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The Electronic Tether

I’ve been ruminating lately on my dependence upon my Blackberry. Slowly, with a near sinister creep, this dependence has grown. In 1998 I sprang for my first electronic calendar, a Palm III. Essentially, it was an electronic address book. The other item I’d considered was a device by Franklin, which was only an address book. Soon, I saw the ability to calendar more effectively. Then I figured out Tasks, and the ability to set reminders, and I was hooked. Syncing with Outlook sealed the deal.

 

I went through several iterations of the Palm, culminating in a Treo 650, which was great at its inception, but proceeded to whither in my esteem. Particularly, the device was buggy to start, and seemed to get buggier the more I did with it. It also didn’t seem to like Cingular’s network. And, finally, the sound quality was terrible. When I’d had enough, I explored other options. I was unwilling to risk another several hundred bucks on a new Palm device, and the lower end ones seemed like cheap crap. Thus, I started exploring Blackberrys.

 

My friends with the devices always raved about them. It also helped to ease my mind that they tended to have them for years. Now, if I were a chap of unlimited funds, I would’ve sprung for an iPhone, but I am not such. It’s been nice that the Curve has excellent phone quality and I’ve not any network issues (actually getting stronger coverage than my wife’s cell phone). However, there are a few cripes I must air. First, I miss SharkMsg. Also, I miss the sheer volume of aps. I did enjoy running myriad goofy aps, which I’m sure affected those bugs mentioned above – mea culpa. Anyway, I also miss the ability to set short cut keys for pretty much everything. On my Treo, I’d set one of the keys to open up a text to my wife. Handy for those folks that I text often. I had those short cuts set up for all my key aps.

 

Anyway, regardless of the “wants” listed above, I’m not about the move back. Stability and voice quality trump these. Perhaps this is an area that I can be a solution rather than griping about the problem.

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