I bit the bullet and got a Blackberry this weekend. Actually, I bought two. The first one was a Blackberry Pearl which the salesman told me was identical in specification to the Blackberry Curve except it had a smaller screen and a hybrid qwerty keyboard. After I got home, I realized the Pearl didn't have the built-in GPS. So I went back to the store and exchanged it for the slightly more expensive Curve 8310. One thing the Curve doesn't have that the Pearl did was Wi-Fi support. As far as I can tell neither model has a version with both Wi-FI and GPS.

You know who wasn't excited about the iPhone? Blackberry users. This phone is awesome. It does exactly everything I needed and want it to. The only thing the iPhone really has on this device is the touch screen- which I could care less about. Since the Blackberry OS is up to version 4.3, it's really stable and mature. I downloaded the Google Mobile installer. Google Maps works seamlessly with the GPS. The only third party application I think I'm going to have to buy is JiveTalk.

So why the new phone? Well a couple of reasons:

- I'd say 90% of the time I duck into the office is to check email, catch up RSS, and see if anybody needs me on instant messenger. All of these things can be done, easily, on the Blackberry.

- I haven't gotten my GTD implementation wired since I ditched my Sidekick a couple years ago. Having a sync'ed up calendar, task list, and an easy way to type information for processing later seemed to be the key. I'm going to rearrange my home office this week and I plan on rebooting my GTD.

- I take my laptop on trips primarily to check email. I have a PocketPC, but finding a Wi-Fi connection can be annoying.

- I've been kinda' wanting a GPS device for no specific reason. I like the idea of having one in the car and possibly dabble in Geocaching. Both of the mapping programs I have come with turn by turn directions. The only reason I'd need to pay anything for GPS software is if wanted spoken directions or geocache managers.

- I'm a total geek and my phone was feeling old... I don't really need a rugged, simple phone like I did when I was media blasting (in hindsight, I didn't need one then either)

If you can't tell, I'm really happy with my purchase. About the only con is the keyboard is just slightly too small to do any real hardcore typing on it. Maybe once I get used to it, I'll blog on the go as well! After this and the satellite TV stuff, I think this is it for the tech gadgetry for a while.