Shift from a Blackberry

[mtbykr]

I am a longtime Blackberry user, and I am curious as to what other former Blackberry owners thought after they made the switch to the Shift. I am in sales and in my car alot, so one hand operation is important as is email and sms. Of course the most important factor is how it actually works as a phone. I haven't made the switch to the shift yet, but I'm close to pulling the trigger. Thanks

 

[Obmutescence]

As a former blackberry user I can say the shift is a good phone to transition to. If you need one handed use you'll have to use the vertical keyboard which you can get used to pretty easily. This is only my 2nd day with the phone but I'm loving it so far. Battery life was bad the first day but I've done a lot of tweaking and am down about 10% after an hour and a half with mild use and 15 minutes of pandora. The phone is pretty fast too, especially compared to blackberry. Only thing I've somewhat missed is bbm but ill get over that.

 

[Triple Threat]

I came from a 9330 and love the Shift so far. I used the password keeper on my BB but found a few good ones on the market. The biggest thing I miss is the ability to set different profiles and "holster". I hit the volume keys every now and then and change the ringer volume which I hate, but I'll get used to it I suppose.

 

[liquidxit2]

While Im not a blackberry user I was a former palm addict. I can say if your coming from the old school palmOS and rim environments android is a HUGE change. The shift is a very nice phone and sense UI is pretty good at handling business tasks as well as personal. I made the change to android last summer and while the adjustment was big Im glad I did it. Android has helped me handle on the go work very well and I dont know why I didnt make the switch earlier.

As for password managers go try out lastpass.

 

[tony bag o donuts]

Ewallet, Lastpass, etc. tons out there.

I use CT scheduler for profiles, but its pulled from the market.

here are others:

profiles - Search Android Apps on AppBrain

 

[tony bag o donuts]

I am a longtime Blackberry user, and I am curious as to what other former Blackberry owners thought after they made the switch to the Shift. I am in sales and in my car alot, so one hand operation is important as is email and sms. Of course the most important factor is how it actually works as a phone. I haven't made the switch to the shift yet, but I'm close to pulling the trigger. Thanks

Welcome aboard.

As CB guys argue and love their devices you will see that android really doesn't become as outdated spec wise.

The community over here is friendlier, and we don't complain over 512 of ram lol

 

[glenninduluth]

I just came from a Blackberry Tour and I know what you mean about being able to use it "one handed". Even though I waited for a good, small, slide out keyboard phone to switch to, I find myself using the on-screen keyboard far more than I expected. There is a bit of a learning curve going from Blackberry to Android but its not bad. The Shift is a far better phone than my Tour ever was. Battery life has been a bit better with the Shift but it's not a night and day difference. The only thing I have found that I miss is the automatic locking of the phone when I would slide my Blackberry in its holster.

 

[Krgdesigns]

I came from a tour as well and am just getting used to the onscreen keyboard for one handed use, I think the feel of the buttons I was just comfortable after so many years of a blackberry. I do miss the holster function and some of the quickness of email delivery, one thing I do love is the quickness of the internet and that type of stuff so I think I will get used to it. I like the size of the phone as well.

 

[tony bag o donuts]

Magnet sleeper is the only thing I miss

 

[mtbykr]

What is the delay in email? I do a lot of email so that is important to me. With that said I have switched everything over to gmail (1 personal and 1 business)...will this make a difference since it's gmail rather than yahoo, comcast, business, ect....?

 

[Obmutescence]

What is the delay in email? I do a lot of email so that is important to me. With that said I have switched everything over to gmail (1 personal and 1 business)...will this make a difference since it's gmail rather than yahoo, comcast, business, ect....?

Yes gmail you will usually receive instantly. Other e-mail is not as reliable...

 

[tony bag o donuts]

You will get mail on your Gmail Account. The other accounts pulls the emails rather then push them like a Berry. So I just have them forwarded to my Gmail Account.

 

[mtbykr]

Forgive my ignorance, what is the difference between a push email and a pull email?

 

[jscher2000]

Forgive my ignorance, what is the difference between a push email and a pull email?

With services that support Exchange ActiveSync (e.g., Microsoft Exchange Server, Windows Live Hotmail), the phone opens a connection to the server and listens at all times for new mail from the server.

Some IMAP servers supports push email with the IMAP IDLE protocol; I don't know much about that.

I'm not sure whether GMail supports EAS or IMAP IDLE, or both.

With other servers, the phone "polls" the server at intervals (from 5 minutes to a couple of hours, as you prefer). The server cannot contact the phone in between these polling sessions, so no mail comes into the device during those times.

 

[mtbykr]

How does the shift handle multiple email accounts? Does it dump it all into one mail screen or can you separate it if you want?

 

[ekz13]

came from a 9650 and 8530 (wife and I) no problems, I'm using swype and she's using the beta, I like the swype keyboard, very intuitive, emails are the same too, I have 2 gmails, 1hotmail, 1 yahoo. I have my gmail set up to retrieve my hotmail, yahoo and I end up getting those just as fast as the gmail so it's all good.

When they come in it will have 2 labels (folder id's) showing in my inbox, but also the hotmail/yahoo respectivily, so no worries on that front.

since they all dump into one box, it's all good, the only thing is you have to select between the two gmails, but I could also set that up to dump into the other gmail to have them all in one box too if i wanted, but it's only one more click to get to it, and I can switch inside the inbox so not a big worry for me.

 

[CaliCat]

I came from a Bold 9650 on my personal account to the EVO Shift 4G and am LOVING it. (Still carry a Torch for work, so I get my BlackBerry 'fix' if I need it).

The only complaint I have is that battery life isn't as good. I do miss the magnet sleep function a little, but other than that, life is great with Android. And my personal email has been Gmail for years so that's instant.. and if I update a contact on my PC, it's updated on my phone's contacts literally faster than I can pick up the phone and look at it.

I used the Password Keeper on the 'Berry, but have found OI Safe to my liking. The only comparable app I can't find yet is a good Twitter client. Both UberTwitter and Social Scope had great features... nothing comes close yet on Android. So far, Plume and TweetDeck are the most malleable.

 

[mscottfl]

I too converted from a 9630 (8330 before that) to the shift. Been drooling over android for awhile but after buying the Epic on launch day and returning it not even 24hrs later I wasn't sure I was going to be able to do it. The shift came out and I loved the size, and keyboard was manageable so I figured I'd give it another shot. The one thing I really needed was battery life- and the shift has delivered. Does it die faster than my blackberry- sure- thats because the blackberry never died in one day. But I charge it nightly and never have a problem having the shift last through MY day (7am to midnight) with the majority of use being between 6 and midnight. I'm satisfied and other than getting used to a slider form factor and more "touch" screen interface than I've ever had, it fits my needs.

On the email front- my office didn't have a BES server so exchange was my route to email for the office. Have a live active sync vs. relying on a laggy push from exchange is awesome. I can also now access my folders and move emails as I need to which was never an option on the BB. I'm happy...I think I'll stick with it.

 

[liquidxit2]

How does the shift handle multiple email accounts? Does it dump it all into one mail screen or can you separate it if you want?

All 3 of my emails have seperate access. Open the client and there is a drop down selection or navigate menu>more>account list to switch inboxes. Sense handles email very well.

Sent from my PG06100 using Tapatalk

 

[mtbykr]

Does the shift have speed dial keys?