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?
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