Couple of years ago or maybe 1 1/2 years ago or even less – I have a sketchy grip on time – I made the decision I needed a smart phone. Why? Because I could I suppose. I was ready to cough up $29.95 a month for unlimited usage.
Got a Blackberry Storm – the first edition. Send it back because it had a major problem – it went to voice mail before I could get it out of my pocket and answer it. Of course, since talking on the phone is the least we use it for, maybe it wasn’t a major problem after all. But still. Verizon couldn’t reset the number of rings before going to voice mail. Forums on internet suggested I was not the only person who could not answer my phone fast enough.
Got a Blackberry Curve. Loved it. Except I could upload photos to Facebook and Twitter only intermittently. Now, since so many people are hanging on my every move, this was a big problem. Scores were forced to sometimes go an entire hour without an update of some sort from me!
One day at the cabin, I plugged my camera charger into my phone and my phone did not like that and ceased to work. I had insurance which I paid every month. I called Assurion and a new phone was here overnight. A new reconditioned phone. Soon I could not use “L” on the keyboard and it was taking way too long to try to say something without using the letter L. So I called Assurion and we went through all the resetting and rebooting and and and. It got better. Except sometimes email worked and sometimes it didn’t. Assurion said send it back.
Thus I received my second new reconditioned phone. It was ok except the keyboard seemed sort of sunk in the phone and I had so much trouble texting. My daughter thought I was making this up until she used my phone and said, “Oh, this is way different than mine.”
I decided to get a new phone as my husband’s “new every two” was available and he didn’t need it. Why? Because recently when I was out of town he decided he needed a new phone and, without asking me, he went and bought one outright. He didn’t know about the new every two. I decided I wouldn’t buy insurance because the reconditioned phones were a pain.
I read reviews and reviews on all the Verizon models and finally decided to wait for the Droid Incredible. It came. I loved it. I learned a little more about it every night. Until the night when I determined I would solve the bluetooth problem: why could I pair the phone and the bluetooth, but when I pushed the bluetooth it didn’t say “Please choose a command.” Ok, the bluetooth must be broken – I bought a new one. Still couldn’t do it, but doggone it I was going to solve this.
The Droid Incredible has a big problem. You cannot use your bluetooth. Oh, you can talk hands-free on it but you cannot dial hands-free. That’s a problem in California. So you stick the bluetooth in your ear, pick up the phone -driving all the while – and push the voice activate button on the phone. Then you find the number you want and dial it, and then you can talk into the bluetooth. How do I know this? Because I found a forum on the web – about 54 pages – of people complaining that they can’t fully use bluetooth with their droids! I called Verizon. Indeed, all those people were right. So I sent the droid back. This is ALL droids folks – from every carrier. There is now one single droid from one carrier, and of course I forget which, with which you can use bluetooth both ways. Google, why did you do it this way?
I reactivated the Blackberry Curve while I waited to have the droid credited so I could order the Blackberry Bold. Yes, I’m sticking with Blackberry. Sorry, I-phone users, I have Verizon and don’t want to switch. (Cymbals should be sounding somewhere right now – a cell-phone user just said she didn’t want to switch carriers!!) Sorry Google folks whom I generally love, I do need my bluetooth to talk to me. Sorry the rest of you, but the blackberry actually has nothing wrong with it, it’s easy to use, and does what I need. I don’t play music on my phone or watch videos or television shows or play games. I only need so much phone. I don’t really care if I can squeeze photos bigger or smaller, or get the app that lets me put different colored wigs on my photos so people look silly.
The reason I got the droid incredible in the first place, by the way, was for the 9 megapixel camera with flash. Which indeed, was terrific. And the droid was FAST. I did like it so much. Bummer to go back to 3.2 megapixels. Total bummer. But that bluetooth has to be able to talk to me.
So here I am. The Bold has arrived and it’s charging. When my husband gets home tonight, we’ll call Verizon. We’ll switch the BOLD to his number and deactivate his Motorola. Then we’ll switch the Bold to my number, deactivate my Curve, and reactivate the Motorola. Then I’ll have to get this phone all set up again and if it doesn’t work, it’ll be back to a flip phone that isn’t very smart.
You know why? A funny thing happened this week. After I started up the Curve again, for some reason email wasn’t coming in. Only texts, tweets, and actual phone calls. It was nice. I didn’t feel chained to my phone. This morning, though, when I turned on the Curve, I started hearing beep after beep. Oh my gosh, I thought, the emails from the last few days are all coming in all of a sudden – and they were. And I didn’t jump with joy and say hooray! O frabjous day! Callooh callay!
Because when you get everything instantly, there’s nothing to anticipate. To wonder when you get home and check email, if perhaps there is an exciting one from someone. Usually there isn’t, but still, it was kind of nice to think there could be. After all the email has arrived on your phone, it’s not so fun to look at the computer. What’s the point? It’s sort of like email vs. snail mail.
Once upon a time, long, long ago, people communicated with snail mail. If you were away at college and your boyfriend was at another college, getting the mail was always so full of anticipation, disappointment, joy. Then came email and you didn’t have to send real mail, so you couldn’t hold the stationery, admire the pattern, read it over and over. I guess you could print out an email and carry it around, but it’s not the same. Now, you can read something on your phone over and over again, but it has no scent, texture, intimacy.
I know, times change, and I’m a big proponent of moving with the times. But I must be honest. I didn’t miss no email on my phone and my heart kind of sank when it came back. I’d leave the phone in another room instead of putting it in my pocket and being chained to it. I didn’t have to respond to the constant beeps and dings. Well, I’ll get over it. By tomorrow I should be back in full operation, and if all goes according to Hoyle, I’ll be able to get those photos coming again over Twitter and Facebook. That should relieve a lot of anxiety out there. Hold on, people.
Tags: Blackberry bold, Blackberry Curve, Blackberry Storm, camera phones, cell phones, droid, Droid Incredible, phone problems
Oh my gosh! That’s quite a saga! I have the Verizon “Envy”. I don’t do anything except talk and text with it. I do like the bluetooth in the car… I probably look like an idiot yelling and laughing at the ceiling, when I talk on it. I hope your new phone serves you well for many months! Good post!
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