The real story behind the Verizon BlackBerry Storm OS?
I want to preface this by saying that the following statements are my opinions and hypotheses, and have not be confirmed nor denied by any of sources of mine or official contacts at either corporation. It should serve as a nice little “conspiracy theory,” though. Here’s the deal:
- When we met with Verizon and RIM about the Storm, we asked about the software version. They confirmed it to be 4.7.0.65. We had heard otherwise, just like most of you, and didn’t understand why that OS version was so low when versions up to .90 were being talked about, and some demo units in stores showing .75 or higher.
- We believed this to be a non-final OS and was partly why we thought the OS would get better before release.
- We reported of a Storm shortage last night because of a last minute glitch.
- We think that 4.7.0.82, the version of the Storm box I got from Verizon directly was the cause of the glitch, and instead of a new version being flashed on Storms, what they were in fact doing was downgrading the OS to 4.7.0.65.
Now, why would we say that Verizon has downgraded these units? Do we know this for a fact? Absolutely not, and we said that above. None of this has been confirmed to us at all, but here’s the kicker… check on your Verizon BlackBerry Storm box where the product label is. It should say Version: 4.7.0.65, right? Well, after looking at a box from a Verizon store just now, I noticed a couple layers of stickers. I decided to peel those off, and what did I find? A product label underneath with version 4.7.0.82! So, they realized that there was possibly a huge security vulnerability they couldn’t fix in time, started flashing the units with the .65 software in order to not miss the release date, thus the cause of the shortages, the limited stock, and the direct fulfillment units not shipping until December the 5th. Go ahead, you know you want to peel back those product labels with yellow stickers! Let us know in the comments, ok? The pictures are after the break!
Sunday 3pm Update.
Storms are shipping from Verizon this weekend to anyone who ordered early on Friday morning.
Got an email and Fedex Tracking No.
Should have a Storm Monday or Tuesday 11/24-25.
I bet phones were being reflashed before delivery due to the downgrade of the OS to .65 and some are screwed up. Try reflashing from the BB Site and reload OS .65. You might have good luck.
Cheers,
Holly crap! What phone has all of this? I want one.
My comments above were to this posting:
On Nov 22, 2008 @ 4:16 am, Storm Analyzer Said:
528 MHz processor, not 624 MHz, neutered, matter of fact they have chosen a cheaper Cpu pxa930 instead of the powerful pxa320 (Samsung Omnia) which can be over clocked to a 806mhz (pxa320 has 256 kb l2 cache and a 768 kb 3d frame buffer)
Not VGA, only half the revolution! When they thought of the resolution, they saw the iphone as the limit, there is no creativity (… copying)
No wide screen format to play movies nicely, only square 4:3 aspect ratio, they forgot to copy that.
No infrared port
No flash support
No Bluetooth v2.1
No video acceleration
No LED, regular TFT LCD
No 16.7 millions true colors like the iphone,
No WIMAX, don’t even dream about it
No WIFI, no streaming “not allowed thru. Plans”
No high number of channels of polyphonic (32 channels only) ringtones typically 72
Pages are slow to load and render and zoom/pan operations were slow and jerky no matter what the software version is, till it becomes 5. And up.
Not really built for multi tasking only small memory even it has big Rom, not enough Ram 128MB
No 8-megapixel camera
No stereo microphone
No stereo loudspeaker
No electronic dictionary
No business card recognition
No finger print reader
When is this thing coming out for Telus in canada and will all the bugs be worked out by then?
Thanks in advance and keep up the pointless arguments!!!
Half of the things above are wrong. It has Bluetooth, LED, ass all BBs, microfone to record voice notes, speaker. So your post has 0 credibility
The other half on the list nobody needs.
And best of all, its a BB, nough said k?
I did the same thing as some of you others; before actually purchasing one I went into the verizon stores and they were using .65; extremely sluggish with the accelerometer; and a couple times I thought the phone was possessed moving from menu to menu w/out me initiating a function at all. However the internet on teh phone does still run exceptionally well and compared to the iphone I have used it does load content faster; the camera is amazing on the storm; I really thing once the OS glitches worked out I think the phone will be all it was thought to be in the beginning…I myself am waiting till january or february to get one
I’ve been waiting for the Storm but am now trying to decide what to buy.
Anyone real experience with carrier bills for the iPhone etc as far as wi-fi is concerned?
Some of my acquaintances have had huge phone bills since getting the iPhone.
I’m fairly certain my 8820 tunneled all wi-fi via the carriers site. Interestingly the wi-fi didn’t work if wireless was switched off.
Does this mean they’re billing for all web traffic regardless of whether it’s via wi-fi or cell?
Ditto! I ordered mine early Friday morning and was assured several times that I would get overnight shipping. I received my order and tracking emails that evening and sure enough, the delivery date is the 25th.
@BR14
WiFi has nothing to do with your bill, since data is unlimited regardless of if you’re on WiFi or on the AT&T network. If your friends’ bills were huge, they probably went way over on minutes or texts. If they managed to use over 5GB of data, they probably got charged for that. (I usually use around 250mb a month, and thats with moderate usage)
Your question honestly doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, since most data, even for Blackberries, is unlimited now. It doesn’t matter if its WiFi or cell-based, its still unlimited.
My Storm was purchased Friday morning after the store ran out so it was shipped to me Saturday. My box has only one sticker showing Version 4.7.0.65
I was in the store again today to get accessories and played with a display model, it was very slow and weird. My phone is not. Works great. It you go into options are bump up the touch sensitivity the display is very responsive. So far so good.
Amen. Too bad Palm is about to shut down.
@ Bluehorseshoe:
Documents to go is not even made by RIM. It is made by DataViz.
As far as HTML, browsing. The BB has the worst browser on a mobile device. You need to install Opera to have anything usable. So there goes your 4.5 update. RIM has not had many updates that added many useful features other than bug fixes. The the Storm is a infested.
AT&T is getting a variant of this device in 1st half 2009. Already under test in the labs in Redmond and Atlanta.
here’s the update. I’ve talked to an instore verizon rep, 2 customer phone reps for verizon, a rep for BB, and finally a verizon technical service agent. they ALL seemed surprised (with the exception of the ignoramous store sales associate who was just stpid)that I knew about the cover up of the .65 instead of the .82. the tech said he doesn’t know what the shipments will be, then said if anyone knows, he would. I then told him I was aware of the 4.7.0.82 label under the 4.7.0.65 label. this was after he tried to say the 0.65 was the upgrade. after informing him I was well aware of the .82, he then admitted that there is a scheduled update, but it isn’t ready yet, and that he’s not allowed to tell me what version the 12/5 and 12/15 shipments would be, but he DID know. basically, some phones will have the latest OS, and some will be shipped with the .65 and we will have to wait for the update in 2 weeks (from what he said, when it’ll be available.) they’re just tryna fix as many as they can by those dates, after which, they will all be shipped out. the 12/25 shipments will have the update already. there we have it. he also said theres just a small number of phones with the glitch and most phones are just fine.
I almost forgot. I was told I could speak to a BB tech directly, but it would cost me $49 (wtf). who’s to say they would even be able to answer our questions? 877-255-2377. if you’re willing to pay, theres the #!!!!!
FYI, went to a Verizon kiosk and store, both in downtown Seattle, today and both told me the earliest they expect more Storms is Dec. 15. Tried out a Storm on Saturday at store, and it seemed sluggish, but today it seemed faster. Don’t know if the store updated the software in the meantime.
They should pay all of us that got the phone on 11/21 to debug and use the phone while they work out the bugs. I have have had to reboot the phone several times by removing the battery to unfreeze it. But if you happen to call Verizon their BB data tech are on top of it and communicating what needs to be worked on.
Having said that, it’s still a very good phone and has a lot of features that out do the iPhone. Users will always find bugs that BB engineers will never find, partly because users undoubtedly go down rat wholes, BB never thought a user would go down. It’s the unexpected key stroke the BB never thought a user would hit that uncovers problem/bugs. I have no doubt it was vetted for months. I wonder if they lent them out to crackberry users?
Hang-in there everybody…RIM and Verizon are working around the clock to fix and stabilize to phone.
Upgrades to the phone will be seamless as once connected for sync’in, the phone/desktop mgr. automatically goes out to checks updates for firmware changes.
I have one of the 7.65 OS’s. There seems to be a memory leak. The acceleraometer seems to get slower and slower. Turning the phone on and off does nothing to help. BUT removing the battery and restarting makes it a nimble unit again!
Weird, my box for the storm states that i have 4.0.0.65 or whatever but when i check the firmware version on the phone it states that i have 4.0.0.82 installed, the supposed defective firmware. Would this be a bad thing? Hmm, maybe they didn’t do all of them or maybe they just missed mine… Either way i love the phone when it is working properly.. but it REALLY needs a firmware update. Cuz mine is very buggy also.
I can hardly believe how bad verizon is. Maybe they should spend less on advertising and more on product development. I have the Glide and it works perfectly… for about a week…Ive gone through two in just a few months.
Youre full of it. I just peeled back my BB Storm label to reveal…get this b!tches, NO OTHER LABEL!!!!!!! So your little “theory” is debunked
@ REAL BOY! NOT Genius
Sure all the other websites lied also. Just maybe that was YOUR experience and it differed from many others.
how about this for a theory, what if Verizon got a software version that had GPS chip enabled and wide open so it can be used by any application? That would make them pucker a bit – no revenue for VZNavigator! maybe that’s why the had to back it up so far that the software was unstable. Kinda makes you go Hmmmm?
Don’t give up on the storm yet, despite all the talk of the software version, vzw is still has the best network (no drop call). Don’t even bother to try the demo in the store, those demo won’t do justice. The only way to found out if it is the right phone for you is to get one, to feel it, touch it and use it for at least a week. If you don’t like it, you can always return it. I ordered my storm on-line on 11/21, just got notice from vzw that the storm is on its way. Don’t know if it will meet my expectation, but I will give it a try cuz if I don’t like it I can always return it. Overall, Vzw still has the best network.
Looks like there is an OS a core and system 4.7.xxx update available via the bb desktop manager for the Storm.