Jeff laughed and laughed. He thought it was a joke. He was visiting from British Columbia and I told him about the experiment.
"I'm supporting your Mother Land!" I said emphatically.
Nobody with Blackberries any more, not even in Canada.
But it wasn't always this way...
Back in 2008 I was visiting my Mother and we were wandering around Lower Manhattan trying to find a restaurant. I had a brand new iPhone. She had her Blackberry. In 2008 everybody had Blackberries and (especially in NYC) nobody had iPhones.
"I'll just find the place on my phone" I boasted confidently.
She was already growing tired of the iPhone. Yes it was going to be a revolutionary device. Yes it was going to change the world. Yes it could do anything and do it better than anything else. Blah blah blah. Yes I was one of those people.
After a few minutes of fruitless swiping and tapping and waiting... my Mother whipped out her Blackberry and found the address in seconds. We both appreciated the humor of the situation. Yes the iPhone was going to change the world, but it's just a little machine after all. People change the world, not machines.
"Keep your iPhone" she said.
It's been 3 weeks now with the Blackberry. I am enjoying the keyboard, as I knew I would. It's nice to have that physical constant available to me instantly. I don't have to wait for it, it's waiting for me.
I use OneNote extensively and it runs fairly well on the Blackberry. Beware, it's not a Blackberry app, it's the Android version, but Android apps work on the device and you have access to the Amazon store. It's essentially a Kindle. If you were to purchase the high end Blackberry Passport, which has superior tech specs, I should think that Android apps (excluding games) run nicely.
As for writing itself, I find myself much more precise with the physical keyboard. This only makes sense. I make the same mistakes I would normally make on a big keyboard, so auto correct isn't really needed.
Ironically I was getting quite good on my last phone embracing the predictive text feature. Typing the first letter, or the first few letters and getting a selection of words to choose from was beginning to feel natural, and certainly efficient.
Although I am more likely nowadays to pull out a notebook and a pen while on the go, OneNote with the keyboard on my not very expensive Blackberry Classic is a pretty great little mobile writing lab.