So a few months ago, the spouse goes to this BlackBerry user conference up in Boston and comes home with a brand-new BlackBerry Torch. Which he offered to me as he already had a smart phone (an HTC Android) and didn't need the BlackBerry Torch.Now most people would have snapped up that offer -- and smart phone -- in a nanosecond. But I am not most people. Indeed, as I like to tell people, just because I write about technology for a living, that doesn't mean I have to use it.
I proudly used the same IBM ThinkPad laptop for six years, still use a paper weekly engagement desk calendar, and still have the same Rolodex I used at my first job. And I was doing just fine, thank you, with my old mobile phone (which I had only, reluctantly, relatively recently upgraded to because my previous phone didn't have a keyboard for texting).
Don't get me wrong, I greatly appreciated the offer (and agree that the Torch is pretty cool looking). I just don't need a smart phone (as I spend all day sitting in front of a computer for work).
Our daughter, on the other hand, who has been using a computer since she was 2.5 and can type rings around me on a BlackBerry, was dying to get a mobile phone that could text. Actually, she was dying to get the BlackBerry Torch, but the spouse nixed that, fearing our monthly data bill would go through the roof. So we decided that I should take the BlackBerry Torch (no fear of using up the data plan there!) and give the kid my mobile.
And so, as of this past Wednesday, I am now the owner of a shiny new BlackBerry Torch. Which the spouse already integrated with my Gmail account -- and threatens to add mobile apps for Facebook and Twitter. Me, I view the Torch much as the passengers aboard the Galactica viewed the Cylons (and jump, literally, every time I see the glowing red eye go off, even though I know it's just telling me I have a new email message).
Also, a note to Research In Motion and AT&T: Being on a perpetual roller-coaster, getting bumped by other cars, and being whirled around in a giant teacup is not my idea of fun.
P.S. We are currently taking bets as to whether I will actually wind up using the BlackBerry beyond answering the phone and clearing email messages off my computer. Care to make a wager?
Posts
6 comments:
Beware, it freezes up a lot!
Also, don't try and use after you have put on hand cream!
xoxo
I give you 3 weeks before you have everyone's BBM on your contact list!
Gee...I enjoyed this post on my lowly BBerry Storm...while waiting for my eyes to blur at the opthamologist...but it was the Facebook App that found that!
Soon she will turn on the FB and Twitter apps/notification, and then she will become completely obsessed.
For not much money you could have an iPhone, which is actually fun to use but without the physical keyboard, which takes a little while to master. For someone that doesn't like smartphones, it's highly intuitive, more so than the Blackberry. However, the Torch is a nice device and you'll appreciate the keyboard as you get into some texting here some emailing there. It's really quite convenient and you can take your calendar and contacts with you in one small box. You may like the convenience of smartphones after all. But you also might throw it against a wall for being "difficult." I give it a month. ;)
@(Not so) Anonymous: Thanks for the hand cream tip. However, as far as BBM goes, you and the crew may be the only people I know who have BBs to BBM at this point. :-)
@Alyssa: What happened to your iPhone?
@Kendor: NEVER! ;-P
@Michael: The BlackBerry was FREE. And so far no one has offered me a free iPhone. Also, one of the reasons I agreed to the BB is because it has a keyboard. (I HATE typing on touch screens, and I have tiny hands!) But I don't doubt I may be tempted to throw it against a wall -- or out the car window -- at some point. Then again I feel that way about most gadgets. :-)
I finally got a DROID X; having waited an extra 6 months hoping that Verizon got iPhone. The day the phone shipped it was announced the iPhone would be avail. for Verizon next quarter!
Anyway, now I spend every spare moment I have trying to figure out this thing.
I give you a year!
Post a Comment