Sure it’s been announced and even previewed, but there’s nothing like having our very own copy to mess around with. (Someone should check if Zach and Michael are still breathing, though — they might have fainted). If there’s one thing I’ve learned about BlackBerry lovers, it’s that they are relentless and won’t give up. Having said that, it isn’t a complete surprise to see Research In Motion finally move towards a Mac solution. Hit the break for an awesome walkthrough with commentary!
After the application is installed this is the first screen you see. What’s even more awesome? There’s no restart required after installation.
Wait — saving the password in my keychain? So it will automatically connect to my password-protected BlackBerry without me entering my password every. single. time? Sweet marshmallow covered megapixels.
I named my BlackBerry Tour BlackBerry Tour. I think it gives it character…
What ruined an otherwise pleasurable syncing experience is the slow USB transfer speeds. This isn’t limited to just Desktop Manager as Media Sync suffers from the same issue, but it’s worth pointing out since this is probably the only area that isn’t zippy fast in DM.
Oddly, backups aren’t in the traditional BlackBerry .ipd format, they’re using a .bbb extension on the Mac. Whatever works, we suppose.
One interesting thing we have to share with y’all is that there doesn’t appear to be an option to load different operating systems manually. This is probably RIM’s way of “blocking” unofficial OSes, but it’s not really just blocking it, it’s disallowing anyone from installing a BlackBerry OS who doesn’t have an internet connection as they are downloaded directly from RIM.
This isn’t final software by any means, but to be honest, it looks pretty darn close. We’ve been going at it for over three days and have not come across any crashes, issues, or even quirks. Things just work and to be honest, Desktop Manager for Mac is probably a good 2-3x faster than it’s PC counterpart — possibly due to it not being so bloated — and we’ve already deleted our dedicated Virtual Machine in Fusion because this is so nice.
Maybe RIM should focus more on BlackBerry for Mac software. It’s cleaner, faster, less-bloated and generally more pleasurable to use than the horrid excuses they call software for the PC.
