A New Blackberry Curve

When I got home from the taping of the Daily Show last night I returned to a box containing my new Blackberry Curve 8310. Since I started my new job in September I have been lazy in researching how to order one. Over the holidays I finally broke down and realized I needed one to stay up to date with the contestant barrage of mail I get. So now I once again have to carry two phones, since I won’t give up my personal number. It has been almost 8 months since I had a Blackberry I used every day. I almost didn’t miss it.

I have a slightly newer model Curve from what I used at Redcats. The only major difference I see is that this new one has GPS built in, and is a titanium color. I am still trying to figure out what applications I want for it.

I Cannot Stand The Blackberry Pearl

I cannot stand the Blackberry Pearl! I know it is a really small phone, and it is a Blackberry but it drives me crazy. The only reason to have a Blackberry is to use it for email. I think all other functions of it are sub-par as smart phones go, so to have an email device without a full keyboard is driving me up the wall. My office gave me a brand new Verizon Wireless Pearl when I started and I tolerated the horrible keyboard since it was the nicest phone they had. The last straw was about two weeks ago when I was writing my boss and the dam predictive text or whatever you call it could not type out LAN, nor could I cancel out of the options it was giving me.

Early last week I had our telecom person switch me to an Blackberry 8800 that my predecessor had. That phone is huge, and kind of sucks but it has a full keyboard. I will use it until we can figure out why we cannot get the iPhone or any other Wireless Active Sync device to connect to our Exchange 2003 server.

Can I Find The Right Phone? Part 1

Since October I have had a minor problem left unresolved. I have been unsuccessfully searching for a wireless phone I could use every day. I have written previously about how my Treo 680 had been causing me too many problems so I was on the outs as my day to day mobile. The issue is I haven’t been able to find a suitable replacement. As much as I jump from phone to phone (I do about 1 a year and maybe toy with an alternative one during that time but never switch over to it) over the years, I have been sticking to Palm based Treo’s relatively consistently. I did go from a Treo 270 on T-Mobile to a Treo 600, then to a Treo 650. From there I went to the Treo 700 on Verizon. When I left my last company I switched my number to a Treo 680 on AT&T. It has been several years using the Palm OS on Treo phones. As I have said in the past it has been a love / hate relationship.

So even though it sounds kind of silly I am stuck on what phone to use day to day. I guess it is such a big deal because I use it for allot more than making calls. In fact I use it for other stuff more than I use it as a phone. I check my mail on it. Read the news on the way to work. I keep track of my expenses on it. I use it as a calendar, and more importantly I track all the tasks I need to accomplish on it. I use it to track notes, and I take notes with it more than I use pen and paper. If I am in a meeting playing with my phone, it is because I am actually taking notes or updating tasks related to what we are talking about on it. There is tons more things I use it for, but that is enough for you to get the point. Because of all my requirements I am a bit picky.

The Palm OS on my Treo 680 did everything I needed it to. It just would freeze up for no reason I could identify (maybe due to loss of cell signal but if it was that it is a retarded problem) and would crash or reboot at least once a day. Recently I also had huge issues syncing my Treo to my Macbook. The Missing Sync is a great product, and I have used it for years but since they updated the Palm version it has been buggy. I have had to reset the data on the phone dozens of times due to corrupt data or the software simply crashing on syncing some conduits, especially my task lists. So I can have everything I want, but deal with problems all the time. It kind of feels like WIndows, but I solved that problem by getting a Mac.

The Curve

I have only had the Blackberry Pearl for a short time, but it is now out! I now have a Blackberry Curve from work, and I am very happy. Yes the Pearl is really small, but the Curve is not much bigger. It is only slightly wider. The rest of the dimensions are the same, and it has a full keyboard. That makes all the difference to me. That means my Pearl goes up on Ebay!

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