Man gets paid $20 to use Blackberry Storm, Verizon shooting Storm commercial
What would you do if you saw a filming crew from Verizon Wireless in the food court of your local mall? Well, if you were like one of our readers, you would mosey on over to get a closer look, get invited to play with the new Blackberry Storm, and then get paid $20 for your time while you watched them film a BlackBerry Storm commercial! That’s right, some cold cash in exchange for some thumb typing. With all the buzz this phone has generated, VZW could have used this opportunity to make some money, not pay out some money. How many of you would shell out $20 to get 10 minutes one-on-one with this new phone? Yeah, we thought so.
Thanks, Bob!
I’ve been fairly busy this afternoon and hadn’t read all of the posts. Someone pooh-pooh’d all the background story and wanted details. As I only spent a minute with it hands on, there’s not a lot to say, but here’s what I remember …
The size seemed small in my hands, smaller than what I remember an iphone felt like.
The home screen icons reminded me of the pics of the Bold home screen I saw.
When in portrait mode the keyboard is like a Pearl, when in landscape it’s a full qwerty.
When rotating from portrait to landscape, it seems to be a bit laggy. But I don’t have a lot of experience with devices that do that, so maybe it’s normal. It’d take getting used to if I owned one.
When I clicked on keys on the landscape keyboard, I watched the bottom edge of the screen and the whole edge depressed. I didn’t notice if the top edge depressed too.
As I mentioned earlier, to me it took too much pressure to get a valid keystroke.
The “talent” guy hyped up the tactile feature by lightly running his finger across the keyboard and it wouldn’t capture any letters. But there was a blue “halo” that followed his finger around. Didn’t see any use for the halo, but it looked cool.
The depressing screen is an interesting concept, but I wonder about the stability of that mechanism over time. But RIM has been producing great hardware from the beginning, I’ve been using their devices since way back when they were the three line lcd screens and all devices I’ve used have held up well and performed well. No reason to think they haven’t done their homework on this device as well.
That’s all I can think of, if you have an questions, you can let me know. But just know that I didn’t hyper-analyze the thing … didn’t have time.
damn dude. werewolves of london!
I call Shenaningans. Give me something new that I haven’t already seen from the Brew Ninja and Minute with Mike videos.
Its looking like the Storm is coming out before the Bold! WTHell?! If I’m not mistaken, wasn’t the Bold introduced to the public first? What’s the hold up?
i have a question for bob. did this have a glass screen or was it made of something else?
He is telling the truth. He couldn’t know about the Halo if he hadn’t played with the device. I don’t agree, but he’s telling the truth.
the “halo” can be seen on the verizon minute with mike video. when he ran “his finger across the keyboard and it wouldn’t capture any letters. But there was a blue “halo” that followed his finger around” and i quoted bob there.
@Stop-N-Go
The Halo could be seen in the Minute with Mike Video
You work in a food court?
Yes, is the screen actual glass or is it a hard plastic like the cheesy Instinct?
Someone paid someone $20 to do what in the back alley of the mall? I think its a trick.
The BB is NOT an iPhone. You have no copy and paste, MMS, Landscape qwerty keyboard, touch feedback, better email, etc.
This phone is going to smoke the iPhone when it comes out.
Plus Verizon’s contract is cheaper than AT&T.Haha!
This has really turned into the perez hilton of gadget blogs. “Did you see Bob in the mall playing with that phone that BG hates? Like crazy.”
Just give me a release date and price so I don’t have to visit this site anymore.
This was at the Peachtree Center food court in downtown Atlanta, GA. It’s a business center food court.
Of course there’s no way to tell if it’s glass or a platic/composite by touching it for a minute. I can say it “felt”(?) like it might be glass in that it seemed to have a very high polished surface and was very smooth to the touch. Actually felt a little greasy too, probably because of all the lunch crowd folks messing with it.
For what it’s worth, I can’t imagine them using glass in the construction. All BBs that I’ve owned have taken very well to being scittered across concrete, and I doubt they’d tarnish that reputation by using glass.
I don’t know anything about Mike’s video. I really haven’t been following the Storm very much since I’m an ATT fan and am quite happy with my Curve. What I know about it has come from reading BGR headlines, and the main thing that had caught my eye about the Storm was that it has the touch screen with tactile feedback. I hadn’t really got bogged down in the details since I have no intention of buying one.
BTW, with regards to the iphone. We’re mostly a BB shop, but we have had quite a few iphones getting purchased lately (and integrated with Exchange) and the owners seem happy with them.
Anyone who would pay $20 to hold a phone deserves to get robbed.
O…didn’t notice..lol…sorry..
Funny how right after Bob posted Boy Genius posted. And then his friend posts to re assure this info is correct. Sorry but for me it is hard to believe. lol.
Can you say “Paycheck from Apple?” So how much did they pay you? As made aware in Verizon announcement, its a WELL-KNOWN FACT that all the buzz over this phone is circulated via the blogging community. He said it. Hmmm…so where do all the journalists who have been reporting on the Storm get their info…blogs! So when you have someone casually report about the phone they have apparently used and not absolutely slam it, but use that nonchalant, no-so-special, just didn’t quite like it attitude (ninja anybody?), something is certainly up! Is it me or was it just convenient that he works at what he calls “mostly a BB shop” and then he states, “but we have had quite a few iphones getting purchased lately (and integrated with Exchange) and the owners seem happy with them”. Right buddy. So what store is this that mainly pushes blackberries at Peachtree Center, Atl, yet has been selling quite a many iPhones?
Umm I believe you forgot video recording and actually being able to send pictures and video.
And who cares whether it actually happened or not. This is not something crazy like someone saying he got paid to keep the damn phone or something. It’s something that happens all the time from coporations so take it for what it is and stop trying to hound Kelly over something so trivial
It has nothing to do with Kelly. I’m simply stating the story didn’t seem plausible for the stated reasons. All apologies.
download operamobile forur blackberry…sickestbrowserever.. super fasttoo!!
Someone said it once and I will repeat…
You work in a food court?
I don’t give a fuck about an iPhone and I don’t give a fuck about the stupid press thing on the Storm. I’m going to buy the damn thing and get used to it. End of story.
As much as I hate Verizon, I’m staying on board for this thing cause it looks like its going to help me haul in major pussy. Bitches love the nice, expensive, smartphone. I saw it work today with a wack-ass Dare…..imagine a Storm!
wow. that last post was just waaaay out there, hahaa.. but glad that u have goals to get laid by the technology u own..
as a gal here, i waited forever before finally buying the 8830 BB phone (over the iphone) just bc i like verizon’s service and have had the least amt of probelms with them.. but this storm, how come i can’t find out much about it? when is it to be released in the us, and do we inform verizon now, bc i just upgraded my phone, would i have to buy it again and i forfeit my new every 2 100 credit?? thanks guys!