Last week a colleague, who had been forced by corporate policy to switch to a Verizon Treo, donated his Blackberry Pearl 8100 to me.

It was a Cingular/ATT locked phone. I unlocked it, stuck my T-Mobile card into it, and upgraded my plan to the unlimited data plan. I the MIS department at work add an Exchange redirect of my work mail to the Blackberry-provided email address (Blackberry Enterprise Services are evil), so that I could claim a real work usage for this. But there is also a personal email on it (and you will have to ask me for that one!).

[Author Sidebar: Two days later, I managed to lose my T-Mobile Z3 Rizr. Lose. Like can't find. Likely in the hands of another happy user who has figured out the GSM thing. I am an idiot.]

What is my main purpose for this thing? I previously had not had email on my mobiles. This restricted (prevented) my ability to use services like Flickr, BrightKite, TwitPic among others. Also, I can add services such as Google Maps and other mobile apps for the Blackberry. Still waiting for Skype for the non-wifi Blackberry.

My opinion thus far is positive. While there are obviously newer and better smartphones out there now, but the Pearl meets my needs for now. And the price (donation free!) was definitely within my budget. I am still adjusting to the 3/4 QWERTY keyboard, but it is not anymore difficult than MOTO’s intellitype (yeah, I know it’s a stretch) system.

Will keep you updated on my joy/frustration factor.

Tags: blackberry, blackberry 8100, blackberry pearl, GSM, opinion, review, smartphone

We have survived the wedding. Actually, I make it sound like it was a trial, but it was, in fact, a rather pleasant experience, even for an introvert such as myself. Beautiful setting out at Starling Lane Winery (I highly recommend the Blackberry Port).

Being in Victoria and area has reminded all of us why we love it here; and why we need to move back sooner, rather than later. Not only is Canada a far more civilized country than the United States, Victoria is a far more livable place than Massachusetts. We even did the rounds of some open houses today, reminding ourselves that although this is a far more livable place, the architecture for homes during the period the area was most intensely developed (1945-1980) was brain-damaged, if not completely diseased.

But the benefits are beyond count. An unseasonable warm day is 90F, with very low humidity. Humidity comes in the winter, in the form of rain, rather than snow. We are in plant zone 6-7 (and some 8), which for the gardeners in the crowd means that plants grow here far more abundantly than you could ever dream of in Massachusetts.

And the people are friendly. The gerneralization made about the people of Massachusetts towards outsiders are, in most cases, true. Unless you have lived in Massachusetts for 2-3 generations, you are treated as a newcomer, and should be either shunned or completely distrusted. We have encountered some notable exceptions, but they are few and far between.

So yes, a return to Victoria is definitely beginning to take shape.

Technorati Tags: Victoria, BC, Canada, lifestyle, Winery, Massachusetts

Tags: blackberry, Canada, cro, HTTP, IE, it, LAN, live, Massachusetts, Om, One, Technorati, United States

As many of you know, I inherited an old, very well-used T-Mobile Treo 600 a couple of weeks ago. Well, I have become acutely aware of people who have them, much like suddenly noticing pregnant women when your wife is pregnant.

Today, I am on-site at a large client in the Philadelphia area, and the office is wall-to-wall Treos — 600s, 650s, and 700s. It’s just astounding to see them all. The comment from the client is that the entire company runs on Treos.

Many organizations have migrated to a seamless wireless/laptop/tethered workflow, to the point where it really doesn’t matter where you are, you can get the job done. You can now get the e-mail out and talk to the client as effectively from the car or the airport gate or cube or home office. WIth IM, Skype/Yahoo Voice, work just happens.

With me, I can work in spurts between 06:00 and 23:00, spreading the traditional work day into manageable useful chunks, done when appropriate, when I am at my best intellectual effectiveness. The paranthetical workday is irrelevant to me. The structured office environment is irrelevant to me.

The other side of the coin is that it is important to realize just how mobile we have become, just as it is becoming more and more expensive to be mobile. Will $70, $80, $100 barrels of oil make the wireless revolution the only economical way to do business?

Is having more Treos/Blackberries/Windows Mobile devices per square foot a good thing? Or is it the only thing that will work until we wean ourselves from oil?

Technorati Tags: Treo, Blackberry, Windows Mobile, mobile computing, wireless, workplace

Tags: app, blackberry, business, client, EAD, evolution, HTTP, IE, IM, it, Om, One, pr, run, T-Mobile, Technorati, the other, window, Windows