I love my blackberry (BB Curve 8330) !

My Verizon 'new every two' just rolled around and after much hemming and hawing, I decided to go the mobile web route and settled on the newest little mobile wonder Verizon had on display... That was last Monday.
I've been 'together' with my blackberry curve for over a week now, and I think I'm in love.

Not only is it a much better phone than my previous generic samsung paperweight - better reception in my semi-service rural area, and much much better sound both direct and speaker - but it does some really amazing stuff.

I thought I'd be a cynic... why would I want email on my phone? Why a web browser that's slower and tinier than any other interface I have available? I thought the address book would be useful all along, but figured the sync would be as buggy as my old windows mobile handheld. But no! This thing really is as cool as they say.

The web service is great. Solid and very usable. I am a total mobile newb, but already I have my google reader, opera mini and the usual BB browser all set up with favorites and bookmarks and working great.

The email ... what a cool thing. I don't like sending long messages but the little keyboard works greawt even with my fat fingers, plenty good for a quick reply... but the real advantage, for me, is being able to see what's come in, or what hasn't, without checking email full-blown-style in the office. Rather than feeling compelled to 'check my email' every time i walk in the door, I have more of a sense of needing to reply to messages that I already know about, and usually, that can wait.  I know it is a self-psych-out deal, but it works and is saving me lots of time.

There are lots of other features that I like - the camera is really decent and it is so cool to be able to take a picture of anything, and email OR sms message it to anybody in my entire address book (which auto-syncs to my bb every time i put the bb in the cradle).

Of course it is totally configurable with themes and desktop images, ring tones (from what i can tell, any mp3 can become a ring tone) and I haven't even begun to explore my options with media - both video and music - minisd card is on the way today via fedex, more on that later!

Summary: I am a gadget-skeptic, and this thing rocks. I think 'stable and usable' has finally arrived in Verizon-web-land.  If you have the chance to upgrade your mobile options, definitely take a look at the new BlackBerries.