.jpg)
I know, I know. You're thinking "this is supposed to be a blog about everything, not you and your new pet", but I can't help it. You have to see her! She's a West Highland Terrier and she's the smallest thing I've ever seen! Here, look for yourself! She's called Lilly, although there's a bit of controversy over the spelling of her name. I'm going for L i l l y. Anyway, I just had to start with that. So, for the first post. I've tried doing this blogging thing before but have never stuck to it, so hopefully this time I will. My first review of this new blog will have to be about one of the tools which will make this blogging thing a whole lot easier, my new BlackBerry Curve 8520.It really is a remarkable machine. Although I've never had an iPhone, I could easily say with confidence that the BlackBerry is the most compatible and user friendly of the mobile phone world. The messenger service is really a nice touch as it gives you a sense of community within the Blackberry owners' circle. For the record, mine's in white.
The key thing here is that you can assign any email account to your inbox and also very handily assign more than one without having to be some sort of technical guru (which I am most certainly not). This comes in really useful in keeping me organized and in touch for my uni work.
You can plug in any normal headphones you want, which is an issue I have with most other phones. I don't like wearing the "specially made" Sony Erricson hands free, rubbery mess of a pair of headphones I had to if I wanted to listen to anything on my old phone. Coupling the flexibility of this with the media player which is just as diverse as the iPod - and can run in the background while you do any number of other things - makes it just as multi-faceted as any iPhone could be.
Don't get me wrong, I like the way Apple do things. Their emphasis is on style, simplicity and real life; which I like. A lot! Their whole iFamily of products is really impressive, and with the new-born iPad on the way, they look to be pushing all the boring, stressed, hard working Microsoft machines out of the way, something they have been threatening to do for a long while. On the other hand, the vast majority of people are likely to be priced out of these uber-cool gadgets for a long time to come.
Anyway, back to BlackBerry. I find the 8520 to be such an easy to use, organized, and well tempered machine that I think I'm better sending it in to do my exams for me (it'll remember a whole lot more than I will!). It automatically connects your facebook to everything: your calendar (showing people's birthdays), your contacts list and everything else I've not had chance to explore yet.
The camera is pretty good and the speed at which you can take a picture and have it sent to someone, via email, mms, facebook or any other way you can imagine is really quite amazing. Actually, as an example, the picture above was taken on Barry (the name I've assigned for my phone- BarryBerry). I took it and sent it to a few people via different methods and it went off without a hitch.
Another thing about the BlackBerry that's impressed me is the way you can organise your menu in whatever way you want. Stick a folder here, move an application there, put applications in folders, then move the folders. I think you get the point.
Ohh, and before I forget. A BlackBerry is also a telephone. That's right, this thing does all a telephone does too! Sometimes it's easy to forget as this thing does that much you might as well be sat at a computer. You seem surprised!
Finally, there are a multitude of (free and paid) applications you can download and automatically update when one comes available. And the array of cases, skins, wallets, leather pouches, socks, screen protectors and all that is enormous, absolutely enormous. Barry could have several ch-ch-ch-ch-changes of space-suit if he wanted and they aren't all that expensive and really easy to take off and put on.
All in all, I think my message is GET ONE!
Thanks for reading and I'll be back as soon as I think of something else to blog about. Actually, I'm always here with the help of my trusty steed (BlackBerry), but you know what I mean.
For now.
