Matchstick Message #33: Call From Contacts?

from Tara Raffi to Student Information Requests date Mon, Feb 28, 2011 at 1:06 AM subject Matchstick Message #33: Call From Contacts?

Dear RIM,

When you're in your call log, you're most likely trying to call somebody. But when you press Menu, the menu option is "Call From Contacts"... why?!

First of all, it's not even clear what it means. I used to think it meant to call that person, but from your phone book (which didn't make that much sense, but wasn't entirely inconsistent with the BlackBerry Experience). What it actually does is goes to your address book and allows you to select somebody from there. Well, this is also an issue because a) all you have to do is hit End and then start typing in the name of the person you want to call (less is more:when there's a major, easy way to do something, why provide an obscure, confusing way?) and thus b) "Call From Contacts" is just cluttering the menu unnecessarily.

Sincerely,

Tara Raffi

Minimalism Enthusiast

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Matchstick Message #32: The Field Is Not Full!!

from Tara Raffi to Student Information Requests date Wed, Feb 23, 2011 at 3:44 PM subject Matchstick Message #32: The Field Is Not Full!!

Dear RIM,

We are all very familiar with the unfortunate reality that text messages can only contain about thirty words at a time, and in the event that you actually need to convey important or detailed information, you can expect for your recipient to receive multiple messages, twenty seconds apart, and often in the wrong order.

My message tonight is not about character limits in text message transmission; the problem is that there is a character limit when we are composing the message!! (Note: this happens with Sprint BlackBerrys, and may not occur with other providers. Regardless, it should never be allowed to happen.)

Last week I wrote a text message to my friend's mom to assure her that her son's new apartment in San Francisco was safe and clean etc., and I was just halfway through my message when I was alerted "Field Full"! No its not!! The field is defined by you, RIM, and can be as large as you want it to be!

Its bad enough that the text message is received in parts, but must we be forced to also write it in parts? In the case above, I drafted my text in MemoPad and then copied parts into the field in chunks until I reached the limit, and then sent it in batches. The alternative choice is to write half of it, send that, then write the second part. Both are ridiculous. The indestructible Nokia I got as my first phone in 2003 could fit 12 times as much as I can on now what is supposedly a "smart" phone.

So, in the absence of improvements in technology that allow us to send text messages with more than three sentences, at least ease our pain and allow us to draft messages with as many words as we need to express ourselves. You do the dirty work :)

Sincerely,

Tara Raffi

Expression Enthusiast

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Matchstick Message #31: Send/Share me that picture!

from Tara Raffi to Student Information Requests date Mon, Feb 21, 2011 at 8:33 PM subject Matchstick Message #31: Send/Share me that picture!

Dear RIM,

Wouldn't it be interesting if the verb in every sentence was accompanied/joined by one of its synonyms? This way, each verb can be more expressive/demonstrative. This must be why you give/provide us the option to "Send/Share" pictures we take! Well, thank you for pioneering/trailblazing this new mode of expression. Honestly, who would know/comprehend that not only can we Send pictures, but by doing so, we can also Share them?

Also, for the sake of form: the Menu option is "Send or Share" when you go to your Pictures folder, which is inconsistent with the "Send/Share" option which is in the menu directly after a picture is taken/captured.I like the forward slash because it is a more unique innovation/upheaval of English grammar rules.

Sincerely,

Tara Raffi

Synonym Enthusiast/Eager Beaver (listed as a synonym on dictionary.com hahaha)

P.S. Noticed afterwards that the short horizontal menu on the bottom of the picture screen just has a button labeled/marked "Send"... we must make sure people will know/perceive that this also means they can share it.

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Matchstick Message #30: This Is Not A Work Number!

from Tara Raffi to Student Information Requests date Thu, Feb 17, 2011 at 1:26 AM subject Matchstick Message #30: This Is Not A Work Number!

Dear RIM,

Why are all the numbers I put into my address book automatically designated as "Work" numbers?

I know, this is a phone for business men, but still, it is just logically unnecessary to designate something when there are no other things to distinguish it from. And for the majority of contacts in my phonebook (if yours is different then you may be more popular, or less) I would say that I only have one number with which to reach them.

Maybe, if you want to add a second number for a specific contact, THEN you should designate the first one as Work. But until that point, usually you know by the nature of the person you are trying to contact whether you would have their Work or Mobile or Home number. If you don't know, then it probably doesn't matter that much anyway. Or you can correct your mistake once you have woken their mother up at inappropriate times of the morning.

Until then, its just extra effort or confusion for those of us who have more friends than colleagues. As a young BlackBerry, I used to try snip the number from Work and graft it to Mobile... but that was too much work. Today, I just inwardly lament the waste of space on my screen every time I see the word Work, and sometimes, when I'm lucky, one of my non-BlackBerry friends will turn to me and say, "Why do you have his Work number?!" And then I get to laugh and explain to them this WhackBerry post that has been spoken so many times and only just now committed to the internet.

So please, it doesn't make sense to program a phone to make mistakes, so just let us decide for ourselves if we want to put a label on the numbers.

Sincerely,

Tara Raffi

Correctness Enthusiast

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Matchstick Message #29: Like Prometheus, We Too Are Shackled

from Tara Raffi to Student Information Requests date Mon, Feb 14, 2011 at 12:15 AM subject Matchstick Message #29: Like Prometheus, We Too Are Shackled

Dear RIM,

Ok so this week I am taking a little deviation from tradition to talk about something I want MOST in my BlackBerry, or in any phone for that matter. This isn't a Matchstick because I'm not writing about a design flaw in the BlackBerry specifically--EVERYBODY has gotten this one wrong.

Remember when all phones had a cord that attached them to the cradle and another cord that was attached to the wall? Then we were given the luxury of wireless landline phones, where there was only an invisible wire that miraculously extended throughout your entire house and backyard. THEN we were given cell phones, which could go almost anywhere and were the ultimate symbol of freedom, and wirelessness, and joy.

But cell phones are not truly wireless. There are still multiple hours per day that each phone remains tied in the shackles of its ancestors. Charging time.

Most of us charge our phone once a day (some cell phone batteries last more than a day, or some, like my Tour, inexplicably last only 1/3 of a day--and no, its not just because I use it a lot), and if we time it well, it is while we are also asleep and immobile. BUT STILL, what about that time in between plugging it in and actually being unconscious when we still want to use our phone for last minute correspondences? Or what about in the middle of the night, when you want to check the BBM you just got but you don't want to unplug it or you'll never find the cord again, and you don't want to sprawl in that uncomfortable position over your night table to be able to read it? It is in these times we become like our prehistoric ancestor, like a tetherball pathetically swinging around that pole it is attached to.

Even worse however are those, like my friend Elan, who never remember to charge their phone at night, and unable to stay put in one location long enough are chronically without a cell phone or with a dead cell phone. This is all because of the charger cord.

Prometheus stole fire from the Gods and gave it to cavemen. What did we do?

What I suggest is this: each phone come with an imbedded one-minute battery, TWO rechargeable batteries, and an external battery charger. This way, you use up your battery while the second one is charging, and at the end of the day, instead of plugging your phone in and dithering about it like a fool, you just pop in the second battery that has been charging all day. And because there is a one-minute internal battery, your phone doesn't turn off and take FIVE minutes to restart!!!!! GENIUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now, you can put your phone wherever you please, and you can have a fully re-charged battery in seconds with no harm done to your ability to wirelessly and freely and joyously communicate at all times of day. This is particularly useful for business men: argument complete.

Sincerely,

Tara Raffi

Charging Enthusiast

(Perhaps the only enthusiast of charging because I already use this method except I wait 5 minutes each time I replace batteries but who cares because im WIRELESSSSS!!!!)

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Matchstick Message #28: If I don't want it to load, that means don't load it, please

from Tara Raffi to Student Information Requests date Wed, Feb 9, 2011 at 11:43 PM subject Matchstick Message #28: If I don't want it to load, that means don't load it, please

Dear RIM,

Last weekend, while enjoying the delicious pastrami sandwich of the new Wise Sons Deli (if you live in San Francisco you just became very lucky) Scott and I discussed how we use Blackerry's Browser application.

<--- Scott!!

Browser ---->

Aside from reaching agreement that the almost only practical functionality of the browser is to conduct Google searches of quick facts, and that Google was the homepage of both of our phones, it was interesting to find out that Scott, like me, is a regular user of the "Go To..." Browser menu option. This is because it is a place where you can access all of your bookmarks (for the few other things you use the browser for) and, more importantly, you have direct access to a Google/Wikipedia/Bing/etc. search bar.

This is how it normally works: I open my browser, and I immediately press Menu and then Go To... because why would I wait for the Google homepage to load just so I can type in my search query and then wait AGAIN for the results, when I could simply type my query in at the Go To... page and only wait once?? But problem is this: even after I hit Go To..., the homepage keeps loading anyway!!! WHY?!?! I pressed Go To... !!!!!! I don't want to go to my homepage!!!!

What usually ends up happening is I race against the speed of the loading of my homepage (the only time I am thankful for its sluggishness) and sometimes I'm almost finished typing into the search bar in the Go To... page, when the Google homepage pops up, in a smug mocking of my inability to type on this tiny keyboard fast enough.

So please, when I specifically go to my menu and press Go To..., that means that I DO NOT want to go to my homepage, so please don't load it anyway.

Sincerely,

Tara Raffi

Racing Enthusiast

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Matchstick Message #27: Exception Error

from Tara Raffi to Student Information Requests date Sun, Feb 6, 2011 at 6:39 PM subject Matchstick Message #27: Exception Error

Dear RIM,

I was flipping through my friend's Java textbook yesterday, and I turned to a page about how to handle an "exception" when writing a program.

I don't know anything about coding software, but the first thing that came to mind was that most times when I restart my phone a little black screen pops up that reads: "Uncaught exception...".

When I told my friends this they laughed at such an un-elegant communication of an issue in the functioning of the software. To all of us non-computer-science-students I think it's kind of like if a gust of wind blows up your skirt and then you stand on a chair and call out "Hello! Everybody just saw my underwear!" Not very elegant. So this is one issue.

The other issue is that there is a malfunction that causes this to happen in the first place. In my experience, I encounter this error message when I put in a new battery and when my phone restarts I have an unread BBM waiting for me. So this probably means either that there is logical discontinuity in how the software tells us that a BBM was sent to us while our device was powered off, or more troubling, that perhaps a BBM was lost while our phone was Disconnected from the world (though my experiments indicate this is not the case.)

If there is an error there should either be a) an attempt to find a solution, or if that is not possible, b) a formal indication of a slip in the system. For example, in the case of the undergarment exposure, to say "Oh, excuse me" to the people directly next to you would be a better solution. In this case, more appropriate ways to handle the exception is to simply remove the notification (if it is unimportant), or to tell us in English (not Java) "Some messages sent to you while your BlackBerry was powered off may have been lost."

Sincerely,

Tara Raffi

Propriety Enthusiast

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Matchstick Message #26: But Sometimes We Want The Screen To Light Up

from Tara Raffi to Student Information Requests date Wed, Feb 2, 2011 at 10:03 PM subject Matchstick Message #26: But Sometimes We Want The Screen To Light Up

Dear RIM,

In the spirit of my last Matchstick, I will now talk about a time when I think the screen should light up. When we get messages.

First, I must acknowledge the wonder of the indicator light. Classy, discreet, and gracefully urgent, the flashing of that little red light intimately binds us BlackBerry Users to itself, much in the same way mothers can feel their growing child kicking in the womb or cows can tell when it is going to rain.

It is wonderful because it alerts us in the most unobtrusive way--no vibrate, no eye-catching graphics dancing across the screen--so when we are in meetings, or in class, or at the dinner table we can be alerted about our communications by a seemingly inert object.

But what about those times when your BlackBerry is on silent and you want to be alerted about a text message? What if your BlackBerry is an uncomfortable distance away from you (2 feet)? The thing about a discreet red light is that it is hard to notice (discreet)!!! Either you have to be directly looking at it, or you have to be trying to concentrate on something else while continuously monitoring your BlackBerry out of the corner of your eye (as I am doing right now in the library, waiting for Gary to text me back). It's just annoying. Your brain has no rest from the endless slavery of the BlackBerry, especially because every time you move your head and the light bulb reflects across your screen for a split-second you grab your phone... but it's just a false alarm.

A simple and non-innovative solution to this is to have the screen light up when we get a text message or BMM (or whatever it is that we want to be notified about--the beauty of self-determined settings). That way, we can see it farther away in our peripheral vision--a luxury. Most people want to be able to know when they are being contacted, even when their phone is on silent, without having to have ESP connectivity (faster than EDGE).

Sincerely,

Tara Raffi

Illumination Enthusiast

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