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Ok, first let me say... I am sorry. I have been away for a while. I guess I just needed a break but what the heck, this site is a hobby anyway right? Been hanging out focusing on the family and home life for a while which is good.

Most of you know I have been toying with the whole email on the go thing for a while and have looked at a number of solutions. Bottom line was, that I discovered over the years I am not really a PDA person. I just never really used them much except for downloading stories/news from the web to read on the train into my job. Never did much in the way of calendaring. Always wanted to do email but could never find a solution.

Email on cell phones sucked. I tried it and it just didn't work. So, I saw my dad had a blackberry and thought I would try that. Had everything gone smootly, I would probably still have my blackberry... but it didn't. And now I am glad it didn't.

The Blackberry story is a tragic one. The first one I got didn't work around where I lived. The network (Motient) had no coverage here. I was in a dead zone. Not to worry the reps told me, Cingular covered this area and they had a good deal on a used Palm sized Blackberry. So, they sent me it and I decided I liked the pager form factor better. Also, after a few days of use, the T key stopped working. So, I called GoAmerica (the provider) back and they said they would send me out another used device... this time pager sized. Well, I got that one and the thing right out of the box said "bad load, press r to reset". Well, 3 hours later after wiping the operating system on the thing twice, it was working. Problem was, a few days later, the error popped up again. So, I called them up and they sent me another device. This was the worst of all. The screen was dark and 5 keys didn't work! So, I got hold of them again and said "look, I have had 4 devices now... and I am getting tired of this. Please talk to your manager and tell them I want a brand new device becasue of the trouble I have been through". They reassured me that they would send me a new device. Days later, the device arrives. The screen is pretty dark so I call customer service and ask, "is this a used device?" They fumble around and finally come back and say.... yes, it is a used device. At that point, I loose it and tell them I will be sending this back and to cancel my account.

So, here I was without a device. Now, when I originally started looking for a device, I saw T-Mobile was coming out with something new called a DANGER Sidekick. Problem was, it wasn't out yet. Well, by the time I went through 5 Blackberrys, the device is now out and on the market. I picked one up last night and got it fully activated today. The thing is a dream. Quite possibly one of the most amazing pieces of electronics I have ever seen. Like something out of the Jetsons, it does email, web browsing, games, voice and more. It's like a gameboy for adults except, its a productivity tool too! The best part is that CompUSA had it on sale for $99 after rebate and the monthly service is $39. Compare that with the Blackberry which was $359 and the monthly service was $59.

As I use it over the next few days, I will let you know how things go! Stay tuned. To find out more about the Sidekick now, go to T-Mobile's site or Danger's site.