Using Crack
I became a Crackberry owner today.
It's probably not the smartest thing I've ever done, given that I have a perfectly good phone with a reasonable plan, an iPod, and the capability to browse the Internet and check my e-mail from the aforementioned phone already. But, darn it all, I'm tired of being the only one in my office without either an iPhone or a Blackberry! Actually, that's not even the whole impetus: when I recently realized that after discounts and promtional credits I could get one of several Blackberry models for free, I just plain couldn't help myself. Granted, when you get the 'berry you have to pay for the e-mail and Internet service every month, which is a bit more than the $5 data plan I had on my little LG enV, but only $21 more according to the sales guy at the Verizon store. That's with my corporate discount, and what's $21 anyway? Half a tank of gas? Five or six Starbucks lattes? (I don't even go to Starbucks but a handful of times in a year, however, in keeping with the times, I must monetize everything into how many drinks at Starbucks a given activity/service/commodity is worth.)
I did my homework for several days before narrowing it down to either the original Storm or the Curve. With the former, I could finally join the people who have touch screen technology at their fingertips. The latter, however, is infinitely more reliable and comes in silver or pink. Tough choice. I had enough scathing reviews of the original Storm from past and current owners to steer more towards a Curve, but I decided it would ultimately come down to a taste test. So I went over to the Verizon store after my dance lesson and crammed both in my mouth. Okay, not in my mouth, but I got my hands on some floor models and immediately took to the Curve. It's surprisingly lightweight and while the keypad takes a little getting used to after my two-thumb friendly enV, it was not a tough sell. The sales guy saw me fumbling around with the Storm, trying to tap and prod it like an iPhone, and pretty much told me it was probably not my best bet. (He had probably had enough complaints from irate customers to put him off of selling them, period. I had made it clear up front that I wasn't going to be upsold into a fresh Storm 2 either.)
Next thing I knew I was standing at the cash-out counter going through my renewed contract and silently cursing myself because I had intended to try and not buy at the store. I'm not 100% certain, but based on my research, I think that buying it online would have given me an instant credit to cancel out the cost of the phone, whereas buying it in person meant I have to pay $100 up front and rip off the box top and mail it in with a receipt and wait for my $100 gift card thingy to come back in the mail, which might be after I have to pay the cc bill. Oh well, that's what I get for not making a break for the door as soon as the guy turned his back to return the demo Storm to its holder.
Playing with it so far has been a lot of fun; it's not quite as intuitive as a regular phone. There are a lot more bells and whistles and features hidden a few more clicks away, not to mention every manufacturer does things a bit differently so I had to switch gears from LG to Blackberry speak. All in all, though, I'm happy with my purchase and can't wait to get full use out of this baby. Until Apple sees fit to release the iPhone to Verizon, I will gladly use and abuse the Crack.
It's probably not the smartest thing I've ever done, given that I have a perfectly good phone with a reasonable plan, an iPod, and the capability to browse the Internet and check my e-mail from the aforementioned phone already. But, darn it all, I'm tired of being the only one in my office without either an iPhone or a Blackberry! Actually, that's not even the whole impetus: when I recently realized that after discounts and promtional credits I could get one of several Blackberry models for free, I just plain couldn't help myself. Granted, when you get the 'berry you have to pay for the e-mail and Internet service every month, which is a bit more than the $5 data plan I had on my little LG enV, but only $21 more according to the sales guy at the Verizon store. That's with my corporate discount, and what's $21 anyway? Half a tank of gas? Five or six Starbucks lattes? (I don't even go to Starbucks but a handful of times in a year, however, in keeping with the times, I must monetize everything into how many drinks at Starbucks a given activity/service/commodity is worth.)
I did my homework for several days before narrowing it down to either the original Storm or the Curve. With the former, I could finally join the people who have touch screen technology at their fingertips. The latter, however, is infinitely more reliable and comes in silver or pink. Tough choice. I had enough scathing reviews of the original Storm from past and current owners to steer more towards a Curve, but I decided it would ultimately come down to a taste test. So I went over to the Verizon store after my dance lesson and crammed both in my mouth. Okay, not in my mouth, but I got my hands on some floor models and immediately took to the Curve. It's surprisingly lightweight and while the keypad takes a little getting used to after my two-thumb friendly enV, it was not a tough sell. The sales guy saw me fumbling around with the Storm, trying to tap and prod it like an iPhone, and pretty much told me it was probably not my best bet. (He had probably had enough complaints from irate customers to put him off of selling them, period. I had made it clear up front that I wasn't going to be upsold into a fresh Storm 2 either.)
Next thing I knew I was standing at the cash-out counter going through my renewed contract and silently cursing myself because I had intended to try and not buy at the store. I'm not 100% certain, but based on my research, I think that buying it online would have given me an instant credit to cancel out the cost of the phone, whereas buying it in person meant I have to pay $100 up front and rip off the box top and mail it in with a receipt and wait for my $100 gift card thingy to come back in the mail, which might be after I have to pay the cc bill. Oh well, that's what I get for not making a break for the door as soon as the guy turned his back to return the demo Storm to its holder.
Playing with it so far has been a lot of fun; it's not quite as intuitive as a regular phone. There are a lot more bells and whistles and features hidden a few more clicks away, not to mention every manufacturer does things a bit differently so I had to switch gears from LG to Blackberry speak. All in all, though, I'm happy with my purchase and can't wait to get full use out of this baby. Until Apple sees fit to release the iPhone to Verizon, I will gladly use and abuse the Crack.
