Craig vs. Blackberry, Round 1

I just got a Blackberry 8700g. It’s severely annoying me right now.

First, I want to charge it from my computer. Sorry! No can do… It requires 500ma from the USB port instead of the standard 100ma. So, a quick install of Barry (which conveniently has a .deb on their download page) and that problem was solved - when the device is plugged it, it is now automatically set to 500m. (BTW, udev, hal, dbus, libusb, all working together so all I need to do is install one deb by literally double clicking on it… utopia is all I can say.)

But that’s not the end of the ordeal. For some unknown reason, the blackberry decides that it doesn’t like the computer any more, and just disconnects from the USB and stops charging after maybe 10 seconds. Why would it charge for 10 seconds, then just stop? The computer logs all show that the blackberry disconnected from it (not vice versa), and that the computer was giving 500ma the whole time.

Second, the RIM doesn’t seem to believe in little things we call standards. The 8700g doesn’t support the ACM standard for USB, so unlike my Motorola RAZR (which is about 2 years old), I can’t just plug it and connect to the Internet over it. It appears that the RIM usb networking method is completely non-standard, non-published, and only supported by their Blackberry Desktop software. So I’m out of luck there.

I thought to myself, “Hmmm, if usb won’t work, let’s give bluetooth a shot!” So I go into the blackberry bluetooth menu, and it lists what profiles it supports: Handsfree and Headset. I note a distinct lack of “Dial up networking” from the list. How could a new, cool device, targeted for business like the Blackberry, not support bluetooth DUN? I scan it from my computer using the “sdptool browse” command, and sure enough, the blackberry only lists those two services. Wonderful.

Supposedly, the Blackberry OS 4.2 upgrade that came out a few days ago adds Bluetooth DUN support to the 8700, so I’m going to have to ask IS to install that for me.

Why doesn’t RIM realize that standards are really neat? If they supported the OBEX standard for bluetooth file transfer (which they don’t), the ACM standard for USB DUN, SyncML for sync, and Bluetooth DUN, everyone would have an easier job using these things, even under Windows! IT support costs would be lower, users could use the blackberry far easier because they wouldn’t have to install so much software from Blackberry Desktop, and development would be easier as they wouldn’t have to reinvent the wheel so many times. Seriously, guys… what were you thinking?