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Dear RIM,
So its nice that when you type letters in the home screen that contact names come up in alphabetical order, but lets be real--thats a little outdated now. What would make more sense is for the names to come up in order of popularity.
Google does it, and so does Apple. If RIM also jumps on the popularity bandwagon, hopefully I will stop calling Mikey Yatz Mom instead of Mikey Yatz.
Sincerely,
Tara Raffi
Popularity Enthusiast
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Dear RIM,
If you answer a call on call-waiting, when you hit End, it should only end the call-waiting call. Not both calls.
Call-m on.
Sincerely,
Tara Raffi
End Enthusiast
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Dear RIM,
The Alarm interface has four input fields in the following order: hour, minute, AM/PM, and On/Weedkdays/Off.
Now, if you were to make a bet on where BlackBerry decided to put the cursor upon entering this field, which field would you choose? Well, the most sensible choice for them would have been to put it all the way to the left, so that you can easily access the fields that most often need changing: hour and minute.
The least sensible choice would be one of the middle options, because then you would have to scroll to one direction and then back all the way to the other side in order to access all the fields. Based on the inefficiencies I have pointed out repeatedly in this blog, you may be tempted to put your money on this option. But NO! BlackBerry has thrown another twist in the game to be inconsistent even in the degree of their irrational decision making.
The cursor starts all the way to the RIGHT (as pictured above). Now, this is just annoying. Why should I have to scroll through On/Weekdays/Off and AM/PM in order to change the time???? On/Weekdays/Off is pretty much a constant setting--I don't expect most people change this EVERY time they set their alarm. Similar reasons apply to the AM/PM option (mainly because most people set alarms in AM denominated time slots). So WHYY should we have to scroll through those just to get to the time fields? The trackball is so wavery that I invariably end up changing one or both of those relatively constant options, and then I need to go back and fix it. Or worse, I accidentally set my alarm for 7:55 PM instead of AM. And nobody believes the story that your BlackBerry made you late, trust me.
So please, change the cursor so it starts off in the hour field. If we wanted to practice thumb agility there are other ways to accomplish that.
Sincerely,
Tara Raffi
Punctuality Enthusiast
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Dear RIM,
A bug: so, lets say I answer my call waiting, and then switch back to my first call... the screen still shows the name of the second caller.
How often does this happen? Always.
This is a bug. And while for most people it shouldn't be a problem identifying who we are on the phone with--we haven't given up our brains for total reliance on our phones, yet--my motto is always why give information if its going to be wrong? (Unless it is April 1st; if the BlackBerry OS is an April Fools Joke, then I respectfully rescind my complaint)
Sincerely,
Tara Raffi
Brain Enthusiast
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Dear RIM,
Ok so AT&T beat me to the punch in explaining the value of simultaneous voice and data transmission.
But if this were BlackBerry's commercial, it would be an even better sell. Why? BBM. Obviously.
This is also why it is such a tragedy that simultaneous voice and data is not offered. It is of utmost importance that we are able to maintain the heavy, uninterrupted stream of BBM conversations at all times of day, especially when we are on the phone. The purpose of BBM is to be better than SMS in every way possible, right?
Sincerely,
Tara Raffi
Uninterruption Enthusiast
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Dear RIM,
It's been about 6 years since that little silver Samsung flip phone warmed my ear, and I still miss some of the features it had. Despite my eternal devotion to my first real love, this is just wrong--there is no reason for the latest, most technologically cutting edge BlackBerry to be considered lacking to a phone that is over three centuries old in technology-years*.
So the grand idea is this: multi-colored indicator lights. There's just no reason not to have the option. I guess its classier just to have every single BlackBerry in the world always flashing red, but in this case I'd push for functionality over fashion. Its just more useful to know what kind of message you have waiting from across the room, or without having to set up a complicated system of vibration number and types (but thanks for giving us three different vibration lengths, that was a great idea). Right now, if a phone is on silent, there is just no way to tell what kind of message you have waiting for you. And, to soothe your justifiable fashion fears (its one of the only things BlackBerry still has a monopoly on--sexy) the indicator light palette can be couture-inspired. My suggestions: bamboo, everglow, phlox, and quarry would be a good start.
Sincerely,
Tara Raffi
Fashion Enthusiast
PHLOX
* Calculations for Samsung flip phone in technology years:
78.4 (US life expectancy)
divided by
1.5 (number of years until phone is obsolete, optimistically)
multiplied by
6 (years since I had that Samsung)
= 313.6
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Dear RIM,
So you're on a call. All of a sudden, somebody else calls, and your screen is filled with the classic "incoming call" screen. There are two problems here. 1) if you were doing something on your phone other than talking, like looking at something on a website, reading the latest juicy exchange with your ex-boyfriend off BBM (these are reasons we have BlackBerrys to begin with--to be ABLE to do many unnecessary things all at once), well forget it. You must wait FIFTEEN seconds, or whatever, until the call ends. Which is an eternity, these days. 2) If you want to get back to what you were doing, the only options you have are to reject the call or to wait it out. You cant send the interrupting call to the background, which would allow you to carry on your business and let the call ring its turn in the background. Hitting reject is just rude and obvious. Despite the fact that we know people usually see calls that go unanswered, hearing just two and a half rings and then the voicemail is pretty much still a universal insult.
So, I guess it would make sense to add a "close screen" option, or something. "Ignore" would be a good word, but its already taken for rejecting the call. Maybe we should switch it up.
Sincerely,
Tara Raffi
Ignore Enthusiast
