BlackBerry

I can be careless. Or as some like to tell me (and as I'll admit) I am an idiot. "The dumbest smart person I know" has been used as well. I usually don't argue with this moniker. In truth, my common sense died a quick death following the slow death of my attention span. Its a sad story, really.

Why do I bring this up?  Because like an idiot I lost my BlackBerry on Friday night. Really, it was stupid. I was in a cab, on my way to meet my brother-in-law at the best bar in NYC. I took out my BB (which also serves as my phone) to call him and let him know I was on my way. I looked up before dialing and realized I was close enough at that point that it wasn't worth calling. I then (I though) put BB back in my pocket. I got out of the cab, entered the best bar in NYC and went to say hello.

Almost immediately, I knew my phone was missing. Its weirs, but I think once you become addicted to the BlackBerry, it sort of becomes a piece of you. I ran outside to see if it was on the ground near where I exited the cab. No luck. I went inside and started calling it. At first, it rang a few times before going to voicemail. Soon, it began going straight to voicemail. Either it was out of a service area or the battery was dead or it had been turned off. I wasn't sure which.

Then I remembered the little ownership thing on it has this message, "If found, please call grill at xxx-xxx-xxxx (my work number)". So I check my work voicemail. Nothing. At this point, its late enough that I refocus on drinking and shuffleboard. There is nothing I can do the rest of the night...well, nothing I can do about my BlackBerry, plenty I can do otherwise.

The next morning, I try calling it again and then calling my work voicemail again; nothing. Now I have to resign myself to getting a new device. I check to make sure that there is nothing special I need do, related to the corporate account and head to the T-Mobile store.  My choices were simple: Curve or Pearl. I'm not even sure they make my clunky old 8700 any longer. Maybe I could have gotten a refurbished one, but what the hell. Since I long ago swore off "intelli-type," I went with the Curve. I think the guys at RIM are really sharp and they've done the best one can do with smart-typing software, but its just too annoying to deal with. Considering the full keyboard, the Curve isn't even really that much bigger than the Pearl anyway.

Now that I've been using this thing for 24 hours, I have to say that I really like it. I'm still not used to the little trackball in the middle (I think I'm still a fan of the side scroll wheel), but u think a number of other features stand out. The keyboard keys are smaller than the 8700, but are spaced and shaped in such a way that makes the typing easier. The screen is brighter and larger, allowing for more icons per row, which means less overall scrolling. They've separated the BlackBerry menu call up into a separate key, which took some getting used to, but I know that once I get used to it, it will be better. It has a microSD slot and a 2Mp camera, so I can take pictures whenever.

All in all, losing my BlackBerry was a pain, but at least the replacement product is good. At least, that's what I'll tell myself when the credit card bill arrives.

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