So I mentioned some of this to someone the other day and they were surprised by it (and a Blackberry user) so I thought I'd do up a quick post about it... some people may not realize how much information can be determined about you. Note, these are based on my observations.
Blackberry IM Status:
- Active -- User can be sent messages and will receive them immediately
- Contact is Unreachable (Icon: (- (not quite sure on this one but that's what it looks like) )
- Out of cell range
- Phone is no longer active
- On a phone call
- Pending -- They haven't authorized you yet. (Icon: Green +)
- Unavailable -- Set by the user (Icon: Red X)
Blackberry IM Icon:
- Clock -- Waiting to Sent
- Bulls Eye Circles -- Sending
- Checkmark -- Sent successfully
- D -- Delivered
- R -- Read
Now... you'd think that this limits what you know, but it really doesn't. Generally you'll know if one of your Blackberry IM contacts has had their phone deactivated and depending on where you live, you may also know when they are in or out of cell range (the exception may be if they turn their phone off).
Something that was recently pointed out to me is that GSM will continue to deliver messages while you're on the phone, while CDMA (which is what both the Blackberries in my house are) won't.
This means that you can further determine:
- Unreachable + Checkmark == Phone Off or CDMA on a Call
- Unreachable + D == GSM on a Call
I know, to most people this probably doesn't seem like much, but I figured it was worth sharing... if one person learns something new... mission accomplished.
I got my first smart phone about 2 years ago. It was the UTStarcom 6700, a rebranded HTC Apache. I used it for ~8 months and was a big fan of the phone but it had major battery issues, and even getting a replacement battery didn't seem to help. So I finally got fed up and took advantage of a Blackberry Pearl promotion. Since then, my HTC has sat, untouched. Recently I contemplated installing some sort of Linux on it, and using it as a PDA. It has a large touch screen, a slide out keyboard (that I find rather useable) and WiFi. Then I stumbled across this website, where someone is building Android for the Apache.
The project is still in alpha, and while it states that CDMA is working, the currently release doesn't seem to have working CDMA (I eagerly await the next release). Anyways, I installed it and played and I must say I'm rather impressed with Android. I'd imagine on a phone that's been engineered for it, it's probably amazing. Even on the Apache it looks and feels great. I imagine if I used an iPhone that I'd see these similar slide menus, but I have, so far, successfully stayed away from the iPhone.
Once this build gets to be further along, I think I'll be fairly happy with it. It's fast and looks great. I may even go find a extended battery and carry it instead of my blackberry.
I was unaware of Microsoft Tag until I saw a post the other day that a Tag application had been released for the iPhone. I read a little bit and was rather impressed, but disappointed because I don't have an iPhone. I did a little more reading, however, and found that there were already apps for Blackberry and Windows Mobile (I have both). I've download the Blackberry app and tested on the demo image. I'm really impressed. It was easy enough to snap (even with the crappy camera on the Pearl) and get the page to load. I don't know if these tags are very wide spread or in use, but I'm excited to see them get a foot hold and become popular.
Tags are free to create on the Microsoft website and you can create them for URLs, vCards or Free Text.