tech.mchiu.com

Crackberries -- Can you live without one?

This time, it's a rant she has on Blackberries. No, not the fruit, but the device that all businessmen carry around that some affectionately call "Crackberry". She makes a good point about the executive assistants who carry them around and make themselves think that they are so important. In fact, for myself, the time when I see them being used the most is at conferences and at trade shows, and sometimes, I have the feeling that these businessmen are either trying to look cool and self-important because they are constantly fiddling around with them, or because they are just plain bored during the middle of a conference session.

I used to have a Treo 600, but got rid of it because of it's bulk. I think that when I did have one though, that was probably the time I was least productive (sorry, Kevin!) because I spent more time playing with it or rebooting it, than I did of actually getting any work done on it. Then again, most productivity tools do that to me, but the Treo was portable and could be taken anywhere with me, so it definitely was a big time waster for me. Nowadays, it's my notebook PC since it's small and goes with me everywhere, but still, not as convenient to whip out of my pocket as the Treo.

That is not to say that I wouldn't be interested in getting another smartphone. I can see the value of having one, and if I were a busier individual, it could be a very useful tool for getting work done on the run, and one of my biggest challenges with a mobile phone is to drive with one hand, and try to T9 an SMS text in the other. With the Treo, since it had a full keyboard, and fit nicely in my hand, it was a lot easier for me to do that. I was even able to send off e-mail and IM chat with people while driving.

I guess everyone in the world has their own unique ways of using or not using these kinds of technologies and productivity tools. For me, nowadays, I just use a seperate cell and PDA mainly because I tinker too much with either, and am afraid that one of these days I will find myself in a situation where I break the device, and end up with neither a cell phone or PDA...