When I got my BlackBerry Tour a few months ago the first thing I noticed was that it was physically impossible to plug in the micro-USB cable to charge it while it was holstered. I solved that problem with a hot nail, but it left my holster looking like crap.
Someone hooked me up with a new pre-release BlackBerry 9700 last week (just in time for the BlackBerry Developer Conference), and unfortunately it still doesn't allow you to charge the phone while it's holstered. When it comes to usability this is pretty basic shit; instead users are presented with a few millimeters of stupidity. At least the USB port is at the top of the device, so you can set the phone vertically into a car cup holder with a charger connected, one more place the design of the Storm 1, Tour and 8900 fails.
My high-school French teacher1 used to refer to screw-ups like this as "mansy-pansy junk" (or something along those lines), and I suspect he'd be just as disappointed with this as he was with what he referred to as my "Franglais".
- Hat tip to Mr. Bergeron [back]
