We give a lot of attention here on Gadget
Addiction to the iPhone and, quite frankly, it commands it. With its growing
market share and pop-culture iconography, the Apple branded phone is just as
(or more) ubiquitous a brand name as BlackBerry. So last week when the Storm
reviews started rolling in, no article was complete without a comparison
between the two. And the responsive was fairly unanimous: the iPhone remained
the undisputed touch-screen du jour. Well, RIM made a promise a few weeks ago
to address some of those issues that made the match-up a no-contest. Yesterday,
there came an early prognosis on that promise from a rather unlikely source.
Tech news blog Boy Genius Report somehow managed to get their hands on the
unreleased patch 4.7.0.76 (BGR has somewhat of a history getting the latest out
of Waterloo).
So now that The Boy Genius Report has had
their hands on the BlackBerry Storm OS 4.7.0.76 update, what can we expect?
Well, they’ve broken down what’s improved and what hasn’t. Noteworthy improvements
include a more responsive accelerometer, better power consumption, faster load
times, touch-screen enhancements, as well as additional features such as
text-size automatically increasing when in landscape mode. The update has no
official release date and as BGR notes, it’s not even a sure bet that it will
ever be released (though one would think so). They did report some major
malfunctions with the camera and other issues that remained unaddressed from
the previous version. One thing is certain though, if RIM wants to stave off
the tidal wave of bad PR (see Stephen Fry, among others) then this update should be
dispatched sooner rather than later. The statistics certainly point to BlackBerry’s weakened grip on a market they enjoyed a stranglehold over just a few years ago. And with a headlining feature of a touch screen, the
Storm seems to situate itself as a direct response to Apple. If that’s the
case, though, then RIM’s problems extend beyond a patch.
Nevertheless, early word from reviewers is
based on the initial OS and those reviews have been less than favourable. For
some it’s just another chance to climb up on their soapbox and acclaim the
Apple brand yet again. Here’s hoping something betters brewing in Waterloo.
