Review: Shozu for BlackBerry Smartphones

With ShoZu, your friends and communities are just a click away...

It was only a matter of time until it happened. I still remember when I received my first BlackBerry years ago (a 6210 a-thank you). A few of us were found, as with any new toy, playing with our BlackBerrys with such fervor. I may have heard a barely audible "Get a Life!" in the background from some passer-bys. Now, with all of the online social applications we can access on our Berrys, I say phooey to you. I shake my BlackBerry in your face and say "Get a life? I got one, right here!!"

Still feeling quite social after my review of SpotJots, I decided to take on another mingling marvel. I'm showin' ShoZu, to you. All you need is ShoZu, a BlackBerry with a camera and a life. Now you can transfer photos to over 30 online communities, including Facebook, YouTube, Friendster and Google Picasa.

Grab your Berry and let's go! Let's show these non-Berry users how we live!

Clickity Click, upload my pic

To be completely honest here, the review almost didn't happen. I was having a few problems setting up the application. When I first tried to download ShoZu, I received the following error; "404 Not Found" details read "907 invalid COD." I sent off a support request email to the folks at ShoZu. I managed to finally download it, but then ShoZu couldn't establish an internet connection. After some time, and some APN changes, I was up and running. ShoZu, give James R a big fat raise! Make sure you have enough space on your Berry, Shozu plops in around 400kb.

A simple menu greets you, giving you access to see your files and destinations (Which networking account you have set up). ShoZu wastes no time, as it has already made pics stored on your BlackBerry ready to be shared.

Let's look at the Files section first shall we?

The Files section lists all of your pictures that you have taken, complete with thumbnails. Click on a picture and the image will expand and the file details are listed below. At this point your can use the trackball and side scroll through each image. Go back to the previous screen. You can start choosing which images to transfer to an email or one of your social destinations. Scroll up and down to each image you want to send, at each image move the trackball sideways to select it (a checkmark will appear at the bottom right of the image). Once you are finished, press the menu button and view the options before you. You can send the files to one of the 30+ sites you have access to, or send the images off to an email or FTP address. ShoZu makes good use of the trackball in the menu as well. With each option ending with an arrow, a slide to the right with the trackball expands your options.

And now for the Destination section...

The only main social networking site I use is Facebook. So out of the 30+ sites you have access to with ShoZu, I only tested it out with one. With some sites, you can set up access directly from you BlackBerry. With Facebook, you have to walk over to a computer to set it up. It was a lot of automatic jumping back and forth between Facebook and ShoZu before I was up and running. Switch back to your BlackBerry and check for updates, Facebook should now be available. I hope that other sites are easier to set up.

I'm not sure about the rest of you, but I've found ShoZu quite buggy. Despite making sure I had more than enough room on my Berry for Shozu, and triple checking the settings, I found the application froze my Berry while downloading more than two images at once. Downloading one at a time, most of the images seemed to be lost in limbo, not appearing in any emails or on Facebook. I haven't been able to change my status, as I am supposed to be able to. Apparently with the BlackBerry, ShoZu users don't have access to the "one-click" feature because ShoZu's processes are closed down when the app is closed. So instead of being able to take a picture and send off right away, you will have to open ShoZu and send it off from there.

Conclusion

From what I've read about ShoZu, both in the CrackBerry forums and the ShoZu forums, it seems like a great application. It just doesn't seem to jive with me. Despite the assistance from the ShoZu staff, the tips and tricks from their forums and my BlackBerry, I simply could not fully enjoy ShoZu. I'll keep plugging away at it and perhaps I shall prove myself to be the most stubborn. Maybe then, ShoZU and my BlackBerry will stop arguing and let me enjoy sharing all the fun I'm having, with all of my friends on Facebook.

Pros

• add comments to your photos and upload them
• supports over 30+ social networking sites

Cons

• application will not upload images most of the time
• no "one click" access after a picture is taken
• made my Berry freeze

Download

• More more information and to download, visit ShoZu.com >>