Matchstick Message #16: Adding BBM Contacts

from Tara Raffi to Student Information Requests date Sun, Nov 14, 2010 at 8:24 PM subject Matchstick Message #16: Adding BBM Contacts

Dear RIM,

We, the generation that was raised on the sweet nectar of constant connectivity, love BBM. In fact, it is the reason that most of us came to BlackBerry, and the reason that most of us won't leave.

So, if it is known that we thrive (and thus you thrive) on the ease and rapidity of this connection, why not focus on making it easier to use and therefore more addicting? One improvement that comes to mind has to do with the first stage of communicating via BBM: adding the contact.

I can't count how many times I have had to explain the laborious, complicated, and difficult-to-remember process of adding a BBM contact. And they must be taught two processes, both as the "pin sending" and the "pin receiving" party!!

As the "pin sending" party you must:

1. Open a text message to the person you want to add

2. Type in "mypin" WITHOUT A SPACE

3. Remember to put a space (AutoText is not a function that is intuitively understood, yet)

4. Send it

5. Wait

As the "pin receiving" party you must:

1. Open the received text

2. Copy the Pin number

3. Exit and go to AddressBook

4. Find the correct contact and select

5. Paste the Pin number in the correct field

6. Save

7. With the cursor over the desired contact, hit menu

8. Select Invite to Messenger

This is difficult for my peers. For the parents and otherwise savvy business-minded adults I've tried to teach it to--forget it. It is really just funny to watch them struggle to learn but you know that you're going to get a few phone calls (if they even remember that there is such a process) before they eventually give up and have you do all of it for them.

There even seems to be this new "Invite Contact" option on the BBM menu, but it's never proved to be a successful method for adding contacts. Maybe I could figure it out if I looked online or called tech support, but it shouldn't have to be like that. And the barcode scaning way of adding people? Its interesting, but just to people who spend a lot of time playing BrickBreaker. Most people will never learn or end up utilizing that function.

I recommend that when a pin has been BBMed to us, we can use the menu to select which contact it applies to, and the the BlackBerry sends an invite immediately. I mean come on, its not like we are going to go through all of the trouble of putting them in our AddressBook if we're not going to add them. Though it does add to the exclusivity appeal of BBM, but we can find a less obtrusive way of fitting that in. The bottom line is this: RIM, many of us have hundreds of BBM contacts--please make the process of connecting to all of our best friends a little easier.

Sincerely,

Tara Raffi

Instant-Connectivity Enthusiast

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Matchstick Message #15: Please Thread SMS and MMS Messages Together

from Tara Raffi to Student Information Requests date Thu, Nov 11, 2010 at 6:47 PM subject Matchstick Message #15: Please Thread SMS and MMS Messages Together

Dear RIM,

Thank you for updating SMS with threaded message view. It really is such a life-improving update that we can see our recent SMS history in chronological, space-saving, auto-updating order. The only problem I have is that Picture Messages aren't included in those threads.

Why? They are from the same person. There may be a technical difference in they way they are transmitted or stored (I don't know anything about this, to be honest) but regardless, users perceive MMS just as SMS but with pictures. And when a picture is sent, it is often in the context of a conversation happening over SMS. So from the perspective of the user, it doesn't make sense for that picture not to be in the thread.

RIM, please allow all SMS and MMS messages with a specific contact to be threaded together.

Sincerely,

Tara Raffi

Thread Enthusiast

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Matchstick Message #14: Please Auto-Capitalize Names

from Tara Raffi to Student Information Requests date Sun, Nov 7, 2010 at 5:48 PM subject Matchstick Message #14: Please Auto-Capitalize Names

Dear RIM,

I just can't stand it when names are not capitalized. Not only are names always supposed to be capitalized--its just proper grammar--but also, to not capitalize them is just rude. For example, I would never send a text message saying, "aloni, we should get ethiopian food tonight." This would be a poor example of proper capitalization in both ways. Instead, I would type, "Aloni, we should get Ethiopian food tonight."

What does this have to do with the Blackberry? I'm not shooting for the stars--I don't expect the BlackBerry dictionary to know every single word in the English language that needs to be capitalized. (The word "I" is automatically capitalized, but that is because it is a default command of AutoText--BlackBerry's best function after BBM, in my opinion.)

But what I do expect is that the BlackBerry be able to automatically capitalize names that are entries in the AddressBook. They are already automatically added to the Dictionary (try it, it works!), and it is known that all names should be capitalized. So though it would be nearly impossible and highly impractical for RIM to attempt to have a default functionality that auto-capitalizes all names (there are an infinite number of names and nicknames), each customized BlackBerry has in its PhoneBook a list of words that will definitely require capitalization.

RIM, please automatically capitalize the names of AddressBook contacts.

Sincerely,

Tara Raffi

Capitalization Enthusiast

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Matchstick Message #13: Searched Messages Are Messages Too!

from Tara Raffi to Student Information Requests date Wed, Nov 3, 2010 at 9:41 AM subject Matchstick Message #13: Searched Messages Are Messages Too!

Dear RIM,

I love search. Most people these days do, with all the information we're constantly processing and re-processing. Search is one characteristic that really makes Gmail and Apple computers stand out, for example. And I think the search feature on the BlackBerry is pretty strong actually, for the most part, because thanks to the very specific search fields, it comes up with what I need, and is reasonably fast.

But there are a few problems. I already discussed spell check in search in an earlier post, but another issue is that messages that a user finds during a search are lost once the user switches away from the email application.

For example, lets say I go into my email inbox and open the first email in sight. If I then exit my inbox by pressing End, go make a note in my MemoPad, and then come back to my inbox; the email I was looking at will still be in view. But if I make a SEARCH, and then select an email: if I exit the inbox and then come back to it, the email will not still be in view, and I will be taken back to the top of my email list! This is really annoying.

Sometimes, if I'm trying to do multiple things at once--like be on time for an interview appointment (they send you such long, detailed emails) while using Google Maps to find the office and making brief calls and text messages before my multi-hour departure from the world of communication--I have to search multiple times for the same email that keeps getting lost from my view.

Instead, the email that is selected should stay up until I hit the Back Arrow key, which should take me back to search results, and then it should stay on that screen until Back Arrow is hit again, taking me back to the top of my email inbox. This also avoids the other problem of running a search, selecting an email, and realizing it is the wrong one--at that point if you hit back you will be back to the main email screen and you will have to run the same search all over again.

RIM, please update Search so searched messages are treated like real messages, and kept on the screen until I exit them intentionally.

Sincerely,

Tara Raffi

Intention Enthusiast

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Matchstick Message #12: Adding Email Contacts

from Tara Raffi to Student Information Requests date Mon, Nov 1, 2010 at 7:42 AM subject Matchstick Message #12: Adding Email Contacts

Dear RIM,

Once, a few years ago, I made the mistake of "syncing" the address book from my Mac Mail application with my BlackBerry AddressBook. And let's just say, it was a disaster. For all of my contacts I had email addresses for, I now had TWO AddressBook entries--one with a phone number, and one with an email address. (And for those that say "But it allows you to choose which 'wins' on a conflict" all I have to say is that is ridiculous for them to even suggest that we should choose between phone numbers and email addresses.)

So there was a time that I suffered through typing into my phone "Elan Fre" and putting the phone to my ear, realizing seconds later that the reason I wasn't hearing a ring was that you can't call an email address. And when I want to talk to Elan, those second are wasted seconds.

There must be a number of ways to fix this. But I haven't thought of a solution to syncing, yet.

So, in the meantime, I can think of a easier way to get addresses of people you email into a consolidated contact entry. Right now, if you have your cursor over the address of somebody who just emailed you, elanfrenkel@gmail.com, and you hit menu, you will see the option Add to Contacts. If you select it, however, you will be faced with a new contact entry form. But I already have Elan in my phone!! I don't want two Elans again!!! So, there needs to be an option that allows you to either select an existing contact to add this email address to, or to make a new entry.

Even if the syncing problem is fixed, this will still be an efficient way to add additional information to existing contact entries without laboriously cutting and exiting and opening and selecting and scrolling and pasting.

RIM, though I am not normally a proponent of doing things manually, I really do need to have my email addressed in my contacts (especially if they aren't automatically remembered). So, in order to make it just minimally manual, instead of prohibitively manual, please allow email addresses to be added to existing contacts directly from an email message.

Sincerely,

Tara Raffi

Consolidation Enthusiast

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Matchstick Message #11: Editing a signature should be reasonably possible

from Tara Raffi to Student Information Requests date Wed, Oct 27, 2010 at 8:53 PM subject Matchstick Message #11: Editing a signature should be reasonably possible

Dear RIM,

We Berkeley students love our email signatures. They not only serve the function of providing great information, such as our phone number, on all emails, but also are usually healthy indicators of who we are and what we care about. But I don't have a signature on the emails I send out from my phone. Why? Because I just don't have the time to hunt around the Sprint website to figure out how to change it every time I change it on Google.

This may be different for different providers, but I know when I set it up with Sprint the first time, it was a pretty negative experience. And its just so random. Why is that the one setting for our phone that we need to go onto the website for? Does anybody even know about this? (I only found out because I was on the phone with BlackBerry customer service about once a day for the first two years as a User.)

On our BlackBerrys, we even have the capability of setting a semi-manual signature by going to Options>Owner. But you still have to type in "sig" every time you want it to show up. Why not just automatically insert it into the end of each email?

RIM, please make it a setting to automatically append our "sig" to the end of each email. And it should be somewhere more accessible than it is now from an external website or in the depths of our general Options. Gmail has it on the first page of their settings.

Sincerely,

Tara Raffi

Signature Enthusiast

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Matchstick Message #10: Texting could be easier

from Tara Raffi to Student Information Requests date Sun, Oct 24, 2010 at 6:16 PM subject Matchstick Message #10: Texting could be easier

Dear RIM,

I've been sending a lot of texts lately. So it makes me think--if I could save a few seconds off each of my texts, and gain a little peace of mind, I think it could amount to an extra minute and a half extra in the shower, or the luxury of finishing that article about how Karzai receives bags of cash from Iran. Yes, "Dream Big" has always been my motto.

How can this be accomplished? Luckily, I have two ideas.

The first improvement is on how we select the recipient of our text message. For me, the personal nature of text messages mean that almost all of texts I send out go to one recipient. Or, if there is a need to text a specific group of people very often, a "contact group" serves as a single contact to enter into the To field. My point is, almost 100% of the time I enter a single contact when I compose a text message.

So, though it is nice that the "Select SMS Contact" box allows users to enter more than one contact at once, it probably isn't used that often. Therefore, it adds too many unnecessary steps. Instead of just entering "Noah Stern" and pressing Enter, I have to enter his name and press enter THREE TIMES to bypass that option. I just want to press enter once. We should just have "Add Additional Recipients" as a separate menu option like it used to be.

The second suggestion also relates to texting's inherently imitate quality. Texts are usually sent to a smaller group of people than you call, and for those people that you do text, it is probably a semi-regular occurrence. So when you are in that beloved "Select SMS Contact" box, as you begin to type in a name, the most frequently selected contacts should come first. Noah Stern should come before Nagi Sizuki and Nathan Pezeshki. I only BBM Nathan anyway; why should I have to read his name and scroll past it each time? (Other than that I love my cousin so much :) )

So, RIM, please make it faster for us to select contacts to by cutting out the extra steps and by making it possible to chose names based on frequency of selection.

Sincerely,

Tara Raffi

Efficiency Enthusiast

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Matchstick Message #9: Why Flash?

from Tara Raffi to Student Information Requests date Wed, Oct 20, 2010

Dear RIM,

Remember when you were little and you pressed the elevator button a hundred times because it made the elevator come faster?

Well what if one day your daddy was tucking you in and he said, "Son, the way elevators have worked for centuries is changing. When you press the button the first time, it will come--this much of our tradition has been preserved. But when you press it a second time, it changes direction and speeds to the 152nd floor. When you press it a third time, it comes back toward you again. The fourth time--away again. Why this change, son? Two reasons. The first reason is that we want to ensure your excellence in counting in pairs. And second, we just think its funny to take away simple pleasures and discourage inefficient behavior in children."

This is kind of like how the Flash function works on BlackBerry phones. Sometimes, when you press the green call button, it has mysteriously changed functions to the become Flash. This is unreasonable on a number of levels.

First of all, sometimes you're pressing Flash and you don't even know it. For example, let's imagine you are in the Call Log, and want to return a call you just missed. So you press the green Call button. That's logical. But lets say the call doesn't go through (yes, the BlackBerry has been known to lag), and you--having developed the master reflexes of the successful businessman--press the green button again. Well, now you're on the "other line" and the call you placed will be ringing away without you even noticing. But after a few seconds you notice (!), and thats when the mayhem of trying to remember the number of times you pushed the button begins, and you press Flash frantically until you hear a ring, which is harder than you think because of the silences between the rings... etc. It sucks.

Or what if you're in the middle of a call and the way you're clutching your BlackBerry desperately to your head makes you accidentally press the Call button? Silence.

I guess it doesn't seem like a big deal, but my main question is, as usual, WHY!? Why do we need Flash to be so readily accessible? There is no reason we would ever need it! When we have another incoming call, the options are clearly Answer or Ignore. So we don't need it then. Then when would we ever need Flash? Its not even like you can use it to place two calls at once and conference them. You have to go through the menu anyway to do that.

So, I don't realize why Flash exists on the phone. And if there is a reason, its certainly not obvious.

RIM, please move the Flash function off the Call button. To prevent separation anxiety, maybe add it to the ridiculously crowded menu.

Sincerely,

Tara Raffi

Consistency Enthusiast

P.S. Maybe this exists just on Sprint phones, but still, it should never be allowed. I know the US carriers are powerful, but assert yourself, RIM.

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Matchstick Message #8: Strategic Key Placement

from Tara Raffi to Student Information Requests date Sun, Oct 17, 2010 at 8:04 PM subject Matchstick Message #8: Strategic Key Placement

Dear RIM,

Though I'm usually all for comedy, I don't think it should be at the expense of people with thumbs bigger than the end of a q-tip.

I mean, it seems like every time you write that text to the boy you don't realllly have a crush on anymore, and you think, "should I send it or should I not send it" and then you realize with a jolt of logical reality "No! Of course I shouldn't send it!" and you swiftly move your extremely dexterous thumb down to the Delete key... then for some reason you see your message on the other side of the draft field.

The way I see it, there are three options here: (1) make the Blackberry big enough to accommodate buttons the size of a normal person's fingers, (2) include portable keyboards in that little box that holds the charger and CD when you buy a BlackBerry, or, because neither of those are reasonably cost or space efficient, (3) RIM can stop making phones with the delete key DIRECTLY above the enter key.

If this was done intentionally, it really is the greatest practical joke ever played on humanity. Every time some body makes a mistake... it gets sent!!! Genius!

But if this was not a calculated attempt to mock the thousands of people who rely on their BlackBerry's to communicate, then, RIM, please put the delete key next to something more harmless, like Alt.

Sincerely,

Tara

Comedy Enthusiast

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