Blackberry Storm

[Lance]

Nothing predictive or an alternative?

I'm surprised there isn't something like whole word prediction. I used to have this on a Nokia many years go. For whatever reason though, they dropped it.

I'm still busy trying to brick it at the moment.  Believe it or not, the latest software seems to have a bug, which prevents the previewing (and setting?) of the pre-installed ringtones, of which there are loads, so I tried going back to an earlier version, and the 'downgrade' stalled, so after 35 minutes of it being 'stuck', I had to remove the USB connection, which one is not supposed to do, and sure enough, it wouldn't boot up afterwards.  After a couple of involuntary bowel twitches, I had the bright idea of removing the battery for a few minutes, but it still wouldn't boot up, so, in desperation, I just connected it to the PC again, and hoped that the Desktop Manager software would do it's job, which, thankfully, it did, but in doing so, the automatic backup had been wiped, so I'm now back on the software with the ringtones bug, and the task of setting it all up again.  At least the Calendar and Contacts are easy, as they just sync from Outlook, and I hadn't got any data on it to have lost, so it could have been worse.

Scary!!!

[Rik]

Sweaty palm moments, Simon.

[Sebby]

My iPhone is qwerty, but still recognises when you've spelt a word wrong and corrects it automatically.

[Simon]

Sweaty palm moments, Simon.

Indeed, but it all seems to be OK now. 

[Rik]

I'll start breathing again then. 

[Simon]

Only one thing bothering me now, and that is, I can't get it to connect to the computer via Bluetooth.  Serial port is enabled in the phone, and it's paired with the PC, but the PC says no serial port detected.    Not a huge problem, as I can use USB, but things like that can keep me awake at night! 

[Simon]

I'm surprised there isn't something like whole word prediction. I used to have this on a Nokia many years go. For whatever reason though, they dropped it.

Yes, there is, Lance, but I tend not to notice it as I'm concentrating on typing!

The 'alternative' to T9 is a QWERTY pad, with two letters per key, so you've got QW ER TY... etc, and it works things out from that in a similar way to T9. They call it SmartType.

[Rik]

Only one thing bothering me now, and that is, I can't get it to connect to the computer via Bluetooth.  Serial port is enabled in the phone, and it's paired with the PC, but the PC says no serial port detected.    Not a huge problem, as I can use USB, but things like that can keep me awake at night! 

Have you got the drivers on the PC?

[Simon]

I've spent the last two hours on this!!    I've found out, buy travelling round different Blackberry forums, that it 'probably won't work' with the Belkin manufacturer's drivers (WIDCOMM), but it will with the native Windows drivers.  Problem being, the Windows drivers don't seem to exist on my machine, and for love nor money, I can't find them on the web.  I've now given up and ordered a new bluetooth dongle, which will hopefully be compatible, but the question remains, where are the Windows Bluetooth drivers and software? 

[Sebby]

Simon, I'll send you an email with a modified Windows driver that'll work with your Bluetooth adapter.

[Rik]

Windows\system32\drivers on my machine, Simon.

[Sebby]

It won't be there in this case, Rik, simply for the reason that the Windows driver won't support his Bluetooth adapter out of the box. It's a strange old world when it comes to Bluetooth drivers, but I do have a modified Windows driver that I managed to find a while back for the same reasons.

[Rik]

Back to the world of standards again, eh Seb. I'm slightly curious why they are there on this machine as it has no Bluetooth.

[Sebby]

They are there, Rik, but when he tries to install the Belkin device, pointing Windows at those drivers won't work. They have to be modified to work with most devices.

Email sent, Simon.

[Simon]

Windows\system32\drivers on my machine, Simon.

I even got it to search the Windows CD, and it found nothing.

Simon, I'll send you an email with a modified Windows driver that'll work with your Bluetooth adapter.

Thanks, Seb, I'll give it a try, but probably later, as I've been sitting here too long this morning, and need a break.

[Rik]

They are there, Rik, but when he tries to install the Belkin device, pointing Windows at those drivers won't work. They have to be modified to work with most devices.

How stupid. Do you know what devices they do work with? I must admit that every Bluetooth adaptor I've ever had came with its own drivers, which I used.

[Sebby]

I'm not sure, Rik. It's to do with the legalities surrounding Bluetooth as far as I'm aware. You'll find that most adapters you buy won't work with Windows' drivers, and you'll have to use the supplied drivers. In turn, you'll find that software like Nokia PC Suite and Sony Ericsson Phone Manager will only work with the Windows drivers. That's where the modified Windows driver comes in.

[Rik]

Typical mess left for end users, eh?

[Sebby]

Yep, big time. The same goes for Vista, by the way, but I've also got modified drivers for that.

[Rik]

It's why I like cables, they tend to work without problems.

[Sebby]

Same here.

[Rik]

If they don't, it's a simple matter to check which end is unplugged.

[Simon]

No email yet, Seb. 

[Sebby]

Just sent again to one of your other addresses. I'll PM you.

[Rik]

The email is probably sitting on his Blackberry, Seb.