I have to admit, I have done my fair share of salivating over the iPhones in the Apple store. They’re not only fast, sleek and intuitive, they’re made by Apple and I love them. But… I have Verizon and I’m not willing to change to an inferior provider just to have an iPhone. Not to mention the fact my contract isn’t up yet.

So, instead of an iPhone I ended up getting a Blackberry Pearl. I’ve used Windows Mobile devices on several occasions and hated it. The last phone before the Blackberry Pearl was the VX6700. Nice slide out keyboard, but Windows Mobile is too bulky. In typical Windows fashion, it claims to do a ton of things, but ends up not being able to do any of them well.

I’ve fallen in love with my Blackberry Pearl. Now, when I see or hold an iPhone, I think “wow, this is a cool, but it doesn’t do what I need it to do.” Let’s compare the iPhone to my Blackberry Pearl:

• You can’t send MMS (pictures or video) messages with an iPhone. That seems really dumb for a phone these days. Especially when the phone has a camera. Why can’t I send an MMS? My Blackberry Pearl does a great job of sending photos, video and even audio. Check one for Blackberry Pearl.
• You can’t even receive MMS messages with an iPhone. If your friends have a regular phone and try to send you a picture message, it won’t come through. True, they can email it to you, but it still seems silly that the iPhone can’t receive a picture message. Check two for Blackberry Pearl.
• You can’t play 90% of the videos you find on the internet, unless they’re in .MOV format. Sure, the iPhone has a nice YouTube application, but what about stuff on other websites? I’ve only had one instance where my Blackberry Pearl couldn’t play a video. Check three for Blackberry Pearl.
• You can’t save a picture you find on the web to your iPhone. It just won’t do it. Want to make it a background? Not going to happen. The Blackberry Pearl is very intuitive about this stuff. It knows right were to save a file based on it’s type. Check four for Blackberry Pearl.
• You can’t take video recordings with your iPhone. Seriously, you can’t do it. Again, it seems strange to hear people talk about this being the phone of the future and then finding out it doesn’t do something even the most basic entry level phone can do. My Blackberry Pearl has a VERY nice video recorded and the playback is extremely sharp. People are amazed at the picture quality. Check five for the Blackberry Pearl.
• Ringtones can only be purchased through iTunes. If your friend has a ringtone they want to send you, it won’t work. Even with Verizon, I can still download ringtones from the internet with my Blackberry Pearl. It even knows it’s a ringtone and asks me if I want to set it up as my current ringtone. Check six for Blackberry Pearl.
• Uh, there’s no keyboard on an iPhone. I do love the look of the iPhone virtual keyboard, but too many people complain about it. I was a little nervous about the SmartType feature on the Blackberry Pearl, but it’s really smart. It’s almost like it can read my mind as I’m typing. The more you use it, the smarter it gets. Even though the keyboard on the Blackberry Pearl isn’t it’s strongest item, it’s better than the iPhone keyboard. Check seven for Blackberry Pearl.

Yes, I have a lot of things I LOVE about the iPhone, but overall I’m thrilled with my Blackberry Pearl.  Wait, did I mention the iPhone is only available through AT&T?  Yeah, that’s the major deal breaker for me.  Even if they corrected all the issues above, I’d have a hard time making the switch from Verizon to AT&T.

If I missed some items, please comment below and let me know.

I was forced to have my first experience with Roxio Media Manager today. It didn’t go well! Let me explain and offer the worlds greatest solution to managing the media on your Blackberry Pearl without using the Roxio Medio Manager.

It all started when my iPod was stolen from my car the other night along with my bluetooth headset. Nobody broke into my car because they didn’t have to break in. I was kind enough to leave it unlocked for them. I felt like an idiot. I live in a very safe neighborhood, but it was the first day of Spring Break and I think the neighborhood kids were bored.

I used my iPod for audio books more than anything else. My car was my rolling university as I listed and learned everywhere I went. That was over now. Fortunately I had everything on my iTunes in a secondary hard drive.

It was now time to try out the media capabilities of my Blackberry Pearl. I knew my Pearl was also an MP3 player, but I hadn’t run it through it’s paces. The first thing I did was install the Roxio Media Manager I recieved from Verizon Wireless. Over 180 gigs to download this gigantic program. Once I installed it, I was ready to put my beloved audio books onto my Blackberry Pearl. But wait… and wait… and wait…

Roxio Media Manager is VERY slow. I just upgraded to a very fast computer and everything runs perfect except Roxio Media Manager. It’s brought my machine to a crawl. No wait, not a crawl, a screeching halt! I couldn’t do anything with this software. I can’t imagine this ever went through any type of testing period. When I did manage to get a song from my iTunes library to Roxio Media Manager I couldn’t remove it. I would right click, click on “remove” and the next time I started Roxio Media Manager it was back.

Here’s the Solution:

Update: I wrote the below instruction before I discovered something very cool. Here’s how to move music directly from iTunes onto your Blackberry Pearl.

Uninstall Roxio Media Manager immediately. The only reason you need this is to access the internal memory on your Blackberry Pearl (I never store anything on there and if I do, I can manage it from within my Blackberry Pearl). If you have a memory card installed in your Pearl, you can use Windows Explorer to transfer music, videos, pictures, ringtones and voice notes. It’s as simple as dragging and dropping just like you do with any other drive or directory. No more dealing with Roxio Media Manager. I wish someone had told me this sooner.

What is Windows Explorer? It’s not Internet Explorer. Press and hold the Windows key (it’s between Ctrl and Alt in the lower left corner of your keyboard) and then press “E”. Get it, Windows (E)xplorer? Should be easy to remember.

Make sure you turn on Mass Storage

If you plug your Blackberry Pearl into your PC via the USB cable you should see it show up as a removable drive (just like a thumb or flash drive). If it’s not there, you probably haven’t turned on the “Mass Storage” on your Blackberry. Here’s how you do that:

1. From your home screen, press the Blackberry Button (just left of the “pearl”).
2. This should bring up all of the icons. Now click on Options icon (for me it’s a little wrench).
3. Scroll down to “Media Card” and select it.
4. “Mass Storage Mode Support” should be set to ON.
5. “Auto Enable Mass Storage Mode When Connected” should be on YES or PROMPT.
6. Save those setting and reconnect your Blackberry Pearl with your PC.

If you still don’t see a new “Removable Disk“, you may not have a memory card installed. You can check this by opening the little door on the left side just below the USB port on your Blackberry Pearl.

Once you have your Blackberry Pearl showing up as a removable drive, you can drag files in just like you would any other drive or folder. No need to convert your MP3’s for your Blackberry. Best of all, no more dealing with Roxio Media Manager and that’s a GREAT thing! Sorry Roxio…

Attention Research In Motion: The Blackberry Pearl is the best phone I’ve ever owned. You’re hurting your reputation by having your product associated with such a horrible piece of software like Roxio Media Manager. There must be a different solution if you plan on competing with the iPhone and iTunes. This is a battle you can win, but not with Roxio Media Manager.

Two of the most innovative companies have finally come together to create the application everyone has been screaming for. Finally a piece of Blackberry Pearl software made specifically for the Mac. PocketMac® for Blackberry is now available. What will it do for you? PocketMac for Blackberry will allow you to sync your Mac and Blackberry. Now your calendar, tasks, contacts and notes will all be on your Blackberry when you leave the house or office. It works with Blackberry Pearl or Curve and the following applications:

• Mail.app Email
• Entourage Email, Contacts, Calendar, Tasks and Notes
• Address Book Contacts
• iCal Calendar and Tasks
• Now Contact / Now Up-To-Date Contacts, Calendars & Tasks
• Meeting Maker Contacts, Calendar, and Tasks
• Lotus Notes Contacts, Calendar, and Tasks
• Safari Bookmarks (One-Way sync)

No more need for secondary applications like Missing Sync. Best of all, PocketMac is absolutely free. You can download your copy of it right here:

Download PocketMac for Blackberry

As I mentioned in another post, Google Maps is one of the most important applications you could install on your Blackberry Pearl.

Once you’ve installed it, you’ll want to know all the shortcuts that make it much easier to use. Here’s what you’ll need to know:

Press 1 Zooms out

Press 3 Zooms in

Press 2 Toggles between map and satellite view

Press # Show search results

Press 4 Show previous search location

Press 6 Show next search location

Press 5 Scroll up

Press 8 Scroll down

Press 7 Scroll left

Press 9 Scroll right

Press 0 Show “My Location”

Press * List saved favorites

You can also use the pearl button to scroll left, right, up and down.

If you press the pearl button when you’re looking at your search locations a new menu will come up showing you more information about that location. This also has a listing of phone numbers and the ability to dial the business directly.

If you don’t have Google Maps on your Blackberry Pearl yet, you need it.

If I had to recommend just one application to add to your Blackberry Pearl, it would have to be Google maps.

Real-time traffic — Find out exactly where the traffic is and estimate delays in over 30 major US cities.

Detailed directions — Whether you plan to walk or drive, your route is displayed on the map itself, together with step-by-step directions.

Search for local businesses — You can search for a specific business name or a general type of business. You can even type in an address.

Movable Map — It’s very easy to zoom in or out scroll side to side.

Satellite imagery — Get a bird’s eye view of what you’re looking at in the map.

Here’s a little video from Google to explain the latest feature called “My Location”:

Grab your Blackberry Pearl and browse over to www.google.com/gmm and start using Google Maps for your Blackberry.

Once you have Google Maps installed you’ll want to learn the keyboard shortcuts in Google maps specifically for the Blackberry.

I’m always giving my thumb a major workout as I try to scroll through pages and pages of emails using the scroll ball on my Blackberry Pearl. I desperately needed a way to go from 2/3 of the way down my list of messages to the very top. I knew there was a way, I didn’t know it.

Here’s some keyboard shortcuts I found. I’d love to know of any others you may have.

PRESS 1 – Go to the top of your list of messages

PRESS 7 – Go to the bottom of your list of messages

PRESS 2 – Move up one message at a time.

PRESS 8 – Move down one message at a time.

PRESS 3 – Move up one day at a time.

PRESS 9 – Move down one day at a time.

PRESS 0 – Page down

PRESS 5 – Start a new blank message

PRESS * SYM – Go to your unread messages

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