offbalance | Apr. 22nd, 2009

And so it came to pass yesterday that

j_bkl activated the shiny shinyness of his iPhone. He loves it, and was tinkering with it during our evening, which sadly did not include a viewing of State of Play, as originally contemplated. (Stupid theater sold out too fast!) Anyway, all this talk of phones that can do more than mine have been making me think more. And when

infinitehippo was iming me from the Yankee home opener on his Blackberry this past Thursday, I decided to stop sulking about what I couldn't have, and start thinking seriously about what I wanted from a new phone, which to be honest, I really am starting to need. I want something with a keyboard, something that can do the web on the fly, things like that. I'm very happy with Verizon and I'm happy to stay with them.

After tons of research, I've narrowed it down to the Blackberry Curve and the Motorola Q 9M. One of my coworkers and several friends have blackberries of their own, non-work volition and love them, so it caused me to re-consider one, despite what

tehdawgfather said.

airspaniel and

redstapler have the Q, and it's also pretty nice. I've been reading a lot of reviews of it being prone to freezing, though, which give me pause. But I do genuinely like both phones, so after comprehensive research, I'm going to do two things: 1. Go to the Verizon store at lunch today, and 2. put up an LJ poll! (because who doesn't love a good LJ poll, really?)

[Poll #1387994]

So, before a bunch of you drag out the "GET THE IPHONE" soap boxes, I've seen and played with many iphones. So many people I know have them now, in addition to J:

zyll,

trebleahead ,

tacologic,

tehdawgfather,

redesigner,

reppep, and many others on here, I am sure. They are fun and shiny and have some fun random apps (like a tricorder or a light saber). However, I just do not know if the iPhone is the right phone for me, at least right now.
1) It's expensive. Even the previously owned ones. (I can get the above-mentioned phones from Verizon for nothing or close to it.)
2) They're stolen a lot. This is a concern. So is the fact that they're fragile.
3) and possibly most importantly, I can't get one on Verizon. I like Verizon. I do not like AT&T.

New Orleans girl also pointed out quite wisely a few weeks ago that I do not need "that much phone." "It's like a mini-computer," she said. She pointed out that I have a laptop and am on a computer all day, so why in blazing hell did I need to pay all that money for? I couldn't come up with a reason, except for all the shiny apps. I have a less-than-a-year-old 120 GB ipod that is barely half full. I don't need another ipod. So, no iphone or iphone clone just yet. We'll see how I feel when AT&T's exclusivity contract runs out in 2011, if they don't extend.