Atlanta .NET Regular Guys : Agonizing decisions

Agonizing decisions - crackberry or not

The company I work for has offered me my very own Crackberry - one of these

Should I take it? I can think of several pros and several cons

Pro:

It's free with unlimited data and unlimited local and long distance.
It synchs to my e-mail.
It does mobile IM.

Con:

I've got a cellphone I really like (although it IS dying) and I don't think I can keep my number.
I can't cancel my old cell plan without a $200ish charge until November.
The Crackberry connects to my WORK e-mail.

Decisions, decisions.

I don't want to carry both b/c the entire reason I have the phone I have is to take advantage of device convergance (mine does some PDA stuff). Also, I've been eyeing a new phone for myself which will fold in two more devices:

I like the idea of the walkman phone b/c it has a 2 megapixel camera (that means decent snapshots), 20 Mb memory onboard and a MemoryStick slot for MP3s, MP3 player with stereo headphones (I can even plug in my own earbuds), decent calendar, and robust contacts. It's also way less expensive than most of the Windows Mobile 5 phones that are full of functionality I'll probably never use.

What should I do!?!

-- Matt Ranlett

Published 02-02-2006 03:49 by Matt Ranlett
Filed Under: General

Comments

	Keith Rome said: Go with the crackberry if your employer is footing the bill. You should have no problem transferring your number (which is what I did when Intellinet supplied me a crackberry). Just make sure that they will be willing to release the number back to you later if you ever leave the company. I assume your employer has blackberry enterprise server? That helps a lot with contact/calendar/email sync. February 2, 2006 2:07 PM
	Matt Ranlett said: I've decided to go with the crackberry. I can't transfer my phone number for some reason (it has to do with some kind of accounting thing, apparently the contract is tied to the number or something) so I'll keep my phone on the cheapest plan and forward all my calls to the crackberry. I'll be setting this up during the weekend. February 3, 2006 5:08 AM
	Chris Wallace said: And when Blackberry is shut down? It's likely to happen within the next month. The govt is already scrambling court orders to try to at least keep their service active but they aren't concerned with joe consumer. February 4, 2006 10:10 AM
	Kevin said: I like my crackberry, but I think that you'll find that the version that you're looking at is too hard to type on efficiently. Why not get a version with a fullsize keyboard? If you find that too builky to hold up to your face as a phone, you can always get one of those bluetooth thingies that the star trek wannabes are all wearing these days. Also, consider keeping your home cell phone segregated from your work cell -- do you really want to give your hom number to everyone to whom you give your work number? Unrelatedly, did you see this CNN blurb listing being a dot net developer as one of the top new jobs? http://money.cnn.com/2006/02/03/pf/pay_hike_jobseeker/index.htm?cnn=yes February 4, 2006 11:55 AM
	Marcie said: Congratulations, you have just sold your soul to corporate America :) Just teasing you, let us know how you like the device. February 8, 2006 2:35 PM
	Atlanta .NET Regular Guys said: I've been waiting around for a new phone with a great set of features.&nbsp; I've posted about it once... August 10, 2006 5:50 AM
	Atlanta .NET Regular Guys said: I've been waiting around for a new phone with a great set of features.&nbsp; I've posted about it once... August 10, 2006 5:51 AM

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About Matt Ranlett

One of the two original Atlanta .NET Regular Guys, Matt fills his free time by helping to run several Atlanta area user groups, the Atlanta Code Camps, and works as one of the two INETA co-Vice Presidents of Technology