Technology & Social Media

I gave in. I bought myself a Kindle for my 22nd birthday. Other than joining the bandwagon of e-Reader owners, I thought it made a nice birthday gift to myself. And now, I am completely hooked.

Believe it or not, it is THAT tiny. The “graphite” color differentiates the latest generation from the older versions and iPods. (Am I the only one who remembers those first generation white iPods?) And in the green leather cover that resembles Kate Spade wallets, my Kindle now permanently resides in my bag.

Despite the number of companies that make e-Readers – Borders, Barnes & Noble, etc. – I went with Amazon because of its name. After all, Amazon came up with an e-Reader first, and Kindle is most well-known.

Kindle also in a way saved Amazon. Due to the rise of the popularity of online shopping, new websites, such as Zappos and Overstock, quickly became competitors of Amazon. Subsequently, Amazon releasing Kindle gave it a new boost.

All in all, Kindle as a gadget, I LOVE.

I do wish, however, Kindle had more features similar to those of iPads. Honestly, $500 for an iPad did not quite fit my budget. In the end, I am still a poor college student – also another reason why I settled for a Kindle. But sometimes I want to be able to surf the web without delay or play those awesome zombie games.

Nonetheless, a few reasons why my Kindle experience has been superb so far:

I can download select books for free. Who doesn’t love FREE things? In the past, I have spent way too much money on books – novels I want to read, required readings for classes, let alone TEXTBOOKS. Yikes. I am still quite bitter about dropping $100 on my statistics textbook. (When am I ever going to need this Elementary Stats book down the road?) Thanks to Kindle, I have acquired classics, including Pride and Prejudice, and historic novels for free.

Easy-read format news blogs for only $1.99 per month. I subscribed to the New York Times blog updates via Kindle, which automatically downloads the latest headlines and full-length articles. I am basically reading the hard-copy version of the Times on Kindle for significantly cheaper than annual subscription fee.

Word games, one of the best ways to kill time or procrastinate. Alright, fine, not as cool as slicing fruits or killing zombies on fancy iPads or iPhones, but Word Shuffle can still keep you occupied for hours. Finding words… entertaining!

If you’re an avid smartphone user, we all know, at point or another, you sat down in front of your computer, looked up every single technology-related blog and contemplated, “iPhone? Or BlackBerry?”

(Photo Courtesy of another WordPress blogger, theophilusLondon)

Yes, Yes. It IS a tough decision – probably the trickiest decision EVER. Since BlackBerry Pearl, BB has been around a bit longer, but thanks to Apple’s wonderful reputation and my personal obsession with my MacBook Pro, iPhone is just as desirable.

Last month, due to my BB Pearl’s unexpected death – more precisely, battery gave out, I found myself in the midst of confusion, anxiety, nervousness and indecisiveness.

Do I take this chance to upgrade to iPhone? Or do I stick with BB?

Let’s skip to the end: I upgraded to… dun dun dun… BLACKBERRY CURVE, and I love it.

Why in the world did I stick with BlackBerry? Well… for many reasons.

1. I’m never leaving the Family Plan: Hello, I’m currently NOT paying for my phone, and because my family has been with Verizon for such a long time, I received my BB Curve fo’FREE. Additionally, we get 20% discount on accessories – yes, I already decked my phone out with a screen protector and a cover.

2. I do love BBM’ing: iPhone doesn’t have “IPM,” does it? Only BB has its own messaging tool. With the unlimited data plan that I already have, messaging my friends is easy, fast and free.

3. BB has Apps, too: While I do envy my friends who have the coolest games and one of those “shake the phone to decide where you want to eat” apps, my BB has allowed me to download plenty of decent apps. So far I have downloaded news apps (TIME & AP), food apps (Poynt – a lot like Yelp, Flixster – moves, Groceries & SparkRecipes) and other tools (tip calculator & games). They do just what I need them to do, and I’m perfectly content with them.

4. Touch screen still freaks me out: Maybe “freaks me out” isn’t exactly the phrase I need here, but it’s a similar idea. Gross finger prints, oil from your skin, residue, etc. Yuck! Plus, I like buttons on BB.

5. Even though BB is not an Apple product, it still syncs without a problem with my computer: I would have sprinted to the Apple store and picked up the new iPhone 4G, but that’s not the case. BB loves MacBook Pro just as much as I do.

6. Verizon tends to get better service than AT&T: I may be taking this debate to Verizon vs. AT&T level, but regardless, in my experience, my BB’s reception even in the woods of Maine is stellar.

7. TrackPAD not TrackBALL: The new Curve comes with a touch-pad, not the cute little ball, which makes it easier to scroll through web pages and to actually click without rolling the cursor to who-knows-where. Moreover, only a small portion of the phone suffers from fingerprints, not the entire screen. One downside? Much harder to play Brick Breaker. (Grrrrrrrr).

8. Sentimental Value: I’ve had a BB since freshman year in college. After spending almost three years together, it’s tough to separate myself from my lovely phone.

Now I have a 2-year contract on my BB. Do I still get a bit jealous when people walk around with the 4G? Yes. Does that mean I’ll abandon my BB that easily? Nope.