John’s Blog

So I went and got myself a new smart-phone recently. I had the BlackBerry Pearl, and was happy with it for the most part. I just wasn’t happy with AT&T. So I changed providers and got myself a new phone. The company I went with didn’t have a bulk of choices as far as smart-phones go. But the HTC P4300 looked like a good fit for me. I checked the reviews, etc.. before buying. For the first few days I was very happy with the phone. It worked great, good reception, all that stuff. However less than a week into having it, the battery stopped holding a charge. I called them up, and was told to bring it in, they’d give me a new battery, not to worry. The problem was that the day after the battery was replaced, it stopped accepting calls and text messages. I could get email just fine, call out, surf the web, but no incoming calls. I called their support, they had me swap my SIM card to another phone and low and behold, it got incoming calls just fine. So the next day I returned my now deemed “defective” handset to the store and left with a brand new one as a replacement. So far all has been good, with a few minor bugs here and there. Overall I do like the phone and it’s features, and I will continue to use it until I get the hankering for a new one. The nice part about the GSM company I am with is that they allow the use of any unlocked device on their network.                                                                                                                   

As for snow, we have gotten more of it. A while back I had posted how we seemed to have a snow storm every single Monday. Well we got a break from that, had warm temperatures for over a week (almost 60 one day, which is unheard of for January in New Hampshire). But starting this Monday we got back into the routine. We got a nice 14 inches of the white stuff. And as always it started early enough to effect both my morning, and evening commutes. The fun part is that while they aren’t predicting any snow for the coming Monday, we are looking at another storm dropping around the same amount we got Monday, to hit us Friday. Oh, and just for added enjoyment, it looks like the timing will be the same with this one too. Looks like it will be another day with two long commutes.
 

Well last night I did it, I went down to the local Cingular store to look at phones and shop around a bit. I ended up leaving with a new phone for me…the BlackBerry Pearl. When I looked at it online I wasn’t sure I was going to like it, but after trying it out in the store I was very impressed. It is a huge step up from the 7250 I was using and has so much better reception. I was just going to get the one phone for me for right now, and move my wife over next week, but the store gave me such a good deal (practically gave me the phones) that I moved my wife over to and got her a Motorola RAZR. I couldn’t be happier with the switch or with my new phone.

Well yesterday was my birthday. Didn’t really do to much about it, worked all day then came home and the wife and I had a quiet dinner and cake at home. I usually don’t like to do a whole lot on my birthday, I have almost always had bad luck on that day. In some cases cars have died, I’ve lost jobs, or relationships have ended. So I prefer to let it pass with mild fan fare.

Now on the cell phones. Well I wrote earlier that I had canceled by BlackBerry service and was going to switch to just a regular cell phone. I have no idea what I was thinking, other than that I was very annoyed at the fact that I could not get data coverage where I needed it. Well I did cancel the service, and am lost without it, even though it doesn’t work everywhere I need it, I am finding that I cannot live without a smart phone with data. The issue for me is that I get a ton of email each and every day for work, and cannot afford to not have that on the go. So after spending most of today doing research I have decided that I am going to switch cell companies (the phone I have now is through the company that my company is an agent for so I am sure they will be thrilled when I stop using that service). I have narrowed it down to two different companies, both of which are GSM, one of Cingular, and the other a smaller provider. Now Cingular does have the wider selection of phones, but their monthly access charges are higher. So not only am I torn between which company to go with, but also which phone. I have been looking at the BlackJack, Cingular 8125, and the BlackBerry Pearl. There are others out there, like the Treo 750 and the 8525, but they are too pricey, and the others lack cameras (which I will need to have). So if anyone out there has any recomendations, I would love to hear them.