One week with the Blackberry Curve

     So I’ve had the Blackberry Curve about a week now and the new toy feel has yet to wear off.  I purchased it as an upgrade to the Razr, by Motorola.  The driving factors included my carrier, and the application choices.

     The Blackberry Curve is one of the most popular types of smartphones on the market today.  Though the iPhone and others are giving it a run for the money, it continues to be a well respected choice.  Chief among the reasons are the full QWERTY keyboard,  great Internet access, and the wealth of applications. Among the other features I like on this phone are the 2 megapixel camera and the built in GPS.

     So what have I been using it for? Social networking of course.  You know I’m big into social networking. My top used applications are Twitterberry and Shozu.  A third runner up is the Facebook app.  Of course the beginning and root of social networking tools is the browser, and it’s also seen heavy use this past week.

     Twitterberry is one of the most popular Twitter clients for the Blackberry.  Twitterberry has a simple and functional interface that works well with the Blackberry.  When first launched, it presents a screen to update your status.  It keeps count of remaining characters as you type and has one button send when your done typing. Another key press away are your replies and direct messages.   One winning feature of Twitterberry for me is the integration to the browser.  If a link is provided in a tweet, you can select it open it in the browser.  All in all a well put together application and it’s free.

     Shozu is the Swiss Army knife of social networking for tools for smartphones. It allows posting to a variety of sites including Flickr, Facebook, and some blogs.  I’ve used it to post photos to both Flickr and Facebook and it works as advertised.  It finds files on your phone and allows sending to multiple services.  The send goes on in the background and allows you to continue working.  Another example of photo sharing that can be done is to Twitpic.  The interesting thing about this application is that all of the real set up is done on the Shozu website, where you can register all of the interconnecting services, including Blogger.

     Facebook is another free application for that Blackberry. Heck, it’s on their own site and recommended.  The Facebook application is a simple interface to a few of the common things you’d normally do on the site.  You can update your status, as well as see the status updates of your contacts.  Poking is allowed of course.  Wall writing is even available. This application is streamlined but very functional. Everything is a button slide and press away.  Oh yeah, and you can upload pictures to Facebook as well.

     There are more applications I’ve been playing with, including the Flickr application and the Google applications.  Google apps includes Maps, Docs, Mail, Reader and News.  Believe it or not, I’ve used Google Reader the most.  All of the applications are tied to your Google account.  This enables me to read my Reader feeds while I’m out and about and idle.

     Games are another story. I’ve not played one game the entire week.  Oh, the Blackberry has a slew of them to be sure, and even has some free ones that are supposed to be fun.  It’s just that I’m not all that interested in that feature.

     The features I’m most interested in, and have been using, center around keeping involved in my social networks.  Photos seems to be universally easy to share, as well as messages.  What I’ll be looking into more is ways to post to blogging type tools, such as my blogs, and Utterz.

    Utterz, Brightkite, and other sites have mobile versions to make things easier though, and I’ve used those as well as others.  Utterz might end up being my simplest ‘path’ to blogging for now.

     So what’s my conclusion after one week? The phone is a keeper. I’ve not even given any applications that require a fee or subscription yet.  Some of those should prove to be really useful.  I’ll check in from time to time to share more about the phone and our adventures together.

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