I begin my story with a trip to my parent's house. I had a few hours to kill so I decided to go visit my mom, sister and niece at my mom's house in Washburn. As I was walking through the living room I glanced something out of the corner of my eye. It looked like a Verizon logo..but...Verizon hasn't performed the switch-over yet..had they?Not only was I excited about the Verizon logo on the box but I was completely overjoyed when I saw the label on the box that read "Blackberry Storm". When I say overjoyed, I am not exaggerating in the least bit. I literally pipped a squeak of happiness and said "ooooooo" out loud. Upon questioning my sister's boyfriend(And I did..I questioned him like a lawyer who hasn't won a case in years) I found out that Verizon is currently performing switches for customers who buy new phones and request it. I remembered seeing the "Buy one get one free" deal on the Blackberry Storm..so I had to check it out. After playing with my sister's boyfriend's phone for a while, I was hooked. Also, while playing with it, I noticed something else...it had a signal! I've NEVER been able to get a signal in Washburn. I instantly called Alyssa to tell her what I had discovered. She wasn't as excited as I was, of course she had yet to play with the phone itself. So, being the good tech nerd I am, I decided to do some digging, read some reviews and go over every single detail of the phone. Slowly but surely, I became more and more impressed with it and in the process managed to convince Alyssa that it would be a good move to buy these now since they are normally $599.99 retail and with the BOGO deal you can get two for $150. We ended up getting two, and the monthly cost (with the unlimited data plan) is only slightly higher than what we were paying for both of our crappy cell phones. So let me get down to the details of this thing and explain why I just had to have it..
Its official title is the BlackBerry Storm 9350 but I like to call it the crackberry. Mostly because I've yet to put the thing down since I purchased it. Both Alyssa and I have an iPod touch..we bought these in lieu of the iPhones we are unable to get in this area. Let me put it this way, we love our crackberries so much..we've barely touched our iPods since we bought them. The first noticable thing about the Storm is that it is the first touch screen BlackBerry on the market. Its screen is comparable to the size of the iPhone and the iPod but it also has a couple extras. The resolution is higher AND it uses a "SurePress" technology that allows you to actually "Click" the screen so you have that tactile and auditory confirmation that whatever you are touching is actually being selected. This is much better than the iPhone/iPod..I never really knew what was being selected ..until I saw that I had mistyped it in the email that I had already sent. So ..just by clicking the screen once..I knew I was in love.
The next great feature was the ability to highlight and copy/paste. OH MY GOD! Copy and paste? Who'd have thought that you could do that on a touch device? Certainly not Apple. They apparently didn't think it was pertinent to include the most basic of features on their iPhone. This was really the thing that sold me. The Storm also gives you control of other things as well...like your file system. I believe that if you own a device you should be able to control what you do with it, where things go and what they do. Apple's devices lock down the entire file system, you have no control over anything but the order of the icons on your screen. The Storm allows you to create folders, move files around, copy, paste and pretty much gives you full control over everything. On top of all this it gives you great email and messaging capability, voice dialing that integrates seamlessly with your contacts. You don't even have to train it. You get a full fledged GPS service..internet browsing..and many other things..for less than the cost of an iPod. The best part is, you get to use Verizon's high speed EV-DO 3G network which gives you internet speeds comparable to basic home broadband..and you have it anywhere you get a signal. All of this combined with the little things like the 3.2 MP camera with a flash..the amazing battery life(I had 12 + hours on it just messing around..and it was still about 1/3 full when I put it on the charger) and the easy to use calendar..the only thing it's missing is Apple's flashiness and need to control everything you do..as well as make you pay for it. I'm currently selling my iPod on Ebay if anyone is interested. Crackberry Storm..ILU.
Oh..and if you decide to buy one, DO NOT shell out for the VZ navigator or text messaging. They want 9.99 a month for either of them and you can just go home and download Google Latitude for free to get the GPS service. Same service..better maps. Actually, the service from Google is better because you can share locations with friends and family. Also..when you buy a BlackBerry you get a free BlackBerry account that you can use with BlackBerry messanger. That coupled with Windows Messanger, AIM, Yahoo Messanger and Google Chat..you can pretty much talk to anyone for free over the broadband connection..why pay for SMS and Texting?
(Image Courtesy : www.techfresh.net)
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