I just switched to an iPhone 3G from a Blackberry Curve that I really liked. I'm pretty happy with the move, but there are a few things that Blackberry does far better than the iPhone. If I could get the following, I'd be in iPhone heaven:

1. A unified inbox. The Blackberry has a single Message area for all SMS, email, voicemail, missed calls, etc. Especially with regard to multiple email accounts, it is a huge pain in the butt to have navigate around so much just to read my email. Extremely annoying!

2. Better and more customizable notifications. On the Blackberry, all of my events can have different notifications. I had it setup so that SMS messages had one sound, PIN messages (blackberry stuff) had a different sound, and all of my email accounts had different sounds. I also had the ability to switch to a phone-only mode that made all sounds silent except for the phone ringing. This is important to have at night when the phone is charging by my bed. I don't want to be woken up by incoming emails, but I do need to be able to hear the phone if someone at work is calling me for a support call.

3. Frequent email fetching. On my blackberry, I'd get email within a minute of it being sent to me. On the iPhone, the shortest interval I can set for automatic checking is 15 minutes. Seriously? Fifteen freaking minutes? That's beyond useless. I want it checked every minute.

Then again, regarding #3 especially, that would probably drain the battery more. The battery life on the iPhone is absurdly bad. I don't think this thing would last 12 hours without me charging it. That's borderline unusable, especially since I can't carry a spare battery with me like I could with a Blackberry.

I'm also disappointed with the phone volume, especially when I'm riding in my car and have to deal with road noise. The Blackberry was louder. I wonder if there's an app to increase the volume a bit, or at least add some treble EQ to the phone itself. I know there is an app for the media player to add EQ. I'll have to check to see if that also can apply to the phone.

You should probably switch back to the blackberry.

Originally Posted by bobabc

You should probably switch back to the blackberry.

Nah, I like the iPhone too much for other reasons. However, there were a few useful features that I really miss. In addition to the ones I mentioned, I also miss my message waiting light. But, I don't miss them all enough to switch back. I'm sure I'll get used to the iPhone's shortcomings, and there will probably eventually be apps to fix them.

I wouldn't switch under the subtext that the issues you are experiencing will be fixed with a future software update. When the iPhone first came out, people were annoyed by the fact that the SMS app didn't allow the use of the landscape keyboard. At the time, it seemed like a simple accidental omission, and most people concluded that the issue would be fixed with a coming software update. Countless software updates and almost two years later, and this "simple accidental omission" is still there.

Now, I'm not one to harp on Apple for not adding this, that, and the other thing to the iPhone, but it would take them all of an hour to put landscape texting in the SMS app, and I can't come up with a single reason why they haven't done it yet.

[/rant]

Anyway, I don't believe that there is any solution to your first two problems. Your third problem could possibly be fixed by using a push email forwarding service like mail2web. Also, if you use gmail IMAP, I believe that emails are pushed to your phone as they come despite the checking interval.

1. Good idea, as mentioned, this is only a software issue and it's only a matter of time before someone writes an app for it.

2. Same as the first issue. I have an app on my JailBroken 3G iPhone that sends me the Homer "Doh" sound when I get a new text.

3. There's already a solution, albeit it not perfect yet but it's called MobileMe. Yes you have to pay but don't expect everything in life to be free.

And the last section, yes, yes and yes. I have to admit though the iPhone speaker is not nearly as loud as the Blackberry and doubt that you can make it any louder without external devices. So you will have to deal with it but it's not usually enough to turn off iPhone users.

Originally Posted by johninbigd

1. A unified inbox. The Blackberry has a single Message area for all SMS, email, voicemail, missed calls, etc. Especially with regard to multiple email accounts, it is a huge pain in the butt to have navigate around so much just to read my email. Extremely annoying!

2. Better and more customizable notifications. On the Blackberry, all of my events can have different notifications. I had it setup so that SMS messages had one sound, PIN messages (blackberry stuff) had a different sound, and all of my email accounts had different sounds. I also had the ability to switch to a phone-only mode that made all sounds silent except for the phone ringing. This is important to have at night when the phone is charging by my bed. I don't want to be woken up by incoming emails, but I do need to be able to hear the phone if someone at work is calling me for a support call.

3. Frequent email fetching. On my blackberry, I'd get email within a minute of it being sent to me. On the iPhone, the shortest interval I can set for automatic checking is 15 minutes. Seriously? Fifteen freaking minutes? That's beyond useless. I want it checked every minute.

Then again, regarding #3 especially, that would probably drain the battery more. The battery life on the iPhone is absurdly bad. I don't think this thing would last 12 hours without me charging it. That's borderline unusable, especially since I can't carry a spare battery with me like I could with a Blackberry.

I'm also disappointed with the phone volume, especially when I'm riding in my car and have to deal with road noise. The Blackberry was louder. I wonder if there's an app to increase the volume a bit, or at least add some treble EQ to the phone itself. I know there is an app for the media player to add EQ. I'll have to check to see if that also can apply to the phone.

What is the app you use to get the custom SMS "Doh!" sound?

I completely agree. I'm a new comer to iphone (after 5 years bberry) and find the lack of a unified inbox a real shortcoming. for the rest I have to say i love the iphone. anyone know of any product in development? or where i can get an app that does the trick?

Originally Posted by johninbigd

I just switched to an iPhone 3G from a Blackberry Curve that I really liked. I'm pretty happy with the move, but there are a few things that Blackberry does far better than the iPhone. If I could get the following, I'd be in iPhone heaven:

1. A unified inbox. The Blackberry has a single Message area for all SMS, email, voicemail, missed calls, etc. Especially with regard to multiple email accounts, it is a huge pain in the butt to have navigate around so much just to read my email. Extremely annoying!

2. Better and more customizable notifications. On the Blackberry, all of my events can have different notifications. I had it setup so that SMS messages had one sound, PIN messages (blackberry stuff) had a different sound, and all of my email accounts had different sounds. I also had the ability to switch to a phone-only mode that made all sounds silent except for the phone ringing. This is important to have at night when the phone is charging by my bed. I don't want to be woken up by incoming emails, but I do need to be able to hear the phone if someone at work is calling me for a support call.

3. Frequent email fetching. On my blackberry, I'd get email within a minute of it being sent to me. On the iPhone, the shortest interval I can set for automatic checking is 15 minutes. Seriously? Fifteen freaking minutes? That's beyond useless. I want it checked every minute.

Then again, regarding #3 especially, that would probably drain the battery more. The battery life on the iPhone is absurdly bad. I don't think this thing would last 12 hours without me charging it. That's borderline unusable, especially since I can't carry a spare battery with me like I could with a Blackberry.

I'm also disappointed with the phone volume, especially when I'm riding in my car and have to deal with road noise. The Blackberry was louder. I wonder if there's an app to increase the volume a bit, or at least add some treble EQ to the phone itself. I know there is an app for the media player to add EQ. I'll have to check to see if that also can apply to the phone.

1. Sorry I have never been a blackberry user so I have never known this feature, but a unified inbox would be a great feature.


2. for notifications to change you need to jailbrake your phone. You can use an app called winterboard and can apply different tones/themes for different things.
Or you can make make you own ring tones and sms sounds and put them in the propper folders in the file system and no need for winterboard.


3. the exchange email service is immediate(most of my email come in in about 30 - 45 seconds of being sent). MobileMe is a good solution but cost money. I use Gmail and they have free exchange service.
Here is how I use it:
I have one Gmail address that is a collector for all emails. This one is set up as an exchange push account. All other email addresses are forwarded to this Gmail address. Immediate notification from any email. You can then open up the proper email address(i assume you have more than one since you were looking for a unified mailbox) and respond from there.

There is also a new app out on cydia called multi-exchange. It bypasses the 1 excahange account limit and you can add multiple exchange accounts. I have tried it and it works. I have not seen any significant battery usage either.


It does suck that we can't have a extra battery in a pocket or something to swap out when needed. The 3G charger is so small though( even though it is still a hassle I just carry it in my pocket)

As far as volume, there use to be apps from the iclarified repository that would boost the speaker volume. I have not looked for these in long time.

Good luck and welcome to the iPhone.