No Addicts Here...

by Guest Blogger, Lena West, Chief Social Media Strategist at xynoMedia Technology

This week I've been learning how to use my new Blackberry Curve 8310 smart phone. 

This new Blackbery is part of my 2008 kicked-up mobile strategy. And, as I head out to speak at SXSW this week, I'm going to put these new mobile components to the test.  I'll let you know how it goes.

That said, I honestly don't get how someone can get addicted to one of these things. They call them Crackberry's even. Not so much for me. Maybe some people have addictive personality types? I dunno.

I mean...I can see how it's a great productivity tool. It allows me to respond to email when I have to while away from the office -- or away from a laptop for that matter, but addiction? That's a bit strong for me.

Here's why:

• Unless I change the screen font to indescribably tiny, I can't see the timestamp, sender's name and full subject line in my inbox. I don't know about you, but how I determine if something is spam or not, is I look at the sender and the subject. Sometimes the sender field says: Jane Doe and the subject line says: New York Times interview.  The two pieces of information together make up a critical complete picture for me.
• It lets me delete email in my inbox from my Blackberry, but not vice versa which means, when I check email at the office, I still have to clear it from my Blackberry. Dumb and a total waste of time (unless I'm missing some 'setting' to change this?).
• When the Blackberry is in it's handy carrying case if a new email comes in, as soon as I take the Blackberry out of the case, it opens the email that just came in - even if it's spam. Knowing what I know about spam and how open rates result in more spam, I *really, really* don't like that. (Note: Turn off confirmation on open and receipt.)
• The phone numbers on the dial pad and the screen are plenty large enough to see if you're sitting still, but they're hell to see if you're in motion. As soon as you highlight a number to dial it, it should enlarge it in some way so you don't end up calling the Thai delivery guy Mom, like I did last night.
• There is a Push to Talk button the left-hand side of the phone. Whenever you're handling the phone, you accidentally hit that button, which prompts the phone to ask you if you want to add that service for an additional fee per month. Hell no I don't. They need to move that button.
• The Bluetooth headset makes me feel like iRobot AND it doesn't fit well for a small-eared person who wears glasses. I shouldn't have to wear contacts to make Bluetooth comfortable. And, no, I'm not about to buy $400 glasses with Bluetooth built in thank you very much.
• Each time you turn the Bluetooth headset on, you have to 'give it permission' to connect with your Blackberry. Yes, every time. If anyone comes near your Blackberry with a Bluetooth headset, you get prompted. Then you have to make sure that you don't *press* the trackball, but rather roll it to the "no" option, otherwise someone else's Bluetooth will be connected to your phone. That's just nuts. What's going to happen when I get to SXSW with all those Bluetooth headsets in the rooms?
• It's not (that) intuitive. I can pretty much figure out any digital device. Give me 20 minutes alone with it and I can tell you how it works. Not the Blackberrry. The functional areas don't supply you with visual clues as to what you should do. You have to remember to hit the Menu key and then you get your options. It's a lot like needing to click the Start button everytime you wanted to type a new word. That stinks.

That said, it is a handy little number and it keeps me informed on the go. Maybe some of these things that are annoying now will cease to be as annoying as time goes on. We'll see.

But, I can tell you, when I'm in the office, my first choice is my desktop -- not the Blackberry.

I still don't know how to open an attachment on this thing...I'll save that for next week's training session.

Bottomline: Hey, I'm a *social media* expert, not a gadget expert.

Comments

[JB]

I love my blackberry pearl. I do have to agree one of the more annoying features is when you take it out of the case and it automatically opens the email. Other than that I would have to say Ill never go back to a regular phone!

[Lena West]

@Mary:

Yes, I totally agree. We shouldn't have to call tech support for basic things like - deleting email, but this is what we've come to.

Welcome to digital hell :) All aboard!

[Mary Schmidt]

(I don't get the addiction either. Unless you're a brain surgeon on call, nobody needs to be that "plugged in" all the time.)

All comes down to people designing "cool" products with little thought given to the actual user interface - and how people use the product.

It shouldn't be this difficult to use a cool tool such as Blackberry. We shouldn't HAVE to call tech support to grok the basics.

Too bad Kathy Sierra isn't still blogging - I'd love her take on this! (Hey, maybe there's something in the archives - I'll go google.)

[Lena West]

@David:

It's not that I'm not impressed, it's just that I can't believe some of this wasn't worked out in R&D, you know?

I'm going to take your advice and write down a list of my questions and call Blackberry support and have them walk me through some of the steps.

Positive posts? Tee-hee...welcome to my guest blog on Lipsticking.

-Lena

[Lena West]

@Styleosophy:

Thanks so much for the tips!

I know that there are some people who definitely feel naked without it, but I'm just not one of them. It makes me more productive, but I don't need to check it 90 times day. In this way, I think of it as just another distraction from getting real work done.

The problem with the inbox and email isn't the "handheld, mailbox and handheld" prompt. It's that if I happen to check email on my desktop (or laptop) BEFORE I check it on my Blackberry, I still have to go and do the same process on my Blackberry. So, if I delete a handful of emails on my desktop, I have to repeat the process on my Blackberry.

My Bluetooth is not set for auto receive and accept because the guy at the store told me that other people's headsets would become "attached" to my Blackberry just like my headset.

What is also annoying is that there is no way to delete multiple emails at one time. Eek! Or, maybe I could just chill out and not expect that this gadget will work like a regular computer. It's always helpful to release one's expectations. :)

What I really need to do is spend sometime in the store with the reps so they can show me how to work this thing.

Thanks for reading and chiming in,

Lena

[styleosophy]

Lena, I've been training users in our group for about three years, and I was like you when I began using Blackberries...unconvinced, and certainly not impressed. I can see how folks can get addicted though, my boss feels naked without his, whereas, I still just need to be able to make a phone call and haven't bought into all the whizzbang.

But they make traveling light a good thing, as I can pretty much create docs, view all types of information, find my own latitude and longitude without a map, etc.

Technically speaking, if you would like to delete email in your inbox from your Blackberry, or vice versa, in your 'email' icon, click the trackwheel, and scroll to options:
Message Options should appear
Select Email Reconcilation
Select Delete On, the choices will be, "handheld, mailbox and handheld, and prompt."
On Conflicts is also gives you the addtional choice of helping with the conflicts of your mailbox over handheld deleting items for the other.

And you should be able to switch your prompt to "automatically detect and receive" when your Bluetooth finds your phone. But I can't help with that cause I don't know which earpiece you are using.

Hope that helps.

[David Tupica]

Wow, I can see you're not terribly impressed. I have been using the Pearl for about a year now and I really like it. Don't have any input on the curve. I use T-Mobile and their Blackberry support is absolutely wonderful. You might try calling their support team and seeing if they can help you eliminate some of your issues. I look forward to some of your more positive posts, your blog has come highly recommended.