Bye Bye to Blackberry

When I was in college we did an experiment with lenses. And I noticed that when I put a lens up to my eye I could see better. Up until that time I did not know I was a little bit nearsighted. I thought everyone had the same degree of fuzzy vision as I had. I never knew the world could be so sharp and clear.

I have had a Blackberry Storm 2 for the past 2 years. I loved it.  I loved being so connected. I loved the touch pad. I loved making my index finger slide upwards or downwards to see my emails. And the best part about it was its conflict resolution qualities—when we were out to dinner and my husband and I would disagree about some very important thing like who’s playing the 1:00 Sunday football game—I  could just go to NFL.com on my Blackberry and settle it promptly instead of letting the conflict ruin our dinner.

But my Blackberry has been slowly dying. The sensors on the touch pad sometimes refuse to work. And I have been contemplating replacing it with an iphone. But I have been procrastinating. I am comfortable with the phone I have. I didn’t think I needed a smarter phone—my blackberry was smart enough.

And when Sam called me from the Verizon store 2 Friday nights ago to see if I wanted an iphone-4S like the one she was standing in line to purchase, I said no. But my husband told her yes--he asked her to order me one. And I still wasn’t so sure the iphone-S was necessary. That was until Sam came home the next day with it. And even though Sam was a novice (she was a Blackberry person too) I was amazed at the phones’ performance. The new iphone understood verbal commands.

And now I wonder what made me forget how life changing a phone could be. I will be able to tell her (my iphone is female) to remind me to buy milk and paper towels.  I may ask her if I need to wear a jacket outside or what time are the Giants playing tomorrow?-- and she will answer me. And it takes her seconds not minutes to do so. My new phone hasn’t even shipped yet and I am completely spoiled.

But it doesn’t mean I am not paralyzed with fear. I will have nervous wet armpits for a long while I get used to my new iphone—just like I did when I got my Blackberry. I will have to go to the Apple store and get a tutorial. If I do not know what it can do I will not know how to tell it how to do it for me.

They say in the future none of us will need to carry money or keys or credit cards anymore. Our ID will will be an app on our phones too.  I do not doubt that that will happen. But women will still need to carry a handbag. I am pretty sure that a smart phone will never replace lipstick, Listerine breath strips or some Advil. A phone that can direct me to the nearest store to buy all that stuff will not help me when I sneeze and need a tissue—although it will be cool if my phone will know enough to say God Bless You and suggests I use some Purell.