@Ted and James, thanks for the input. Now that you know the way, don’t be a stranger.

@grayzweb: You advocate the use of a supposedly more complex device that requires a firmware upgrade once in a while, and that such practice is OK. You missed one important point, though: you speak English! So do I, and that’s why I describe myself as “insensitive” in the article. I know my way to BerryReview, to BBForums and many other places, and I can understand every piece of official and unofficial information that is shared on the internets. But what is made of people who don’t speak English? The Brazilian carriers don’t give any information at all about it, most people are not even familiar with the concept of upgrading firmware. One carrier provides a link hidden deep somewhere, and the destination is written entirely in English. Few people will find the link, and most who do will not be able to use it.

Besides, frankly, the idea that being more complex and high maintenance is OK is utter rubbish. No one but you supports that notion, not even the phone hardware companies (e.g. RIM) themselves.

In fact, there is an underlying issue here that has been screaming inside my head for a while: RIM has been taking too much of a sideways, “underground” approach to the way they dispense these firmware upgrades to us instead of being aboveboard and actually useful. This is the true root of all these problems.

#2 ALOT of brand new Blackberry users picked up the device.
Many people came from “dumb” phones to the world of Blackberry.
The Blackberry is NOT a simple phone like an iphone!!
It is a technical phone that is much more capable than any iphone or a “regular” cell phone.
Blackberry usrs NEED to be able to install 3rd party applications, updates, have a PC at home. The blackberry and the use of a personal computer go hand in hand.
There are many Storm users who just switched to a Storm because the iphone was not offered on their carrier, and they thought a Storm was like an iphone. Wrong! It is not. It is a Blackberry!!

3rd party apps have been coming out now like crazy! The Storm has only been out for 3 1/2 months. It just keeps getting better, and better.
If your the type who does not want to “have to” download updates and applications for your “phone”, then you don’t need a Blackberry period!
Go get a razr or an iphone, or something simple, and stop complaining that the blackberry is not up to your standards.

Yea, it seemed that there were alot of people complaining about the Storm. What percentage of the people that loudly complained vs. people who had the Storm that didn’t?
My point is that just because a certain percentage of people complained very loudly, it doesn’t reflect everybody.
Sorry if I’m ranting, but if you don’t like the Storm, don’t buy the Storm.

I’ve had a Bold on the Rogers Network in Canada since LONG before AT&T first launched the Bold and I’ve never had any problems whatsoever.

I think RIM recognized the threat of iPhone and HTC and gPhone and said “oh shxt” and rushed some underdeveloped hardware out the door with a bandaided OS on them. It is apparent to me looking in from outside that RIM hasn’t seen the problem yet and is still just patching holes in the dike rather then building a better one. OS 4.x needs to be kicked to the curb and the 5.x needs to be a complete and total paRadigm change for RIM. It is very hard to make a massive overhaul such as the BlackBerry OS needs but Nokia and Apple and Google and even Microsoft are moving at light speed compared to the snails pace of RIM OS development. If they want to compete, if they want to be relevant in the smartphone market of tomorrow, they can no longer rest on their corporate laurels and their dominance in mobile push email. Others can and will beat them at the email game and without that as their ace in he hole the rest of what BB OS does has already been surpassed by practically everyone else.