[West Coast Flavor]

This guy is joking right?

[Tre Lawrence]

There is something really wrong with the telephone culture in this country. People have been brainwashed.

I don't need to send or receive email on my cell phone. I have computers for that.

I don't need to be available to receive a phone call at any time. I have a landline phone at home. Leave the message on the answering machine if you want me.

I don't need to talk to anyone over an electric line anyway. The United States Post Office is the best in the world.

There are a lot of places in the world where they don't have more than one rotary phone in a village. Why can't Americans learn to be more like that?

Exactly.

If I can do something reasonably well on the go on my mobile device, than why not?

It tickles me when people say stuff like "I don't need my phone to do that. I have a computer for that!" Like the people who can do it on their smartphones don't?

Hilarious.

Remember when folks used to wonder about the insane people that thought it made sense to have home PCs for family use? We had mainframes for that!

[Tom Slick]

Yeah, and I don't need matches....that's what sticks are for! And who the heck needs wheels - yet another worthless invention! LOL

[bbmme]

Welcome back eh!

[gord888]

I guess lots of people missed the one critical point about BB... the OS doesn't track everything you do and send data back "anonymously" to Google/Apple for analysis. This is an important feature often overlooked with using Google services. It's a little scary to think about it - which is probably why it doesn't really come up.

[sam_b77]

I appreciate the OP's post. I have been and am an unabashed BB fanboy.
I have convertted everyone of my friends and their wives to BB from Nokias, Sony Ericssons etc. And they in turn swear by BB's.
However and this is a big HOWEVER, lately its becoming harder to keep the flock together. None of them are even remotely interested in the iPhone. Its a nothing device and people know that unless they drink Apple cool aid (disclosure : I own a Macbook and so do all my friends).

But Android, what can I say....it has its appeal. Two of my friends bought the the Razr Droid as their second device ( they still maintain that BB is what gets things done), and they were blown away with the power of Android. I was consulted prior to theirnpurchase and I went to see the phones with them. The Razr Droid is one sweet phone.

After a week, one of my friends, a BB fanboy, said the BB app world is complete sh!t. For one his credit card gets error 10000 and second there are no Apps.

I couldn't argue with him there. He configured his Android to work for him just the way he wants. He still uses his 9900 as his primary device and still dismisses his Android as a gadget fetish, but his actions left me wondering " for how long?".

TBH, this past sunday, I fought off an incredible urge to get me a Razr Droid. Simply because I knew I wiuldn't give up my BB as my primary device and didn't want to spend $650 on a secondary device.

The thing is I can't dismiss the Androids as a toy. Yes their mail handling is just p!ss poor as compared to the BB, but stuff like Quickoffice which is preloaded is amazing. Recently I was stuck and I needed to send an Excel sheet. I tried my PB but it drove me mad trying to format the Sheet on the PB. Just didnt work. My BB came to the rescue but no formulae etc.

Quickoffice was intuitive, the cells could be formatted easily, formula bar etc.

Androids are a big challenge, and RIM needs to get BB10 out with fully functional productivity tools. Music, videos, Angry Birds are least priority in my opinion.

[Tre Lawrence]

I guess lots of people missed the one critical point about BB... the OS doesn't track everything you do and send data back "anonymously" to Google/Apple for analysis. This is an important feature often overlooked with using Google services. It's a little scary to think about it - which is probably why it doesn't really come up.

Nope... RIM devices don't send it to Google or Apple. They send it to, well, RIM.

[sam_b77]

Nope... RIM devices don't send it to Google or Apple. They send it to, well, RIM.

But RIM doesn't track it and record it. Their encryption of data and anonymous locations is proven. You and your actions are safe with RIM. Proven fact. Don't grasp at straws.

Give credit where its due. RIM deserves a lot of criticisms, but invading privacy is not one of them.

[Tre Lawrence]

I appreciate the OP's post. I have been and am an unabashed BB fanboy.
I have convertted everyone of my friends and their wives to BB from Nokias, Sony Ericssons etc. And they in turn swear by BB's.
However and this is a big HOWEVER, lately its becoming harder to keep the flock together. None of them are even remotely interested in the iPhone. Its a nothing device and people know that unless they drink Apple cool aid (disclosure : I own a Macbook and so do all my friends).

But Android, what can I say....it has its appeal. Two of my friends bought the the Razr Droid as their second device ( they still maintain that BB is what gets things done), and they were blown away with the power of Android. I was consulted prior to theirnpurchase and I went to see the phones with them. The Razr Droid is one sweet phone.

After a week, one of my friends, a BB fanboy, said the BB app world is complete sh!t. For one his credit card gets error 10000 and second there are no Apps.

I couldn't argue with him there. He configured his Android to work for him just the way he wants. He still uses his 9900 as his primary device and still dismisses his Android as a gadget fetish, but his actions left me wondering " for how long?".

TBH, this past sunday, I fought off an incredible urge to get me a Razr Droid. Simply because I knew I wiuldn't give up my BB as my primary device and didn't want to spend $650 on a secondary device.

The thing is I can't dismiss the Androids as a toy. Yes their mail handling is just pooer as compared to the BB, but stuff like Quickoffice which is preloaded is amazing. Recently I was stuck and I needed to send an Excel sheet. I tried my PB, but it was trying to format the Sheet on the PB. Just didnt work. My BB came to the rescue but no formulae etc.

Quickoffice was intuitive, the cells could be formatted easily, formula bar etc.

Androids are a big challenge, and RIM needs to get BB10 out with fully functional productivity tools. Music, videos, Angry Birds are least priority in my opinion.

Quickoffice is fantastic. Without it, I probably would not have left BB.

Thanks to Amazon Appstore, anyone who had an Android device in the last month or two probably has Docs2go Pro, QuickOffice Pro and another doc program for free. I still use QuickOffice. It works great with Dropbox.

Good points (as usual), Sam. I agree: a BB10 device with full fledged productivity tools is a must-have at this point. Folks have to understand that iOS and Android devices can be workhorse devices.

[Tre Lawrence]

But RIM doesn't track it and record it. Their encryption of data and anonymous locations is proven. You and your actions are safe with RIM. Proven fact. Don't grasp at straws.

Give credit where its due. RIM deserves a lot of criticisms, but invading privacy is not one of them.

Relax. I wasn't attacking your precious RIM.

I can say you and your actions are safe with Google. They make no bones about the fact that they collect data. Most people don't read their BIS agreements (which actually implies that RIM does collect and record data).

Anyhoo, my point was not to defame RIM, though the innate need by some, like that specific poster, to think RIM is more altruistic than other corporations is the definition of grasping.

I still say most people do not care about security, and I concede that that is unfortunate.

[sam_b77]

Relax. I wasn't attacking your precious RIM.

I can say you and your actions are safe with Google. They make no bones about the fact that they collect data. Most people don't read their BIS agreements (which actually implies that RIM does collect and record data).

Anyhoo, my point was not to defame RIM, though the innate need by some, like that specific poster, to think RIM is more altruistic than other corporations is the definition of grasping.

I still say most people do not care about security, and I concede that that is unfortunate.

Didn't mean to come off as aggressive as the text suggests.

I agree with you as far as activity mining is concerned. I guess anyone withany sort of phone smart or dumb is susceptible to having his location/activities tracked. Some platforms are more open than other but none are completely private.

I guess short of living in a cave with a tin hat on, one would have to accept a certain invasion of privacy in today's world.

[dosto]

I recently tried to switch from BB to Android/HTC Amaze...it lasted four days. I really like the Amaze, but I missed my BB too much.

Some people's obsession with their phones is similar to what Bradbury wrote about in F-451.

I think I'll go read a book now.

[BoldtotheMax]

I admire you. I definitely need to realize that I have more than enough tech gadgets. And to learn to live with what I have knowing that there is not anything wrong with any of the gadgets that I have now. Heck, I mean, I don't even need the tablets I have. And two phones is grossly unnecessary. Time for me to realize that what I have does everything that I need and everything I could want.

We live and we learn. There is so many things I can do without, but yet I have while others could use and wish they had. Talking simple things to, nothing crazy.

I may still upgrade, just the junkie in me, same as you I suppose. Nothing wrong with it, as long as your main priorities are straight.

I am pretty good at buying something and if it bores me after awhile, I sell it! I dont let it collect dust to long. I would rather see it in use and make someone else happy.

[Guatiao]

A month ago I went Android after almost 3 years of using BBs. It was more a question of my carrier NOT playing nice with the 9900 price than me actually wanting to go the robot way.

BUT, I have to admit, that for as much as I miss my 9700, high-end devices running Android are just great. I keep saying that I will be back to BB when BB10 arrives, and I hope that my experience with it will be at least as good as the one I'm having using Gingerbread con my Galaxy S2.

For now, the lil green robot is feeding my gadget addiction...

[anthogag]

Google and Apple are old-fashioned companies...they want to control everything...just like railroad tycoons of yore