Matchstick Message #40: The Mystery Behind Moving Our Pictures, Decoded

from TaraRaffi to Student Information Requests date Mon, Apr 3, 2011 at 11:34 PM subject Matchstick Message #40: The Mystery Behind Moving Our Pictures, Decoded

Dear RIM,

Tonight I'm writing about an issue that is dear to my heart because it is one of the most hilarious and utterly confusing functions of the BlackBerry: moving pictures. You'd think that we would have this one down pat by now. Computers most basic functions are organizing information into folders and files. Humans have has practice filing papers for centuries, if not millennia. But with the BlackBerry, a little more work needs to be put into it .

The way this function is designed is actually so perplexing that I'm not sure how to go about describing it--there are just so many random, needless things (there's no logical word for it even) happening. Alright so let's just dive into the rabbit hole as many unsuspecting Users have done before us:

Step 1:

Here, we have simply highlighted a picture, then gone to the Menu and found the Move task. Simple, right? Well, this is where logic, reason, and simplicity slip quietly out of the widow.

Step 2:

What is this?!?!!!!?!?!?!?!?!?

My BlackBerry tells me to "Select" either the Media Card (Which you can't highlight. This makes sense because the picture is currently saved on the Media Card, but then why is listed as if it is an option?), Device Memory, or one of the many pictures on my phone.

Step 2.2 Lets start with the most ridiculous option: the picture icons

As you see, the picture in the background is highlighted and I tried to "move" my selected picture there. At first you would think, why would BlackBerry give me the option of moving a picture on to another picture? Its not a whole folder being highlighted, its a SINGLE picture. But then, upon undue amounts of inspection, you would realize that the Media Card option that you couldn't highlight (see Step 2) was trying to tell us that we were IN the Media Card folder. Not only is this unprecedented, but it defies organizational logic. There should be no picture icons available as options (let alone a few hundred). The Media Card option should just be open to selection.

Step 3 The only option really available: Device Memory

Here, we have selected "Device Memory". Now, disregarding the ridiculous menu options--Receive Using Bluetooth (we've already decided not to do that) and Switch Application (right now?!?!?!)--we have quite an interesting assortment of options: Move Here, Move Into, Open, Explore.

Now, unless this is an exercise in synonyms (A+ for that), I really am not sure about the abundance of options here. What is the difference between Move Here and Move Into? What is the difference between Open and Explore? I JUST WANT TO MOVE MY PICTURE!!!!!! For the sake of argument though, let's explore each.

Move Here:

Hm, the most obvious choice, mysteriously unable to work.

Move Into: This is the well-hidden button that actually moves your picture. They did a good job concealing it but I found it!!!! Mahahahaha.

Open:

If you select Open, and THEN Move Here, it works. Not sure why one must do the extra step to make this work.

Explore:

This sounds like the same as Open to me, but its really a way to see the skeleton of the file organization. This is a GREAT idea. Perhaps this is what you should see at first when you want to decide where to move your picture. The only problem is that it includes a lot of folders that you ostensibly wouldn't want to move pictures into (eg. audiobooks, dvz_temp, voicenotes).

My final analysis is that there was a room at BlackBerry full of people with good ideas, and they decided to implement all of them at once, instead of actually developing a single system that would be reasonably easy to understand and use. Kind of like a quilt. Well, quilts are nice, but if we want one we'll go buy one on purpose.

So please, just give us a normal directory that resembles basic computer folder organization we've become used to. And Move Here should just mean that pressing it moves the picture to that folder. No conditions, no loopholes. Just Moves.

Sincerely,

Tara Raffi

Move Enthusiast

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P.S. Some other jems posted below:

Why would the Camera be on the list of folders where you can deposit your picture? Nonsensical.

Forget where I saw this, but not even sure what it is trying to tell me. Also its just funny.