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The first Blackberry came out onto the market in 1999, heralding the dawn of the convergence device. The Blackberry (before Blackberry Cellular Phones was originaly intended as a complicated pager. But its local messaging system was so popular that its rabid cult following forced an authority like Webster’s New World School Compendium to honor “crackberry” for being the “New Word of the Year”. RIM’s latest BlackBerry, the Storm, is a try to un-king the mighty iPhone, which appears to have a grip on being the #1 selling mobile telephone. The Storm’s partner on this is Verizon, as it is being offered as part of Verizon Wireless Phones, who is still reeling from its mistake of turning down Steve Jobs’ iPhone (Verizon as a carrier). If Verizon is attempting to make amends for missing the iPhone, it’s at least heading in the correct direction. The Storm has a wide screen, touchscreen interfaction that offers many of the same capabilities as the iPhone, yet with some additional extras on the touchscreen display. The outcome of these improvements ismixed. Unlike with a real keyboard, simulated keys onscreen are not able to keep up with any fast typing. Classic Blackberry “thumbing” addicts may not be in a position to rattle off messages with equal speed or accuracy.

The clickthrough interface needs a good deal of practice if you wish to be used to pushing the touch-sensitive screen down until there is a click, in vivid contrast with the smooth interactivity provided by the iPhone.

Similarly, as your finger is on it, the blue highlight confirming a given button’s active status is hard to see.

So if it’ll go down in history as a design mishap or an all out mistake, is still to be seen. Last and perhaps least of all, this Blackberry also doesn’t offer the predictive spelling aid functions available with the iPhone. If you are a lazy speller, the Blackberry doesn’t offer you much of a safety net. The browser renders HTML quickly and thoroughly, with context-sensitive page-dragging features allowing you to move around any given webpage. The sole gripe here is that form fields are a little troublesome to fill out. Though the browser has earned high grades, the lack of Wi-Fi on telephones is quite mysterious. While Verizon’s EV-DO coverage is marvelous, there aret a lot of situations where Wi-Fi would have been really useful. As for the powerful, commercial style, Blackberry catches a top rating.

The payoff for leaving the tactile key board and trademark trackball behind is a faster, flatter, 3.25 in. glass face. Four familiar Blackberry keys are at the base of the telephone Telephone , Menu, Back, and End / Power. The telephone also comes included with a mini USB key as well as 3.5mm headphone mobile phone jack. One probable drawback to the design is the matter of whether metal construction is superior to plastic. The phone is coupled with the even more wonderful Verizon (for cellular service coverage) that ought to keep the Storm well positioned in the race for cell phone king.

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