Why Fi?

As an reader to TOR is well aware of, I'm basically addicted to my BlackBerry and everyday it seems like I might be the last remaining holdout against the IPhone revolution.   Now I have nothing against the IPhone (other than the fact the phone part sucks) but have yet to take the jump away from the BB keyboard to the virtual touch-screen one.

Now although the typing is easier, and if you are going to use your phone for work and for blog-entries which often are 500 or more words per day then you can understand why typing speed is essential.   I've lived with a BlackBerry for 5 years and I'm sure I won't turn into a pumpkin if I don't get the IPhone 4 or move to something on the Android platform but  what really pisses me off is that Blackberry is so slow to ever adjust to anything

I know this is supposed to be a business machine first and at this the Blackberry is unmatched but when it comes to fun-factor the BB should be wearing a shirt with the word FUN written on it with a big red line through it.    The camera sucks, the browser is horrible and the available apps are pathetic but the thing that annoys me most is actually not directly a BB issue but rather an issue that comes from Verizon Wireless.  

See Verizon provides the best service but you pay for it.  Their rates are the highest, the scoff at roll-over minutes, they have a terrible selection of phones, they nickel and dime you over service with hidden fees but the most annoying thing has to do with a hardware issue.

See Verizon turns off Wi-Fi capability on their phones so when I'm sitting at a Starbucks and want to check ESPN for some football news I'm stuck on their terrible browser on their AOL slow 3G network while the guy next to me is listening to internet radio, doing his online banking, checking his stocks and downloading a podcast on his IPhone all while I'm trying to get the GO network to load.  I'm sitting at a place which offers Wi-Fi with a phone which in theory should be Wi-Fi accessible but greedy Verizon needs to make my life horrible for no reason at all.

This entire no Wi-Fi thing is because Verizon Wireless is so concerned about their precious minutes fearing that people will use SKYPE using a Wi-Fi connection when calling people.

First of all I have 900 minutes a month and probably use less than 150 of them on any given month and I would guess that most of their customers are in the exact same boat.   The last thing in the world I'm going to do is rig my phone up so that I can make free phone calls when I'm sitting at home.    First of all I'd never go through the trouble but if I did the only time I talk on the phone is in the evenings well  past 9pm when the free Nights-And-Weekends is already in effect.

So there I am, sitting at a Starbucks praying to the wireless gods to load a non mobile webpage and I half expect to start to see smoke billowing from the back of the phone.

 

Sent from my desktop computer