Category: Techno Bob

OK. Now I know I have an addiction.

I’ve often heard the Blackberry referred to as a “Crackberry,” to the point where it got a little old. Then my Blackberry died a horrible, unfortunate death. And I came to realize what an utter, hopeless junky I’ve become.

I was on the porch last night trying to kill a wasp that had wandered in. I took a mighty swing … and missed, leaving a pissed off wasp streaming toward me. My survival instinct kicked in and I started hopping around, trying to get out of the way.

That’s when my Blackberry popped out of my breast pocket, flopped through the air and crashed onto the wood decking.

I picked it up, praying it would still work. And it did. Or so I though. But it wasn’t able to find the network. I was cut off. No e-mail. No calls. Just a constant, nagging “Searching for CDMA” note on the phone.

I knew I had to go to Atlanta the next day, and the thought of being out in the world without the cool comfort of my Blackberry really rattled me. I started to twitch. I called Verizon and begged them to show mercy on me. Their advice was to take it to the nearest Verizon store and see if it could be resurrected.

So this morning that’s what I did. But by that point, I was sweating profusely and I kept looking at the Blackberry’s screen in the hope of seeing some sign of life … a new message, a Facebook alert, a Gmail notice. Nothing.

The Verizon folks were great. I think it was refreshing that I actually admitted the Blackberry’s demise was my own doing. Or maybe they saw what a mess I was and realized it would be better to feed my jones than deal with the consequences. They offered to replace it for 50 bucks, which I eagerly agreed to. Phone service restored, I sped home to re-establish my Blackberry’s intimate relation with the Maroon Ventures Exchange Server. Mission accomplished. And in crisis, as is often the case, I came to self-awareness. I’m an addict. And maybe the stupid Crackberry joke isn’t so stupid after all. Just make sure I have my fix and there won’t be any trouble …

I was pretty geeked to see that Apple intends to create a much more seamless integration between the iPhone and Microsoft’s Outlook. That’s the one thing that has stopped me from trying an iPhone. I’m a total Outlook junky. It rules my life, and the Blackberry works it better than any other mobile device I’m aware of.

But buried in the news was something even cooler. Apple announced a partnership with the VC firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, which is creating the iFund, a $100m vehicle that will focus on iPhone software startups. What a great idea. This giant carrot is now dangling out there, encouraging developers to create the next great iPhone app. Brilliant.

How long till I can trade-in my Blackberry?

In the mid-’90s, I moved to Denver to work for the Rocky Mountain News. I loved the paper, but when I first moved to town I gravitated toward its competitor and mortal enemy, the Denver Post. And it was entirely because of format. I’d always read broadsheet papers like the Post. The Rocky’s tab format just seemed odd and different.

But within weeks, my Denver Post was going unopened each morning as I went straight for the Rocky. I grew to love the tab format. I could put it on the breakfast table while I ate, and I didn’t have to wrestle with it as I turned pages.

As I play with Amazon’s new electronic reader, the Kindle, I wonder if the same type of thing is occurring. It arrived yesterday, and I plugged it in last night, expecting it to take an hour or two to configure. I’d already purchased a European e-reader called the Iliad that took almost an hour to get on my wireless network and generally left me underwhelmed.

But the Kindle was a breeze. I plugged it in, paged through a few screens of the manual and quickly downloaded the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, beginning free trial subscriptions to each. My home network was irrelevant. The Kindle connects directly with a cell network, and it did so flawlessly. After browsing through thousand of books on Amazon’s store, I decided to wait a bit before making a purchase. I wanted to see if I liked the Kindle.

At first, it was sort of like the experience with the Rocky Mountain News. A bit foreign. But I got over that quickly. At breakfast this morning in the Cincinnati airport, I cruised through the Wall Street Journal while I shoveled my Southwestern Omelette into my mouth. This was much easier than juggling a paper, even a tabloid. I’d already started reading the paper on the plane on the way up. (I looked in my mailbox at 5 a.m. to see if the local paper and my print version of the Journal were there yet. No way. I’m lucky when they arrive by 7:30 … but the Kindle version of the Journal had downloaded automatically overnight.)

I’ve seen a lot of the digital hipsters pan the Kindle over flaws ranging from the way it manages digital rights to the look and feel of the thing. There’s merit to some of these complaints, but overall, I really like it and think it’s a big step forward. Wireless and ease of use make it a device that has me geeked.

Here’s a running list of what I like and don’t like about it. I’ll be updating it as I use it more …