Do you prefer the singular, solid piece of glass that is currently the iPhone screen, the big honking button/piezo electric multi-clicker that powers the BlackBerry Storm and its upcoming second edition, or do you yearn for the ability to customize haptics on your touch screen?

That’s the question our sibling site, CrackBerry.com asked yesterday and the one we’re repeating today. Since you’re reading TiPb, we expect you’re already super-elite when it comes to using the iPhone multitouch screen, so no explanation needed here.

For the first edition BlackBerry Storm, RIM floated a similar screen over a giant button that you had to press down every time you wanted to do something. It allowed separate navigation and execution, but arguably each at the expense of the other. With Storm 2 — well, nobody knows what they’re doing for sure (you can read CrackBerry Kevin’s guesses) but it appears you can click on multiple locations simultaneously, mitigating the linear process of the older model.

Since the BlackBerry Storm 2 has no “clickability” when off, Kevin wonders if users will be able to control how much “clickability” it has when on as well, potentially allowing it to be turn on, turned down, or turned up.

Given each of these options, are you happy with the iPhone screen input method as-is, or does the Storm’s way interest you?

Seriously, I’m beginning to heart RIM’s co-CEOs almost as much as I heart Steve Ballmer. Give the mobilemen a venue and a mic, and we get blog gold each and every time. Chronology will help context here:

Mike Lazaridis on touch screen devices:

THERE’S a reason that R.I.M. is averse to the iPhone’s glass pad. “I couldn’t type on it and I still can’t type on it, and a lot of my friends can’t type on it,” says Mike Lazaridis, R.I.M.’s co-chief executive and technological visionary. “It’s hard to type on a piece of glass.”

This almost the very moment word leaked that RIM was set to release an “Apple Killer” which became the lamentably launched BlackBerry Storm. When reviewers and users alike generally panned the device’s initial, buggy software, Jim Balsillie said GlitchWare was the new Black(Berry):

[RIM and Verizon] made the crucial Black Friday deadline “by the skin of their teeth,” after missing a planned October debut. Mr. Balsillie said such scrambles — and the subsequent software glitches that need to be fixed — are part of the “new reality” of making complex cellphones in large volumes.

Now to put the disrespect cherry high atop of Storm owners frustration sundays, Lazaridis returns with this brain-boggler:

“That’s our first touch product, and you know nobody gets it perfect out the door. You know other companies were having problems with their first releases.”

The iPhone was Apple’s first touch product, and while iPhone 1.0 may have been limited in functionality (and 3.0 may still have boxes yet unchecked), it’s hard to take anyone seriously who doesn’t think Apple not only nailed their first touch product, but their very first phone product of any kind.

Maybe because 1) Apple wasn’t rushing for a Black Friday sales-focused deadline, 2) they weren’t trying to clone a competing device’s feature set, and 3) they cared about user experience more than 1) or 2)?

Many people still use an original iPhone 2G, some even still run iPhone OS 1.x. Storm owners have only themselves to blame for not waiting to buy Storm 2 instead? Ahem. Pitchforks to the right, torches to the left, north to Waterloo!

That said, if Dancing with the Canadian Stars ever becomes a reality, I would still vote for RIM’s co-CEO to take on the Woz role. Let the Laz dance! Ballmer could lend him the Monkey Boy choreography and we just know CrackBerry Kevin would bring out the push-powered voters!

(via Engadget, headline via Jeremy on Twitter)

We’re not sure if picking on the BlackBerry Storm is even sporting anymore, and you know, we probably wouldn’t even bother if RIM hadn’t styled it the “Apple Killer” even while bleating that they “couldn’t type on glass”. Well, according to BlackBerryCool.com, it turns out some other people couldn’t type on the Storm’s specific type of glass either: the US Government:

“The BlackBerry, to me, is a utilitarian tool,” said Rodell Mollineau, communications staff director for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). “It’s not easy to send e-mails on that thing. It is not a good touch screen, and it’s not like the iPhone, where there are so many other great features to it.”

Dear US Government, next time just read TiPb — we could have saved you lots of frustration (and who knows, maybe even restored your childlike sense of wonder!)

Oh, and get more iPhones!

Wow, the Storm launching to a buggy, bashed start must really have bothered the marketing drones at RIM, especially when the iPhone 3G outsold in its second quarter outsold the Storm in its debut by almost 2 to 1… How else can we explain this cute little “shot” just taken at Apple?

Of course, we all know in the real world the Apple would have spun around, Kung-Fu style, and caught RIM’s little BerryBullet in it’s bitten-out teeth. Then… Skeedoosh! Massive shock-wave leveling everything this side of Waterloo.

Seriously though, why would anyone end any ad for a touch-screen device by saying “no one can touch it”, especially after all the complaints about this particular implementation’s usability…?

Still, hung-over as we are from the CrackBerry birthday bash, we’ll link up the romanticized little RIM version so you can lend us your thoughts…

Stephen Fry, the British comedian and technology commentator who was once partner to TV’s Dr. House, Hugh Laurie, recently annihilated RIM’s BlackBerry Storm on Twitter, and now is back to give an even grander beat down to the mobile industry in general, a 4 star Bold review, a 1 star Storm review, and an iPhone OS 3.0 wish… er… demand list. Daring Fireball, however, points us a couple paragraphs of particular interest:

Apple have shown that there is a huge demand for exciting, innovative, lovable and imaginative consumer devices. All the rivals have to do is to … is to what? To produce cut price lookalikes or truly to pioneer and innovate? Well, the latter is what they should do, but the former is what most of them will do of course, because these dumb firms never ever learn. They are afraid to be good. They will blame stockholders, consumers, anyone but themselves.

Don’t you sometimes long to be CEO of a company like Sony Ericsson, Samsung, Nokia or Microsoft? So that you can say to your coders, your designers, your development teams and your software architects: “Not [redacted] Good Enough. I haven’t said ‘Wow’ yet. I haven’t gasped with pleasure, amusement or admiration once. Start again. Not [redacted] Good Enough.”

Can’t say I’d do any different were I blessed/cursed with being such a CEO. How about you? Any advice for our iCompetitors?

We’ve covered why the BlackBerry can’t compare the iPhone, why the BlackBerry compares worse than ever to the iPhone 3G, and even what the iPhone could learn from the Blackberry.

So, okay, fair enough. We’ve beaten the BlackBerry horse so far past death even it’s ghost shows bruises. But here’s the thing — the second biggest story of the week (after iPhone OS 2.2, naturally) is the release of the Blackberry Storm, a direct response to Apple’s revolutionary iPhone and its unprecedented sales, business, and reliability success.

How could we ignore that, and how could we ignore iPhone owners who are daring to think different(ly) about jumping to the Storm, or have stuck with Verizon this long hoping the Storm would give them reason not to switch to the iPhone AT&T.

The answer is, we can’t, and we won’t. So after the break, our Top 5 reasons why the BlackBerry Storm STILL doesn’t compare to the iPhone!

Flattery Will Get RIM Nowhere

We’ve joked about iClones before, about RIM’s choice of stylings for the Bold, and their note-by-note replication of Apple’s iPhone SDK Event, but the Storm is perhaps the ultimate iClone, and for would-be-Storm users, that’s a problem.

Just look at the review. Pretty much every reviewer puts the Storm head-to-head against the iPhone, and many of the comparisons don’t end up in the Storm’s favor. Heck, even CrackBerry.com is getting an incredibly wide range of feedback on the device.

Why? Because in trying to be what a BlackBerry isn’t, in trying to stem the bleeding in people (especially business people) leaving the BlackBerry for the iPhone and leaving Verizon for AT&T just to get an iPhone, RIM has created something that compromises the traditional BlackBerry’s killer productivity while failing to match the iPhone’s unparalleled usability.

In making the whole touch-screen a giant wrist-wrecking button, RIM has create something that’s less than the sum of its parts.

BlackBerry OS By Any Other Input Method…

Dieter said it best in his recent BlackBerry Bold review. RIM has reached the point Palm did when they released the 650. While this is true of the Bold, it matters even more to Storm users.

Apple leveraged a modern, advanced desktop class OS to create the iPhone, but also meticulously crafted a whole new — and unique — UI paradigm.

RIM reworked a slight variation of their aging embedded micro-Java platform and tacked some touch (and a very few multi-touch) on top of it.

While the situations are admittedly different for a variety of reasons, it’s the BlackBerry equivalent of Touch Flo 3D.

Future Un-Proofing

Following the OS train of that, even if RIM has a few more tricks up their sleeves — hey, maybe even a whole new, next generation OS sitting deep in the bunkers below Waterloo? — right now they face iPhone OS 2.x leading mobile computing world, and Google’s Android all but ready to challenge for that title.

Heck, unlike Palm Nova and Windows Mobile 7, far off vaporware though they may be, RIM hasn’t even shed any light whatsoever on their next generation plans, if any.

Apple, for its part, has shown they not only can, but will push out software updates at a near break-neck pace. While even iPhone 2G owners can update to iPhone OS 2.x, giving their last gen hardware some next gen software, BlackBerry certainly hasn’t provided as frequent, functional, or simple upgrade paths in the past.

Unfortunately, Storm owners can’t enjoy that kind of faith in the future.

Form Factor Fracture

We mentioned earlier that RIM recently iClone’d Apple’s iPhone SDK Event, complete with the promise of VC funding, push notification services, an App Store (2 of them, actually), and renewed power for developers.

Then they went ahead and launched the Storm.

So, unlike the iPhone SDK, where developers can pretty much count on similar hardware across 2 platforms (iPhone and iPod Touch) and 2 generations (2007 and 2008 models), RIM developers now can’t count on any given handset having touch or multi-touch screen input, having a trackball, or having a hard keyboard.

In order to enjoy the richest experience, would-be Storm users will have to bet on special developed Storm apps, and given the entrenched base of non-Storm BlackBerry’s, those aren’t great odds.

iTone Deaf

With it’s gorgeous full screen, the BlackBerry Storm is clearly aimed at the iPhone’s heart and soul. No, not internet communication. iPhone still wins web and BlackBerry is still untouchable at messaging. We’re talking media. The high density — though not Bold-style drool inducing — should make almost everyone enjoy their movies and TV on it…

If they could get their movies and TV on it.

By going for iTunes sync, RIM has pretty much given up on handling their own media and just gone with iTunes sync (and, hey, wouldn’t it be fair to give iPhone users some BlackBerry Connect love in exchange? Huh?) But just connection to iTunes to drag over some MP3 files pales in comparison to Apple’s complete ecosystem.

Rent or buy movies, get season passes to TV shows, move them to or from your iPhone, PC/Mac, or AppleTV, enjoy the full catalog of the #1 music retailer… And did we mention in iPhone OS 2.2 you can download not only music, but audio and video podcasts directly to your iPhone?

So not only does “clicking through” the “whole screen button” tire you out and slow you down, you can’t even enjoy the same breadth of entertainment while you’re resting up.

Conclusion

While RIM deserves some credit for stepping beyond their front-facing keyboard comfort zone with the BlackBerry Storm, they’re still playing “catch up” and “me to” with the iPhone. They’re still following, not leading.

That’s why these five reasons, among others, make us confident the BlackBerry Storm STILL Doesn’t compare to the iPhone.

What are your reasons? Or, if you disagree, what are your top 5 retorts?

Crackberry.com has posted up a video showing the new Blackberry Storm vs. the iPhone 3G. Needless to say, we fully expect a torrent of this stuff to come our way soon, as Kevin shows off RIM’s new hawtness (and competes with Android Central for our killer-du-jour attention, no doubt…)

How does it look? As elegant as the iPhone? Does Jonathan Ive have anything to worry about?

Looks like Apple wasn’t the only one to release record-breaking iPhone revenue numbers this week!

Now I have a theory with this one… the iPhone is still doing big business for AT&T, who do you think has helped Apple’s cause? RIM! The BlackBerry Bold is finally about to be released on November 4th, should Apple be worried? Not at all. As far as I’m concerned the Bold is old news already and not a threat what so ever. Think the BlackBerry Storm will take customers away from AT&T like the iPhone did from all of the other carriers? No chance… [end rant]

So with that all out of the way, AT&T released it’s 3Q earnings today. Since July 11, there have been 2.4 million iPhone activations. And a astonishing 40% of those activations were new AT&T customers. (Let’s see the Storm do those numbers with Verizon!.)

AT&T chief executive Randall Stephenson said:

“I am particularly pleased with the customer response to the iPhone 3G, the new customers we’re winning are high-value, with attractive revenue and churn profiles.”

iPhone 3G sales are currently flowing at a higher-than-expected rate, showing zero signs of slowdown. AT&T is now expecting the iPhone 3G will run higher than its previous estimates. Apple and AT&T are laughing all the way to the bank and will continue to do so.

Love it or hate it – there is no way to dispute which device is king of the cellular hill.

[Via macrumors]

It’s been a while since our last Today on the Forums post, but hopefully today’s topics will make up for it.

Today on the forums we have some great ideas from Alienwhere, who would like to see some more integration with his iPhone and his Mac. I agree… Check out some of his ideas and add to them if you can.

Next up we have Reaktor5 who wants to know, do you feel inferior when a new Apple product comes out? Everyone who is in this game of electronic gadgets knows there is always something around the corner that will be better. That’s just the way it works. But do you care about the newer device?

How has MobileMe been treating you lately? Fed up to the point where you can not take it anymore? Well look no further than gymnofrool’s thread, MobileMe Alternatives. I recently made the switch to an Exchange account and it has been working perfectly for me. I’m actually getting all of my mail…

Lately there have been so many new devices being announced and released. Everyone here at TiPb is curious as to what you think about the latest and greatest. To comment about devices such as the Touch HD, Palm Treo Pro, Blackberry Storm, etc… head on into the Smartphone Different: Other Gadgets forum.

So what are you waiting for? To get in on the forum action be sure to register, only take a few minutes of your time!

See you on the forums!

We’re never going to let Crackberry Kevin, editor of our sibling site Crackberry.com live this down. Never EVER.

And if you think that’s bad, wait until Steve Jobs gets finished giving the WuShi finger to the advertising geniuses over at Vodafone and RIM. We’re talking the greatest mellow harshening “Skidoosh!” in the history of the tech industry, no doubt.

Whyzat? Said genii decided to advertise the iClonic Blackberry Storm as an actual iPhone, complete with Home screen and Mobile Safari browser.

Was this the last, desperate surrender to iPhone envy? Were the guilt-laden strings of Marimba playing over and over again in their psyche, forcing them to confess themselves to the world?

Sadly, once the images get yanked, the cronies blamed, and the incident swept under the blogs, we’ll never know for sure. But they’ll still be hearing endless Marimba in their dreams…

Meanwhile, Engadget and Gizmodo got their hands on the little whole-screen-is-a-button-and-has-cut-and-paste-but-no-WiFi monsters, and they seem pretty happy with the solid Blackberry foundation gaining a little iPhone inspired tech. Our view? Anything that forces Apple, and the industry, to stay competitive and keep on innovating is a boon for all of us.

Right?

Sure, iPhone 2.2 is getting better and better, but after 2 years and the best graphical user interface team ever put on Jobs’ vegan earth, we still don’t have official cut, copy, and paste functionality. Blackberry Storm, however, which hasn’t even hit the market yet? Looks like they’ll get it Day One.

Our frenemies over a Crackberry.com pass along the deets (via BGR), while a commenter updates on the functionality:

What it says is that you simultaneously place one finger at the beginning of the text you want to copy and one finger at the end of the text you want to copy. This will highlight the selection. You can remove your fingers at this point. If the selection isn’t exactly what you want you can touch at the beginning of the highlight and slide the highlight to where you want. Likewise for the end of the highlight. Then there are two ways to copy. First way: “click” (as in touch the screen and press) in the middle of the highlight. This brings up a menu box with the copy command. Alternatively you can press the physical menu button and select copy.

Blarg! We think our brains just vomited.

Dieter points out that this won’t work on the iPhone, as some of those gestures, like pinch, are already taken for things like zoom, but there are enough proof of concepts around now that Apple really should be able to nail it. Can we finally move up the priority list, Joz?

(Micro schadenfreuda dept.: Chad points us to the just sneak-peaked Blackberry App Center (kudos on the original naming there fellas!), which is — drum roll please — CARRIER bound.)

The iPhone shook up a very complacent smartphone world, but if we think it exists in a vacuum, if we think the other big players won’t respond (no matter how embarrassingly long it might take them), and if we don’t hope that they do — hardcore style — to prevent Apple from one day getting just as complacent, then we’re not doing our jobs as bloggers or consumers.

With that, splinter-like, in mind, witness RIM launching the Blackberry Thunder, their first touch screen device. If you ever wondered how brilliantly Apple handled the release of the iPhone, from Steve pulling it from his pocket to the first videos and commercials, wonder no more. RIM’s shows us by way of terrible — near Microsoft’ian — example, how badly that could have gone… (Though Mike Lanman certainly makes a convincing Doby to Lazaridis’ Gollum…). Couldn’t have hired them Virgin folks again?

We’re still not sure about the whole-screen’s-a-button approach. And the newly launched GDGT podcast is right on when they say RIM needs new software and they need it now (and tell a very funny story about how RIM’s co-CEO really doesn’t get that… scary…)

Head on over to Crackberry.com to watch the full video.

The. Whole. Screen. Is. A. Flipping. Tic. Tac. Tile. Button.

Seriously. We kid you not (though RIM could be kidding us all?). Sister-site Crackberry.com has all the deets, but…

Seriously? Who’s the usability wizard who came up with this one? Who came up with the single-click point of failure concept? The one mechanism to break it all?

We get that haptics are hard, but the iPhone pretty much showed the industry how to do Touch, and rather than just add the Blackberry messaging powerhouse to that buttery goodness, RIM went and grafted on an mechanic straight out of every 1980s playschool game?

Bravo for challenging Apple (they certainly need it). And kudos for being brave enough to push the metaphor, to take the next step, to propel technology forward. But — seriously? — we hope the feel is light-years beyond the look on this one, and not just for Crackberry Kevin’s sake… Otherwise most annoying gadget innovation of the decade awards beckon…

We guess a certain internet dead-pan funny man was right on the “button” when he said:

THERE’S a reason that R.I.M. is averse to the iPhone’s glass pad. “I couldn’t type on it and I still can’t type on it, and a lot of my friends can’t type on it,” says Mike Lazaridis, R.I.M.’s co-chief executive and technological visionary. “It’s hard to type on a piece of glass.”

Presuming he was really talking about the ThunderStorm…