iphone v/s blackberry

iPhone vs. Blackberry: Power and Performance

iPhone has a faster CPU than Blackberry and more memory capacity. In everyday use, though, iPhone’s slightly larger capacity makes no noticeable difference. Both machines instantaneously respond to users’ commands. Competition between batteries also ends in a dead heat. Both machines will run on battery alone for approximately three hours in constant use, and will keep going between ten and twelve hours just idling. When iPhone first hit the market, Blackberry devotees argued iPhone could not stand-up to the dangers and demands of rigorous everyday use. Blackberries admittedly take a beating, because their developers had corporate road warriors in mind as they designed the machines. Over the long haul, though, iPhone has proven amazingly durable, and many of its early detractors have recanted, admitting they mistook iPhones touch-face and sleekness for signs of weakness.

Because Blackberry designers set-out to satisfy corporate buyers, their machines have more text-message and e-mail capacity than iPhones. Blackberries change voice to text and text to voice more adroitly than iPhones, and they manage messages more efficiently. Although hardly anyone judges handhelds by their phone features any more, Blackberry is, in fact, the better telephone. In WiFi and internet tests, the two machines performed equally well. Both browse the web efficiently, and both link well with the most popular social networks.



Because it was first to market, Blackberry still enjoys a slight advantage in connectivity. Especially for business applications, Blackberry dominates, because it links easily with Microsoft Exchange. In fact, until late 2009, only Blackberry linked with MS Exchange. iPhone now offers an MS Exchange link, but it remains less than seamless and still requires some de-bugging. The two devices reach a stalemate in download capacities—both download and install new applications and MP3’s more or less at light-speed.

iPhone vs. Blackberry: Ease of Use

Most users agree iPhone’s touchscreen makes it far more user-friendly than Blackberry’s “qwerty” keyboard. Although ardent iPhone fans admit it took them a little while to get comfortable with its touchscreen and especially with its motion sensor, they compare the learning curve with the original adjustment from ms-dos commands to mouse-clicking when the very first Mac hit the market in 1984. “Once you get the hang of it and develop your own touch,” one veteran user says, “it becomes no contest. iPhone responds and navigates far better than Blackberry.” Women also give iPhone the edge in “vanity scores”: No one ever broke a well-manicured nail using an iPhone, they say.



iPhone vs. Blackberry: Applications

Comparing the two handhelds on the basis of applications seems a little unfair, because Blackberry lags so far behind iPhone it seems they do not even try. One reviewer commented that shopping the Blackberry apps store reminded him of visiting a pawn shop that sold only used 8-track tape players—an apt comparison according to users who have tried both phones. The difference originates in Apple’s more democratic approach to application development: Apple encourages iPhone users to develop and market their own applications, triggering both healthy competition and amazing innovation. Although the iPhone apps market looks a lot like an internet flea market, nevertheless iPhone applications empower users to do on their phones almost anything their minds and imaginations can conceive.


Similarly, iPhone gaming prevails. iPhone’s combination of responsive touch screen and motion sensor enables a richer, more varied gaming experience, and its combination of faster processor and larger memory enables player versus player competition Blackberry cannot rival. Hardcore online gamers look for their favorite new challenges on iPhone just days after they debut on CD-Rom, because iPhone offers a gaming experience comparable with handheld gaming devices for all the major manufacturers.



iPhone vs. Blackberry: Market Statistics

iPhone made its spectacular debut in 2007, and it steadily has eroded Blackberry’s market leadership ever since. When Palm introduced its advanced Blackberry late in 2008, it triggered a spike in Blackberry sales, because Palm’s operating system represented a major advance over all of its predecessors. Even with all of Palm’s improvements, however, the sales surge proved short-lived. In the third quarter 2009, iPhone sales eclipsed Blackberry’s for the first time—no surprise to industry analysts who, frankly, had expected the leaderboard to change much sooner.

Examination of sales in different market segments reveals what everybody always already knew. Blackberry continues to dominate the business market, because Fortune 500 corporations invested millions in Blackberry hardware and software, and they cannot afford to change their allegiance. Blackberry remains most compatible with Microsoft business software, which also dominates the corporate market. Among small businesses and especially in the personal consumer electronics market, iPhone now clearly dominates, promising to extend its lead as applications proliferate like dandelions in wet dirt.

All about the iphone 3GS Camera review

–The Camera–

They bumped up the resolution of the camera to 3.2MP, but the thing I love the most would have to be the auto/manual focus capabilities. I’ve never seen a camera that would let you choose which spot you want to focus on simply by touching it on the screen, but I’m sure that will be the next big thing on point-and-shoot cameras. Combining this with some camera-specific apps I found (more details in a later post) will make this a valuable device to be carrying in my pocket.

I have quite a few friends who ended up grabbing the iPhone 3GS, and one of the first things there’s always comments on is the quality of the images. Some are surprised at how good they turn out, while others say it could be a lot better. I think for a phone the camera is pretty darn good… except in low-light situations where a flash is a must-have.

I took some time to walk around Millennium Park in Chicago since it’s right down the street from where I work, and along the way I took some pictures. I didn’t just take them with the iPhone 3GS though, I also took the exact same photos with my Canon XSi Digital SLR for comparison sake. The iPhone doesn’t really let you adjust any settings when taking photos, and so I decided to set my DSLR to fully automatic mode in the spirit of keeping things fair. I did my best to split each of the photos so that you can really see the differences when they are side-by-side.











As you can tell from the example photos the iPhone 3GS isn’t the best camera, but it’s pretty good for those times you don’t have a dedicated camera on you. One thing I did when taking the photos above is I let the iPhone focus on the center without manually adjusting it. I noticed, however, that if you’d tap the screen to focus on a different part of the photo that the brightness would also adjust accordingly. So after you get used to working with the iPhone’s camera you might be able to take some pretty nice photos.

–The Other Features–

Here’s my quick thoughts on the other new features:

* Speed – I didn’t think the speed increase would make that much of a difference, but it does. Hearing a stat like “2 times faster” doesn’t really put things into perspective until you sit down to use it. Everything is snappier… switching between apps, loading websites, playing games, and so on. Plus there’s double the amount of memory, and because of that I noticed Safari has never unloaded from memory. That means the websites I was viewing when I closed the browser will be there (without refreshing) the next time I open Safari.

* Video – There is no doubt in my mind that this will become my primary method for capturing videos. Previously I had used a point-and-shoot camera for taking videos since I don’t like hassling with a bulky camcorder, and I love having a video stored as a single downloadable file. Given the amount of free space I have on my iPhone I’ll be able to save hours of video.

* Voice Control – I think I’ll be surprised at how much I’ll use this. I tested it out on a few contacts, and also for controlling my music, and overall it worked pretty well. What makes this useful for me is that I can activate this even when my phone is locked by holding down the Home button, or by holding the button on my headphones. So I really don’t have to take the phone out of my pocket to call someone if I’m already listening to music. Now if only it would read the name/number to you when receiving a call with your headphones on.

* Maps – Having the map rotate in the direction you’re facing was also a big selling point for me. Working in downtown Chicago it can be tough to figure out which way the GPS wants you to go when you’re walking since the little dot doesn’t move very fast. This makes finding your way when walking a lot easier, but I noticed that a lot of things seem to cause interference with the compass causing it to be inaccurate at times.

* Support for Apple In-Ear Headphones – I bought Apple’s in-ear headphones a few months ago because they had some really good reviews, and I have to say they are the most comfortable pair of headphones I’ve ever owned. The main reason I got these headphones was because they supported hands-free calling with the iPhone, but the volume up/down buttons never worked since this was a hardware limitation. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that all of the buttons on the headphones are now fully supported on the iPhone 3GS.

I was running the iPhone 3.0 software on my iPhone 3G about a week before I got my new phone. Apple definitely tuned the overall performance of the software with this release, and combining that with the new hardware makes it that much faster.

There are also a lot of little things around the operating system that I’ve noticed, and I really like. Such as being able to display the remaining battery level as a percentage (on the iPhone 3GS only, apparently because previous iPhones didn’t have an accurate enough battery meter). Or the fact that when an SMS/MMS fails to send it just places an exclamation point next to the message, but it will still let you keep entering more if you want. Before if a message failed to send you’d have to wait to send that one before you could try sending another.

Overall I’m really happy that I upgraded because I use my iPhone for hours everyday when commuting on the train. For some people the upgrade may not be worthwhile, but I spend more time on this than I do my personal computer. So it’s a device that I like to keep up-to-date.

Feel free to jump into the comments and shoot us your thoughts/questions on the iPhone 3GS.