She’s here!

I’d like to introduce you to my new friend, Pearl. She’s lovely, small and slender, and deep, deep purple. So pretty.

They introduced Blackberrys at work a little over a year ago for those at the management level, and I thought at the time that they were going to become the most hated invention of all time. There’s nothing that burns me more at work than to sit in a meeting with someone — not least of all a one-to-one with my manager — and have them check their Blackberry rather than participate in the meeting. They vibrate to indicate a new message, and suddenly that new email is more important than the previously-scheduled meeting you’re currently attending. It’s incredibly rude, and I said I never wanted to be that connected to work. I still say that, and if they offered me one I think I’d refuse it. Work is work, home is home, and never the twain shall meet. I cherish the hours I spend away from work; I work only so I can afford to do the things I want to do, not because it fulfills me as a person or makes me feel somehow more worthwhile.

Anyway, a few months ago the powers that be decided to really start cracking down on internet usage at work. I have no problem with that; I spend far more time doing personal things online at work than I ever have looking up work-related items, and I’m the first to admit I could use that time more productively. To that end, they began restricting access to webmail like Yahoo and GMail. That was fine, until Twelve moved in at the end of September, and now I have about one hour a day to check various email accounts — 1 for personal email (including a bunny-related listserv), 1 for rescue (including a separate bunny-related listserv), 1 for the blog, and a couple of others. Whatever, it’s just not enough time. So at the top of my list of Reasons Why Amanda Needs a Blackberry is “Ability to check personal email while away from home.” The rest of the list:

• Ability to sync my work calendar and have it with me away from work. I am constantly forgetting whether or not I have an early meeting, and invariably show up 1/2 an hour later than I should have. No more waking up at 7:30 and thinking “Hey, did I have an 8:00 meeting?”
• Ability to get directions away from a computer. I could do this with limited capability on my previous phone, but this baby will use it’s GPS locator thingy to figure out the directions from where I am at the time, and it will tell them to me! How awesome is that?
• Ability to view and edit (with the addition of special software) Word and Excel documents. I keep track of mileage for rescue-related activities, and I am terrible about remembering to put it in Excel. For a long time I considered getting a pocket PC for that reason alone, but now I won’t have to.
• Multimedia capabilities — the Pearl takes fairly decent pics for a cameraphone, it’ll take video clips, it’ll hold music, and because it’s a Sprint phone I got the fancy PowerVision pack along with it so I can watch TV and do other nifty things. I don’t think I’ll be using this as a substitute for my iPod, but it’s nice to have the option to download mp3s.
• Ability to use as a modem if needed. If I should ever happen to be somewhere that wifi didn’t exist, I could connect the Blackberry to my laptop and browse away. I doubt I’ll ever need to use it that way, but again, it’s nice to have the option.

I spent a little time today getting acquainted with my new friend, and I’m duly impressed. I’m still curious about the Palm Centro, and I may take a trip to my local Sprint store to have an up close and personal look, but for now I’m content.

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