Telling It Like It Is» apple ipad

Smartphones, Blackberry Phones, Medical Blackberry and iPhone Smart Phones

Lin — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 11:00:03 +0000

Having continuous cell phone problems with our previous cell phones lead us to look into the difference between the Blackberry smartphone and the iPhone. We were both desperate to find the best cell phone and cell phone plan to fit our needs. Choosing a smart phone like the iPhone or Blackberry Bold or Curve, deciding which was the best, was a difficult decision to make.

After carefully reviewing many of the cheaper cell phones on the market and knowing what our needs are for business and personal use, we ultimately decided that we both needed a good quality smart phone. But which one? The iPhone or the Blackberry? If we decided on a Blackberry vs. an Apple iPhone, what is the best Blackberry cell phone? Is it the Blackberry Curve, the Palm, the Storm, the Pearl, the Tour, or the Blackberry Bold?

We both spent a lot of time reading iPhone reviews from current users, and it was interesting to learn that there has been numerous complaints from female iPhone users who have long fingernails. Apparently a lot of women aren’t very happy about how the iPhone design makes it difficult to type on the iPhone touch screen keypad, and that women with long fingernails or “chunky fingers” are hankering for a stylus to use with their iPhones.

I thought it was kind of funny that some women were accusing Steve Jobs and Apple, the maker of the brand spanking new Apple iPad device, of being “misogynistic” due to the fingernail problem. It’s pretty ridiculous to expect every geeky gadget or electronic device to match every possible user, long fingernails or not, and I have no problem trimming or cutting back my nails in order to not have the problem with my smartphone.

After spending some hands-on time with both the iPhone and the different Blackberry smartphones, and checking out the many features each offers, we both ultimately decided to buy a Blackberry and adjust our cell phone plan a little to allow for internet use, emailing, instant messaging and a few more necessary options.

Out of all the different Blackberry phones we reviewed and tried out, we both chose the BlackBerry Bold 9700 with AT&T over the other cell phone devices. Text messaging with the tiny little buttons has been a challenge for both of us, but with some practice and trimming back my fingernails, we both love our Blackberries. I’m still trying to figure out how to text message correctly, using both thumbs at the same time, without hitting the wrong buttons by mistake and having to continuously edit the message.

Medical Blackberry Applications for Professionals

One of the coolest features of the Blackberry are the medical Blackberry applications and software available to medical professionals, like Skyscape and the Epocrates RX for Blackberry application. Even though my profession is in the dental field vs. the “medical” field, there are several medical-related applications that are very helpful to medical or dental professionals. The “Epocrates RX for Blackberry” application for Blackberry users in the medical profession is a free mobile drug reference, with weekly updates that include monographs for more than 3,500 drugs.

Epocrates Rx is available for the iPhone, Blackberry, Palm, Android, Win Mobile and Win Smartphones. Part of my responsibility in the dental field is being the one “on call” during weekends and after-hours, handling emergency calls and contacting the doctor with relevant patient information as needed.

The ability to instantly access drug and safety information for more than 3,500 generic and brand drugs for our patients allows me to provide the doctor up-to-date information regardless of where I am at the time. The fact that it also helps make me that much more valuable to the doctor and patients is just icing on the cake. The InteractionCheck feature allows me (and the doctor) to check for interactions and/or contraindications of up to 30 drugs at a time.

Features of the Epocrates RX for Blackberry include:

Pill pictures displayed within the drug monograph show you exactly what each drug looks like

Provides adult and pediatric dosages for FDA-approved and off-label indications

Black box warnings, contraindications, and caution warnings

Adverse reactions and drug interactions, both common and serious, organized by category

Approximate drug prescription costs for patients paying out-of-pocket

Safety and monitoring information (ie pregnancy risk factors and more)

Manufacturing information including DEA/FDA status

Pharmacology information (metabolism, excretion, drug class and more)

Notes section for jotting down notes

I’ve also heard that there is a medical dictionary for Blackberry users called Stedman’s Oxford Concise Medical Dictionary for health professionals and nurses that have a Blackberry, but I haven’t checked that out personally yet. Another dictionary option for medical professionals that a friend told me about is called the BEIKS medical dictionary for Blackberry, so I’ll be spending some time checking those out soon. Maybe I’ll find they are both one in the same, but I don’t know for sure yet.

Similar Posts:

Readers who viewed this page, also viewed:

Apple iPad Reviews – Is the Price of the iPad Worth the Hype?

Lin — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 11:00:30 +0000

When the Apple iPad was unveiled last week by Apple CEO Steve Jobs, gadget geeks were anxious to learn what all the hype was about. Who will want to buy the iPad and what all does it do? Is the iPad application device worth the hype that has been built up? Whether or not the iPad will crush or slay netbooks and e-readers like the Kindle remains to be seen. The iPad is an application device and not a computer or a laptop, so why there is talk about the iPad crushing netbooks sounds like nothing more than hype and geek jargon to me.

After reading a ton of pro and con reviews about the Apple iPad and watching video presentations, plus finding out from FOXNews that my already overloaded smartphone carrier AT&T will be providing services for the iPad, I’m underwhelmed. Some thought the iPad would be named the iTablet or the iSlate instead of something that conjures up thoughts of feminine hygiene products for women.

Oh, the iPad jokes took the net by storm, and hilarious they were for sure. Admittedly, the iPad is a good looking gadget, but who is the moron that came up with the goofy name? The cost of the iPad, a giant iPhone kind of gadget, is too rich for my blood. Unless Apple lowers the price. Yeah, right.

The Apple iPad Tablet price list is:

Wi-Fi iPad 16GB is $499.00
32GB will be $599.00
64GB will be $699.00

For 3G service, add another $130.00. Unlocked, with a monthly fee of $14.99 per month for the 250MB data plan and $29.99 per month for the Unlimited plan. There are no contracts for the service and customers can pre-pay and cancel at anytime. At its unveiling, Apple announced that the Wi-Fi iPad version ships in 60 days, and the 3G version ships in 90 days.

Apple iPad Reviews Roundup

Engadget -
“…the Apple iPad doesn’t live up to that potential. For all its horsepower, we’re still relegated to one app at a time. For all its talk of being a great web experience — and it is really snappy — we still don’t have Flash. The New York Times app showed promise for newspapers and magazines, but for now the experience unfortunately seems to be the exception, not the rule.”

CNET -
“Really, it’s the casual computer user that will see the biggest benefit from the iPad. The kind of person who doesn’t own an iPhone or a laptop and would be happy to browse the New York Times stories over morning coffee, if it didn’t mean sitting at a computer desk. If you love showing off your digital photos but detest using your home computer to organize and display them, the iPad and its photo-import functionality and large display may be just the ticket.”

Gizmodo –
“Sure the iPad may not be as easy on the eyes as a Kindle. But you will be able to read in bed without an additional light source. You will be able to read things online without banging your head against a wall to get to the right page. And, once the publishers get their acts together, you will be able to enjoy comics, cookbooks, and children’s books, with colorful images. Even before you set them into motion, dancing around the screen, they’ll look way better than they would on e-ink.”

PC World –
“While the Apple iPad is super slim at only a half-inch (13mm) thick, we had some difficulty handling it. At around 680g, it is too heavy to hold in one hand, which is troublesome if you plan on using it as an e-book reader.

“Other e-readers, such as the Amazon Kindle 2 or the COOL-ER e-reader, are much lighter in hand than the Apple iPad, and therefore make for a much more comfortable user experience. Using two hands is much more comfortable, but if you’re reading a long novel, that could get quite tiresome.”

Slashgear -
“In many ways it feels like an oversized iPhone, and unfortunately some of the iPhone’s flaws have been carried over. The biggest – and most frustrating, given the turn of speed the iPad is obviously capable of – is the complete absence of multitasking.

There’s also no Flash support in the browser, a crime given how well it displays webpages. Over the WiFi connection here, SlashGear loaded up snappily and just as you’d expect from a desktop browser, bar any animations, but at least it flips between landscape and portrait orientations with no lag.”

Even though the Apple iPad Tablet looks really cool (even for gadget geek-wannabe’s like me), I just might wait to see if the next new-and-improved version of the Apple iPad has all the bells and whistles that are missing from this version. Hopefully Verizon will become a service provider for the iPad too, because AT&T’s service hasn’t been the greatest.

Multi-tasking capabilities is a must-have in my book since I usually have several tabs open at once on my desktop pc and/or laptop computer, so I’ll definitely be watching for updates and upgrades for the iPad. Do you want an iPad? Do you plan to buy one?

Similar Posts:

Readers who viewed this page, also viewed: