Showing posts with label Blackberry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blackberry. Show all posts

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Need Advice on Which Smartphone to Get

Last month, after three long years, my smartphone contract with Bell finally expired!

This contract had me locked away from the exciting developments in the mobile device market. Although not completely cloistered and clueless, I really need help in choosing my next device and carrier.

Device
I had a BlackBerry Curve for the last three years.  Although it served me well and I love its keyboard, I have found that accessing apps is often difficult with BlackBerry. As a mobile researcher, I need timely access to the popular and cutting-edge apps, so as reluctant as I am to not buy a Canadian company's product, I will not be going with BlackBerry.

I'm not an Apple fan for various reasons, so those devices are out.  Even though I've heard positive reviews of Microsoft's mobiles, I'm not convinced. So that practically leaves only Android phones.

I like the more open ecosystem of Android and the large number of apps on the platform.  What do you think, is Android the way to go?

I also don't have a tablet or netbook. I really like something highly portable so I'm not keen on those devices, but the new superphones seems to be a compromise between portability and decent screen size.  I am worried that superphones won't fit in my pocket as that's where I always carry my device (if I need to carry the phone separately  or in a knapsack, I'm not apt to always carry it with me).

I was drooling over the Samsung Galaxy in a store. Any one have any experience with this  - caveats or concerns?

Carrier
I will never lock in again!  I hate long-term contracts, so I won't deal with any carriers that don't offer a no-contract option.

My dealings with Bell's customer service have never been great and recently it has been horrible (it took 5 technicians visiting and over 12 hours on the phone over 3 weeks to get Bell to hook up my Internet access, telephone, and Bell Fibe tv).  Dealing with Bell was like having glass ground into my eyeballs. Their customer loyalty is also non-existence, so I'm eager to leave them behind.

I checked out prices and options and Wind Mobile seems to be the best. But I heard their network coverage is only good in major cities and even then conks out. Any one have any advice on Wind Mobile or other carriers to consider?


I'm presenting at the ASIS&T (American Society for Information Science & Technology) conference at the end of the month on my research on location-based services on mobile devices. I'd love to show up with the best new device so I greatly appreciate any help that will make it less difficult to get my next (heavenly) device.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Discovering Foursquares' Perimeters

This is the second of my Foursquare user diary entries chronicling my initial usage of it for my research project.

I've been using Foursquare application for a few days now. I've gotten quite familiar with how to use the mobile application.

Adding a venue
Eager to check-in at more than one location as most of my days consist of working at home and picking my kid up from school, so I decide to see if my kid's school is there. I'm worried that using the mobile app will use all my data plan limits so I decide to do this on the website. It's not there, so I decide to add it.

Adding a venue was simple, they asked for the name, address, major cross streets, address, and phone (most of which are optional). I see they have a private venue option - "This is a private venue that should only be viewable to me and my friends. (coming soon! but feel free to mark as "private" until we go live with this)". This is a good idea as already some dorky neighbours have added their own house as a venue (what kind of "Specials nearby" will they ever offer? I don't want to know.)

Yearning to be 'your worship'
Wonder if creating a venue automatically will make one the mayor? Mayorship is supposedly meant to encourage vendors to offer these frequent visitors special deals (as Starbucks does) and earns a higher profile on this site. Not that I care about these things, but dammit I want a mayorship. I was corresponding with a professor friend on his earning the mayorship of his university - it sure is easier to attain than dean or chancellor and certainly less political!

No tips on tips
After a check-in at the school I decide to add my first tip. I wrote something banal about the enclosed playground being great for toddlers. I really wanted to say a spectrum of things that I greatly dislike about this school. It's not that I don't want to go on record with my criticism of this school, Foursquare just doesn't seem the venue for it. So already I'm censoring myself.

After writing the tip, I see a "To Dos" tab. I can't figure out the difference, as when one goes to add a "To Do" the resulting webpage is "Add a Tip".

I continued to check-in at my kid's school and after a few of them, I finally got my first mayorship!

Badge of honour
I also got my first two badges. Everyone gets an initial "Newbie" badge, which reminds me of getting Tom as a friend on MySpace. So omnipresent that it's meaningless. (Gee, I haven't heard from Tom lately, hope he's not mad.)

My other badge was earned on a day when I actually was about town (well, I went to class). My public transit commute and coffee pitstop allowed me to unlock my first real badge: "Crunked". It is an image of drunken person and is earned for having checked in at four or more locations in one evening.

This reminded me of a posting of a friend on Facebook that he had earned a "School Night" badge for checking in somewhere after 3am on a school night. It was 5:55am and he was en route to work. The crunked one also reveals that this application is targeted to a younger crowd. I noticed another friend earned a "Player Please!" badge for multiple check-ins with the opposite sex (not sure how one checks in with a person?). Clearly this is a special accomplishment for a certain type of person (player). All this makes me certain I'm way beyond their target audience.

I've also been earning some points with every check-in and when adding a venue. Getting the points seemed impressive, I figured it was for some sort of leaderboard (which they have but I haven't figured it out completely yet). Turns out the points are pointless (see FAQ item).

How long can novelty appeal last?
After using Foursquare for a few days, I can see that there is definitely a novelty factor driving my desire to try out new features, get more check-ins, etc.

But as I was trying to check into Blockbuster as I was returning videos, it struck me that the fun of this would quickly wear out. The location seemed to be their only one not listed and after only using Foursquare for few days I already did not feel inspired enough to add an entry for mundane Blockbuster. I felt similarly uninspired when checking into Shoppers on my way home to get groceries. Though it did feel good the other night to have a way to get back at Shoppers for repeatedly selling rancid bagels - as there really was no other way to do this before.

Feeling lonesome
One reason, why my interest is already waning is that critical mass is necessary. I need friends on it. I sent out over ten friend requests and only heard back from two :(

I have only one local friend (and one in Alberta). The application is set up to get updates on check-ins from locals. Even though my one local friend doesn't check in that much, she does post them to her network, so I get a pop-up on my mobile for her every check-ins. Might turn this feature off soon. Can't imagine how annoying it would be with 20 or more friends!

Finding the limits
I have been trying to figure out if there is a way to check in to events. For the upcoming Hypertext conference I'm going to, I thought it would be a great way to see who else is at the conference (but I guess Twitter will have to do). Foursquare appears to be structured around permanent physical locations.

Disambiguation has already emerged as a problem in my usage - in that Foursquare doesn't do it. I first found this out when I checked into my school, "iSchool". There was an entry already, so I wondered why I was the first person to actually check in there. I figured out that others were calling it "UofT - Faculty of Information". There are no prompts or checks to try to avoid users entering new venues for existing locations. And when a user checks in the order that Foursquare presents venues does not necessarily group venues with the exact same address together (as you'd think would be logical as the sort order seems to be based on the distance from your mobile device).

I am also thinking how uncomfortable I am publicly announcing my physical presence at a location - and leaving a written record of this. Seems like this application is a psycho stalker's playground!

Overall, however the application works quite well and reliably. It seems like it would be more fun if I was younger and had more of a life.

Your help needed
I need some help with my research. Please share any things you love or hate about Foursquare, problems you encountered, what you think it's strengths or future potential is, any thoughts or experiences.

I would also love to interview users via email (5-7 questions) or observe usage at a cafe (just for about 40 minutes in total - maybe a Starbucks so I can work towards getting the mayoral discount). Let me know if you'd like to know more about my research or my credentials. Here's my profile on my Faculty website.

Earning My Newbie Badge on Foursquare

For my research project on Foursquare, I decided to keep a user diary. I was determined to do the project on Foursquare for a few weeks, but resisted starting until I could coincide my own usage with the start of the overall research project.

I am not a digital native, so some of this is rather embarrassing to report.

How I checked in to Foursquare
I learned about Foursquare early in May 2010 after posting a request on my Facebook network for any mobile applications or sites that facilitated people participating and adding their own content. I also asked that it be an indigenous app and not one transferred largely from a website (so that ruled out FB and Twitter). My reasoning for the latter is that I wanted to be able to examine activity that was happening via mobile devices and the hybrid apps make distinguishing the source of user postings difficult or impossible.

Upon learning of Foursquare, I reviewed their website and googled it. I didn't want to learn too much about it in case it biased me, but I did see enough that it seemed like a suitable candidate for this project. I also liked how it supported both iPhones and Blackberry's as I didn't want this project to be about the device rather the behaviour. Also, it needed to support BlackBerry as that's all I have access to.

In the weeks following this, I did not make an effort to learn more about Foursquare but it kept appearing in tech news and it was discussed a few times at Mesh conference. I also started noticing friends' Facebook updates would indicate that they had "checked in" at a location via Foursquare.

Download application downers
I was sitting at my computer previously surfing the Internet, so perhaps that is why I went to Foursquare's website to begin the app download. There is a prominent link for BlackBerry, but turns out that I can't download from here straight to my device. To be honest, I can't remember how I downloaded any mobile apps although I have, such as WeatherEye, CBCs News Alert, Viigo, etc. Went to BlackBerry App World instead. Scanned their reviews and like the descriptions of it: "Think of Foursquare as an 'urban mix tape'" and "Think beyond your standard review - we're looking less for 'The food here is top notch' and more for 'Go to Dumont Burger and try the most amazing Mac and Cheese ever'."

Cool - I love this stuff, having already been an avid participant of similar websites such as OurFaves and Yahoo City Guides. Excited but also anxious as I probably don't know enough people to make it work. I only know of one person using this in Toronto. Just got sense that this app can make you seem like a loser, but that could also be the said of any social network service. Still, with social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter I made an effort to recruit friends as I knew they had the access to join if they wanted to. I don't know any other friends with smartphones. More feeling like a lonely loser.

Decided to click on the reviews: seems vague, non-English or unhelpful so click back. No more putting this off - will download this.

BlackBerry App World makes downloading the app easy as it will email the download link to my device. Already, I hear the moan of the vibrations of my BlackBerry.

Clicked on link. Download took about 3 minutes. Once it downloaded though nothing happened (ie. app didn't auto load as it might on PC). Tried to open the app but I couldn't recognize its icon as so subtle.

First roadblock
"The application Foursquare requested access to your GPS location information. Do you wish to grant access." Okay, little creeped out at privacy implications of this and very concerned that I didn't pay for GPS services in my smartphone plan. Don't want to rack up huge charges. No way to get answer to this, so must call Bell. Bell affirms the application can't start racking up charges without my permission.

Creeped out feeling heightened by a message that now appears: "The application Foursquare is attempting to access radio information that may identify your location".

Second roadblock
I click allow and nothing happens - repeat 4 times. There is a link for "Vendor modules" whatever that means. Decide to click on it but nothing happens. Attempt to leave application through device buttons but while it closes the app the pop-op still appears and won't close now. What a crappy experience this is so far - no help but lots of questions.

Click "Deny" now for fist time and get error pop-up "Uncaught exception: app Foursquare (1822) is not responding: process terminated". Click ok; it closes.

Finally checking in
Now click on Foursquare icon again on my device homepage and it opens fine.

Get welcome message. Must register to create account. Nothing special here. Gives me the option of either checking in or finding friends. Will quick check in, so click the button for "check in nearby". Okay it somehow knows where I am (even though I thought that didn't work) as it displays locations very close to me, including where my daughter plays (Wondering if I'm I sure I want to do this when out with my kid = extra creepy?).

I click to check into Shoppers as I am there almost every day and was just there a couple hours ago to return rancid bagels and buy stuff. It let's me check in - so it obviously relies on honour system. I decide to leave a message (I feel bad it's negative but I'm really sick of their bad bagels): "Watch out for the Bagel World poppyseed bagels here as 4 times in last few weeks the seeds on the bagels were rancid". Tried to unclick the option to "tell my friends" and wasn't able to. Seems to be updating.

A pop-up appears congratulating me. I get a badge (a picture of a trophy cup) for being a "newbie". I find out that Ryan W. is the mayor of this location.

Click close. I see a map with Shoppers' location, which seems pointless at this point after having already checked-in. I also see a button for "Specials nearby" and excitedly click that. It's a deal for Starbucks' mayors - cool, but I don't go there often enough to ever qualify.

Locating friends
Go back to add friends. Try finding friends by address book = zero. Trying now by my Twitter account. It finds some people I know including some I had no idea were using Foursquare. It also finds Ashton Kutcher. Only gives me first name and last initial and can't figure out many of these. So I'm going to Twitter to figure out who these people are. Twitter doesn't help much as gives account names not real names. So back to Foursquare where I click on "info"; it gives their Foursquare profile not their real name.

Wondering now if the people I add will be alerted that I've added them, as this happens with most social network services. Decide to add people I know even slightly, as having friends here seems essential. Better to do it now when I don't know if they're notified. As if I were to find out they were notified, I'd be too mortified to do it. Decide to add Ashton Kutcher too.

Decide to change my notifications settings so that I am notified any time any of my friends check in (which so far is only Ashton as he went directly to my "Following" list). This seems like it would be annoying if one had lots of friends (hypothetically), but it says that one can turn it off based on person or day.

Decide to log in to their website as it's seems like it'll be easier to set up my profile there. I upload my standard photo (the self-portrait where I look mysteriously pondering or pondering mysteries). It won't accept it though as the image is over 200k; it must be under. So I resize it and upload again.

Definitely want to set up my privacy options. I agree to:
  • Let friends see my phone number and email address" (but I'm not providing my phone #)
  • Let people see the links to my Facebook / Twitter profiles
  • Show my name in the 'Who's here' list when
  • Let local businesses see that I've checked-in at their venue (maybe it'll lead to deals)
It just occurred to me that for Foursquare to have value:
  1. you really have to be out physically going places (ie. have a life)
  2. network effects - to be any fun you really have to have a bunch of friends using it
  3. these friends have to be near you as the service seems hyperlocal focused
Looking forward to this app, but already I'm having social network site fatigue. Wish that I didn't have to rebuild my networks over and over again with each new site or application. Also, I have done some reviews I really like for OurFaves - wish they could be imported here.

Switched over to Facebook to post a request for Foursquare friends. Within moments I got a message from a friend in Alberta that he just signed up today. Back to Foursquare mobile app. to see if I can find him. Before I can find him, I get a notice that I have a friend request from him. How did he figure that out so quickly?

I accepted and now I officially have a friend on Foursquare!

... If you're interested in helping out with my Foursquare study, please let me know below.