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I figured it would be a nice topic to get some juices flowing for the weekend.
My wife's always been on my case about my phones, When I had a work issued Treo a couple years ago and had MP3 ringtones for the VIP's, she was pissed because her phone didn't play MP3's and asked why I had to have a phone that did that. Now she has my E815 that's mod'd to play them and she has her favorite tones on it. But back then you didn't see celeb's with Treo's, you saw them with sidekicks and she knows how I feel about those or actually saw how I felt about them when a buddy of mine wouldn't shut his off when we were out small game hunting and I took it, tossed it in the air and shot the thing outa the air.
Now she see's the Blackberries all over the place on TV and can't understand why I need it. Even when my old company gave me one and the CTO of the company explained to her at the company x-mas party that the company was providing it, she still complained about it saying that when I left my office at 5pm, that I was off the clock and I didn't need work e-mail outside the office.
I would try to get her a BB but she wouldn't understand, I can't get her to use e-mail or reply to txt messages so getting a Blackberry for her would be a waste of time/money/etc. I even thought about giving her a Treo 650 that a friend gave me in trade for a cisco 350 access point but again, it's a waste of money for someone that doesn't understand technology.04-20-07 01:42 PM - Ok, as Nav has thrown bricks, i will poke you with a sharp stick...
The arguement could easily be "Does one really need a Cell Phone ". The fact that its a BlackBerry is just because it is one and thats our choice to use one. I suppose if someone asked me to justify a BB, i would say its the cell phone of my choice.
I guess the problem is that people assume BB is for Business only oh and celebrities (who no doubt get them free)
But to answer to your question, i would say
" i had a BB before they had one, it just i choose not to be photographed!"
But most of us on here have probably had them longer than most of the celebs
Nowadays, it just happens to be hip, so i will do my hooray dance with Navilyn! And stay with the fashion04-20-07 03:09 PM -
That would have provoked a violent reaction in me.
...
Later, of course, after all the guns were put away.
Anyway, IMHO? If your wife hasn't gotten it yet, she probably will never get it. My approach would be something like, "BlackBerrys aren't for everyone. They're not for you and I respect that. But they are for me, and you should respect that equally."
*shrug*05-27-09 09:13 AM - I have lots of reasons for having a BlackBerry.
1) I run my own photography business. If I can't respond to e-mails and phone calls as quickly as possible, I can lose business. My BB lets me take my business with me, even when on location for a photo shoot. I track my mileage, business expenses (i would always forget something if I had to record them when I got back to the office), tasks, appointments, and phone calls.
2) GPS. I have access to turn-by-turn directions wherever I go. Even when I head up to Boston, down to Florida, or even out to California, I don't have to worry about GPS in the rental car. It's always available. I can even use GPS on my motorcycle!
3) Keeping in Touch. One of my daughters lives in NJ. Another is currently stationed in Iraq. All three of my daughters prefer to chat (text) rather than talk on a phone call. I'll chat via IM with all my daughters whenever I can. With my daughter in Iraq, I never know when she will be free to talk, so having a portable IM app makes it easy for us to stay in touch.
4) Instant access. My wife will always ask me, "who was in that movie?", or "can you look this up for me?". Nowadays, she expects me to have my BB with me and be able to pull answers out quickly for anything she asks. Most of the time, I can. Next week, she is getting a Curve of her own.
5) Notes during phone calls. Someone calls me (or I call them). While talking to them over my bluetooth headset, I'll pop open the notes for that call and type things in while talking. I can create my own log of what was talked about. After the call is completed, I e-mail it back to my office e-mail account. When I get back to the office, I move the call log into that client's e-mail folder. The phone call log has the number they called from, date, time, duration, and the notes I've made.
6) KeePassBB. I don't know how many times I've forgotten a password. Now I can shuffle passwords as much as needed (so I'm not using the same ones over and over again) and have full acces to a list of passwords. Personal accounts, PIN numbers, and all that is easily accessible.
7) Social Networking. I am a social networking junkie. Now that my wife is a Facebook junkie, she understands my addiction.Last edited by Xopher; 05-27-09 at 09:37 AM.
05-27-09 09:35 AM - This is kind of hilarious... I was having the same argument except that it was with my hubby. He was of the opinion that a cell phone doesn't need to do anything except make phone calls. It doesn't need to text / take pics / play music / etc.
I guess I was too convincing, because he want from insisting I didn't need one, to insisting he got one too.
Anyways, Xopher could almost have written my post. I also use my Blackberry to help me with my photography business. Since I don't have a studio, I have to be as available as possible to my customers and replying quickly is very important. I also use it as a mini-portfolio so if someone asks to see my work, I can just show them samples I've loaded onto my phone. Mileage, biz expenses, etc etc etc are all important to keep track of.
Another argument for having a "fancy" phone was that I needed a phone that could take decent pics as my family lives several states away, and my parents want to see as many pics of their grandsons as possible. Yeah, I could carry either my good camera or even a point and shoot with me all the time, but who wants to carry all that everywhere? Having the ability to quickly send pic messages to my family is very important.
Instant web/info access and Facebook. Can't live without them.
Well, I could, but I don't want to. LOL
I also have several kid's movies loaded onto my phone. Which has been PRICELESS for keeping them entertained when we're someplace that they have to wait quietly. (Such as the doctor's office.) I adore having Slacker and Pandora as I don't have a huge collection of mp3's, so I'm still able to listen to all my favorite music without having to go through all the hassle of ripping and transferring them. Not to mention buying all that music in the first place!
What finally sold my hubby on the BB was the full keyboard. He HATES texting on a cell phone because he refuses to learn the "quick text" and he doesn't have the patience to hit each key over and over to get to the correct letter. Now we text back and forth nearly every day. It's become our way of saying "Since you're out, can you go to the store and get milk, cereal, tp, etc?" LOL
Yeah, I could probably do all this (or at least most) on a "simpler" phone, such as the NV2 or a Scoop or something, but it'd be a lot harder and not nearly as efficient. Not only that, my BB has a much bigger screen than those other kinds of phones.
I hope you're successful in your quest to turn her from the dark side. LOL05-27-09 12:04 PM - I think Blackberries have just been pigeon holed as "work phones".
I had a Razr for the last 2 years and when my son got an Instinct for his birthday and I had to upgrade my plan to a data one, I figured it'd be time for me to upgrade my phone as well. Heck I am getting all this unlimited usage of data, texting and what not, I might as well take advantage of it.
Plus I am a geek anyway and having something I can mess around with is always nice. A "normal" cell phone just sits in my pocket until it rings.
05-27-09 01:06 PM - you know, I had the very same issue with my girlfriend. She was all like blah, blah, you don't need a blackberry, and consistently told me that I just needed a flip phone like her razor, because her phone was just fine. WELL ... HA ........ so I get her a new blackberry, to replace that old razor she kept waving in my face, and what do you knowI figured it would be a nice topic to get some juices flowing for the weekend.
My wife's always been on my case about my phones, When I had a work issued Treo a couple years ago and had MP3 ringtones for the VIP's, she was pissed because her phone didn't play MP3's and asked why I had to have a phone that did that. Now she has my E815 that's mod'd to play them and she has her favorite tones on it. But back then you didn't see celeb's with Treo's, you saw them with sidekicks and she knows how I feel about those or actually saw how I felt about them when a buddy of mine wouldn't shut his off when we were out small game hunting and I took it, tossed it in the air and shot the thing outa the air.
Now she see's the Blackberries all over the place on TV and can't understand why I need it. Even when my old company gave me one and the CTO of the company explained to her at the company x-mas party that the company was providing it, she still complained about it saying that when I left my office at 5pm, that I was off the clock and I didn't need work e-mail outside the office.
I would try to get her a BB but she wouldn't understand, I can't get her to use e-mail or reply to txt messages so getting a Blackberry for her would be a waste of time/money/etc. I even thought about giving her a Treo 650 that a friend gave me in trade for a cisco 350 access point but again, it's a waste of money for someone that doesn't understand technology. She becomes a huge crackberry !! Says now that she dosn't know how she ever did with out one.05-27-09 01:28 PM - Audit here is what you do...
Tell her she is right, and what you both will do today is get rid of everything in your lives that a celebrity has or endorses.
Starting with her stuff. She will have to live without any thing, celebrity endorsed/owned for an entire 12 months, if she can do it, you will follow suit.
Any fashion related shoes, dresses and do dads, they all go to GoodWill. Any cell phone she has is a no no, because celebs own them, and she can use the landline and pay phones when she is out and about. Any car newer than a Ford Pinto, is outta there, makeup? Who is she kidding, even the male celebs wear it, so nope gotta go. Dinner out? Uh no, too many celebs eat out, real wives cook. Case in point Real Wives of TV shows (pick the coast), they all eat out. Oh and she can forget that TV, too many celebs own them and are on them, she should cooking, cleaning (battling those breeding dust bunnies is a full time job) and darning your socks, not watching TV, (it rots your brain don't you know?), oh and no trips to the beauty parlor, to get her hair done, she can get your home color and perms instead, better yet nix that, celebs endorse those products.
By the time you get to your 12 months or your Berry, she will have nothing left to complain about, because she will be in a dress made from a potato sack and will be chained to the mop and stove, in her Leave it to Beaver apron and 50's hair do (frizzy prem and badly colored I might add), waiting for you at the door with your slippers, newspaper and drink, and a sily grin on her face, that tells you she gives up, anbd you can keep your old BlackBerry. Elapsed time? (two weeks tops).Last edited by BlkBear; 05-27-09 at 01:43 PM.
05-27-09 01:40 PM - Same can be said of cell phones, if you never had one, you don't miss it, but once you get one, you can't live without it.
...and not that it becomes a NEED per se', you just don't want to be without the convenience.
I was using mine last night watching TV with my wife and she looks over and asks puzzled "what're you doing?"......I replied....."saving you an interruption of your show to check the Mets score."05-27-09 03:00 PM
