My relationship with my Blackberry Pearl is on the rocks since we got to Guatemala. We don’t talk as much anymore- when we first started it was hard to tell my hand from its curvy little frame. Now I’m looking at other phones, I admit it, not just once in a while, but every time when we go out, I look at other mobile-users bending lovingly towards their iPhones, their Sidekicks or the new Ericssons. Instead I keep my Blackberry in my bag, buried beneath the lint, small coins and religious flyers deep at the bottom. I pick up my cheap Tigo phone on which I can listen to radio for free but have to write phone numbers down in my notebook.
It stopped being us against the First World, showing them who rules in this EDGE land of simple data transfer to Blackberry configured RIM networks and manual WAP configurations. But when I left AT&T’s data plan it was 12 hours of Tigo customer “support.” Back then I believed we could do it, we didn’t need to jail break each other, we could conquer the world, and not be afraid of PDOA (Public Display Of Access). Imagine a PDOA with an iPhone here on the street in Guatemala or on the chicken bus, riding through the smokey sunset. We laughed at them. But now I have to use the browser on my phone to get to my Gmail, my Twitter, my Facebook, my WordPress; things just aren’t the same without the shortcuts of love we had for each other everyday.
But today when the most competent of the Tigo guys I’ve spoken with all week said to me: “Seño, fíjese, que ya no podemos hacer nada ni AT&T ni Tigo ni Blackberry porque es el software de Blackberry y va tener que llevarlo a installer software para que trabaje con otras frecuencias.” Well, something broke. Shattered is really the word and it was my faith in the crackberry that has been my best friend for three years, three countries, three phones (the same model), just a different SIM card in each country and it was us and the open road. So I’m at a point where my friends are telling me, have you considered therapy? Have you tried time apart? Seeing other phones? I’m not sure I want to invest any more time in it but, I’m not ready to leave either. I mean we still look good together, but we’re more like friends. Just friends. Maybe it’s for the best.
I’m waiting for the Android and then I’ll decide between that and the iPhone. Blackberry isn’t cutting it anymore, and not here.
I gotta say, the N95 is working wonders for me here. Picked up the TIGO WLAN and WAP settings instantaneously. The Droid phone looks marvelous except it’s like 20 tons.