My wireless timeline

Lately, so many people I know have transitioned over to BlackBerrys.  This makes me happy for so many reasons!  I absolutely LOVE the BlackBerry product and I am lucky enough to work for them also!  They treat everyone incredibly well and I am proud to say I work for them!

With everyone acquiring new BlackBerrys and living the dream, it had me reminiscing about all of the BlackBerrys I’ve used over time.  Actually it got me thinking of ALL of the wireless products I’ve used in my lifetime so I decided to make up my timeline.  Take a peek!

Pager - Year: Late 90s

This was my VERY first piece of wireless technology.  Back then there were very few people who had cell phones. Pagers were the way to go.  I can remember hanging out on the bus getting a text message from friends, then running to the nearest PAY PHONE to give them a call and see what was up.  I had a pager just like this one except that it was purple.  I definitely thought I was a cool cat!

Sanyo SCP-4000 - Clearnet (old Telus) – Year: Late 90s

Cell phones were starting to become more popular and I had somehow convinced my dad to cosign one for me.  Since I was still quite young and learning about responsibility he had agreed to pay for the plan for one year, then I would have to take over the payments afterwards.  Not bad, eh?  This cell phone was pretty cool – I loved the blue screen and it even had a retractable antenna ahha.  Back then there really weren’t any cool features/specs – it was just down to basics.

Nokia 8210 – Rogers Wireless – Year: Early 2000s

When I acquired my first Nokia I was on top of the world!  Back then the top two competitors were Motorola & Nokia – but I was a stickler for Nokia.  So many of my friends used them and I just found them so easy to use and also had cool features.  (Not to mention they had the game Snake on them – which I completely loved!)  This Nokia lasted me the longest of all of my cell phones.  I hated to part with it when it was time.

(Here’s a pic of the SNake game I loved!)

Motorola V220 – Rogers Wireless – Year:  Mid 2000s

During this time I worked for a Wireless Provider in the US (at&t) so I was very familiar with the Nokia & Motorola products.  My poor Nokia was on its last legs and I remember getting an offer in the mail to get a Motorola V220 for a REALLY good price for an upgrade.  Since I was familiar with both products I knew that I would be OK transitioning from Nokia to Motorola.  I knew how to program the devices (ohhhh – if anyone had to program a Motorola back in the day you’ll know what a “fun time” that was… hello Motorola V60…. I still have nightmares!) and I was familiar with the features and navigations.  This was the cell phone I had for the 2nd longest time after the Nokia and it was actually pretty good.

**Leaving the world of cell phones, and entering the Smartphone Zone **

BlackBerry Pearl – Rogers Wireless – 2007

In 2006 I started to date a techy guy.  He is VERY much into the latest and greatest gadgets and had a job where he supported the BlackBerry product.  He had bought a few older BlackBerrys on eBay and absolutely loved them.  It was simply impossible for him to have his girlfriend “behind the times” so when my birthday came around in May of 2007 he purchased me my first smartphone.  The BlackBerry Pearl.

Well… when I first started using this thing it was a WHOLE new ball game.  It was like a mini computer and really NOTHING like how my old Motorola was.  Navigating the menu options took some time (and patience… thank you Dave lol) but slowly I started to get the hang of it.  Another thing I had to learn was to type with SureType.  It took a bit of time to get the hang of it, but then I really liked how it could predict my words.  Some words that used the same keystrokes could come up as other words but that just made it a little fun.  In fact, I had my own secret language with other BlackBerry Pearl users.  Whenever I said “Dave” in a message it would come up as “face.”

So Dave earned a new nickname: face. 

The same thing happened when I wrote the word “see” – it would come up as “are”.  It took some time to get used to and unless you were a Pearl user you would think the message was a little wonky.

Examples:

“Hey can you ask Dave if he can fix my computer?”

could show up as,

“Hey, can you ask face if he can fix my computer?”

 

“How are you today?”

could show up as:

“How see you today?”

It was easy enough to fix – but I’ll be honest – I can be a lazy with my messages.  When I was talking to another Pearl user I wouldn’t even bother to fix it.

I got so good at typing with SureType that I could just use my thumb to do it all.  It was a lot of fun!

BlackBerry Curve 8320 Titanium – Rogers Wireless – Year 2008

Dave had a hand me down curve that I always liked using so when he upgraded his device I got his hand me down (a big advantage for dating a techhy guy!).  I felt like coming from the small Pearl to the larger Curve with a full Qwerty Keyboard was such a big step.  I almost felt more sophisticated, adult-like?  I can’t really explain it!  At times I missed the small-ness of the Pearl but I really enjoyed using the Curve.  Typing was easier at times, but I could no longer just type with one thumb.

When I started to work at RIM I was given a corporate device –so I was walking around with 2.  The 8320 listed above, and the red curve 8300.

 

THIS      AND THIS:

Why did I have two?  Well… the corporate device had the Data covered but I was still under a contract with Rogers for my voice plan.  I didn’t want to pay $$$ to cancel my contract so I used my Titanium curve for most of my usage – and the Red Curve for work stuff.  My plan was to cancel my Rogers contract for my personal device and get a voice plan on the corporate device so I wouldn’t have to take 2 BlackBerrys around (which SOMETIMES came in handy – and other times was just a nuisance!)

Then my birthday came around… and Dave (once again – he needs his girlfriend to have the best of the best) went out and bought me a new device – the BlackBerry 8900.  This extended my contract for 3 years so I am still walking around with 2 devices.  Haha

This is the one I’ve been using for a fair amount of time.  It has an AWESOME 3.2 mega pixel camera (awesome compared to the older devices) which I would often use in lieu of my Canon Point and Shoot camera for quick snapshots.  The one thing I wish it had was 3G.  I can compare browsing with this device to the Bold Dave had and the Bold (with 3G) was quite a bit faster.

Dave recently upgraded his device at work to the Storm2 which he-loves!! Since he was no longer using his Bold, I decided to give it a try to see how I liked the 3G option.  The Bold is QUITE a bit bigger and heavier than the 8900 so its taking some getting used to but I do like it.

So I put my 8900 as my work device and the Bold as my personal device.  So now I am walking around like this:

   AND   

Ridiculous, I know!

Up next for me I hope to get the BlackBerry 9700.  It’s the new Bold – the same size as the 8900 with most of the features of the Bold 9000, and also a trackpad.  I am not sure when/if I’ll get it but a girl can hope!

What kind of wireless device do you use?  Cell phone?  Smartphone?  If you have a BlackBerry, tell me why you LOVE it!!