Apple Thoughts - News & Reviews on all things Apple

"The "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" stereotypes in Apple's famous ad campaign have nothing on the findings from a new study of BlackBerry and iPhone owners."

iPhone owners more likely to be women than men? Well, only barely it seems, as a little over 50% of the iPhone owners surveyed were women. iPhone owners also think higher of themselves than Blackberry owners do, according to this study done by Retrevo of 455 smartphone owners. Well, it is a cool phone...

"Paul Carton, Director of Research at ChangeWave Research, reported yesterday at investorplace.com that Apple iPhone is gaining steadily on BlackBerry's market share, a great feat considering BlackBerry's entrenched position in the business sector."

BlackBerry at 40, iPhone at 30 and closing, Palm bringing up the rear with 7!! Sounds almost like a horse race being broadcast. Regardless, iPhone is definitely making big inroads on BlackBerry with 36% of those likely to buy in the next 90 days planning on buying an iPhone. If AT&T loses exclusivity, I think it is really going to be pretty much iPhone and the also rans. What are your thoughts?

"BlackBerry owners can now sync their contacts, calendar notes and more with their Mac systems, via the newly released Desktop Manager for Mac."

We reported on the upcoming release of this program in September, and now it is here. You can get the free program right from the Blackberry site, and it requires the following:

• Mac OS X v10.5.5 and above (Only 32-bit mode is supported on Mac OS X v10.6);
• BlackBerry® Device Software v4.2 or higher;
• iTunes v7.7.1 or later.

Seems like a no-brainer if you have a Blackberry and a Mac, however I haven't read any reviews on it so downloader beware.

"The developer behind BlackBerry Desktop Manager for Mac has published extensive documentation for the must-have app, saying release of the software is "just around the corner".

This does sound like something a BlackBerry owner with a Mac would want to have, since they have made it very adaptable as far as what you can sync and to what programs you can sync. For example, the program allows you to sync to Apple's Mail program or to Microsoft Entourage simply by clicking the appropriate box. It will also allow you to sync to any of Apple's programs including Address Book and iCal, as well as any other program that uses the Apple Sync Services. No word on the release date, but you can sign up for email alerts to notify you when it happens.

"In the smartphone wars Apple's iPhone can claim to be far, far healthier than Research In Motion's BlackBerry devices, at least in terms of radiation..."

According to the EWG (US Environmental Working Group), RIM, Motorola and T-Mobile have the top ten worst phones in terms of exposure to radiation. They did say, however, that all phones are within the limits established internationally, but that consumers should consult their list and purchase phones with the lowest radiation emissions. That is if they want to be safe. The limit is 2W/Kg, and the iPhone scored just under with 1.19 W/Kg. Another reason to use Bluetooth I suppose.

"Almost 4 in 10 smartphone users who don't have an iPhone would switch to the popular Apple device for their next purchase, while 4 out of 5 of current iPhone users would buy the phone again, according to a new study. The report, by market research firm Crowd Science, also found that only 14% of non-BlackBerry users would switch to a BlackBerry device for their next mobile phone. The iPhone further outpaced other smartphones in customer satisfaction in areas such as screen size, navigation, ability to add new features and video playback quality."

Honestly, at this point, this kind of news isn't even surprising any more. For a company that many people thought couldn't crack into a crowded market, Apple not only broke in but is seriously disrupting it.

"Developers can sign up to begin submitting their apps for inclusion in the launch of App World if they haven't already and consumers can now register to stay notified of updates. To purchase from App World a PayPal account will be required, and RIM has tossed a page up on the site directing people to create their accounts."

Ugh. Paypal? Five bucks says it won't work with my security key. Something tells me this knock-off of the App Store isn't going to take off the way Google's knock-off did on the G1. The funniest part about App World is that when the iPhone came out, we were told that there were thousands of available apps for BlackBerry devices and the ecosystem for apps was very vibrant. I guess that was just hooey and no one was actually using them, otherwise why create a new distribution model? I reckon most BlackBerry owners have never added one single app to their phones up until now (I work in a company filled with "stock" BlackBerry handhelds). Amazing how it took Apple demonstrating the obvious (if you make it easy, people will buy) to get RIM, Microsoft, and Google to follow along.

"To better understand my gripes with the iPhone, it's important to know what I've replaced it with. It turns out, the crackberry masses with their love for all things hard keyboard that I dismissed with a smug "I can type just as fast as you on my virtual keyboard so nyah!" had it right all along. For the last 2 weeks, I've rocked a RIM BlackBerry Bold. And I've loved it. Let's just say if I didn't already keep my phone in my pants, that would be where I keep this one anyway."

This reminds me of when Cory Doctorow decided that he had to start using Ubuntu to set his content free. I never did get what that meant, seeing as you can produce your own content on a Mac quite easily and there's no DRM on it, but no one questioned his silliness. In this case, Ackerman has decided he need to tell the world he switched phones as if it's some great "pat me on the back moment."

You see, I'm not just an iPhone user. My second "work" phone is also a BlackBerry Bold. I find it impossible to take seriously anyone who says the Bold's keyboard compares to the virtual keyboard on the iPhone. There is no way on the planet earth that the Bold's keyboard is as good as the iPhone's. It just isn't. Period. I can type at least twice as fast on my iPhone, and I don't have to worry about mistakes, either; the iPhone's auto-correct is pretty damn good if you ignore it and let it do its job. As it is, I can't type a single sentence on my Bold without looking at the keyboard to make sure I'm hitting the right key.

It's nice that Mr. Ackerman has found happiness in the Bold, but frankly I'll take the iPhone's gigantic app catalog, huge screen, superior in every way media experience, awesome keyboard, fantastic web browser, and pretty damn solid e-mail client over my Bold any day of the week and twice on Sunday.