iphone vs blackberry

Yes, I’ve done it.  I’ve bought an iphone and these are my thoughts on the differences between the Blackberry Pearl and my Apple iPhone.

First, some basics. The exact devices i’m talking about are the Blackberry 8100 and the 8GB 3G iPhone.

It didn’t take me long to get excited about the lifestyle benefits of the iphone, especially when I consider that the data plan for the iPhone is the same monthly cost as my Blackberry and I can sell the Pearl for the same price as the iPhone cost me.

So at the end of the day, it’s a straight swap.

I opted for the 8 gb model because I just can’t see the need to spend another $100 for 8 more gigs at this point.

Here was my rationale - I have about 400 songs on my 2 gb ipod right now and it’s only about 50% full.  Movies on the iStore will take up about 850 gigs.  And how often will I put a movie on the iPhone?

Probably only a few times a year when I’m travelling and want to watch it on the plane.

Pictures?  Nope - not that many. Podcasts?  Very few.  As a result, I can’t imagine that I would fill up this phone with how I use it, unless I change my mobile rich media habits.

As with most things in life, you don’t miss them until they are gone, not using the Blackberry anymore has created a few of those moments.

I’ve had the iPhone for about a week now and these are my thoughts:

1. The touch screen is very good and fun to use. If you are a text and email junkie like me, you will quickly get used to it. Be careful though - arriving texts show up on your screen even if it’s locked - you need to set a password to hide this.

2. Navigating web pages as they were meant to be seen is so fantastic. (No Blackberry’s can currently do this)

3. Getting used to the touch screen keyboard is a little weird, but you will get the hang of it. I liked the tactile experience of ‘touch and click’ with the Pearl. I was also quite handy with the track ball.  The touch screen on the iPhone enables me to type just as fast now that I’m used to it.

4. The interface is light years ahead of Blackberry.  Very intuitive and totally “Apple”, if you know what I mean.

5. I miss the built-in voice call / voice recognitions feature (you can get one from the App Store) and button on the Blackberry. One of my cars does not have built in BlueTooth, so if I need to call someone while I’m driving, finding their number on the iPhone is a lot more work than the Blackberry.  With the Pearl, I used to just click the button on the side of the phone, say the name and then the phone would do the rest.  I could do that without taking my eyes off the road. I can’t do that with the Blackberry unless I’m Bluetoothed-up.  And I haven’t tried to use it with my Bluetooth headset yet either, so I don’t know what the BT capabilities are like, but others tell me it’s fine.

6. The iPhone speaker phone is much better than the Pearl.  Callers report that I sound like I’m on the regular phone and I can hear people much better.  My only gripe is that volume is a bit low, even at full blast.

7. The size.  This was a biggie for me.  I really liked the candy-bar size of the Pearl.  It fits nicely in my pocket.  I don’t think cell phones are a fashion accesory and don’t want to look like a security-guard-dork with my phone attached to my belt.  The Iphone is a bit bigger than the Pearl, but a little thinner.  It is also quite a bit heavier.  I liked the size and weight of the Pearl much better.  You KNOW you’ve got the iPhone with you, whereas sometimes I had to pat my jacket to see if I remembered my Pearl.

8. It “should” theoretically last longer.  The materials used in the iPhone are much higher in quality than the Pearl.  The touch screen is actually a type of glass, the trim is actually metal.  Holding both phones, you can just see and feel the difference.  The Blackberry has all these little buttons.  Anytime you have moving parts, they eventually wear out.  The iPhone should last longer because you’re dealing with software to run things, not hardware.  Apple is known for stable software.

9. The App Store.  This is where there’s really no comparison between the two devices.  The iPhone is like a little computer in your hands that is optimized for all the stuff you do in your life.
VERY POWERFUL PARTY TOOL and CONVERSATION STARTER.
The App Store has just about every application imaginable - so free, some for a fee. So far, I’ve installed a few games (the Price is Right, iSlots) and the weather network application.  I’ve also grabbed the Google Earth application which is as good as the real version. There is so much going on at the App Store, than you would probably never see it all. Wine picks?  No problem.  Fitness or budgeting applications?  Yes.  Recipes?  Yes.  Movie trailers and reviews and then times at YOUR LOCAL theatres?  Yes. Salesforce.com integration? Yes.

10. Web Surfing.  Hands down…awesome. Hard to believe that you can surf the web so quickly and easily (thanks to the 3G capabilities).

11. Call quality.  As good as the Blackberry.  Not better, not worse - but about the same in my opinion.

12. Maps.  This is an awesome application.  Thanks to the built in Google and killer-web surfing ability, you can use the phone like a GPS to instantly pinpoint your own location, then type in a destination and it will create a turn by turn route map for you.  Very cool. What is DOES NOT do is follow you and talk to you like a real GPS, you’d need to download an app (from guess where) the app store.

13. Business practicality.  This is one of those tricky questions. I’m a technology person.  I make my living on the web, through the web and around the web.  The Blackberry is a VERY GOOD product - don’t get me wrong.  I REALLY like their stuff.  They do email and do it well.  Let’s not forget they were the first to put email on the phone!
The iPhone does those same things too.  You can integrate with your companies exchange server.  I worry that many CIO’s will find cause for concern with the iPhone because of its “video game like console” approach to mobile communications and am sure that for this reason, the Blackberry will keep its place as the de facto business tool for many years yet.

Conclusions:

Is the iPhone better?

No, it’s just different.  It’s more fun - that’s for sure. Do I miss my Blackberry, yes I do.  Will I keep the iPhone.  Probably.  It’s growing on me.

Is it “just a phone”.  No. Do I “need” it.  No. It’s kind of a hobbyist tool.

Is it practical?  If you want it to be.

It is worth the money? If you get it with a data plan.

Is it the future. Yes.

Is it fun.  Totally.  (if you have the time!)

Would I recommend it?  That depends.  To my dad?  Absolutely not. It would drive him nuts (even though he likes the latest toys).  To a road warrior?  Probably. To an occasional cell phone user with a modicum of techical abilities?  Probably not - but that’s where this gets tricky…because this device is SO capable of getting your attention, which is what happened to me the first time a friend showed it.  I was hooked.

Be careful that you don’t get hooked!

iphoneincanada.ca is a site worth visiting if you’re new to the iPhone world.

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This is a post about how I dealt with the pain of a long term sports injury in my neck through exercise, stretching, strengthening and supplementation.

It all started in high school.  I was playing rugby on the high school rugby team.  Normally, I played wing because at six foot one in height, I was a much better runner than a scrum player.

However, during this one particular game, we’d lost two scrum team mates to injury (that should’ve been a sign of what was to come!) and the coach asked me to sub in for the prop position.  The prop is the name given to one of two players in the rugby scrum who support either side of another player in the middle called the ‘hooker’.

The prop is a very demanding position which puts an incredible amount of stress on your entire body and is best suited to body types that are low, wide and very strong.

If you’ve never seen how the scrum in rugby works - think of it this way, it’s a bunch men tightly gripping each other, bent over in a sort of battling ram position, which is intended to push against the same thing on the opposing team to take control of the rugby ball.

How is that for a visual?  In case that doesn’t work for you - here’s what a scrum looks like and where the props go:

The Rugby Scrum - Can you spot the neck injury?

The rugby scrum is no place for tall slim guys like me. I still have nightmares about scrums!

Anyway, the other team was way stronger and bigger than ours and my neck and head were pushed hard down onto my rib cage and held there for about 10 seconds - enough to permanently damage my spine.

I knew something bad happened immediately.  The pain was unbelievable. It was lucky that I didn’t break my neck.  I was the third player out of that game because of injury.  The pain took months to go away.  I went to chiropractors, who kept adjusting me, over and over.  Not realizing that I had actually crushed the ends of a few vertebrae.

Which vertebrae?  Specifically cervical vertebrae 5, 6 and 7. Often referred to as C5, C6 and C7.

About 5 years later, in university, (no longer playing any contact sports, except with girls) I noticed that my neck was always bothering me.  5 years after that (when I met my wife) …I began to notice tingling in my right hand…which eventually became numbness in parts of my hand.

Couple those symptoms with massive, chronic pain in my neck and you have the ingredients for a debilitating, distracting pain that I used to live with EVERY day.

Here’s what a recent x-ray of my neck looks like, taken from the right side of my head with my head tilted back:

Nice Filings! Note the deformation of the vertebrae in the circle - they have developed bone spurs pointing forward and are collapsing. Also note the immobility of that area compared to the upper vertebrae during an anterior head tilt.

There is NOTHING LIKE CHRONIC SPINE PAIN. Trust me. I know.   For years I ate 400 -1,200 mg of Ibuprofen (Advil) to deal with the pain.  Eventually that did little to help.

So I went to my doctor.  He recommended I see a neurosurgeon.  We took x-rays and did an MRI.  The results were very telling.

The medical terminology for my spine condition is called Cervical Spondylosis - better known as neck osteoarthritis.  This is where the bones in the neck try to fuse themselves together to prevent further injury.

This is another xRay of my from the right, but with my head held straight during normal, forward looking posture. Note the massive difference between the lower three vertebrae and the upper three vertebrae. The uppers normal in shape and space, the lower are quite deformed with very little space in between. Those bone spurs push forward into the back of my esophagus and downward onto my brachial nerves.

The neurosurgeon said that surgery is an option if the pain and numbness increase.  This would mean a complete disectomy where the offending vertebrae are fused together.

No thanks.

However, in the meantime, he recommended a couple of very simple actions, which I take almost daily.

The result of these simple actions has been literally miraculous for me.  I no longer need to take any over the counter pain killers. I very rarely feel any pain in my neck - maybe once or twice a month.

And the numbness in my hand has been gone for years.

The reason that I had numbness in my hand was because the facet joints in my neck were compressing the brachial nerves to the point where sensation and strength was diminishing in my entire right arm and hand.  This is commonly known as Thoracic Outlet Syndrome.

He told me that my injury is very similar to what happens to people who are in car crashes and sustain a whiplash injury.

The neurosurgeon recommended some physiotherapy and to stay away from chiropractic treatments because stretching and strengthening the muscles in my neck is more important that having it adjusted.

I took my x-rays to physio, who had seen many of this type of neck injury.  My physio showed me one exercise, which I do almost daily, that has been very helpful.

Very simply, I lay on my back with a bath towel rolled up and placed under my neck.  Then I perform what I call my ‘chin tucks’.  I then perform ten to twenty repetitions of tucking my chin down firmly towards my chest.

The difference for me between the chin tuck that you might do say, at Pilates, or in posture classes, is the TOWEL UNDER my neck.

The KEY with this exercise is NOT to lift your head by engaging the sternocleidomastoid muscles;

sternocleidomastoideus

but rather to use the core muscles of your neck, such as the Longus Colli to do the pulling;

longus colli

This one exercise helps to keep the natural curve in my neck, which Cervical Spondylosis will eventually eliminate.  If you look at my X-Ray, you will see that my neck does not have a natural curve to it.  In fact, it is actually quite straight up and down.

This is NOT how the neck is supposed to look.

Because of my injury, I have lost the natural ‘lordosis’, or curve.  This exercise, helps to both strengthen my neck muscles and fight the effects of neck osteoarthritis.

Here is what a normal spine should look like:

Normal Cervical Spine - Note the Curve and the Square Vertebrae

I have also invested in a neck traction device, which I will admit is very Draconian in its application.  It looks like one of those Medieval torture devices that was used to stretch people until their head pops off.

You fill up a weight with water…I usually use the whole back, about twenty five pounds.  This goes over a pulley, which attaches to a rope on a door, which attaches to a brace that straps around your head and chin.

You then sit in a chair with this pulling your head up (and thus releasing pressure on your spinal column) for as long as you want.

Great horror movie stuff.

Click here to see what this bizarre thing looks like.

I use it when I feel my neck getting a little stiff, which is very rarely now.

In terms of supplements, I find that Fish Oil does a terrific job of taking my pain away. There is something in fish oil, so my doctor tells me, that does a very good job of managing inflammation in the body.  I use the Ascenta brand here in Canada.

I also wrote about this product in my post about managing depression.

Lastly, I find that cardio exercise does a great job of eliminating the pain.  Hiking, biking or stationary equipment all do the trick for me.  I need about 35 minutes or more with my heart rate at 120 beats per minutes for the duration.

The effects of cardio exercise alone I’ve found can eliminate my pain for up to 4 hours… .

Of all the injuries that one can sustain, I’d have to imagine that anything to do with the spine is one of the worst and I think that I’m managing mine very well.

So, what’s the moral of this story?

Keep yourself and your kids out of contact sports, especially where very strong men, bent over, are involved!

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Truth be known however, this trip was really about the wedding, despite our best efforts to sneak in some shopping and relaxing.

And what a wedding it was.

Having been to many weddings and receptions, I must admit that this was probably the most beautiful and romantic wedding I can recall having been to.

The night before the wedding we went to the apartment the bride and groom had rented near McGill University.  I love that old architecture with the high ceilings. At this pre-wedding event, we met some totally wonderful people.

Most of the guest list had flown in from western Europe - predominantly Holland, the UK and the Netherlands, since the bride and groom had relocated there many years ago, yet they met in Montreal.

Being Dutch, it was great to reconnect with some of my brethren.  Although I had never met any of these people before, we were quick to become friends and offer open invitations to visit each other in the future.

Montreal has some of the best night life that I have enjoyed.  Crescent street, off St. Catherines has some great pubs, bars and restaurants.

Here’s a picture of what Dutch guys do when they get together:

Dutch Guys at Work

Old Montreal is even better.

The night before the wedding some of us went out to a great spot called Santos and enjoyed some killer tunes and great drinks, which is where the above photo was taken.

The wedding took place at Birks Chapel at McGill University.  This was followed by a beautiful outdoor reception at an incredible hotel in old Montreal.

Leander, Traci and Tise before the ceremony

Inside the beautiful Birks Chapel

Bride and Groom on their way

Stealing a moment with the bride

Stealing a moment with the groom

One of the great surprises of this wedding, besides the great people we met, was how the bride and groom celebrated their friendships with each of the guests:

Before arriving, we each had to send a photo of ourselves with significant other, or alone if single. These pictures from the entire guest list were then professionally framed and showcased in classy, clean white frames.

Below each picture, within the framing, were words describing the meaning of the friendship from the bride and groom to each of those people.

Traci in Front of the Guest Photos

Guests were all surprised to see these mounted on two large easels at the reception.  Most couldn’t get away from reading those pictures and really got to know each other and how they fit into the bride and grooms lives.

As a gift to each guest, we were presented with this frame and photo to take home.  I thought it was a terrific, classy and warm touch to an already special day.

The food, the music, the people, the speeches and the setting were all superb.

perfect outdoor setting

beautiful table setting

S and G the Wedding

Fantastic Italian Wines

Enjoying the evening

It all went so fast and was such a positive experience. The next morning those who could make it had brunch at a local eatery in old Montreal, called Eggspectation to say goodbyes.

Traci, Brooks and Ed at breakfast

I hate goodbyes…………………………..

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My agent told me that I am well suited to military and cop-type role roles.  (I’m sure the Buzz Lightyear jaw line has something to do with that!).

Actually, there were so many special effects in this film that they were rumored to eat up most of the remaining budget.  The police station, where all of my scenes took place was so real looking.

I remember how impressed I was the first time I walked on set.

Anyway, when my agent told me that I was selected for this production, I was really excited.  The first thing that I did was head out to Vancouver Film Studios for measurement and fitting of a uniform that would be custom made for me.

The folks making my uniform advised me that the cost for my SWAT suit alone was in excess of $10,000.   It fit me like a glove when I came back 2 weeks later to try it on.   Damn was it cool.  Too bad it (and millions of dollars of other cool outfits) are sitting in a Fox Studio warehouse somewhere…

It would make the most fantastic Halloween costume - EVER.

I learned so many things being a part of such a big production.  Most notably  - patience. You spend a lot of time waiting around on big productions like this.  All in, I was probably on set for a total of 5 hours out of the 7 days I was there.

I also learned how much goes into shooting sci-fi productions.  The planning and organization in insane. Most of the scenes for i-Robot were shot in sequence.

I also learned that Will Smith is a very funny, very hard working actor.  The man is totally on his game in every way. He and Jada have mastered Hollywood…possibly even the universe!

Recently I watched the Pursuit of Happyness and loved it.

During set up for one scene well into the production a bunch of us were killing time waiting to hear “camera up” (which means we’re rolling), just before a subsequent scene. This is common when producers want to maintain continuity where people are standing.  It also wasn’t long enough for Will to back to his trailer.

Myself and another background performer were sitting on a bench inside the police station you see in the movie.  She had fallen asleep as it was getting later at night.  Will Smith was standing right in front of us and decided to give my colleague a little laugh - big Willy style.

He got about two inches from her face while she was asleep.  Then I nudged her to wake her up and she saw Will RIGHT THERE in her face.

She let out a big scream and everyone nearby had a big laugh, including Smith’s bodyguard who rarely even cracked a smile.

It made me appreciate Will’s sense of moment and sense of humor.

Anyway, as a background performer on big budget productions, you need to bring books, music…whatever, to pass the time because it can get boring sitting around.

We were asked not to sit in the direct sunlight because of the possibility of skin tones changing color, which would of course mess up continuity in the final production.  You have to think of these things!

Call times were early - 6 am.  Days ended around 8-11pm.  Long days.

The set for my scenes was an abandoned BC Hydro building out in the Fraser Valley, just outside of Vancouver.

My commitment to Fox was for 9 days.  However, I only made it 7 days as I sustained an injury on set at the end of the 7th day during the filming of a very chaotic scene when the robots are attacking the police station and I was dodging other background performers running around frantically.

I was paid for 9 days, however, as the contract you sign with Fox provides for this if you’re injured on set.

It wasn’t a major injury - I sprained my right ankle - but did have to be carried off set.  Alex Proyas (the director) personally checked on me right after my injury.  Proyas is an on-set safety nut who puts this as his highest priority.

You may recall that Bruce Lee’s son Brandon Lee died on set during a freak accident while filming another one of Proyas’ films - The Crow.  So when we got to set on day one - we had a very serious talk about security and safety from the first assistant director.

There were about 75 other background performers on set for the same scenes that were being shot.  The costumes were incredible.  Some of them cost more than $25,000 to make.  The details in these costumes defy logic.

For example - every one of us who had law enforcement had a unique badge number.

Mine was 2124D.

You will NEVER see that on camera, but it was part of the screen play anyway. There are so many other details that would take up days to explain.

Another very unique element of the production was that custom guns were made especially for the production.  These were real guns that shot blanks and they were extremely loud and very high tech looking.

The guns were amazing.

Some of us with weapons skills on the resume had the potential to be upgraded on set to firing the guns at the robots during the attack scene.  Which was good, because we got more money.

When this happened, all the intended targets were holding up clear riot police Plexiglas to block any debris flying out of the guns.  Those Plexiglas guards were green-screened out in post production.

My uniform had a holster for the gun, which was a plastic replica for all scenes except for those when there is actual shooting. I also had a billy club and real Mag Flashlight. All of which had to be handed into the armourer before leaving set from each scene.

Being a background performer is not a career. You will not make much money.

However, it’s a good way to learn the business and see how things get done.

But I wouldn’t focus on it as a means to an end in acting if that’s what you want to do.

Participating in this production brought far more value that the very small amount of money I was paid. I now look at all movies differently and know how much goes into them.

There is always the chance that director likes your “look” or decides to change the script and have you speak, but those happenings are the exception, not the rule.

Will Smith carried most of i-Robot and I think it is a great movie, with a great story and some state of the art special effects.

The original storyline would allow for a sequel, which would be a bankable money-maker for Fox.

In the meantime, if I can just get my hands on that costume….

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