BlackBerry Thunder caught on video, with a ninja

BREW Ninja, who readily (and oddly, for a ninja) admits that he's a mobile QA engineer over at Yahoo! Mobile, just scooped 3x phones in this quickie 4 and half minute video. The HTC Coke -- a variant of the HTC Touch Pro -- and tiny LG Lotus with full QWERTY for Sprint (AKA, LX600) are both interesting, but it's the hands-on video of RIM's touchscreen Thunder that blows our doors. At about 2:50 in, he reveals the BlackBerry Thunder for Verizon (AKA, Storm 8350) saying, "I don't like it, it's, it's an ok phone." His biggest concern seems to be the touchscreen (something we've heard before) which acts like a button -- you have to actual push the screen, hard, unlike most capacitive touchpanel devices. See for yourself after the break.

[Via Crackberry]

[)law( @ Sep 10th 2008 1:58AM]

Ninjas FTW

[alberto @ Sep 10th 2008 2:28AM]

Well, he was a loser...but at least he convince me waiting for the thunder is going to be a waste of time for me. A touch screen should run smooth and effortless. You shouldn't have to press down on the screen to make your selection. That's why i would get a Bold instead.

I which he spend more time on the Touch Pro.

[gad get @ Sep 10th 2008 2:36AM]

Yes, because with the Bold, you don't have to push anything, right?

[Rudiger @ Sep 10th 2008 2:38AM]

You're pushing my buttons, gad get.

[gad get @ Sep 10th 2008 2:42AM]

@ Rudiger

Better than just pushing various parts of your big shiny face.

[Alex @ Sep 10th 2008 8:45AM]

We-e-e-elll.. la-de-freakin'-da! We've got ourselves a ninja here! Hey, Dad, I can't see real good.. ..is that Ryu Hayabusa over there?

Well, actually, Matt.. Ellen and I have encouraged Brian in his stealthing.

[Percy J @ Sep 10th 2008 6:26PM]

Dude sounds like Joe lieberman

[B @ Sep 12th 2008 5:06PM]

The original site used to play a midi of Jay Z - Big Pimpin...

http://www.realultimatepower.net/ninja/ninja2.htm

[cranst @ Sep 14th 2008 10:10PM]

This guy is ridiculous. Blackberry would never put their stock at stake by making such a disappointing phone. This guy is A FAKE!!! And we'll all find out on September 15 when Verizon announces it and shows some REAL footage. By the way ninjas or Al-Qaeda or whatever the hell this guy is sucks.

[greggo @ Sep 10th 2008 1:59AM]

i wish he showed what he meant by the "holding to scroll" thing... i dun gyit it!

[alberto @ Sep 10th 2008 2:21AM]

What he means you have to put your finger on the screen and push then slide your finger up or down then let go. Actually, this it the same for the LG Dare. Something I find very ignoring for a touch screen phone. Maybe cause the screen on the phone is bigger, you won't accidentally activate anything else when you let go.

[Viaono @ Sep 10th 2008 2:02AM]

OMG! The blackberry touch is now hijacked.

[tom @ Sep 10th 2008 9:40AM]

Thinking the same thing. LOL.

[FKL @ Sep 10th 2008 2:04AM]

What a moron. Get me something to slap him accross the face with. Just annoyed the hell out of me.

[waiownsyou @ Sep 10th 2008 2:04AM]

Ok, I'm going to be the first to admit that I'm a huge computer nerd but come on, what is this? Ninja cell phone leak? OMFG. If I'm never going to get a girlfriend, this guy's never going to get a hand. wth.

[Johnny @ Sep 10th 2008 2:05AM]

Wow he's got the HTC, Black Berry, and LG devices. And the ninja likes the lotus the best? Your kidding. WTF kinda ninja is this guy?

[richard @ Sep 10th 2008 2:14AM]

"I don't really like it" (referring to the HTC Touch Pro)... "But the stylus is cool. Its magnetic"

wow...magnets.

[ethan @ Sep 10th 2008 1:52PM]

hahahhaa...it's new technology. Magnets rule!

[allen @ Sep 10th 2008 2:16AM]

Well that was...interesting. And just like a ninja, he was very quiet.

Now make like a ninja... and disappear.

[ethan @ Sep 10th 2008 2:19AM]

how did this annoying guy leak these phones? can't we have someone that isn't totally inept leak phones? His voice makes me want to punch babies.

[kevin @ Sep 10th 2008 2:25AM]

i actually did punch like 10 babies.. the video was horrible

[Brian @ Sep 10th 2008 2:32AM]

Dane Cook reference FOR THE WIN!

[errdayimhustln @ Sep 10th 2008 2:24AM]

haters, this guy is chill. i love the BB

[Hotrod @ Sep 10th 2008 6:04AM]

Yeah, besides the Ninja Mask he was kinda funny.

[adam @ Sep 10th 2008 2:28AM]

now we know why ninjas keep silent.
they're trying to distance themselves from this douche

[TareX @ Sep 10th 2008 2:33AM]

The Accelerometer is really slow, and so is the entire UI.... but I like how it orients the screen in the full range of a complete rotation.

The touch-press concept is a good idea, but the press should obviously demand less power.

Screen looks good, but phone looks big and bulky...

Finally his voice is REALLY ANNOYING.

[ScooterDe @ Sep 10th 2008 3:04AM]

the full rotation is a gimmick. It will only lead to confusion when you get or make a call, since the mike can be at the top or bottom.

[Pdexter @ Sep 10th 2008 4:33AM]

Well hopefully they work with the how hard you need to push the screen when it gets released. Idea seems pretty good thought.

Well this phone isn't for me. Considering that this is BB with no qwerty i trust more on Nokia, SE and Apple to shine on the media side with their TS phones because that's what the thunder tries to be here.
No doubt RIM is looking Nokia's market here considering that they actually have been growing fastest from any of the smartphone makers last quarter.

[Mike B. @ Sep 10th 2008 10:31AM]

i thought about that slownesso of rotation, too. It could be by design if you think about it. To prevent from wasted cycles of drawing if you didn't mean it.

[Tyson @ Sep 10th 2008 2:37AM]

This guy was a hater. He didn't like anything but the magnet stylus. I think( albeit I never touched it) I would like that you need to click the screen so you know you typed a key. That the thing about touchscreens no type feed back. I still would like a keyboard I can fell for business purposes and typing multiple emails a day.

[rahul @ Sep 10th 2008 2:47AM]

Does the Ninja come free with the phone?

[generally @ Sep 10th 2008 2:48AM]

So he doesn't like that you actually push the screen in "it's like a button" and get genuine haptic feedback from the touch screen... Ok then...

He seems to not like a lot of things.

[Wildness @ Sep 10th 2008 2:59AM]

Um, is the whole mask thing to hide his identity while he unmasks hardware he shouldn't? I do believe that if I new him, I would be able to recognize him. I just hope he doesn't decide to rob a bank next.

[derX @ Sep 10th 2008 3:42AM]

Yeah, it'd suck if he got caught, especially for such a lousy video. I'm loving the comment's I'm reading.

Of all the features of all the phones he previewed, the thing he loved the most was the magnetic stylus; the feature he hated the most, the "button-like" screen. Of course he hates the most difficult feature to execute but loves the simplest. Very nice. And does he not know that the screen doesn't have "give" because they want it to be FINGER-OPERATED (wow, that sounds bad, especially when capitalized) and not stylus operated.

If I were to distill this post to a pithy sentence (and an addendum): Wtf did he have to be the first person to get the phones?

What a waste.

[farfisa @ Sep 10th 2008 10:23AM]

Yeah, unless everybody in the QA dept. over there has the same haircut and eyebrows (and I'm not saying that's impossible), I think it'd be pretty easy to figure out who he is.

[az1324 @ Sep 10th 2008 3:02AM]

Somebody get this guy a Sudafed.

[gad get @ Sep 10th 2008 3:08AM]

The beginning of the video (after the uber-cheesy intro, I mean) is funny. It seems like he's in the middle of saying something, and then the camera starts recording, and he gets this surprised look on his face and just says "Hey! BREW Ninja [something gibberish]."

[hungry @ Sep 10th 2008 3:46AM]

let's eat him!!!

[Tom Bresnahan @ Sep 10th 2008 3:50AM]

That "coke" is the Fuze I had, same backing, same everything...

[Tom Bresnahan @ Sep 10th 2008 3:58AM]

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a258/The300ZX/IMG_0259.jpg?t=1221033321
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a258/The300ZX/IMG_0263.jpg?t=1221033352
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a258/The300ZX/Raphael2.jpg?t=1221033394

Ooooh, look familiar? HTC "Coke"? No... AT&T Fuze.

[Seanross @ Sep 10th 2008 4:07AM]

Just reading all the comments make me not wanna watch it :(

[Hotrod @ Sep 10th 2008 6:08AM]

Go ahead and watch the video bro. These guys only bash other people because of their own insecurities.

[BBaddict @ Sep 10th 2008 6:53AM]

Hey, this Thunder is looking good. Does anyone have specs?

Meanwhile, just discovered a good site for blackberry software to feed my Bold: http://www.blackberryfreeware.org/

When does thunder come out?

[RC @ Sep 10th 2008 6:55AM]

He looks like an Al-Qaeda operative.

[Rogue_Genius @ Sep 16th 2008 6:57PM]

Did you actually use brain cells to come up with that post?

[odemata @ Sep 10th 2008 6:57AM]

would have loved to see how the phone handles cut and paste and features rather than just saying you dont like it

[jenial @ Sep 10th 2008 7:06AM]

lets shave his head

[iEye @ Sep 10th 2008 7:53AM]

Bazooka Joe!

[Das Boot @ Sep 10th 2008 8:10AM]

I have yet to see anyone comment on the fact that ninjas are usually fully cloaked which includes the head and mouth. This moron just had his overly used turtle neck as his face mask; yeah, like that will help conceal your identity, moron.

in regards to the phone, they all seemed pretty cool. I personally want the Thunder or Storm, whatever its called nowadays.

What we can all learn from this, is that ninjas like magnetic styluses. You don't deserve to procreate.

[shanoboy @ Sep 10th 2008 9:13AM]

He looks like a terrorist keeping the phone hostage. Will he behead it?