I’ve thought about getting a Blackberry for a long time - but would I really use it to it’s potential? It’s caused me to keep putting it off… until this past week. I bought a brand new sealed Blackberry Pearl off eBay and it’s already exceeding my expectations.

First, what did I want it for? Well, I’m an email addict already - so I wanted to feed that habit by having access to it where ever I am. Plus I like the idea of having an easy to use device to check on news, scores, movie times and more whenever I need them. But Elliott, couldn’t you get that with a normal phone? Well yeah, but I wouldn’t have SSH access to my server, immediate email pushed to the phone from up to 10 accounts (GMail is a breeze), interactive mapping and turn by turn directions from Google Maps or Blackberry Maps (with BB Maps you can actually map an address on a website you happen to be on).

I stopped using Outlook at home once I got onto GMail and Google Calender, but I did put my names and addresses into Outlook Express’ address book - and I’ve got to say - it syncs flawlessly with the Pearl. I also have an app that works (kinda) to sync my Google Calendar to my Blackberry.

I’m a happy camper.

There’s some things that need to get worked out - but mainly because of 3rd party programs. I’m trying Yahoo! Go 2.0 Beta - which is a very cool application that pulls in your favorite news, sports, etc - all in one little place. It’s easy to navigate, but I’ve found it’s a horrible pain to customize. The things it’s trying to tell me to do in order to customize (my sports teams for instance) - don’t work. However, from the program it’s pretty quick to get to movie times, directions, local news, etc. Hopefully they work out the bugs.

All in all, I’m very happy with the move to Blackberry. I’m glad that they finally produced a phone that doesn’t look like a brick (this phone is smaller than my Moto Razr when it was folded) - the media player is half decent and the camera is fine (I don’t really use phone cams much, but like to have it there in case I need it).

If you’re looking for a phone, consider it… if you’re a data-hungry freak show like myself. ;)