Sunday, November 14, 2010

Matchstick Message #16: Adding BBM Contacts

fromTara Raffi
toStudent Information Requests
dateSun, Nov 14, 2010 at 8:24 PM
subjectMatchstick Message #16: Adding BBM Contacts


Dear RIM,


We, the generation that was raised on the sweet nectar of constant connectivity, love BBM. In fact, it is the reason that most of us came to BlackBerry, and the reason that most of us won't leave.


So, if it is known that we thrive (and thus you thrive) on the ease and rapidity of this connection, why not focus on making it easier to use and therefore more addicting? One improvement that comes to mind has to do with the first stage of communicating via BBM: adding the contact.


I can't count how many times I have had to explain the laborious, complicated, and difficult-to-remember process of adding a BBM contact. And they must be taught two processes, both as the "pin sending" and the "pin receiving" party!!


As the "pin sending" party you must:

1. Open a text message to the person you want to add

2. Type in "mypin" WITHOUT A SPACE

3. Remember to put a space (AutoText is not a function that is intuitively understood, yet)

4. Send it

5. Wait


As the "pin receiving" party you must:

1. Open the received text

2. Copy the Pin number

3. Exit and go to AddressBook

4. Find the correct contact and select

5. Paste the Pin number in the correct field

6. Save

7. With the cursor over the desired contact, hit menu

8. Select Invite to Messenger

This is difficult for my peers. For the parents and otherwise savvy business-minded adults I've tried to teach it to--forget it. It is really just funny to watch them struggle to learn but you know that you're going to get a few phone calls (if they even remember that there is such a process) before they eventually give up and have you do all of it for them.


There even seems to be this new "Invite Contact" option on the BBM menu, but it's never proved to be a successful method for adding contacts. Maybe I could figure it out if I looked online or called tech support, but it shouldn't have to be like that. And the barcode scaning way of adding people? Its interesting, but just to people who spend a lot of time playing BrickBreaker. Most people will never learn or end up utilizing that function.


I recommend that when a pin has been BBMed to us, we can use the menu to select which contact it applies to, and the the BlackBerry sends an invite immediately. I mean come on, its not like we are going to go through all of the trouble of putting them in our AddressBook if we're not going to add them. Though it does add to the exclusivity appeal of BBM, but we can find a less obtrusive way of fitting that in. The bottom line is this: RIM, many of us have hundreds of BBM contacts--please make the process of connecting to all of our best friends a little easier.



Sincerely,




Tara Raffi

Instant-Connectivity Enthusiast


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Thursday, November 11, 2010

Matchstick Message #15: Please Thread SMS and MMS Messages Together

fromTara Raffi
toStudent Information Requests
dateThu, Nov 11, 2010 at 6:47 PM
subjectMatchstick Message #15: Please Thread SMS and MMS Messages Together




Dear RIM,


Thank you for updating SMS with threaded message view. It really is such a life-improving update that we can see our recent SMS history in chronological, space-saving, auto-updating order. The only problem I have is that Picture Messages aren't included in those threads.


Why? They are from the same person. There may be a technical difference in they way they are transmitted or stored (I don't know anything about this, to be honest) but regardless, users perceive MMS just as SMS but with pictures. And when a picture is sent, it is often in the context of a conversation happening over SMS. So from the perspective of the user, it doesn't make sense for that picture not to be in the thread.

RIM, please allow all SMS and MMS messages with a specific contact to be threaded together.



Sincerely,




Tara Raffi

Thread Enthusiast


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Sunday, November 7, 2010

Matchstick Message #14: Please Auto-Capitalize Names

fromTara Raffi
toStudent Information Requests
dateSun, Nov 7, 2010 at 5:48 PM
subjectMatchstick Message #14: Please Auto-Capitalize Names



Dear RIM,


I just can't stand it when names are not capitalized. Not only are names always supposed to be capitalized--its just proper grammar--but also, to not capitalize them is just rude. For example, I would never send a text message saying, "aloni, we should get ethiopian food tonight." This would be a poor example of proper capitalization in both ways. Instead, I would type, "Aloni, we should get Ethiopian food tonight."


What does this have to do with the Blackberry? I'm not shooting for the stars--I don't expect the BlackBerry dictionary to know every single word in the English language that needs to be capitalized. (The word "I" is automatically capitalized, but that is because it is a default command of AutoText--BlackBerry's best function after BBM, in my opinion.)


But what I do expect is that the BlackBerry be able to automatically capitalize names that are entries in the AddressBook. They are already automatically added to the Dictionary (try it, it works!), and it is known that all names should be capitalized. So though it would be nearly impossible and highly impractical for RIM to attempt to have a default functionality that auto-capitalizes all names (there are an infinite number of names and nicknames), each customized BlackBerry has in its PhoneBook a list of words that will definitely require capitalization.


RIM, please automatically capitalize the names of AddressBook contacts.



Sincerely,




Tara Raffi

Capitalization Enthusiast


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Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Matchstick Message #13: Searched Messages Are Messages Too!

fromTara Raffi
toStudent Information Requests
dateWed, Nov 3, 2010 at 9:41 AM
subjectMatchstick Message #13: Searched Messages Are Messages Too!




Dear RIM,


I love search. Most people these days do, with all the information we're constantly processing and re-processing. Search is one characteristic that really makes Gmail and Apple computers stand out, for example. And I think the search feature on the BlackBerry is pretty strong actually, for the most part, because thanks to the very specific search fields, it comes up with what I need, and is reasonably fast.


But there are a few problems. I already discussed spell check in search in an earlier post, but another issue is that messages that a user finds during a search are lost once the user switches away from the email application.


For example, lets say I go into my email inbox and open the first email in sight. If I then exit my inbox by pressing End, go make a note in my MemoPad, and then come back to my inbox; the email I was looking at will still be in view. But if I make a SEARCH, and then select an email: if I exit the inbox and then come back to it, the email will not still be in view, and I will be taken back to the top of my email list! This is really annoying.


Sometimes, if I'm trying to do multiple things at once--like be on time for an interview appointment (they send you such long, detailed emails) while using Google Maps to find the office and making brief calls and text messages before my multi-hour departure from the world of communication--I have to search multiple times for the same email that keeps getting lost from my view.


Instead, the email that is selected should stay up until I hit the Back Arrow key, which should take me back to search results, and then it should stay on that screen until Back Arrow is hit again, taking me back to the top of my email inbox. This also avoids the other problem of running a search, selecting an email, and realizing it is the wrong one--at that point if you hit back you will be back to the main email screen and you will have to run the same search all over again.


RIM, please update Search so searched messages are treated like real messages, and kept on the screen until I exit them intentionally.



Sincerely,




Tara Raffi

Intention Enthusiast


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Monday, November 1, 2010

Matchstick Message #12: Adding Email Contacts

fromTara Raffi
toStudent Information Requests
dateMon, Nov 1, 2010 at 7:42 AM
subjectMatchstick Message #12: Adding Email Contacts


Dear RIM,


Once, a few years ago, I made the mistake of "syncing" the address book from my Mac Mail application with my BlackBerry AddressBook. And let's just say, it was a disaster. For all of my contacts I had email addresses for, I now had TWO AddressBook entries--one with a phone number, and one with an email address. (And for those that say "But it allows you to choose which 'wins' on a conflict" all I have to say is that is ridiculous for them to even suggest that we should choose between phone numbers and email addresses.)


So there was a time that I suffered through typing into my phone "Elan Fre" and putting the phone to my ear, realizing seconds later that the reason I wasn't hearing a ring was that you can't call an email address. And when I want to talk to Elan, those second are wasted seconds.


There must be a number of ways to fix this. But I haven't thought of a solution to syncing, yet.


So, in the meantime, I can think of a easier way to get addresses of people you email into a consolidated contact entry. Right now, if you have your cursor over the address of somebody who just emailed you, elanfrenkel@gmail.com, and you hit menu, you will see the option Add to Contacts. If you select it, however, you will be faced with a new contact entry form. But I already have Elan in my phone!! I don't want two Elans again!!! So, there needs to be an option that allows you to either select an existing contact to add this email address to, or to make a new entry.


Even if the syncing problem is fixed, this will still be an efficient way to add additional information to existing contact entries without laboriously cutting and exiting and opening and selecting and scrolling and pasting.


RIM, though I am not normally a proponent of doing things manually, I really do need to have my email addressed in my contacts (especially if they aren't automatically remembered). So, in order to make it just minimally manual, instead of prohibitively manual, please allow email addresses to be added to existing contacts directly from an email message.



Sincerely,



Tara Raffi

Consolidation Enthusiast


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