A devoted reader sent me a link to a story from The New York Times that further proves that a vote for Obama is a vote for hope. Hope that our society will cast off its BlackBerry addiction and emerge stronger and renewed.
Indeed, in the interest of national security (and, I’d like to think, breaking the habit), Obama will have to give up his BlackBerry. Apparently, e-mail is not a secure enough form of communication to be discussing national secrets. Not only that, but it’s hardly appropriate for the President of the United States to conduct his diplomacy over BBM (to Gordon Brown: “lol @ ahmadinejad. srsly, txt him and tell him to 86 the WMDs or watch his back: sanctions.” to Horst Köhler: “c u @ G8 poker night?”).
Either way, the article discusses just how attached to his BlackBerry the President-elect is. Which just goes to show you, ladies of Penn, despite your compulsive BBMing every three minutes, yes, you can.
As Web Development Editor of the DP, Thomas Jansen is responsible for making sure dailypennsylvanian.com is running smoothly, and he has the additional pleasure of being hassled by html-incompetent Street editors every night over gchat. We made him write this BlackBerry review, and it was pretty good once we translated it out of javascript. J/K, gthom, write again soon kthx!
Behold Bold.
While the rest of you were sleeping in, I finally joined the Penn community. It happened last week–no I’m not talking about the election. I got my first BlackBerry. I woke up at the crack of dawn on Tuesday to stand in line at the AT&T store with dozens of my fellow voters six other Penn students waiting to get the Bold. Now, I won’t be attempting to pull off The BlackBerry Clutch–you know you’ve seen it: perfectly manicured hand wrapped around can of Natty Light/red Solo cup with two fingers delicately holding a BlackBerry in an obnoxious neon-colored bumper. I will, however, be BBMing in class, in the elevator and while halfheartedly listening to casual acquaintances.
I’ve had it for barely a week and so far I can’t say it’s changed my life. I’d tell you that I was writing this from my BlackBerry, but that would just be a lie–not to say it can’t be done! Seriously, though, you can edit your documents, read Under the Button and even browse Facebook with a program that’s almost as shitty as the one for iPhones.
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I never thought a Facebook invitation would change my life until this showed up on my home page. Yes, ladies and gentleman, the BlackBerry team is coming to UPenn.
Now, while I may have made some harmful comments about Blackberries in the past, I have not been this giddy since getting my acceptance letter to Penn. Why, you may ask? That would be the promise of a photo with the BlackBerry mascot, who, not shockingly, is a giant BlackBerry. It’s not very often you get to pose with a life-size version of an object of scorn (unless, of course, you’re like some people we know, for whom Beauty and the Beast was a source of major childhood trauma).
I can only hope that the man inside the phone isn’t ticklish, because there are going to be a lot of people pushing those buttons.
Let me start out by saying: I hate BlackBerries. This is, granted, mostly because I wield a Samsung camera phone and wish I could BBM during class–but regardless, my lack of Berry has left me sad and bitter.
In any event, even if I hadn’t already been convinced that these things are addictive toys that slowly take over lives (in effect, Tamagotchi on steroids), and even if I hadn’t noticed that separating a Penn student from her BlackBerry is more difficult than splitting the atom, I’d certainly have taken notice after reading this article.
Yes, ladies and gentleman, a new study has discovered that 35 percent of CrackBerry users–specifically, traveling executives–would pick their phone over their spouse.
No worries, Whartonites. Once you get the details of the divorce ironed out over BBM, there’s always Vegas.
