As my colleague was turning the office upside down looking for a USB lead adapter specific to a particular brand of kit, I asked myself for the millionth time why there aren’t universal standards in such fields. I’m talking camera memory cards, phone chargers and the like. The computer industry has long recognised this and USB has become a standard interface used the world over. I guess I can say goodbye to the rather large cardboard box I have in the garage full of obsolete adapters, leads and cables, not to mention the bag full of mobile phone chargers which I have amassed.

It’s not only separate companies using their own system –in my household we have two Blackberries and the chargers are non-compatible. That simply makes no sense whatsoever.

Whilst initially I am sure each company benefits from the situation by obliging customers to stick to their own products, this has also had adverse results - I as a consumer have avoided certain products as their own accessory range was exclusively unique to them. Mentioning no names, I am of course talking about Sony digital cameras which insist on using their own format SD memory cards thereby rendering any cards you may have from a previous device wholly incompatible unless you have been “Sony for life”.

A quick search for “universal phone chargers” in your favourite search engine shows you that the industry decides to create a universal charger with frightening regularity. It always seems to be lurking on the agenda somewhere but is never actually implemented. Apparently this device is “due for imminent launch” - as it was in an article from 2007 I read recently - so I personally won’t be holding my breath.

How does this relate to us? Well we like to think our hosted CRM solution can be used as a universal adapter to suit your business management requirements. As a web based solution you forego the need to invest in in hardware or software and whether you have 1 user or 1000 using 2 or 25 modules we are able to help you out without the need for any interface or interim solution.

Just a quick comment. I have been trying to get my hands on the new Blackberry Storm, to see what Blackberry are doing!

It really is an iPhone, all of the main benefits of the Bold, that make it stand out and differentiate why some people would buy a Blackberry, are almost non existent in the Storm, just a direct competitor. Why would you go for something that is not as good and only half as cool? Well the answer is (and it took a friend of mine to mention this to me) that lots of business users are locked into their business contract, and this is quite likely NOT to be O2, so they cant get an iPhone, and the business probably has a 'Blackberry policy', so along comes the Storm, and these users can now get a decent browser based device and stay within company guidelines.

Anyway, I have not got one yet, but am due to get hold of one for review as soon as they are available, but looking at what is out there on the web, it can actually browse and display websites, not bad.

Well, I normally don't 'go it alone' and review phones, but as a self confessed iPhone 'freak' I thought I should take a look at the Blackberry Bold to see what I was missing!

Actually, I had a conversation with David Terrar (http://www.biztwozero.com/) and he has done a review for his own blog and was telling me how the Bold was 'better'. Now once I got over the 'as if' attitude that anyone knocking the iPhone normally brings out in me, I thought, well, lets take a look.

I got hold of a Bold for a couple of days, so first, the declaration that I did not use the Bold for a prolonged period of time and it did take me a few days to get 'used' to my first iPhone (Oh how I remember the days).

I think the size of the Bold is OK, a bit chunkier to hold, but, not bad, feels good in the hand. In fairness I have to have a case on my iPhone, just to protect it - not because its easily damaged, but because I love it so much!

In short (yes I know I said review, but comment is more to the point) I think I agree with everything that most industry pundits are saying, the Bold is great, and if you don't need a *real* web browser option, and perhaps want to do some copy and paste functions (I don't, but then the iPhone does not do this, so that might explain this), with creation of documents at the top of your list, then its a good choice, however, the iPhone just does SUCH a better job if you need to browse, well not just a better job, but, a PROPER job.

So, if you want to use your OpenCRM solution, on the hoof (so to speak), then get yourself an iPhone, its just what you need.

I actually do not create long documents whilst I am on the move and if I do, then I use one of the AppStore applications for text creation and email the text to myself for formatting at my desk, and I would find it difficult to do anything else as the format of our documents has to follow a specific format, with headings and colours and we link these to OpenCRM for distribution and document management.

Oh, by the way, yes, the keyboard is good and if you like the physical keyboard type, the BB is for you, but the virtual keyboard is fine by me, I am not as quick at this typing lark anyway, so I am not interested in the max clicks per second that one BB Bold review spouted (not David' I hasten to add), I just don't think that fast, so iPhone or BB Bold makes no difference to me, its just preference.

Sales Pitch -If you want a mobile device that you can use with OpenCRM or any other web site for that matter, iPhone wins (in my opinion) hands down. But BB Bold is a good mobile, if browsing is not your main use for the device. Oh, and by the way, watch this space as the Google Android OS is going to be the big contender, especially as we have a team of 'traditional' web developers who can all write applications straight out of the box!