Blackberry 8350i Review

Specifications

OS: Blackberry 4.6.1.83

Memory: 128 MB

Processor: A phoenix I ???

Weight: 135g

Network: iDEN/WiFi

Frequency: iDEN 800/900 Mhz

Size: 111cm/62cm/18mm

TT: 240 min

SBT:7 Days

 

 

Pro's (New Cool Stuff)

• Browser is really cool, in that is views normal pages and allows you to zoom in and out on a page, similar to how Opera mini works. But keeps the mouse feel. Added mouse hand icons let you know when you hover over click-able links. 
  
• MMS is very cool. 500 character text messages with the ability to send pictures, audio, video and animations embedded in the message. No more having to send pictures as email attachments. Just click a pic, type a phone number and send
  
• WiFi web browsing. Fast. The browser is extremely fast when utilizing the HotSpot browser in conjunction with a WiFi connection. YouTube streamed videos smoothly and quickly on WiFi
  
• 4.6 comes with docs to go including PDF. Also the font and screen resolution seem better. Also the menu options withing the OS seem more intuitive. for example to cancel a push service just high lite, menu, delete channel. Done |
  
• Walkie Talkie. AWESOME! so glad to have the True Nextel Direct connect back. Under half a second connection to one or multiple Nextel direct connect users. Awesome. So cool
  
• Groups. I can set up email, distribution groups, MMS text groups and Nextel Group connect groups. All accessible from main address book. 
  

 

Same (Items that where cool, still cool and still work)

• Facebook
  
• Myspace 
  
• Google Sync 0.5.13 works better than 0.5.12 on 4.5. Much better. 
  

 

Con's

• Browser issues. One would think that as you moved from WiFi to iDEN the device would automatically detect the connection and move from system to system speed to slower automatically. Not so. Every time I move from iDEN to WiFi I have to manually switch my browser default from "Internet" to "hot spot". But first must go in and find the connection. If if it did not automatically assign DNS (Which it only did before I loaded my BES service books on the device) I have to disconnect then reconnect the connection. If that does not work then I must reset my WiFi router then re-establish the connection. After all that, It usually drops the connection after about 45 min. If I leave my house. I start getting "Page Cannot Be rendered" errors on all Internet connections. I must go into settings, change my default browser back to "Internet"  and turn off my WiFi connection. 
  
• iDEN Internet is SLOOOOOOOOW Like 19.2kbps to 60 kbps. Slow enough that a lot of sites render "Server timed out" errors. 
  
• Push Web Services. Ok, I love the Web push services. specifically the push weather. I noticed that none of my push icons that where reloaded after the BES reinstalled my service books, where updating. I could click on the icons and get directed to the sites, but  the device info was not correct. I attempted to install over and unsubscribe. On attempting to re-subscribe, I received several miscellaneous errors.  I then went to the mobile.blackberry.com support page to modify my push settings. At this point i received the warning that "Your device does not support push service". If this is true, this sucks!
  
• Text Lag. There seems to be a lag when typing. The spell check is active while typing, which I like, but there seems to be a delay that is noticeable on the screen. 
  
• Lack of software support. Very few at Nextel have had experience with the device so finding Blackberry 4.6 and Direct connect support. Either they know Blackberry or they know Direct connect. My first attempt at activating the device was unsuccessfully due to the fact that the care rep stuck me on the wrong rate plan. The Blackberry support had to research the plan and then discuss it with a care rep then applied the correct plan. Blackberry is not much better. They have NO postings on the processor speed. When I plug my device to my Desktop manager and have it check for updates it wont allow me to. When I go to the Blackberry HHUP site, it gives me a warning that my OS isnt supported by my carrier and sends me to a form to be notified with 4.5 becomes available. Realy, Like I'm using a 8330 curve on CDMA. This is the manufacture of the device! 
  

 

BUG LIST

This is a list of know and discovered issues, outside of original design of RIM that I have gathered from my own experience and from various forums. 

• Bluetooth - 
  
  • In a call the audio will be transferred randomly from the headset to the handset speaker phone. Then the only way to get it off of speaker phone is to end call or pull battery
    
  • Static and crackle in earpiece in Blue-tooth ear piece whenever any audio transmission occurs through the handset, phone call or DC
    
• SMS/MMS - will not send receive sms or mms. will not consistently send mms. This is partly due to a Network Capacity issue. Has also been resolved in some handsets by deleting the mms service book then going to host routing table and re-registering the device. Also resending service books from the BIS can aid in rectifying this. This issue is effecting approximately 50% of all 8350i users
  
• Audio issues. The following issues tend to occur after handset is registered with a BES or as a result of Network capacity. After experiencing these issues, i conducted a series of call tests during peak holiday traffic on New Years Eve at 6:00 PM. Note these issues where experienced on two separate brand new devices over two weeks over Christmas and New Years eve 2008.
  
  • Network busy-20% of calls experienced this
    
  • No Sound. This is where the call connects but the 8350i does not transmit or receive  audio transmission. This occurs 30% of the time
    
  • Taking into consideration when the Blue-tooth transfers audio, which was about 10% of the time. The handset connects voice calls successfully only 50% of the time. 
    

 

UPDATE

12/22/08 - WiFi issue has seemed to resolve itself. I Changed BT headsets from the Plantronics Discovery 925 to a Motorola H-12. Now my device seamlessly switches between Multiple Wifi locations and gives me great connections speeds via regular browser. 

 

12/26/08 - Just saw a post that AccutWeather is having issues, especially with BB os 4.6. some Bold users are also posting issues. Therefore the push issue is most likely not due specificaly to this handset. 

 

12/27/08 - Twitter issue is rectified. I just redid, what I had done multiple times. I sent my activation code to 40404 but included the code in BOTH the subject and body. 

Men

I was eating lunch today. Looking around I saw several men eating alone. There was a similarity about all of them. The emblems on their shirts let me know they all worked at different jobs. They where different ages, had different hair styles and overall where not very similar. But still they had something in common. I thought for a few moments, contemplating what it was. Then it came to me. They all had a look of cynical pessimism and disdain. They all looked mad at the world.

A few moments latter a man in hospital scrub pants and a classy T-Shirt came in with his young attractive wife and family. He seemed different. He was confident, self assured and more pleasant. I thought of the other men I knew. A fireman who had muscles everywhere and an attractive family; he was almost always in good humor. A rich business owner, who I once saw break his leg, yet stay happy. And others who where struggling in marriages and hopping from one job to another, in disdain and depression.

What was the difference. I'm not thinking about just on that day, but the difference between a man who, as a base line emotion, is happy content, strong and confident; and the man who is pessimistic, cynical and sad. I think it goes back to what degree a man perceives he has lived up to his self envisioned potential. Not the potential he feels he has now, but that vision of life he started out with before the world crushed it. Does the man live up to the expectation the boy inside him had of himself. That seven year old boy, looking at the stars and say " I wanna be an astronaut". Or the 5 year old with a red plastic hat and his parents garden hose who dreams of rushing into the flames and saving families from the burning embers. That boy stays in us all and measures us to his expectations. Does that boy find a firefighter or middle aged man in a cubicle. We measure ourselves by our ability to fulfill our personal life vision. I think many of us feel that kid inside of us looking at us, and we dare not look in his direction, for fear our eyes will meet and the disappointment will be crushing. That causes our cynicism and depression. That kicks the air out of our lungs and shrinks our shoulders.

So what can be done? It is carcinogen to the overall organism of humanity when our men do not live up to their dreams. Like muscles atrophying from a disease, our stability as a people is waned. So what can be done? I think there are multiple faceds.

First of all the man himself, must force himself to look that boy inside himself in the eyes, apologize to him and embrace him. Then realize that every bit the potential that was in the boy is still in the man today. Time and practicalities can not erode that. But he must first break off the crust of apathy and self pity. And stand strong, pot a course and hit it hard and unyielding, like a charging rhino!

Those around the man play a roll in his vision. Many a man will yield on his vision because of the perceived pressures of the world and the short term responsibility. The family unit as a whole must realize that the ultimate health and well beeing of the family is dependent on everyone reaching their full potential, and this begins with the man. When a man is working toward the vision there may be an intermediate time when immediate needs may go unfulfilled, this is where the support must come in. The pressure must be alleviated so the man can aspire.

I have been blessed to have a wonderful wife. I remember the day she said "get a vision and I will follow you anywhere, just get a vision. " So empowering and supportive. Her strength enables me to strive after my vision and look the boy inside me and the boy that's following me, in the eye.


-Xion-

Unfair Pay - Cool!

Matthew 20: 1-16 the parable of the works in the vineyard. Jesus has already told us this, No matter who you are and how long you have been saved, or what your back ground is, if you confess Jesus and Believe in him we all get the same wages.  It’s by grace our reward is based, not on how we live.

 Now there are all those scriptures that say “those that do this will be cast into outer darkness”. True, those that do not truly believe in Jesus and do those things will, those that have done those things or struggle with those things but DO truly believe in Jesus will have eternal life, and what Jesus declares “Clean” nobody can declare unclean. Gods grace is the power to not sin and his mercy is giving us what Jesus deserves even when we act like we do. So do we sin so that grace and mercy can abound no, but don’t freak out. Live life, Love God Love each other. 

So the good news is the sinner and the saint get the same pay, if they love God and man, through Jesus. Cool. 

My Wife

Sometimes the sexyist moments is just watching my wife sleep. She is absolutely beautiful.
-Xion-

Apalachee Indians

Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2008 06:07:58

Today I went to Mission San Luis, in Tallahassee Florida. This was a location where Spaniards and Native Americans lived in harmony. On this site Jesuit and Franciscan monks built a church and very basic type of monastery. In 1604 the Apalachee Indians became disenfranchised with their Native American spirituality, this was mainly due to their perceived failure of their deities to protect them from a culmination of circumstances that had been eating away at their cultural peace. Seeking a belief that would provide a more mellifluous existence, they reached out to the local Franciscan monks. They converted to the more successful Christianity. An evangelism by success. I find this applicable for todays culture, in that this is exactly what is called for currently. Americans today convert to what works, whoever seeks to evangelize must have the real day to day goods, as far as the answers to day to day issues. Those who would claim to put their trust in God, must live a life that exemplifies what a heathen would expect to find in someone with unlimited power and resources dwelling within them. Evangelize by winning.

-Xion-

Energy Problem: Proposed Solution

1) Fuel Source conversion

a) Design a clean running diesel hybrid engine that runs off of biofuel that can either be grown or recycled from restraint grease

b) Sign agreements with nation’s largest fast food chains to make available their extra fry grease for consumers to use in their vehicles at less than 0.99 per gallon. Cap and regulate this so that the fast food industry is still making money off of this but that the American public has a cost effective source of fuel.

c) Invest in our domestic agrarian resources as a source for producing bio-fuels. The bio-fuels that are developed should be a compensation of oils from corn, soy and other replenish-able crops. These should be grown traditionally (soil) and hydroponically. These should be grown in multiple locations to install redundancy in the system.

d) Redirection of major domestic oil and gas companies to focus on the agrarian growth and processing of bio-fuel. Making agreements with farmers as they would fossil fuel deposits and minors. The profit for the oil companies should stem off of quantity and quality of bio-fuels and as a result of their alignment with the farming community.

2) Reduce our overall consumption of liquid fuels in vehicles : It has been widely stated that one opposition to organic renewable fuels is that it is not speculated that we could produce enough biofuel to maintain the country’s current need for fuel. In a budget you can increase income or reduce spending. We need to reduce spending on liquid fuel. This is a plan for such a reduction:

a) Re-establish a national rail system for freight and commuter interstate traffic. Invest in fast high capacity mag rails and electric trains that run on existing, upgraded or newly developed rails. These should be power by nuclear, hydraulic and wind turbine power plants.

b) Migrate the majority of domestic airline and bus passenger traffic to train. Airline, train and bus are all part of the same union. A multi-year program to retrain and merge the majority of employees to train traffic and building out of train stations, infrastructure and facilities needs to be developed and implemented.

c) Interstate freight delivery of raw products, goods, vehicles, mail, packages, merchandise etc. needs to be migrated from Semi Trucks to trains. Truck drivers are currently experiencing lower profit margins because cost of fossil fuels for their rigs are is going up and the price companies and organizations are willing to pay is not increasing at proportional rates. Truck drivers, and others in the intrastate trucking industry could also be migrated into the train systems on the freight side. Rails should deliver cargo into the heart of most major cities in the country and a drastically reduced fleet of semi trucks could then deliver the freight in the final in-city or intercity leg of the journey. High torque, low install, low maintenance Diesel Hybrid engines should be developed and installed in these trucks within a 10 year period of time, utilizing enhanced biofuel production processes, such as hydroponics and accelerated growth research.

d) Overall, develop a 5 to 10 year plan to migrate most interstate traffic to clean rails from air and road.

3) Transition stationary energy requirements to non-centralized sources.

a) Single Electric and gas companies should not be the main source of power for homes and offices within specific area or region. Power stations should be owned and operated by a minimum of 3 different and competing privately owned companies, with rates subject to government caps to keep pricing moving in a comparative direction.

b) Houses should be retrofitted with domestic generating systems consisting of items such as wind turbines, solar panels, rain refilled hydrogen fuel cells that should equal a minimum of 90% of the average energy requirement per foot of the square footage of that house. A way of calculating per square foot power consumption of a house needs to be developed. Then utilizing that number a system needs to be developed where new houses are required to cover at least 90 to 100% of their usage and older retrofitted houses need to produce a minimum of 70% to 90% of their usage. Sufficient insulation, storm energy efficient windows etc. need to be included in housing codes.

Modern

The modern person does not believe in heaven, they do not believe in hell, nor sin or consequences of sin. Some may have an awareness of these, but practically and day to day, these concepts have no impact on their day to day life. So an offer by Christianity to "save from sins" or "deliver from hell" or "eternal life" has no real impact on the modern man. What the modern man wants, what Christ, Christianity, Christians and more importantly, the modern church, must provide in order to be relevant and effective; is to meet the modern mans felt needs. What people are looking for is: to be able to pay their bills, get out of credit card debt, have their cancer or AIDs removed, their astigmatisms healed, pay for gas. They want to have their business succeed, to be loved and to experience love. They want to have custody of their kid and to have child care taken care of and be able to send them to college. Real practical day to day needs must be met. In order for the church to be relevant in today's world, in fact to maintain the right to thrive in today's world, Christ's church must be able to meet these needs. Only then and after has the church earned the right to talk to people about concepts such as "salvation". If a church spends its time in internal social events, singing praise and worship, speaking sermons mealy about salvation and does not meet or pay for the communities energy issues, heal the sick, solve relationship and professional issues, than it is not serving Gods purpose, and should move on. Jesus said "the same things I have done and greater, shall you do." Jesus healed peoples practical needs, that's why people flocked to Him, that's why he could speak into peoples' lives and that's why he changed the earth.