Disruptive Telephony

Today I received my new Blackberry "8830 World Edition" and I thought I'd record some initial reactions.  As past readers know, I live in Vermont where we don't really have decent GSM coverage (and can't get the iPhone) and are, in fact, likely to have even less GSM coverage now that Verizon will be purchasing GSM provider Unicel and, per Engadget and others, will be converting all GSM users over to CDMA.

This is obviously not a good thing for those of us who need to travel outside of North America. 

My previous CDMA-only Blackberry 7290 became essentially an extremely expensive paperweight the moment I left these shores.  Because I do travel, I have had a "backup phone" that is a Cingular GSM phone (with a New York number) that I used when outside of NA.  However, it's rather a pain because: 1) it's a different phone interface than I'm used to; 2) it's a different number than people know and I have to get into forwarding; 3) it doesn't always seem to work abroad; 4) Mitel has been paying two separate monthly fees for me;  and perhaps most importantly to me 5) I don't get my email on the phone!

A few weeks ago I saw that Verizon would be offering this new "8830" Blackberry that claimed to work anywhere in the world and so I dropped a note to our Corporate IT group to see if this would solve my two phone issue and let me get my email wherever I travel. They were looking into it and, in light of my recent brilliant move, decided to go ahead with it.  It arrived today and after the brief activation process with both Verizon and Mitel's Blackberry Enterprise Server, I was up and running again.

Some initial thoughts (note that I am comparing the 8830 to an older 7290 - if you have a newer Blackberry, you may already have some of these changes):

• The 8830 is a nice, sleek, sharp-looking unit. Smaller and thinner than the 7290 but seems to have a higher screen resolution and brighter screen.
• The thumbwheel on the side is gone and instead there's a trackball in the center.  This will undoubtedly take some getting used to after so much use of the thumbwheel.  You push in the trackball just as you did the thumbwheel to execute a command or make a choice.  As a bonus, the trackball lights up, too.
• The keys are closer together, but yet they have ridges/indentations on them that seem, so far, to make it as easy to "thumb-type" on them as the previous keys.  (Hmmm... in fact, because the keys are closer together will there be less thumb fatigue?)
• Two more keys were added in the keypad.  The "0" key is now on its own key to the left of the spacebar and there is a separate Shift key.  On the right-side of the spacebar there is a "Sym" key that brings up various symbols.
• Next to the trackball, on the outside, Rim added the green and red "call" and "end" buttons that are common on most all cell phones these days. This is different from the 7290 where this was all done with the thumbwheel.
• Immediately adjacent to the trackball are two keys: "Menu" on the left and "Esc" on the right.  The Esc keys does what the button on the side of the 7290 below the thumbwheel did, which is that it cancels whatever you are doing and takes you "back" to a previous screen.  The "Menu" button pops up whatever menu is appropriate in the context. 
• An interesting aspect of this change is that you have more granularity of control than you did with the 7290 where the thumbwheel and button were overloaded with multiple functions.  For instance, when you are in an app, the "Esc" button will now bring you back to the previous screen but leave you still with the app open (previously it would usually exit the app).  Exiting the app is done through either the red "end" button or through the Menu button and choosing Close.
• On the left side of the 8830 there is a "Convenience Button" that you can set to launch some app.  By default it is set to the "Voice Dial" app but, for instance, I changed mine to "Messages" so that all I have to do is push that button to get to my email.  Easy to configure and change in the "Options" application
• The leather holster with the magnetic closure is a much nicer way to hold it than the plastic bracket from which the 7290 often slipped out.
• The "other apps" that I had on my previous BB like Gmail, Google Maps and iSkoot all installed without any hitches.
• Installing the GSM SIM card that was labeled "Verizon" and "Vodafone" was a painless and simple exercise - but let's hope you never need to get it back out!  Just to see the card again I tried to remove it and found it basically impossible to do.  I'm not sure that I'd really ever want to do so, but if I did, I think I'd need needle-nose pliers to do so!
• The phone will work on CDMA or on GSM on either 900 or 1800 Mhz.  The default setting is for the phone to automagically detect whether CDMA or GSM is stronger and switch if necessary.  I'll be interested to monitor this when I next drive up to Ottawa and go through areas of Ontario with extremely limited CDMA coverage.  You can also force the phone to stick with either CDMA or GSM.
• Underneath the back cover, there is also a slot for a "mini-SD" card so that apparently you can store music or videos on that extra memory (At first I thought it was for the SIM card but it was too small.)
• Audio quality was fine in the few calls I've made with it so far.
• It has a speakerphone!

Those are some initial thoughts - I'm sure as I use it more I'll have some different opinions.  It will be interesting to see how I rapidly I adjust to the nuanced changes in button functions.  I've noticed myself pushing the wrong buttons some times already.

Now... I just need a trip into GSM-land to try out the transition...  (stay tuned)

Russell Shaw has the details:  "Did you ever REALLY think Vonage stock would go below $2 a share?"

I've not written here much about Vonage or the many other "consumer VoIP" players.  Partly because I guess at the end of the day I just don't find their proposition all that compelling.  Partly because the lack of voice security in so many of the consumer VoIP players just really offends me.  Partly because I don't see them really as all that "disruptive" because their positioning really seems to be "We are cheaper than the other guys".  Yaawwwwwwwn. 

Note to Vonage and friends:  Someone will always be cheaper. 

Note to self: Blackberries don't like water!

Last Friday, I took most of the day off as vacation so that we could leave early to go camping for the weekend.  I did work for an hour or two in the morning and so I had my old Blackberry 7290 clipped to my belt when we drove off to Little River State Park in Waterbury, VT.  We set up our camp site and then drove down to the boat launch to put our tandem kayak in the water.  We got the boat all ready, moved the car up to the parking area some distance away and were basically ready to go.

It was then that I noticed the Blackberry was still on my belt.  Eager to get on the water and not really wanting to walk all the way up to the parking area to put the BB in the car, I said "Okay, no problem, I'll just put the BB in the small waterproof 'dry bag' fanny pack where I keep my wallet and digital camera."  I've been using this particular dry bag for years and never had any problems with it.  It's been a great way to bring a camera along and take pictures while out on the water.  So I thought absolutely nothing of adding my BB into the bag.  I've put previous phones into it and never had a problem with things getting wet.

Well, before we even left the shore (and I was not even all the way in the boat) we had to deal with the large wake of a power boat that came by very close to the shore.  Suffice it to say we had to pull the boat out of the water and empty water out of it (but not all got out, of course).  We got underway, were out for about 3 hours or so, had a wonderful time out on the water, saw a family of 4 blue herons who were amazing to watch fly - and just generally had a fantastic start to our weekend.  We got back to the boat launch all in a great, relaxed mood.

As we unloaded the kayak, I picked up the dry bag and noticed that the bottom of it felt... well... "squishy"!  I opened up the bag, turned it sideways... and poured out a good bit of water!

Oops!

Yes, indeed, the Blackberry was dead.  So was my favorite Canon digital camera that I've come to absolutely enjoy. My wallet was soaked... printed pictures were ruined.  All in all, a complete mess!  I took everything apart, tried to dry it out, but 48 hours later back at home both the BB and the camera were still bricks.  I don't know what happened to the dry bag, but it would definitely seem that I need to look at getting a new one.

The only good news, I guess, was that I was in the process of getting this Blackberry replaced but didn't yet have the new one.  So this particular BB was already on its way out.... I just would have preferred if it could have stayed around until the new one arrived. (Especially since I was flying off to this conference I'm at on Sunday afternoon!)

Needless to say, after using a Blackberry daily for something like two years now, and using it especially during travel, it's been very strange to be so "disconnected".  I'm unhooked.  Offline.  Unable to simply send/receive email.   Little things, like connecting with colleagues at a conference - or finding out which session they are in - become so much harder when you can't simply send email (since we all use Blackberries).  It's been quite an interesting experience to see how much the BB has really become part of my daily work flow.

In theory, the new one will arrive here at the hotel sometime today and I'll be able to return to my crackberry addiction.

Needless to say, I assured our corporate IT department that I will keep this new one far away from water!  (In fact, it will probably stay at home as there's really no need to have it while camping!) 

The camera, well, that's another case.... it looks like I'll have to be buying a new one when I get home...