Leaked 4.7.0.83 firmware for BlackBerry Storm is .08 higher than .75
By Chris Ziegler 
posted Dec 19th 2008 1:45AM
posted Dec 19th 2008 1:45AM
It's not clear what has changed at this point, but a brand spankin' new firmware for the Storm versioned 4.7.0.83 has just leaked out onto the interwebs. The good news is that -- if our math is right, anyway -- 83 is a considerably higher number than 76, so we're hoping that this cut incorporates all the changes in 4.7.0.76 that didn't make it into 75, the upgrade officially released by Verizon not long ago. If you're bold enough (pun intended) to give it a go, let us know how it treats you, alright?
See...No Snark.
The storm is terrible, you've only got to play with one for a few minutes to understand this.
If the anti-Apple brigade see this as their greatest weapon, then please please please, buy the infernal thing. It's not like you're not already used to sub-par tech :D
People "accept" that the iPhone sucks, but cannot accept anything when something is said about their crappy phone. Deal with it, the Storm sucks in many ways too. Probably even more than the iPhone. If you bought the phone then fine, but don't pretend there's nothing wrong with it and barf on every piece of critique you'll find. I know it's hard to accept the truth when you bought something expensive and it turns out to suck. But don't pretend it doesn't have shortcomings and convince other to follow you into oblivion.
So wait, are we now deciding that phone with a bit of lag (fixable in updates like this), sucks?
I really wonder what you guys use as phones. Tony Stark would love to know.
@ Jimbob
The iPhone does not "suck". Yes it's far from perfect, but the connotation implied by saying something "sucks" is that it's far from functional, and not even worth using.........and that's just plain wrong.
The iPhone isn't for everyone, just like a Blackberry isn't for everyone, but each of them have their own strengths which attract individuals to each device.
MMS, Cut & Paste aren't important to me personally, however they're both extremely important to some. Yes I'd probably use them if they were available, but not having them isn't going to prevent me from enjoying my iPhone, nor does it mean the iPhone sucks.
Products are what they are. If you need to have a feature that a specific device doesn't offer, don't buy it with the expectation that the feature will magically show up some day. If you absolutely need a feature, buy whatever device fills your needs, not the device you hope will have features added to fill your needs.
@ Jimbob
I don't blame you for being a bitter betty; I'd be depressed if I hadn't thrown mine back at the store clerk's face the day after being conned into getting one.
I approve this Blackberry Storm post.
You made me wake up my girlfriend, because of the laughter. Thanks for that.
girlfriens? get married if you want commitment... :)
Okay, sorry, I overreacted.
I may be missing something, but that post seems to actually be fine with me.
Internet.
It's serious sodding business.
jeez, why can't they have just tested this product longer so there were not as many problems....
BETA CULTURE SUCKS.
Lol @ CJ, given this undoubtedly (and refreshingly) neutral post.
Interesting part is producer A releases a product and even while version 2.0 still suffers plenty of issues it gets praised, producer B on the other hand already rather familiar with the whole mobile concept though not the non-business people trys to achieve the same with continious updates as improvement while listening to the consumer gets flamed.
Hmm.. the neutrality :D That said, tbh I can imagine the issues but then I wouldnt want a Storm instead of my crackberry just for typingsake. Yes its nice, and i´m quite convinced even better then a normal touch but still physical buttons beats touching.
Eh, I was still coming down from a very annoyed high.
I over shot.
Seriously. Turn off comments on all posts. The influx of prepubescents is going strong.
Well...you have to KNOW that a Storm post this soon after is just 'asking for it'.
Shits and giggles all round it seems.
The comments post and then this one, so close, almost seemed to beg for it.
Perhaps turning comments off for a day or two will help things calm down a bit.
It's a shame this has to happen so close to the meetup. I totally would've gone if I was in NYC, but now, even if I was, I dunno if I'd want to for fear of getting branded another "hateful" commenter.
You see, this is why we can't have nice things.
What, so they have to watch the timings of the posts on their own site now? Make sure the intervals don't upset the legions of childish commenters? Get over it.
As I was saying, this is disrupting the site's actual purpose: providing news. Disable comments and let the kids talk to themselves.
I totally agree. Too much of the digg community are ravaging comments with stupidity. However I highly doubt any site such as Engadget would disable comments because it creates more relevance in search results thus higher traffic...
Banned.
Aw, why'd you have to delete that post?
Now it's just the word 'Banned' that's been fully upranked. Makes no sense at all :(
i know it was completely untrue, but you have to admit it was kinda funny, chris. people need to know how to laugh at themselves sometimes.
thats was so bold of you to not go round that curve and ignite another storm
i c wat u did ther, vry clver!
http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=puns
Read this.
for the most part maddox stopped being interesting to me when i turned 14 but this article is pretty dead on
i actually came to this article to mention how sick i was of people saying whether or not their puns were intended
Haha.....
I am officially in love with that post in the comments Engadget...
good job, you just owned all the whiney little BB users ... Verizon and all their returned "F**KED UP BERRIES" FTL
el oh el
.08 is higher than .75? am i missing something?
please jump off a bridge and ask god when you are in heaven.
the point difference between the two versions -.-'
I aggree. Surely it should be .80 is higher than .75 ...
/facepalm
Seriously.... ?
For the Gold medal and mega embarassment;
What is 0.75 add 0.08?
What is 0.83 take 0.08?
Wow - some people are really fired up. I guess some don't like negative comments about the Storm. Well, to those people - get over it! I am a Big Red customer and will defend them on many issues (namely because when I was with AT&T, there were so many dropped calls that my friends started to think I was hanging up on them on purpose). But even I realize that the Storm is not a good product AT ALL - or at least not yet - I'll be kind and give it 1 or 2 more updates.
So, if you don't like Engadget because you think they side with Apple, please do yourself a favor and go elsewhere - I am sure you can find a techno blog that will make fun of the ongoing soap opera that is the IPOD battery situation (and deservingly so). There are enough blogs out there you should be fine finding one. It's like my true-blood Democratic friend that listens to Rush Limbaugh and then gets mad - my question is always WHY torture yourself??
We all know Apple is not our friend, but I used to think RIM was. Not anymore. RIM should apologize for this horrible product now. The more models RIM sells the more damage they'll end up doing to their name in the long run.
PS: Engadget sucks.
sir, i reckon you suck.....
i think i will buy one if another ipod touch (nano ) dont drop.
I agree that Steve Jobs wants our souls, but Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch are amazing devices. They need kudos for that.
PS: I also agree that Engadget sucks.
WHY are you on HERE if you think that Engadget sucks??
If I go to a diner and think the food stinks while complaining about it all the way out the door, why would I go back into it the next day and complain about the stinky food again???
Do yourself and all of us a favor and go to another site.
of course if they find a site better than engadget that is.
sir, i reckon you suck as well
This is getting ridiculous. We come to engadget for the news articles.
Engadget: don't change, and don't let scum like this mar the site. Comments should be banned until these readers find a new outlet to compensate for their clearly deplorable lives.
I laughed when I read Chris's post. Totally true.
See, this is something to rightfully get upset about. But you know, that last post totally opened the gates to this kind of thing. Collectively, people like this now know they've struck a nerve. They aren't going to stop.
::sigh::
A storm is coming..
im so bold i opted for the bold. ;) this device is still rather slick!
while i agree with chris' action, and disagree with that guy's post, i must say i found it humorous.
also: liked the article.
chris, now could you please ban Fuzo? use the banhammer to ban people who don't deserve to be here, not just people who tick you off.
so what's with the .08? beside that its .08 higher? this topic is just one big arithmetic and thats it. obviously trying to poke the BB fan base and/or a dare to something.
Seriously?
@BratPAQ,
I award you no points, and my God have mercy on your soul.
@Joe
may God can beat up your God
will u ppl ever grow up
Best. Post. EvAr.
Seriously, non-stop laughing... loved it.
Now please pick my name for that HTC you're so kindly giving away on the Mobile site, lol.
This is ridiculous, Engadget. I agree, there's a bunch of pre-pubescent over excited nerds posting comments, but Engadget staff seem to be retaliating by being extra large D-bags. I'm not a big BlackBerry fan, and I hate Apple as well.So as a sane, non-fanboy of either company let me tell you that I find it pathetic how Engadget takes the word of any Apple press release and glorifies any Apple product.
Also - to the Engadget Staff - don't forget, this site is what it is because of the Blogosphere - treat your readers with respect, even if they're pissed off - or you have any entire Reddit waiting to eat you up.
Be nice. Don't be D-bags by trying to prove how badass you are by deliberately provoking with more Storm bitching. I don't even like the Storm and I think you're being more pre-pubescent about it than the commentators.
There's a difference between telling us a device is Bad (or Good) and continuously bitching about it.
Pretty sure you're in the wrong comment thread.
http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/19/a-note-on-comments/
I'm not going to visit this site anymore. I am smart enough and able to ignore comments that aren't tasteful or related to the post. What makes me sick are threats to shut something down just because YOU don't like the comments. Ignore them like the rest of us do and let the childern be childern. The fact that Engadget even posts a "threat" like that says it all.
Bye and thanks for all the fish.
Wrong. Vitriolic, immature, and non sequitur comments are detrimental to everyone's ability to enjoy a meaningful discussion about the post. What's the advantage of letting these threads fill up with crap? We've made the point before -- we welcome criticism and every viewpoint under the sun, but it needs to be presented in a constructive manner. If you want to be an ass just for sport, take it elsewhere.
@ Chris Ziegler
Funny, it seems that Engadget (not Chris specifically, but Engadget writers in general) thinks it can say whatever it wants about anything and anyone. Why is it that other people aren't expected to occasionally react in kind? What makes Engadget so special? Is it the same thing that makes Apple so special? You aren't entitled to your reader base any more than Apple is entitled to its customer base (or fan base). Then again, with the way some of Engadget's writers worship Apple (and take every available opportunity to hate on its competitors), perhaps I should use an example that will get better reception... Microsoft, perhaps? Engadget can understand that example, right?
Chris: I understand Engadget's point of view, but threatening your entire reader base because of the actions of a few juveniles doesn't help matters. It only serves to piss off your core followers. Not to mention the fact that those who are behaving poorly probably don't care much about this site and therefore you are encouraging them to up the ante just to see if you guys will actually turn off the comments. All I'm saying is although I agree with you that the comment environment should be more enjoyable, there has to be a better way to handle this than to scold your diehard readers like school kids.
Giz is way more apple fanboyish than anything we have seen here. If you don't believe me read their articles on the G1. Them being skeptical of storm sales is not foundation less. It has its problems.
read:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/27/technology/personaltech/27pogue.html?pagewanted=1
The iphone did too though and that might be why people are upset. I guess for consistency's sake you should be that much critical with apple as well.
Someday we'll all tell our children (or not since some of us may never get laid) about the day that the great Engadget comment war started, angered the robots and began their uprising while we all sat by welcoming them as we argued over whether the site, or it's commenters were the asshats. This post shall be considered the first battle, after the declaration of war was sent on paper decorated with dinosaurs shooting frickin' lasers. The robots are coming...
I wonder how many stores are actually updating the firmware on their Storms. I wanna try out the new firmware to see if I find it acceptable.
http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=puns
what cracks me up is, before the iPhone, the US had lame cell phones- whereas in Japan, you could get real jammin' lookin' ones- finally the iPhone comes out, blows away the competition, and everyone follows like sheep- copies and follows.
let's get original.
Hey can I make an ON TOPIC post??? So whats in the update anyone know yet?
Thank you. No, seriously, thank you.
All BS aside...after updating to .83, the storm pretty much has no lag at all. .65 OS was horrible, .75 OS was decent, .83 OS is great. I really can't wait to see what RIM has in store for updates after .83
I completely agree. It's basically no faster or slower than the G1 or the IPhone. It's amazing how much improvement this has been. Functionality is another issue which is basically different depending on the person.
People of Engadget
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_9sbNXNNYA
Yeah, let's keep this on topic. Any more comments on the update? I'm waiting for my Bold to arrive in the mail but I'm not sure if I want to keep it or sell it and buy the Storm so please tell us, has the lag been fixed?
PS - The "Grammar Nazi" in me has to point out that it should be "all right" not "alright."
It's really a shame to see that I had to scroll to the second page of the comments for this post just to get one post that was actually on topic.
If anyone on Engadget is doing it wrong, it's the readers for cluttering the comments with nothing but insults and slander toward one another and the Engadget staff. You guys are ridiculous, find another place to complain, please.
I don't post a lot, but I read a lot, and I can see that some people may feel the fruit get a bit much attention.
Now, this article is about a firmware update, so I'll keep the comment on firmware, but I do want to comment that it seems you in the staff are very eager to post every update to every Apple product, listing everything new and being, in general, very positive. Which is good, very good. Now, if you would try to strive to achieve the same for the other companies and manufacturers, the bias cries would probably die down a bit at least.
Seroiusly, take a look at this article http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/21/iphone-2-2-firmware-update-available-now/, compare it to this one, then try to convince us all that you take all cell phone manufacturers equally seriously by giving RIM/HTC/Nokia/Samsung/etc the same attention and follow-up on their next updates. These companies do updates at a much slower rate than Apple, so it shouldn't be that hard to keep up with them.
From the latest comments, it seems this firmware update is a longed-for, considerate improvement on the user interface and swift-ness. Now please, pretty please write down these feedbacks as they come in, then add updates to the article itself, so that the ones that comes behind won't have to go throug two pages of comment sludge to see that yes, this update is actually very good, despite the rather indifferent tone of the original article.
Thank you.
lol. don't be so serious Chris, just take a moment and laugh... u gotta admit that was funny.
All these posts and not one person that has installed the firmware to say what changed?
has anybody tried this yet??? my girlfriend has this phone but shes all for show so i wanna get my hands dirty while she sleeps... but i dont want to have to lie about why her phone is a brick...
I tried it earlier tonight (or earlier this morning NY time), it pretty amazing it terms of how it solidifies the Storm's speed. Camera feels quicker, accelerometer is also quicker, switching to landscape mode doesn't make the screen brighter,
"Wrong"? I dont think there's a wrong when it comes to opinions regarding things like this, and even if there is, I would like to think there's a better way to say it other than "Wrong."
You have to agree that while most comments on that article were inappropriate in some way, engadget is known to be extremely apple-biased and readers just get sick of it. Just admit it, ask everyone to calm down, and lets all try to make things better, threats are not the way to go.
You are not giving us any love Engadget. I'm going back to Giz to get my love fix.
Oh, that was supposed to be directed ar Chris, responding to Discofunk, damn
I'm still waiting for Tmo to release a good update for the 8100. Every other month I seem to end up with one and can't find any good improvements. 4.5 has some nice eye candy and other improvements, but the 8100 Pearl isn't made to run it so it at times is dead slow.
weAREengadget
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05Nk8CH5UVc
Silly me, I read the comments hoping to find out how the firmware update actually affected the phone. Instead I got to read about how bad this site sucks.
Shame on me....
I needed this the other week when the .75 OTA update broke my camera.
.83 is definitely better. Faster browser, camera, and overall speed. Media center loads things quicker as well. Dial pad no longer lags as well. Sound through my headphones is MUCH louder. Big plus. On the downside, the status bar when playing a video can be a bit quirky at times and stereo bluetooth is no longer working for videos.
.83 update is definitely better than previous ones. I tried it and first thing I noticed is that the Browser and Email scrolls are much more smoother.
Another BIG change is that the available memory does not drop constantly, the way it was doing in previous 2 versions.
It has remained constant around 19MB. In fact after I had played internet radio in media player for 3 hours, it dropped down to 16MB, but regained it back to 18MB when i checked it after 2 hours or so. And then to 19MB an hour later.
Clearly, the memory management seems to have improved !!!
So, has anyone tried this leaked update? I am extremely interested in seeing when RIM will get all of the original problems fixed for the Storm, because I would really like to buy one.
When I was on Cingular, I used an HTC 8125, so lag, like with almost any other phone, would happen occasionally and sometimes it was rather unpleasant, but it's not going to break a phone. But, most of the reviews that I read reported some serious lag, especially when switching to landscape mode... And that, for me, is pretty unacceptable, as I would use the Storm almost entirely as a messaging device. Quick and effective QWERTY input is a must.
Once more- has anyone downloaded the leaked update?
To be honest this comment saga is about as gripping as a stevenote. The apple fanboys are loving it and the apple haters are loving subverting it. For the rest of us who only venture into the comments because it made a news item, it is frankly the funniest thing i've seen this week. Such purile comedy as " apple twat " or unrelenting ott support for a phone makes me wonder; is it really possible to care about a phone to the point of insulting people? And further insult the writers of a blog? Dude, it's a fucking phone. Seriously. I suggest you set up your own blog with the title "how I can waste a whole bunch of time telling you that because you have an iPhone, you only have 12 brain cells because it doesn't have stereo bluetooth". Or equiv for the storm/g1/touch hd. You would get a massive following and leave engadget to do news about gadgets and not news about engadget.
Way to go RIM for addressing the issues.
I think i should go back to my VZW store for a retest of the storm.
I was underwhelmed first time there. It could be a nice product if it runs smoothly.
I wish there was 1 extra button on the blackberry for quick access to a programmable list of frequently used functions.
I "No Upgrades Available" when I check for an upgrade OTA.
That would be because this is a leaked firmware upgrade....
as in it's not available from Verizon yet, hence not available via OTA yet.
That's been said quite a few times...