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BlackBerry Diaries: day four
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It’s day four of the BlackBerry Diaries and I find myself in a position that’s perfect for a user and dreadful for a tech writer: everything is working just fine.
In an ideal world, I’d have encountered some unexpected issues that I’d have to find my way around and we’d all learn something about BlackBerry 10 in the process. Unfortunately, things are just working, so I thought I’d do a quick list of the things I’m most impressed with.
BlackBerry Hub: I keep saying it, but keeping the focus on messaging and alerts, and having them take the centre stage on the UI it a great move by BlackBerry. It’s a slightly different way of interacting with the phone but one that I’m really enjoying. I imagine that for people whose work keeps them glued to email and/or social media, this would be a godsend.
Bedside mode: I keep meaning to talk about this and I keep forgetting, because by the end of the day, bedtime seems like just a beautiful forgotten dream. You enable it by swiping down from the top of the lock screen or when in the Clock app. When active, it disables alerts and phone calls and keeps the clock face as the default screen. You can even have it disable wireless connectivity if you need to. I’ve fiddled with the settings so that I’ll get phone calls, but the ease of turning it on and the beautiful peace of mind it brings is just great.
The multi-tasking screen: This took a while to get used to as it felt more like a task manager layout to me at first. But now I’m able to use it as a quick and effective way to jump between active programs. This may just be a case of perception, but it feels easier to access than the same function on an Android device.
There are still some issues I’m having, but nothing new and I’m going to save my discussion of those for tomorrow, when I’ll be doing a longer Verdict piece about my experiences for the past week.
