The first time I saw a Blackberry, ten years + ago, it was huge, resembling a small Subway sandwich hanging off a tech support guy's belt. And while carrying that bulky phone was a chore, talking on it  and typing  with your thumbs looked very uncool. I decided right then to pass on the Blackberry. Well last week I finally joined the Blackberry forces and I have to say I am really impressed so far. The Blackberry Pearl 8100 with it's tiny size, slick black finish and bright color screen caught my eye from the start. It is small and light, partly thanks to a keyboard that predicatively determines what you are typing, reducing the number of keys necessary. It has everything: phone, email, calendar,  addresses, music, video, web, instant messaging, word processing, even remote access to my PC! In addition to being cool, the Blackberry is incredibly useful. In a recent study, users saw an average productivity increase of four hours per week switching to Blackberry. Productivity tools such as email and IM have become essential to business and the Blackberry liberates me from the my desktop PC always keeping me in the loop. I'm certain I have already saved over four hours less than a week into my conversion. Is there a down side to the Blackberry? I suppose. For example, you can't drive and check email. I'm comfortable talking on my cell phone while I drive, but I nearly went into my neighbor's yard the first day I left home with my Blackberry. While download speed is acceptable, it is naturally slower than my broadband connection, so I'd love it to be faster. Perhaps the internal memory could stand to be bigger too, then I could also replace my 4GB Nano. But these are just nit-picky things because for the time being, I like being part of Blackberry force! From: Comment: Michael Friday, July 06, 2007 While visiting San Francisco this week I stopped into the Apple store and got my hands on the new iPhone. Yes, it was really coooooool. The integration with the web was awesome and for a few minutes I felt very inadequate with my 8100. After playing around with it though I have to say that the iPhone does have a downside. First, it was a little big, which is important to me as I do not want a clunky phone. I want something that I will always have in my pocket and easily available. Second, the touch screen makes typing very awkward. I tried to tap out a simple text message, and it was a struggle even with the predictive spell checker. In the meantime, I am still content with my 8100. Michael Saturday, June 30, 2007 Since acquiring my 8100, there have been a number of new Smart Phones on the market, each it seems better than the last. I have had the chance to review a few others and wanted to add some more feedback on this Blog. The Motorola Q: A friend has the Q and raves about it. Because he is a Windows power users (like me) he's able to really maximize its capabilities. His connection speed screams, and he can download files faster than the average DSL user. He can also use the entire windows suite to do the same tasks he performs on his desktop. I also like the full  full qwerty keyboard, but the drawback is additional size. At this stage, I have gotten used to my 8100 predictive keyboard and would not want any bigger phone. There is a new Blackberry Curve that is about the same size as the Q, but I prefer the smaller package of my 8100. Michael Saturday, June 30, 2007 Apple iPhone: Of course this is the phone generating all the buzz, with a marketing campaign rivaling the latest Hollywood movie. I was trying to understand what all the hype was about on this phone and saw a comment that it was the most innovative user interface since the computer mouse. My wife is a Mac user and wants one of these phones badly; unfortunately, the exclusive lock with AT&T excludes our market for now.  I asked her why it was so compelling and her response surprised me. She really liked the feedback the phone gives you when using your fingers. Icons enlarge, dragging is intuitive and the learning curve is minimal. I would like to get my hands on one and play for a while, but I think I'll let all the early adopters help bug test it and just sit back and watch how this one plays out for now. Q Man Wednesday, January 17, 2007 The Motorola Q is another viable alternative as a smart phone and since it runs Windows, it has the added benefit of being able to open email attachements like MS Office documents. and like the commercial shows, you can even run a power point presewntation into a projecttor with the Q! For the Blackberry, I think you have to buy special plugins to make it work. The other thing that I like about the Q is it is a TDMA device versus the GSM which means it uses more power in the signal giving you better reception, fewer dropped calls, etc. Yeah it's a little bigger than your Pearl, but I like the full keyboard, even if I'm just taping out a short message, it goes faster than that predictive keyboard on the Pearl. It's probably more a matter of personal preference and which carrier you you prefer (the Q is only available through Verizon), but I have to agree with you that having your email on the road is sooooo nice. Darrell S. Wednesday, November 08, 2006 In just a few short years the BlackBerry has become a viable business tool for supporting a variety of business needs. I primarily use my BlackBerry to connect to the iSeries and monitor and or fix applications that need attention. Rick N. Wednesday, November 08, 2006 Currently driving on I-15 in southern CA...without my BB, we are not having this conversation. Can't afford to rack and stack 60 emails a day and only munch on them during the hours I am at my desk. The drawbackn of course, is that when you answer it at all times of the day/night, that is the standard everyone becomes use to.