QBall45’s View of BlackBerry OS6 on 9650

To say that I was skeptical about BlackBerry’s operating system 6, aka BB6 or OS6, would be to put it mildly. I had heard countless good things about it. I had also read several things that left me wondering if I would really enjoy this new operating system and all that comes with it. The only draw back for a BlackBerry theme developer like myself was going to be dealing with a “stock theme. (As RIM has yet to release Theme Studio6 for all devices. Currently just available for the 9800)

Having been a BlackBerry 9630 Tour user until last week, there was no possibility for to load BB6 on my device. As luck would have it, Verizon swapped out my device for the 9650 Bold. So, now I had a device capable of supporting this new operating system. As any true BlackBerry addict would, I found a copy of the latest official BB6 released by Sprint.

After downloading Sprints current official BB6 v6.0.0.415 to my pc, I went about my normal routine for loading another carriers operating system. I used the BBhybrids Shrink Tool. Shrinking out the unnecessary “junk.” This also happens to remove the vendor.xml file which must be removed to load another carriers operating system. Thank you @theiexplorers for making such a useful tool for us BlackBerry users.

I prepared my device by backing up the applications with BBSAK (the swiss army knife for BlackBerry’s) from RimGeeks. This is a “must have” pc program for any BlackBerry user that likes to swap out operating systems.

Next, I made certain that I had a current backup of MeterBerry and BerryWeather.

Contacts, calendar and Messenger contacts I have all set to sync/backup with Gmail. I could have also used Desktop Manager to back these up. However, I chose not too.

With everything ready, I installed the new BB6 operating system and performed the “standard” couple of battery pulls to help everything “settle in.”

My first reaction was “Wow this is way different.” Different how? Let me just make it simple. BB6 is a completely new experience for the user. Everything has changed in appearance as well as function. Better? Worse? You decide. For myself its simply different. A complete (well almost) relearning of the BlackBerry experience was required.

The first thing I noticed was a Home Screen full of clickable “hotspots” which until now were only available through the use of a custom theme. Roll all the way to the top of the screen to find “Manage Connections.” Click the “Notification” box for a hidden today section with clickable items in it. Roll to the right of the Notifications box to find what’s called “Universal search.” To the left you will find the standard “Profiles” icon. At the bottom of the screen I found an icon dock unlike any I had seen before. I found this dock was really multiple docks in one. Not your typical scrolling dock. It was in my opion better. If I highlighted the top of the dock and rolled right or left the entire dock changed. I found five separate docks in total. All, which shows everything previously seen on the “Application Screen.” “Favorites” which was currently empty as I had yet to select any applications as “favorites.” The “Media” dock showed everything that was previously contained in the media folder on the old app screen. “Downloads” was also empty. I figured this dock would show all applications that were downloaded. Last but not least I found the “Frequent” dock, find your most frequently used apps here.

Hitting the BlackBerry Button from the Home Screen no longer yields the traditional Application Screen. But rather a menu. Much the same as any other. Menu screen that we BlackBerry users are accustomed to seeing. Naturally there are a couple of changes. The two things caught my attention were the button that read “Open Tray” and “Mark as Favorite.” Open Tray pops the dock up to show the typical App Screen’s three rows of icons. Mark as Favorite does just what you think it would. It allows the user to any icon “as favorite.” Which, adds that icon to the “Favorites” dock.

Everywhere I turn I find something new and excitingly different. From the Home Screen and Menus to the Active Call Screens, nothing is the same as before. Yet, I find this an easy transition to make from BB5 to this new BB6. Will it take a bit of getting familiar with? You bet your morning cup of coffee it will.

—@QBall45

Wallpaper courtesy of @ajc3desgins