5/09/2006
My Phone and Service
My phone is a Blackberry 7230. I purchased it used on eBay for about $30. They normally go for upwards of $60, but I bought one sold "AS-IS! UNTESTED" ... it was missing a battery, which I purchased, and it worked fine.
It isn't quite as good of a PDA in some ways as my previous device, the non-phone Treo 90. It doesn't have a memory card slot, it has a smaller storage space, it is slower, the programs are not always as good, etc.
That being said -- not only is it nice to have my phone and PDA rolled into one, but also to have the phone and PDA parts actually work pretty well together (as was NOT the case in the XDA I owned at an earlier date). The NIV Bible program I use is not as fast, robust, or user friendly as my 5-translation program on the Treo, but it is sufficient. The Blackberry also has a backlit keyboard (always a plus) and the eBook reader I have for it is functional, if not exceptional. The battery life is not great, but at least it's comparable to my PDA, and better than my previous phone.
As to my service, you may be surprised to discover that I pay only $8 a month. How do I manage that, you may well ask! T-Mobile has a prepaid plan where you can purchase minutes once for a whole year. The minimum for a year term is $100. For this you get 1000 minutes, or roughly 85 minutes a month. The number costs nothing to keep, as long as you have a renewed balance. For my minimal amount of cell phone use, this is an excellent plan.
So far, I have read these books on my phone: "The Scarlet Pimpernel", three entries in the "Psmith" series by P.G. Wodehouse, several short stories, "Kim" by Rudyard Kipling, and "Under the Banner of Heaven" by Jon Krakauer. I am currently reading "Les Miserables" by Victor Hugo.
It isn't quite as good of a PDA in some ways as my previous device, the non-phone Treo 90. It doesn't have a memory card slot, it has a smaller storage space, it is slower, the programs are not always as good, etc.
That being said -- not only is it nice to have my phone and PDA rolled into one, but also to have the phone and PDA parts actually work pretty well together (as was NOT the case in the XDA I owned at an earlier date). The NIV Bible program I use is not as fast, robust, or user friendly as my 5-translation program on the Treo, but it is sufficient. The Blackberry also has a backlit keyboard (always a plus) and the eBook reader I have for it is functional, if not exceptional. The battery life is not great, but at least it's comparable to my PDA, and better than my previous phone.
As to my service, you may be surprised to discover that I pay only $8 a month. How do I manage that, you may well ask! T-Mobile has a prepaid plan where you can purchase minutes once for a whole year. The minimum for a year term is $100. For this you get 1000 minutes, or roughly 85 minutes a month. The number costs nothing to keep, as long as you have a renewed balance. For my minimal amount of cell phone use, this is an excellent plan.
So far, I have read these books on my phone: "The Scarlet Pimpernel", three entries in the "Psmith" series by P.G. Wodehouse, several short stories, "Kim" by Rudyard Kipling, and "Under the Banner of Heaven" by Jon Krakauer. I am currently reading "Les Miserables" by Victor Hugo.
