The Not So Great Debate

I am having an internal struggle that has recently been taking an inordinate amount of mental time. A few days past two years ago, I joined the Crackberry generation and purchased my first Blackberry device. It was a great leap forward; I was bound and determined to go along the lines of my 10-year old, monochrome screen Nokia 5110 as I had the car cradle with amplified antenna for excellent reception when out in the boondocks stormchasing. A good friend of mine and technophile however extolled the virtues of this newfangled device known as BlackBerry. What sold me on it was the ability to get mobile e-mail and internet which for my profession is quite handy AND this nifty feature known as tethering. What other device could I use out in the field to get warnings via e-mail or Blackberry message (which saved precious SMS messages) that were available via Cingular? None really. Then there was the tethering, which opened a whole new world for stormchasing and traveling by now allowing me to connect to the internet via the phone through dial-up networking on the laptop. That was pretty stinking cool!

Thus, two years ago my 8700C BlackBerry arrived in the mail and I was giddy with joy. What a slick device this was; I now could carry around my crazy shiftwork schedule all the time (which helped IMMENSELY in making plans with friends), I could get radar updates in the field via internet (IF I was in a service area...more on this later), AND the Blackberry Internet Service could allow me to send messages to other BlackBerry devices...handy when severe weather had overwhelmed the "standard" cellphone network. Two events stand out that made me realize that this device was invaluable

The first one was driving around Campo, Colorado with my Dad to look over cattle we had on grass and getting phone calls from my Mom and sister, in two different parts of the state, about severe weather heading their way. In the middle of a field outside of Campo, I could call up the KFWS and KSJT radar images and tell my family that they were in the clear from severe weather. Even my Dad (who is not much of a technology person) was impressed as the phone kept alerting me with warning messages as the storms rolled through Texas. The second event was driving to the Hill Country one evening with the laptop hooked up via the tether and being able to navigate my way around a series of thunderstorms between me and my parents house. This same tether also allowed me to relay real-time photographs back to my unnamed employer's office an a stormchase a couple of years ago so the warning forecaster could visually see what the storm looked like. Invaluable!

However, technology marches on as is usually the case and new, more impressive phones have been released. Cell phone networks and data speeds have improved (thanks EDGE and 3G UMTS). Thanks to my aforementioned good friend W.C., I was able to upgrade from an 8700c to an 8820 for free when he left the BlackBerry cult and joined the iPhone cult. The 8820 was an improvement in ergonomics with it's nifty "pearl" trackball, improved processor, and larger screen. It has been well used and seen quite a bit of abuse in the last year; about 10 stormchases, several drops, a couple of close calls with getting dunked, and one near miss with getting crushed by the Jeep. That same abuse has led to problems however; the SIM card occasionally slides loose shutting the phone down to all but 911 calls and the mini-USB charger gets shaken lose when I'm tethering on the road. Tethering has also had problems here recently; RIM software does NOT like vista (who and what doesn't though?) and the aforementioned loose mini-USB connection doesn't help matters. With my 2-year contract expired, now is the time to decide what way to go: BlackBerry Bold vs. iPhone 3GS.

Thanks to several excellent discussions with a co-worker who was formerly employed by the cellphone telecommunications industry, I've decided tethering is no longer as necessary as it was and will likely go with a mobile broadband data card. The cost is a wash; the price for tethering on either the BB or iPhone will likely be the same as that for a broadband card. Thus the decision to wait for AT&T to get off their butt and tether the iPhone 3.0 software/hardware is not as big of an issue as it might be. What it boils down to are phone features.

As I mentioned in this blog, I have been enamored with the iPhone as it has many more pieces of software that would come in handy for me and my line of employment (such as this one, another one, and also this item). RadarScope is probably one of the best pieces of software for viewing data on a phone. IBCNU is a nifty app that has possibilities for both stormchasing (feeding my location in to SpotterNetwork if I'm out of APRS radio coverage) and for my off-road excursions. I also like the thought of having my iTunes library on the phone as opposed to having to carry both my iPod AND cellphone when I'm running around. Being able to stream video to the phone while also being able to shoot pictures and video, geotag it, and send it back to my unnamed employer would be mighty nice during stormchases and/or damage surveys.

On the other hand, since I already have a 4th gen iPod, is it really necessary to have another music device? The iPhone also lacks certain features that the BlackBerry has. Most important to me are selective call ring-through; I can turn the phone to silent but still have calls from work come through if I know there is a chance of an emergency/overtime callback (this was an even greater feature when family has been in the hospital or when relatives were slowly passing away) when I'm sleeping. No can do with the iPhone as it is all or nothing. The BlackBerry Internet Service has also been most useful when the regular cell phone and SMS networks are overloaded during severe weather; BIS "piggybacks" on cell phone data networks and BIS messaging still works when SMS messages are delayed for minutes on end and phone calls won't connect...been there three times in the last year and have been able to get in touch with management. Quite a nice feature to have during an emergency. And a personal like/dislike...so far I haven't been impressed with the iPhone keyboard, even in landscape mode. There is something handy about being able to hit an actual button as opposed to some location on the screen. With my fat fingers, I've been able to type easier on my BlackBerry vs. the iPhones I've played around with.

So, that is where I'm at in this process. In the grand scheme of life, this is a petty debate but being the stingy frugal person I am, I've got to think this through. I was hoping to have a decision made before taking off for a week-long vacation to Colorado so I could happily blog away on the road, upload and share pictures as I take them, even show you the exact location where I caught the trout for your future reference. Yes, I'll hopefully be able to do some of that with my current phone and capabilities. But I too am a technophile and I like playing with the latest "toys". Now I've got about 4 days to make a choice if I want to have everything in place before we take off for the mountains...

Oh, and let us not forget that 4G is supposedly around the corner...

POST EDIT: The selective ring-through problem is solved...