Video: Storm 2's new touchscreen tech explained with mindblowing clarity, WiFi confirmed
By Paul Miller 
posted August 23rd 2009 9:58AM
posted August 23rd 2009 9:58AM
[Thanks, Kristjan]
posted August 23rd 2009 9:58AM
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It's pretty sad when in 2009 you have to actually confirm that it has wi-fi.
If the CDMA version does in fact come with wifi, and the provider I work for gets it in Canada, I will probably be upgrading.
this guy annoys me
Sarig, spot on. Phineas, agreed. I'm sitting there watching the video and this dork, I mean, Rim employee and he's going on an on how the keyboard is better than the iphone. I'm saying to myself, when is he actually going to demo the keyboard? And he doesn't. I think the storm 2 will be an improvement over the first version but it will be minimal. Rim seems to be getting very good at this lately, they keep pumping out new models with very modest improvements.
RIM..... sigh. Just put a freakin' capacitive touchscreen on there. People who want the experience of physical buttons are going to buy a Curve.
So I still don't understand, when will we be able to send text messages from a sponge again? Will the Blackberry Sponge be available for AT&T? Can I run Android on it? These questions must be answered!
Dude, remember, they said Android was going to be the most open source friendly piece of software for any hardware device on the market! You can already run it on your sponge!
I might go buy a Storm 2 if the iPhone doesn't hurry up and come to Verizon!
Speaking of which, does anyone have a somewhat solid answer of WHEN the iPhone is coming to Verizon?
Looks promising. Kudos to RIM for not just giving up on SurePress after its poor reception, but rather attempting to refine it.
My only concern is with battery life. Constantly running a charge through the screen doesnt seem like it'll do the Storm2's battery any favors...
I think the people who had negative and irreverent things to say, didn't understand him, or are just plain stubborn. They calling something a fail when they don't even have one yet, I don't understand that.
Exactly! It seemed pretty clear to me.
I guess most people have never left their own city (village) to find out that people speak differently around this country.
I just have to say that the guys explanation of the new screen was the OPPOSITE of "Mindblowing clarity"
Hahaha, agreed. He explained how it works, but in no formal/technical manner.
Amazing how most of the commenters failed to understand the video. Most people missed that you can touch AND click. Like this you can slide your fingers across the virtual keyboard (highlighting the letters as you do so) and then click when the key you want to type is highlighted.
On the iPhone, what you touch is what you get. With this you can touch and adjust your finger above the key you want to press before you click. You can type faster than the iPhone because you don't need to lift your fingers off the screen to type the next letter. More like a regular qwerty phone where you just move your fingers across the surface as you type.
Amazing how the iPhone fanboys failed to get the video.
"Amazing" how you're not totally correct, however. "On the iPhone, what you touch is what you get," is what you say. Not always.
The iPhone doesn't have to work like how you describe it, but rather, the way the iPhone software reacts to a screen touch is subjective to how the software can best use a touch. So, it can be an immediate touch during a game, etc., or it can behave differently like when you're typing, where the phone's software doesn't acknowledge the letter you've pressed until you release, which allows you to slide your finger over to the letter you want if you've initially pressed on the wrong one. Try it out.
Amazing how you'd assume Apple would just leave the button-press as "what you touch is what you get," as you say.
This was 8 min. and 1 second of life I'll never get back. Is there an App for that.
At least now I feel rejuvenated as an Apple Fan Boy, especially after a tough couple weeks of government, Apple, Google, AT&T rankling.
Anyway, I won't have to worry about having pressed oils into the screen sliding across letters of a word only to realize I pressed a little to hard in one spot and clicked before I was done spelling the word. On the iPhone I could hit Space and auto complete will finish the word for me in most cases.
Is there an advantage to it?
So, has there actually been any official announcement that the GSM model of this phone is supposed to be for ATT? There is, after all, a GSM model of the original Storm which is for the international market, and I'd wager that's what the GSM variant of the Storm 2 is. ATT has, after all, been very reluctant to introduce any touchscreen-only smartphones to compete with the Iphone...not counting that technological abomination which is the LG Incite.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who realized this. Chances of the GSM version of the Storm 2, the 9520, coming to AT&T are pretty slim. It is more likely the non-U.S. version of the phone. It may also be intended for Canada, because of the transition form CDMA to GSM that is going on there. Nobody will know for sure until we find out which GSM bands the radio will support.
Still won't go back to touch screen - even if it's a Blackberry.
This guy one hell of a source/mole/spy inside RIM.
Great looking device and awesome screen technology!
Except for the initial hiccup with the Storm 1, RIM is definitely playing at the top of their game. I would even go so far as to rank them up there with Apple, Nokia & Sony, in terms of superb hardware design.
I'm sorry but this guy is a moron.
Wow, what a video. I have to say, I commend RIM for improving their Storm line with this new upgrade. After trying the Storm 1 when it first came out, I wasn't convinced with the SurePress technology. And I'll probably say the same thing about the Storm 2's new piezo technology. What I find funny in this video is the avid, almost fanatical, defense of the Storm 2 against the iPhone. Personally, I don't think that by implementing piezo technology will give Storm 2 a "HUGE" advantage over the iPhone's capacitive touchscreen. I think it's more a matter of preference. I would imagine there would still be that minute delay in using a piezo screen while typing so to say it's a "HUGE" advantage is misleading. If anything, I wouldn't use a touchscreen phone from RIM to begin with considering they have entire lines of wonderfully built phones that have physical keyboards and do fantastic with them. Sorry Kristjan, your efforts to persuade the average user aren't strong enough.
But above all of this is still the most glaring difference between the Storm 2 and the iPhone: SOFTWARE. Need I say more?
I like this guys videos , it makes me actually want to switch from att for this phone
My question is: Why not show us the actual keyboard???? He kept tapping around the main screen doing a whole lot of nothing! I also wonder if he ever actually tried an iPhone????
Geez!
Awesome, you guys posted it. I feel special now having my name on the front page. Looks like I accomplished what I wanted to do too; We got a nice long discussion here and better explanations of the tech from more intelligent people.(tho I don't see why people are finding the video explanation confusing)
Thanks for using my tip Engadget.
All I can say about the video is that this is a major improvement over the storm 1 and if you look at some other videos of the software(even thou it's still very early) it's gonna be much stable and fast then the original storm at launch. Also knowing now that it has wifi, this is gonna be the phone that the storm 1 should have been.
i might consider getting this as my next phone. my current phone is the iphone 3g. when is this scheduled for release?
It's like one of those discovery channel shows where they have 3 items and want to make it last 30 minutes but the items can be covered in 5, sigh.
Wow a non tactile touch screen - and we need this TOOL to explain it to us. Yet another loser with inflated self importance.
Am I one of the few who don't want my phone's touchscreen to "click". I am quite happy my "eye-phone"s doesn't. That would just be weird.
Piezo tech sure does interesting, and after watching the video i wanted a storm 2. However on second thought i would be hard pressed to choose this over the htc hero or samsung galaxy. Sorry apple, i will never buy a phone without a memory expansion slot, or removable battery, and certainly not a phone that has documented cases of catching on fire and burning up !
16 Gigs of memory isn't enough for you? Seriously? Are you not planning on using a computer to sync your data? I would totally understand the need for an SD slot if the phone had only 500MB of RAM to use, but that's just not the case anymore.
Ok.... he is saying there is a huge advantage but giving no real meat to support it......and his vernacular is quite poor.
BUT..... there IS an advantage.
With the iphone when you touch something on the browser it basically registers as a mouse click.... This causes you to miss certain interactive menus that would pop up with just a mouse focus or hover.
With SUREPRESS technology it allows you to hover over a selection which would sometime bring up other selections then regiser the click to make the selection. It's like a mouse and button as opposed to just a button.
If they have put in sufficient hardware to make this run quickly enough then this will definatley be a better selection than the iPhone
Reading some of these comments you can tell who the electrical engineers are and who the imposters are.
Me!
It is great that RIM are working on upgrading their phones, but I would much rather they put their effort into bringing Blackberry App World to Australians instead!
So let me get this straight ... is there an advantage ???
Something's wrong with that door from the firs seconds
here's another video of the review on the blackberry storm 9550
http://www.tvlesson.com/video/37307_getting-a-good-look-at-the-blackberry-storm-9550.html
and for those of you still stuck with the first gen blackberry storm, here's a way to make your phone click 10 times better on the corners
http://www.tvlesson.com/video/37307_getting-a-good-look-at-the-blackberry-storm-9550.html