Death of the Blackberry

In early April my Blackberry died on me.  I think something went wrong with the battery because when I first started having problems with it, it had trouble turning on and it froze.  Later it did not turn on at all.  When I bought it, I purchased a warranty that at the time i didn’t think I needed.  So I called up the company and in a matter of 5 minutes they decided and told me that they would just send me a check for the price I paid for the unit.

I was thrilled to know that I got to use the Blackberry for 10 months for $25 (the price of the warranty).  But unfortunately, I had to go without my time management tool.  I didn’t realize how dependent on it I had become.  For the next while I was late and forgetting about my appointments.  I didn’t like that I was becoming less reliable and had to regularly apologize for my lack of punctuality.

During this time I was researching different units that would suit my needs and desires.  I wanted a unit that had a decent organizer as well as wifi so I coud check my email without having to pay for data.  Some Blackberry’s offered this but were much too expensive.  The Blackberry Pearl with Wifi had just come out but still was not available to the general public so that was not an option.  Also, most smartphones or PDA’s available with Wifi capabilities were close to $500 if I bought them unlocked (which I wanted to do since I could care less about the phone feature).

Then my coworker told me the full functionality of his iPod Touch.   It is essentially a Wifi device but nothing beyond that because it is basically the iPhone without the calling capabilities.  I absolutely fell in love with it because it met all the criteria that I wanted in an electronic organizer and Wifi device.  The only downside was that they were around $300 for the 8GB unit.  This was way too much for me because I didn’t have that kind of money to blow on an organizer.

After about a month of wishing and saving, we had receieved a letter in the mail congratulating us because we had won a 16GB iPod Touch with a carrying case (it was actually my wife who won it).  The contest that we won it from was one we entered 5 months earlier, so we had completely forgotten that we entered it.  We were happy and surprised at the same time because it had approximately a $525 value.  The notice came out of nowhere.

So I have been using it for about 2 and a half months now and I think it’s wonderful.  It is exactly what I wanted and needed in terms of an organizer and Wifi device.  We have wireless at home and I also have it at work so I have access 90% of the time.  It is a great little unit that has become almost a necessity in my life.  I say “almost” because I’m sure I could live without it but it is becoming so handy and useful that it will take some adjusting to live without it.  My next post will be a review of the iPod Touch and I’ll share all the features about it that I love.