[Carjackd]

So I know there has been many threads on this site about " what was your first Blackberry device", but after watching last nights podcast and listening to Craig's story about 9-11 reminded me of my own. BTW...did some research , you can read a little bit about Craig's story here In an Emergency, Why Cellular Data Is Better Than Voice | CrackBerry.com

Sure it's easy to say "the 8100 , 7100 series , 9000 was my first device", but my question is for the true blackberry fans out there: When did you realize that this blackberry device has changed your life. Was there a certain event that gave you a moment of clarity?

My moment of clarity was during the black out of 2003. I was on my second blackberry device a 5820 (initially the 957 with no phone built in was my first). Sure when I purchased my 957 back in 2000 I thought " Wow ! This is cutting edge technology, and a super cool gadget ", but it wasn't until the lights went out on most of the eastern seaboard during a hot afternoon on August 14, 2003 that I was blown away.

With most of the eastern part of the US and Canada without power the majority of communications were shut down. No email, no phone calls, people were concerned about their family members, friends, business associates and how they were coping in the heat and lack of light.

My small little firm had purchased 957 units for all employees in 2000. The brokerage was a family business, we worked as team, the PIN to PIN communication allowed us to communicate and be more efficient. But when the city went black in the summer of 2003 phone lines were down, and people were unable to fire up thier PC's we (as a company and family ) were able to communicate Via PIN's, and email. I was able to check on my wife and make sure she was ok. I was slipping over to Costco during the rolling blackouts on the15th, and pinning my Uncle and Aunt, asking them if they needed anything (Water, Batteries, etc. ). Now I'm perfectly aware that most of this was by fluke as RIM's servers were located in Waterloo which was just outside of the electrical grid that was effected, but It was during that 48 hour period that I realized that I really had my hands on something special.

So...my question is...everyone has a story, what's yours?

[mrfreeze]

Great story!

[meattray]

Love hearing stories like this. Thanks for sharing.

Posted via CB10

[Uzi]

BlackBerry to the rescue!

[anon(9721108)]

Some major Long Time users in here! When I first held my new white 9780, that feeling just stuck all through a 9790 and a 9900.

That clicky Keyboard man, it's all about the feeling it gives you.

-sent from a beautiful Bold 9900

[Rakya]

Blackberry..
It's a Feeling...

Posted via CB10

[Carjackd]

Some major Long Time users in here! When I first held my new white 9780, that feeling just stuck all through a 9790 and a 9900.

That clicky Keyboard man, it's all about the feeling it gives you.

-sent from a beautiful Bold 9900

And still rock'n a bold! I love you hardcore legacy users

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

Great story from the early days of BlackBerry..... there is no doubt that in the early days, BlackBerry was very special and provided users with something that others just didn't have.

Too bad that for many the outage of 2011 was much more recent and much more widespread (millions affected, compared to a few thousand in 2001). Think that one "outage" is what turned many a corporation and governments to examining other options during the very long and dragged out transition to the "new" BlackBerry.

[Carjackd]

Great story from the early days of BlackBerry..... there is no doubt that in the early days, BlackBerry was very special and provided users with something that others just didn't have.

Too bad that for many the outage of 2011 was much more recent and much more widespread (millions affected, compared to a few thousand in 2001). Think that one "outage" is what turned many a corporation and governments to examining other options during the very long and dragged out transition to the "new" BlackBerry.

Valid point . It was because of 2003 that really the 2011 outages really didn't phase . Funny because when people talk 2011 I aways say "you guys forget about 2003 when we were all still connected" . I forget that it was only the early adopters that have those early days in our peanuts

[mrfreeze]

My story goes back to about 2006/7.

I got a job handling IT Support for a financial services institution, over time I began to help manage our Lotus Notes mail server and when we began to review our options for mobile devices I was on that team. Of course we settled on using a BES and BlackBerry devices. I then ended up becoming the lead on the management of the BES and supporting the BlackBerry handsets.

The great part of managing over 150 devices is that I got every new device as they came out, you know for support reasons.

Over the course of a few years I had a quite a few BlackBerry's. This tradition carried on into my next job, where I also managed a BES and regrettably had to be the one to shut it down. But I continued using BlackBerry devices, I have owned others, but always made my way back to BlackBerry. I picked up the Z10 on launch day and have owned nearly every other BB10 (and still have nearly one of each) except for the Leap, standard Passport, Passport SE, P'9982 and P'9983.

Below is the list of devices I have used. Much of my time was spent on Verizon, though I am on AT&T these days so many devices I used were the Verizon variant.

1. 8703e Electron
2. 8830 World Edition
3. 8330 Curve
4. 9530 Storm
5. 9630 Tour
5. 9550 Storm 2
6. 9650 Bold
8. 9930 Bold (my last Verizon device)
9. Z10 (Black)
10. Q10 (Black and White)
11. Z30 (Black)
12. Q5 (Black)
13. Z3 (Black)
14. Classic (Black)
15. Passport (Red and AT&T variant)
16. PRIV
17. DTEK50

Hoping to get the Mercury and the DTEK60 soon.

My story continues...

[katxeus]

My story goes back to about 2006/7.

I got a job handling IT Support for a financial services institution, over time I began to help manage our Lotus Notes mail server and when we began to review our options for mobile devices I was on that team. Of course we settled on using a BES and BlackBerry devices. I then ended up becoming the lead on the management of the BES and supporting the BlackBerry handsets.

The great part of managing over 150 devices is that I got every new device as they came out, you know for support reasons.

Over the course of a few years I had a quite a few BlackBerry's. This tradition carried on into my next job, where I also managed a BES and regrettably had to be the one to shut it down. But I continued using BlackBerry devices, I have owned others, but always made my way back to BlackBerry. I picked up the Z10 on launch day and have owned nearly every other BB10 (and still have nearly one of each) except for the Leap, standard Passport, Passport SE, P'9982 and P'9983.

Below is the list of devices I have used. Much of my time was spent on Verizon, though I am on AT&T these days so many devices I used were the Verizon variant.

1. 8703e Electron
2. 8830 World Edition
3. 8330 Curve
4. 9530 Storm
5. 9630 Tour
5. 9550 Storm 2
6. 9650 Bold
8. 9930 Bold (my last Verizon device)
9. Z10 (Black)
10. Q10 (Black and White)
11. Z30 (Black)
12. Q5 (Black)
13. Z3 (Black)
14. Classic (Black)
15. Passport (Red and AT&T variant)
16. PRIV
17. DTEK50

Hoping to get the Mercury and the DTEK60 soon.

My story continues...

Wow, what a line!

[anon(9721108)]

Valid point . It was because of 2003 that really the 2011 outages really didn't phase . Funny because when people talk 2011 I aways say "you guys forget about 2003 when we were all still connected" . I forget that it was only the early adopters that have those early days in our peanuts

Wasn't there also some situation where SONY was hacked or something? And they had to go back to their old Blackberry devices? I think someone mentioned this in here somewhere not too long ago. I do remember something on the news about this....

-sent from a beautiful Bold 9900

[anon(9721108)]

My story goes back to about 2006/7.

I got a job handling IT Support for a financial services institution, over time I began to help manage our Lotus Notes mail server and when we began to review our options for mobile devices I was on that team. Of course we settled on using a BES and BlackBerry devices. I then ended up becoming the lead on the management of the BES and supporting the BlackBerry handsets.

The great part of managing over 150 devices is that I got every new device as they came out, you know for support reasons.

Over the course of a few years I had a quite a few BlackBerry's. This tradition carried on into my next job, where I also managed a BES and regrettably had to be the one to shut it down. But I continued using BlackBerry devices, I have owned others, but always made my way back to BlackBerry. I picked up the Z10 on launch day and have owned nearly every other BB10 (and still have nearly one of each) except for the Leap, standard Passport, Passport SE, P'9982 and P'9983.

Below is the list of devices I have used. Much of my time was spent on Verizon, though I am on AT&T these days so many devices I used were the Verizon variant.

1. 8703e Electron
2. 8830 World Edition
3. 8330 Curve
4. 9530 Storm
5. 9630 Tour
5. 9550 Storm 2
6. 9650 Bold
8. 9930 Bold (my last Verizon device)
9. Z10 (Black)
10. Q10 (Black and White)
11. Z30 (Black)
12. Q5 (Black)
13. Z3 (Black)
14. Classic (Black)
15. Passport (Red and AT&T variant)
16. PRIV
17. DTEK50

Hoping to get the Mercury and the DTEK60 soon.

My story continues...

Your absolute fav of all of those?

-sent from a beautiful Bold 9900

[Carjackd]

Your absolute fav of all of those?

-sent from a beautiful Bold 9900

Passport was probably the best device (hardware) they ever made ...fav.....9900 series Bold!!

[mrfreeze]

Your absolute fav of all of those?

-sent from a beautiful Bold 9900

My red Passport was so awesome.

I'm guessing the Mercury may take over the crown though.

[fanisk]

Nice story, Thanks for sharing it.

[Carjackd]

Wasn't there also some situation where SONY was hacked or something? And they had to go back to their old Blackberry devices? I think someone mentioned this in here somewhere not too long ago. I do remember something on the news about this....

-sent from a beautiful Bold 9900

Ya two years back Christmas time ...entire network down

[kcdberry]

Cool story!

Posted via CB10

[Riddymon]

My first personal device was a pearl which I loved but it wasn't until I did a co-op for blackberry in 2012 that I really fell in love with blackberry. I hated the job (call center - tech support basically) but that's when I had a better idea of all the devices that they offered and the different things you could do with them. BlackBerry Protect (when you could actually backup your device with it), BIS, BB10 was on it's way to market so there was buzz around that, the playbook was launched...and we got awesome staff discounts (basically half price of what they costed retail). Was pretty awesome..also met a lot of cool people.

Posted via CB10

[Prem WatsApp]

So I know there has been many threads on this site about " what was your first Blackberry device", but after watching last nights podcast and listening to Craig's story about 9-11 reminded me of my own. BTW...did some research , you can read a little bit about Craig's story here In an Emergency, Why Cellular Data Is Better Than Voice | CrackBerry.com

Sure it's easy to say "the 8100 , 7100 series , 9000 was my first device", but my question is for the true blackberry fans out there: When did you realize that this blackberry device has changed your life. Was there a certain event that gave you a moment of clarity?

My moment of clarity was during the black out of 2003. I was on my second blackberry device a 5820 (initially the 957 with no phone built in was my first). Sure when I purchased my 957 back in 2000 I thought " Wow ! This is cutting edge technology, and a super cool gadget ", but it wasn't until the lights went out on most of the eastern seaboard during a hot afternoon on August 14, 2003 that I was blown away.

With most of the eastern part of the US and Canada without power the majority of communications were shut down. No email, no phone calls, people were concerned about their family members, friends, business associates and how they were coping in the heat and lack of light.

My small little firm had purchased 957 units for all employees in 2000. The brokerage was a family business, we worked as team, the PIN to PIN communication allowed us to communicate and be more efficient. But when the city went black in the summer of 2003 phone lines were down, and people were unable to fire up thier PC's we (as a company and family ) were able to communicate Via PIN's, and email. I was able to check on my wife and make sure she was ok. I was slipping over to Costco during the rolling blackouts on the15th, and pinning my Uncle and Aunt, asking them if they needed anything (Water, Batteries, etc. ). Now I'm perfectly aware that most of this was by fluke as RIM's servers were located in Waterloo which was just outside of the electrical grid that was effected, but It was during that 48 hour period that I realized that I really had my hands on something special.

So...my question is...everyone has a story, what's yours?

Any decent datacenter has backup generators... I'd assume RIM was covered?

Any input appreciated.

8-|

•   Mercurial greetings , hopefully coming soon to Planet Earth... :-D   •

[mrfreeze]

Any decent datacenter has backup generators... I'd assume RIM was covered?

Any input appreciated.

8-|

•   Mercurial greetings , hopefully coming soon to Planet Earth... :-D   •

I'd imagine they have natural gas generators, I had that in a less important data center.

[Troy Tiscareno]

Wasn't there also some situation where SONY was hacked or something? And they had to go back to their old Blackberry devices? I think someone mentioned this in here somewhere not too long ago. I do remember something on the news about this...

Yes, but it wasn't their cell phones that were hacked, it was their internal network (via an SMB worm installed on their servers), and when they shut down the internal links to their email servers to prevent further access, it meant all their computers lost access along with their newer cell phones. They still had BES running (hadn't shut it down yet, though they were transitioning away from it), so they gathered up a few of the old BBOS phones they lad laying around and gave them to a few execs so they could access email.

While it was fortunate that they had this second method of accessing email, that's literally what it was: a different way to access email. No smartphones were hacked, and phones were otherwise irrelevant to the threat.

[conite]

In 2009, when I upgraded from my 7100i to a Curve 8350i (both on the iDen network) I realized just how much power I was holding in my hand, and how easily I could run my business and stay in touch with family.

My 2006 7100i (first BlackBerry) could do much of that, but the Curve was fully fleshed out and made it almost sexy.

My second BlackBerry moment came in 2011 when my son had an operation out of town, and I had to run my business remotely via laptop for two weeks. The hospital had limited Internet, so I needed mobile hotspot - and it came from the first OS 7.1 leak that I had installed only days before on my 9900.

[Carjackd]

Any decent datacenter has backup generators... I'd assume RIM was covered?

Any input appreciated.

8-|

•   Mercurial greetings , hopefully coming soon to Planet Earth... :-D   •

I would assume so but Waterloo wasn't affected by the 2003 blackout

[anon(9721108)]

Yes, but it wasn't their cell phones that were hacked, it was their internal network (via an SMB worm installed on their servers), and when they shut down the internal links to their email servers to prevent further access, it meant all their computers lost access along with their newer cell phones. They still had BES running (hadn't shut it down yet, though they were transitioning away from it), so they gathered up a few of the old BBOS phones they lad laying around and gave them to a few execs so they could access email.

While it was fortunate that they had this second method of accessing email, that's literally what it was: a different way to access email. No smartphones were hacked, and phones were otherwise irrelevant to the threat.

I just remember it was a very positive day for Blackberry on the TV news....

-sent from a beautiful Bold 9900