So I got a Blackberry Pearl recently (see my previous post for why I need one). Mainly because I wanted the cheapest, smallest PDA phone out there. I just wanted to be able to get my email when out and about, between work and my daughter’s activities, etc. I had an iPAQ back in the day and was addicted to that thing for years, but this is the first time I’ve had anything beyond the free phone that usually comes with a 2 year contract. I’ve never even had a camera phone before. The Blackberry has been doing its job and more for me and I’m glad I went this route, but I’m surprised it took me several days of using it to realize that I just gave myself my own leash! What’s great is that now I can get my work email anywhere, but what sucks is that now I can get my work email anywhere! I had a similar experience when I was interning in a hardware installation group and begged to have a beeper like everyone else, until I actually got one and got beeped crossing the street with a cart full of equipment and freaked out. Back to the Blackberry. It’s not “crackberry” to me, but it is useful and I have gotten a little camera-happy, but that’s another blog entirely.
Simonie
August 1st, 2007
2:54 pm
I used to own an older BlackBerry and loved the push email capability, but I only configured it to receive my personal emails because I didn’t want to be tied to work email 24/7. People would ask me, “Why not?” I just tell them that if it’s an urgent matter, CALL instead of sending an email. It’s interesting to see how many folks view email as a method of critical communication now, even though they’ve been through email downtimes more than phone system downtimes. (When was the last time you couldn’t make ANY voice calls at all?) Whatever happened to the good ol’ voice call? Plus, once people find out you receive work emails on the BB, they somehow have the expectation that you read/respond to work emails during ALL times of the day. It’s all about setting an expectation.
August 9th, 2007
9:12 am
“Crackberry” in my opinion has its own advantages - especially when a machine sends you an email to alert you about an emergency (Product Support Personnels find this extremely useful and annoying at the same time). I agree that we are all knee deep in the Voice Based Ecosystem where outbound dialing is just another extra line of code, yet this infrastructure has not turned into another “i-pod phenom” yet. Emails have it place in the society and so does phones. Emails leave a virtual papertrail of documents that can be traced, which cannot be done using phone calls. Phone calls are less misinterpreted compared to emails. I think SmartPhones are the best marriage of both the technologies. Whether to turn a blackberry into a crackberry is entirely up to you and your addictive nature. Unfortunately there are no rehabs centers to treat this addiction.
August 11th, 2007
7:32 am
Eugene, I’m with you about being tethered to work, but since my situation is such that I work 24/7 whenever I get a moment, but sometimes I’m in my car or at a children’s museum with my daughter in the middle of the day, being able to get critical work emails while I’m away from the office is also critical. It’s been invaluable on keeping me up with current threads throughout the day and being able to contribute before midnight. I’m not smoking my crackberry anytime soon though.