Indeed, Research in Motion, the maker of the BlackBerry, hasn’t had it easy in recent years.   Its first two touchscreen devices, the Storm and the Storm II, met with lukewarm success at best.  And a recent Nielsen survey revealed that only 42% of BlackBerry users want their next phone to be a BlackBerry.  This figure stands in stark contrast to the 89% of iPhone owners (not to mention the 71% of Android owners) who plan to remain loyal.

To counter these trends, RIM went back to the drawing board. The biggest problem with the Storm line of smartphones was that it lacked a physical keyboard, traditionally a strong point for a BlackBerry.  So the designers and engineers in Waterloo found a way to bridge both worlds.  The result: the new BlackBerry Torch 9800.

The Torch heralds many firsts for the BlackBerry lineup.  It is the first BlackBerry with a slide-out keyboard and the first to support typing on a physical keyboard or an onscreen virtual keyboard.  It’s also the first to combine a touchscreen with a physical keyboard.

It’s also the first to use the new BlackBerry operating system, BlackBerry 6.  The new OS, which will be available on all future models and as an upgrade for several of the newer models, is a major advance in features and functionality.  Simply put, it simplifies what could quickly become a very cluttered home screen while adding key features including multitouch gestures and universal search.

I’ve been testing the Torch with BlackBerry 6 and this is definitely not your father’s BlackBerry.  The first thing I noticed (besides the large touchscreen itself) was the way BlackBerry 6 provides separate screens you can customize.  You can place icons on the Favorites screen but also quickly scroll to separate screens for frequently-used functions, contacts, media, and apps.  It was child’s play to place a few Web sites and several frequent contacts on the Favorites page, and I found this to be a very useful feature.   Click here to continue to Page 2.

FlightView uses verified FAA data to tell me where my plane is and notifies me of delays on scheduled flights as soon as a flight is more than 15 minutes late.  I received delay notifications even when the FlightView app was closed.

FlightView is equally useful for tracking the flights of friends and colleagues, whether I am picking someone up at the airport or having an in-person meeting.  The clear and easy-to-read map shows the plane en route with a radar weather overlay and the plane moves across the screen for added effect.

The airport delay map provides an overview of departure status in the U.S. and Canada and was very useful on several occasions when my flight was delayed due to weather and other conditions.

FlightView covers flights originating and/or terminating in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the U.S. Minor Outlying Islands.

I found the system easy to use and the only problem I encountered is that the entry field for the flight number (which of course is always a number) is not set up for numeric entry but for alpha (text).  In order to enter a number in the flight number field, I had to go thru extra keystrokes, something I hope FlightView will address in the next version.

www.flightview.com

For the past three months I’ve been testing the Bold’s replacement, the next generation BlackBerry Bold 9700.  The new Bold shares some characteristics with the original including a leather-like back cover.  But the similarities end there.

While the original Bold was only available in the U.S. through AT&T, the new Bold is more widely available and can be purchased from both T-Mobile and AT&T.

The new Bold is noticeably smaller; it’s closer in size to the current Curve and Tour models from RIM. More than once, I inadvertently put a BlackBerry Tour in my pocket and left the office, realizing later that the Bold had been left behind.

The smaller size means it fits in your pocket more comfortably but lacks the original Bold’s supersized screen size (2.44” versus 2.75”).  The smaller screen size is noticeable when viewing Web pages but it does not impact e-mail and messaging.

The new Bold uses a touch-sensitive trackpad instead of the pearl-like trackball on the original.  The trackpad senses finger movements and acts accordingly.  It also adds to the sleek black look of the device and eliminates a moving part that occasionally failed to cooperate and move in the right direction.

The keyboard is slightly smaller and I have found myself making typos I didn’t make with the original.  As it turns out, a few silly millimeters do make a difference.

I also quickly discovered that the new Bold’s 3.2-megapixel camera makes much better pictures than the original’s 2-megapixel camera. While it’s no substitute for my DSLR, it is a viable alternative to carrying a point-and-shoot camera.

I placed hundreds of calls on AT&T’s and T-Mobile’s U.S. networks in New York, San Francisco, and Seattle, as well as their roaming partners in Munich and Vienna.  There were only a few instances of strange noises and they weren’t limited to one particular network.  In general, callers reported very good to excellent voice fidelity.

As one would expect from a BlackBerry, the Bold has great messaging capabilities.  It comes with the latest BlackBerry Device Software (version 5), which includes enhancements that speed up message creation and calendaring.  The browser is faster and supports streaming video, such as on YouTube.  Business travelers using BlackBerry Enterprise Server now get the ability to set follow-up reminders, manage e-mail folders, access remote files, forward appointments, and view calendar appointments.

Battery life is greatly improved. The original Bold had 5 hours of talk time and 13 days of standby; the new model offers 6 hours of talk time and 17 days of standby and I suspect RIM’s ratings are conservative.  Despite heavy usage, I found myself charging the phone once every two to three days instead of every night.

The Bold paired flawlessly with my BMW’s Bluetooth system and transferred the complete phonebook.  The only glitch is that it transfers the names last name first, a glitch BMW says it is working on.

The Bold continues to be the only BlackBerry with a physical keyboard that supports both 3G and Wi-Fi.  .  Both versions work world wide (with the right roaming plan) for voice and data.

The T-Mobile version supports the placing and receiving of phone calls over Wi-Fi in addition to surfing the Web, useful for places where there is Internet access but poor mobile phone reception.  I tested this feature, known as UMA (Unlicensed Mobile Access) and it worked flawlessly with no discernable difference in call quality.

For the road warrior looking for a versatile smartphone with rock solid messaging capabilities, look no further than the new Bold. I liked the test model I had so much that I ordered my own.

–Jonathan B. Spira is the Editor of Executive Road Warrior and Chief Analyst at Basex, a knowledge economy research firm.

The app makes excellent use of the Bold’s small screen and I found the books I purchased and sampled easy to read.  I found the BlackBerry’s backlit screen to be a great improvement over the Kindle’s (although the Kindle’s is significantly larger, of course).  One can change the font size to get more text on screen or to make the text easier to read.  To flip pages, hit the space bar.  The user can also scroll up and down using either the pearl trackball or touch-sensitive optical trackpad found in newer BlackBerry models.

Shopping on line for books is easy.  The search function in the store is fast and one can also navigate directly to New York Times best sellers, Kindle best sellers, books Amazon calls “new and noteworthy,” and a personalized list of books created by Amazon’s recommendation engine.

For one book, I accidentally clicked on “purchase” instead of “sample” and, while there is no cancel option in the BlackBerry application, a quick call to Amazon’s customer service cancelled the purchase.  The book then disappeared from my home screen.

This is the one place where the interface on the BlackBerry could use some work, namely in better highlighting the “Try a sample” button (versus the purchase button).

One significant usability flaw, which one hopes will be remedied in future versions, is that there is no search functionality from within the book.  In addition, while one can create bookmarks within the app, one can view – but not create – annotations created on a Kindle or Kindle for iPhone.

Based on what Amazon has mentioned publicly, the company doesn’t believe that the free application will cannibalize sales of the dedicated Kindle device but sees it as complementary.  Indeed, Amazon just announced plans for Mac and iPad versions of the Kindle software.

Many Kindle device owners love their readers but I never warmed up to the device, even in its improved form.  But for those who own a Kindle, Amazon’s Whispersync service will keep track of where one is on either device and synchronize the two.  Books purchased on the Kindle are automatically available on the BlackBerry device as well.

For business travelers who regularly use a compatible BlackBerry smartphone (or Apple iPhone or iPod touch for that matter), the Kindle app may turn out to be the best eBook reader while travelling.  The reading experience, while not book-like, is pleasant, the software is free, and the books themselves are far less expensive than the original paper versions.

While the Kindle device has more storage for books and a larger screen, with its case it weighs 500 grams (18 ounces) and has a footprint of a hardcover book.   Why carry yet another device – or spend an additional $299?

–Jonathan B. Spira is the Editor of Executive Road Warrior and Chief Analyst at Basex, a knowledge economy research firm.