Canucks & Beyond
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Doing My Part to Bring a New NHL Franchise to Canada
by Alanah McGinley on 06/24/08 at 03:47 PM ET
Comments (19)
This post has nothing to do with hockey, except for the fact that Kukla is about to put a few bucks in Jim Balsillie’s pocket.
The thing is, I’m this close to getting a ‘Blackberry’—a nice little bonus from Paul. (Cool, right? Though I suspect it’s a sign he thinks I don’t work hard enough!)
Anyway, I could use some advice from Crackberry addicts…
I realize this probably isn’t a big deal to most, but I’m pretty cheap when it comes to cell phones. I still use an old Samsung I bought used on eBay two or three years ago. (Frankly, I still find it exciting that phones have cameras). So I’m pretty thrilled about the upgrade.
Besides, responding to email while driving, surfing the net, reading The Hockey News and listening to the White Stripes—all at once—just sounds like a great time to me.
So I’m down to two choices: Blackberry Curve (available) and Blackberry Bold (coming soon).
Both are insanely over-priced so that’s not a deciding issue. I just want to know, which one would YOU get? And do you have any warnings about Blackberries or the necessary phone service, etc?
This is all new territory for me so any advice is appreciated.
And bear in mind that I’m liable to be using this thing for the next 10 years, till even duct tape and crazy glue refuse to hold it together, so it needs to last.
P.S. Strangely, the links to all the Canucks ringtones are currently dead. But that page reminds me: I want Tommy’s “Bingo Bango Bongo Luongo” for the new phone. How obnoxious would that thing be, going off every other minute?
Awesome, I say.
Filed in: dumb stuff | Canucks and Beyond | Permalink
Comments
Don’t you mean “bring an existing NHL franchise to Canada?” After all, he said he doesn’t want a new team, he wants to poach one from an existing US market. 
(Sorry, I’m worthless about Blackberry info… but I’m full of snark!)
Posted by Alan from Atlanta on 06/24/08 at 03:14 PM ET
He’d better be paying for your service plan, too
Posted by George James Malik from South Lyon, MI on 06/24/08 at 03:19 PM ET
If you want a phone that you can blog with with and surf the net with, I would get an I phone...Blackberry’s are great, but they are much better if you get a high volume of e-mail constantly.
The I-phone is a much better multi-media device and it is much better for reading news articles online. You can even post to your blog from them!
Anyway, here is my final piece of advice...keep your other phone and take with you whenever you do anything social. Crackberry users are notorious for whipping out their phone and clicking away on the keypad in the middle of SOMEONE ELSES SENTENCE. It is an odd experience and you do not want to share it with other people.
Posted by John from Pittsburgh, PA (Wings fan for life!) on 06/24/08 at 03:26 PM ET
From my location and your question, you should be able to guess where I work. The Curve is great, have been using it since I could. The Bold is what you want if you’d like a flashier screen and faster data speeds. If you plan on blogging from it or doing lots of email, you really need to get out and actually type on them. They have different key styles, and it will feel different and affect your typing. Most people just look at phones and devices in a store, barely using them, but if you’re about to drop hundreds of Paul’s dollars on one, you have every right to expect your provider to let you see a functioning device, try the data speeds/typing/interfaces, and compare. Most importantly, remember that it is a personal choice, so try try TRY them both to find out which is best for you. Personally, I always enjoy going with the newest devices.
Posted by SENShobo from Waterloo, ON on 06/24/08 at 03:28 PM ET
I agree with John, the iPhone is the way to go, especially if you plan to do a lot of blogging and surfing of the net. I’ve had mine since the day they came out, and don’t have many complaints at all. It is great for e-mail, and especially awesome for surfing the web with its full browser. Despite people’s worries about the touch-screen keyboard, you get used to it in a couple of days. I tried to type on a friend’s Blackberry a couple of days ago (at the draft, actually) and found it much more difficult than the iPhone. Feel free to let me know if you have any questions about the iPhone from someone who has had one for almost a year now.
P.S. If you do change your mind and go with an iPhone, wait til the new one comes out on July 11!
P.P.S. All of this is a moot point if AT&T;is not a service option for you (unless you want to find an unlocked iPhone)
Posted by NHLJeff from Boston, MA on 06/24/08 at 03:32 PM ET
And since I forgot to mention, try typing with an iPhone. You will find that while it is great for watching video and viewing photos, it is anything but pleasant to blog and email with (which is why I have enjoyed iPod Touch, not having quite the multimedia functionality of it in my Curve, although the Bold could now be a substitute). If you go with the bold, you will notice that it has the exact same screen resolution (480x320) as the iPhone, so it will display images and video with the same quality, in the same way that the iPod Nano and Classic have the same screen resolution, only the Nano uses smaller pixels than the Classic.
Posted by SENShobo from Waterloo, ON on 06/24/08 at 03:33 PM ET
As I said in my post above, after you’ve used your iPhone for a few days, it really becomes a much easier typing device than the blackberry, in my opinion. On the blackberry I found myself having trouble with the buttons due to how small they are, but on the iPhone it picks out the main character you are touching even if your finger is on more than one, and most often, it is correct.
Posted by NHLJeff from Boston, MA on 06/24/08 at 03:37 PM ET
It’s pretty obvious that there are opinions on all sides, which is again why you should try out all that you are interested in.
Posted by SENShobo from Waterloo, ON on 06/24/08 at 03:40 PM ET
I don’t know crap about BlackBerries or iPhones, but I will say that if you were to get an Avalanche-themed ringtone, I’d call you a lot more.
Posted by Greg from Atl on 06/24/08 at 03:45 PM ET
I’m not all the keen on hi-tech phones either but if I had to I’d go for the iPhone and ditch the crackberry models. I was goofing around with a friends iPhone a few months ago and it was totally functional and great for surfing. Not sure about the other functions. My favourite place to start when I want to buy anything electrical/technical is cnet.com
Good luck.
Posted by TriniD from VanC on 06/24/08 at 04:25 PM ET
Going to go with what others have already said, try an iPhone before plunking down the $$$ for a Blackberry other wise you’ll have nagging doubts in your head for the next 10 years questioning your choice of phone as you glance enviously at iPhone users.
Posted by BadVooDoo on 06/24/08 at 04:31 PM ET
Thanks for all feedback. You’ve given me a lot of things to think about. Much appreciated!
About the iPhone—I’ve played with a friend’s and I liked it, but it’s not a practical option where I live. (The limits of phone service when you literally live on an island...)
Regardless, the primary use of it will be phone, text and email. (The email thing is a major factor.)
A few personal notes…
Adam - Well, it not that “money is no issue” but, well, it’s Paul’s money. Which means I get to enjoy spending it more than if it were my own. 
Alan- Good point. (Smartass...) 
George - Indeed he is!
Greg - that’s blackmail. watch it!
Trini - cnet is where I started. Thanks. I agree it’s a great resource.
Senshobo - be warned: you can pretty much expect an email from me before I buy it.
Posted by Alanah McGinley from British Columbia on 06/24/08 at 05:09 PM ET
Just gives me the creeps thinking about those things. Not for me. I’ll stick with the laptop and phone.
Posted by GZ Expat on 06/24/08 at 05:24 PM ET
An email, as in you will thoroughly test the device out, or as in somehow you will find out what my email is and send me the scary details about how Gillis is going to strike fear into the hearts of non-Nucks fans everywhere?
Posted by SENShobo from Waterloo, ON on 06/24/08 at 09:48 PM ET
I can’t help you pick between the two, although I like the Blackberry I got a few months ago.
My biggest advice is this: make sure, sure, sure that they do not change your voice or any other plan when it’s activated (I assume whatever you’re on, you like)—even if you do think you want a change, do at least a month with adding the Blackberry Email/Browse/etc. plan only.
I changed two phones to Blackberries a few months ago, both ought to have added $30 x 2 to my bill, and yet for some reason, it’s been more like $150+ per month higher. And naturally, it’s bloody hard to discern the proper new charges from the unwanted ones, and you can’t get Telus on the phone, and blah blah blah.
Anyway, since you almost asked.
Posted by Matt from Alberta on 06/25/08 at 12:16 AM ET
The local IBM Customer Engineers (CE) I work with, Alanah, use the Blackberry(s) for onsite diagnostics, email, and text-messaging to place orders for parts. It stores machine configurations for their clients as well as past repair histories. It’s extremely useful at that level.
Where I work, I have not seen any of our vendor CEs using an iPhone for receiving service calls and conducting diagnostics on troublesome devices.
But that Blackberry keyboard...man! That’s some of the tiniest things ever.
Posted by SYF from Las Vegas, NV on 06/25/08 at 02:02 PM ET
Senshobo - Oh, I’ll ignore the Nucks advice (my team already strikes fear in my heart!).
Matt - Thanks for the advice - I’ll take it seriously. I hate cell phone plans at the best of times, so I definitely want to be careful. (And my current provider is also Telus. And you’re right: you can never gets those people on the phone!)
SYF - Thanks for the info. And yeah, the keyboards are tiny… email will be a challenge worth trying, but I can’t imagine blogging on it.
Posted by Alanah McGinley from British Columbia on 06/26/08 at 08:43 AM ET
i’ve got the same problem, and i found the solution here to Free iPod Shuffle, just for reference.
Posted by ditto on 05/23/09 at 09:58 PM ET
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About Canucks & Beyond
Alanah McGinley has been blogging hockey since 2003, sharing opinions, rants and not-so-deep thoughts with anyone who will listen. In addition to writing Canucks & Beyond and helping manage Kukla’s Korner, Alanah is one of the founders and co-hosts of The Crazy Canucks Podcast, as featured at Canucks.com.
She has contributed pieces to FoxSports.com and the New York Times Slapshot blog, as well as other stray destinations in cyberspace.
Email:
Alanah’s Twitter: Not really hockey-ish. [LINK]
Other Canucks Blogs
I’ve had the Curve since November I think and I’m very happy with it. However, the Bold should be a great device. If money doesn’t matter, I’d go for the Bold. You can’t go wrong with either, though.
Posted by Adam from Detroit, MI on 06/24/08 at 03:01 PM ET