have I had great speed.

I know with windows mobile there are several ways to do this without paying extra each month, one popular choice is pdanet, not sure if or how it works on a BB.

It’s also faster on my phone to tether through the usb cable, Bluetooth works, but you suffer a bit of speed loss doing it that way, I’m working on sharing my internet with the wifi on my phone, the I can eliminate the cable and it doesn’t appear to cost me any speed.

For years I tethered with 128K speed Probably made a good 1000’s posts on here, it works fine for casual surfing, it was better than nothing at the time. Forum wise I’d load a bunch of pages and read one as the others were loading, it worked pretty good, I “may have” also logged a “few hours” playing online poker at those speeds, with little ill effect.

Really I don’t find the need to tether much anymore the internet works pretty slick on the phone, the only downside at the moment is there isn’t a good browser that plays flash media currently, I have one browser that will play flash files, but it’s rough to use, waiting until pocket internet explorer does, then I’ll truely be happy.

Have those of you who own the Storm updated the operating system since taking it out of the box for the first time? They’ve been making some big changes since then that may cure some of your ills.

I’m running 4.7.0.75 Not sure if they have come out with any updates in the last 10 days.

They can fix alot of stuff for performance, but they will not be able to fix the typing issues. However, if you don’t reply to email or txt msgs much, it may not be that big of a deal for most.

Good stuff.

We’re kind of split, wife really likes her 8830. This is what we’ve been tethering with. Happy with the speed most of the time. She can type pretty fast, which is essential for her work, so she’s hesitant right now to switch. All the bad press about the click screen. The curve is also on her radar.

I on the other hand am ready! I’ve never owned a BB. So learning to use one will be “new” for me…I think it’s probably easier to start fresh than jump from something your used to like the 8830 or the like and jump to this touch screen.

The guy we talked with at the V store, nice guy, really went over his phone(storm). I asked him to type up and send a email…we had heard and read the touch screen is bad. That guy could FLY on the touch screen. Not sure what the mode is called, but it had 2 letters per button. I can’t type that fast on a regular keyboard!! I picked it up typed a few lines… I noticed my big thumbs were hittting other buttons, but the more I used it the better I got, certainly a learning curve.

I personally am not much of a email or messege sender so that aspect of the phone isn’t a real big deal for me. I need a phone, camera, mp3 and the browser.

Your pics look good imho.

The guys that hate your storms…take away the typing/messaging/emails aspect of the phone. I know…that’s what BB’s do. But take that aspect away, browse, camera, mp3…how is it?

On another note…anyone know how to find out this info…there’s a new tower that went up 1 mile up the road. The structure is complete. How do I find out who’s tower it is? If it’s V, we’re definitely dumping our phone cord and tethering!

Anyone else with the storm, curve or the like…please chime in. This info helps.

P.S. V is the only carrier we’ll use, we’ve had them all and V has worked the best for us and where we travel.

BIRDDOG

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I personally am not much of a email or messege sender so that aspect of the phone isn’t a real big deal for me. I need a phone, camera, mp3 and the browser.

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V has phones that do all that. Might be cheaper than the BB plan.

I would just get a phone if those features are not that important to you. However, if you must get a BB, I would get the Curve.

The new Storm is cumbersome and dangerous in my opinion. I can’t hardly use it in the car. When I call any place with a VRU and need to type, I have to hit extra buttons just to get the stupid touchpad up. By default the buttons on the screen are for mute, speaker phone etc. I’m constantly accidentally muting my calls just by my cheek touching the screen. Don’t try to hold it with your shoulder and cook…

Go back to the store and mispell a word in the begining of a sentence then try to land the cursor on that exact word you need to correct.

Hey, I’m a huge fan of V, but they really missed the boat on this device. I’ve had them all when it comes to BB’s other than the curve. Now I wish I would have went from the 8830 t0 the curve.

Seriously you should check out a touch pro too (verizon has it too, albeit a little different than the sprint version, it won’t matter), a bit different than the BB, but there are mind bogglingly good forums to tweak all sorts of things on the Windows Mobile phones.

Curve user here, albeit on Sprint. Great phone. After using a HTC-6800, aka “Mogul”, Windows Mobile device with touchscreen I don’t want anything to do with another touchscreen. I am at least twice as productive using the scroll ball on the Curve and typing with my thumbs Blackberry Style. I despise the Mogul and glad our work got rid of them and got BB’s instead.

Now I have two Curves, one for each hand.

The wife is thinking curve…I’m still thinking storm.

Even with the neg. reviews of the keyboard..I’m not much of a typer, messager or emailer but think if I learn on the storm it won’t be bad. On the other hand those that have learned on older BB’s…I can see how making the switch could be frustrating. The wife doesn’t want to switch, she says she’s learned and is efficient with her current keyboard. All the rest of the reviews minus the keyboard on the storm are generally good.

I’m spent on researching phones…been at it for days.

We have a good plan with V having 4 phones on it. I think I’ll try the storm for 30 days, I can exchange it if I’m not happy. If I keep it longer than 30 days, we have 2 other phones that are coming up for renewal, one in april, the other in may. At least I’ll be covered for a while if the storm is as frustrating for me as it is for others.

It’ll be a good upgrade…Lakedale is stroking us for a internet connection!!
After crunching numbers it’ll be $15 cheaper a month to bundle everything with V. We’ll still have the same speed connection and gaining another full function phone.

BIRDDOG

Why do you want a BB if you don’t txt or email much??

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Why do you want a BB if you don’t txt or email much??

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I guess this what I’m getting at, With sprint a BB is more money a month than a non BB , a big reason I got a Windows mobile running phone. Sure if you need or use the BB service then it’s worth it, I wouldn’t need that, this (my touch pro) does about everything nearly as good.

All Im saying is there are a lot of phone that can do what you want, you don’t have to limit yourself to a BB.

DELETE…I better recheck my numbers…something didn’t look right with that post.

If you do get the storm, be sure to set yourself in the calendar when you can return it. I messed up and went past my return date. Now I’m stuck.

Sorry for being so negative on the device, but I’ve been using BB’s since…well I don’t recall 6+ years. The 8830 was solid for emails/txt etc. Horrible browser, no camera etc… The storm is great for those features and if that is what is important to you then it’s probably a solid device. I was just stating their are cheaper options to get similar functionality. Good luck!!

I appreciate all the replies…negative maybe. But I asked for the feedback!

We actually just got back from V. I chose the Storm. I was on the fence between that and the Dare. When discussing the plans for each phone…the Dare would actually be more exensive to do what we want, tehter, internet, etc…. Made my choice easy.

The wife chose the storm as well. She didn’t want to choose the curve and find out she liked the storm better. The way they have the pricing set up, it made sense. We have many options to get out if need be. Sell, return within 30 days or upgrade when our other two phones come due for replacement(couple months). At least we have outs if we don’t like them.

We’re looking forward to testing them out and getting a good feel for them. If you see some of my replies that look like this…skf keniwmfd wkikw. You know what I’m typing from!

BIRDDOG