Internet culture has always fascinated me, on November 21st RIMreleased it's first media-centric, touch screen mobile device. Theamount of momentum and anxiousness for this devices' release was verymuch like observing a University's commons filled with students hangingon the edge of their seats waiting with baited breathe for which wordswere to come from Steve Jobs mouth. Now, modify that image and imaginean office break room filled with savvy business persons and you get thepicture of Blackberry enthusiasts.

In the five days after it's release, I have read some very interestingand at times, very confusing and mixed reviews for this device. Afterthe release of the second iPhone, a device which caused a shift in howconsumers interact with mobile devices, the bar has seemed to be set sohigh that anything short of a clear victory, nay, blowout of a productrelease is destined to get negative attention. This is what I thinkhappened to the Blackberry Storm, instead of delivering a knock-outpunch, we were presented with a 10 round draw and the critics siezedthe opportunity for harsh reviews.

I test drove the iPhone and was impressed with it's media abilities,sleek device design and it's software's ease of use. There were a fewthings that I didn't think were quite there in order for me to take myfirst leap into the mobile device market. Just to briefly highlight myreasons, I could not get the hang of using it's keypad. Although it isaesthetically pleasing, as are most aspects of Apple products, itfailed to be intuitive or even effective. The inability to multi-taskfelt like handcuffs and I think is one of the biggest limiting aspectsof the device. Last, I was not able to use this device for practiclereasons. I am not a Mac user, home or in the office so the iPhonedidn't fit my work model. I also experienced many crashes as well asdropped calls. All in all, a great device, but not for me.

After reading the spec sheets, It appeared to me that RIM's Stormfilled all of Apple's iPhones holes. After 5 days of use, I can easilysay it has. First I will outline what needs to be better, because thisis a first generation device, I cannot say I'm surprised they didn'tget it perfect. I think the device design itself is very close to theelegance of the iPhone and far superior to that of the HTC Dream(T-Mobile's G1 with Android) the only draw back is the small crackbetween the touch screen and body where in dark environments, tinyamounts of light leech out. They have an accelerometer to re-orient theOS's perspective based on the orientation of the device. I have noticedthat at times, it does not seem to react, I am hoping this is a problemsoftware updates can fix, if not, this will become a bigger issue. Thelast thing is at times I notice some lagging in overall OS response.The Strom features multi-tasking (one of my favorite features) andobviously with too many apps running, you start to see a slow down.It's import to close apps that you are not using, I found it somewhateasy to forget they are running and leave them active in the background.

Now for the things I liked. After using this guy for a full day, Isuddenly rembered it was a phone. And a very effective one at that,backed by the states best wireless service. The sound is crisp andclear, flawless to be concise. This has been by far the best "phone" ina mobile device I have used. I have VZ Navigator installed and in mytests, it has worked beautifully. Very accurate and easy to use. Idoubt I will keep the service on a day to day basis, but Verizon allowsyou to pay as you go, so to speak, so I will excersise that options fortrips out of town. The media center is another high point. With thestunningly large and high resoltuion screen, watching movies andbrowsing photos is a joy. With it's exandable memory, you can easilyswitch out the standard 8GB card for a 32GP card and carry with you afull media packed entertainment system. Another feature I really loveis the ability to multi-task. This is huge and has been the secondbiggest draw to the device. The Blackberry menu system is alwaysavailable and makes application switches a breeze as well as saveslarge amounts of time waiting for apps to load up. The last thing on mylist is the tacile feedback touch screen. This is also where I havebeen the most confused by reviews. After 5 days of use and thusands oftyped words I simply can't imagine using a touch screen without tactileresponse. I have read a few negative reviews and frankly, it just seemslike they were to quick to judge. But, this will obviously play out tobe a hit or miss feature and possible a deal breaker for those who donot like it.

I won't go into each feature available, such as Visual Voice Mail,Office to-go Doc/Spreadsheet/Powerpoint capabilities, App Center, videocamera and 3mpx camera, Push email technologies, built in InstantMessaging (Google, Live, Yahoo and AOL) and Downloadable video games,but they all work flawlessly and intuitively.

Bottom line is that the Storm is an amazing device and a sure contenderon all fronts for the iPhone. They need to iron out some kinks, but RIMhas certainly placed their foot securely in the  media-centric, mobiledevice market. Lets all hope this starts an amazing arms race toproduce a better mouse trap for us, the consumers.