Don't hate the playa. Hate the game, baby!

 
Over the holidays I dropped our family's old cellphone service and signed a new contract with T-Mobile. The fam had been complaining about coverage in our local area and with one off at college -- who was complaining, too -- it was time to switch. I visited several nearby phone stores including Verizon and T-Mobile.

T-Mo had a plan for four lines, 2000 minutes, unlimited text messaging, and unlimited Internet for my phone for about $150 (before taxes). The equivalent plan from Verizon was quoted at around $220. Seriously. Roughly a 50% premium for -- drum roll, please -- "the network." And with a previous, painful Verizon experience still stuck in my craw, I decided to punt on VZ and try T-Mo.

My kids picked out a couple of cool phones (the collegiate selected a Motorola W490 and the high-schooler chose a Nokia 5300. They both picked out a pink Moto RAZR for my wife (color appeared to be more important for all of them than functionality).

I selected a Blackberry 8320, upgrading from an 8700 and a prior 7290.

Couple of things I'll mention. First of all, T-Mo's customer service has been stellar thus far -- in stark contrast to prior cellphone providers. I can get a human on the line in seconds and, shockingly, it's a knowledgeable human. Chalk one up for T-Mo.

Second, prepare to spring for a MicroSD card for each phone that needs to play music. A MicroSD is similar to the SD card you use in a digital camera, but much smaller and usually cheaper as well. I ordered several 2GB models for $19 apiece from Amazon.

Regarding the Blackberry: if you liked the 8700 model, you'll love the 8320. Granted, the network is still the mediocre 2G EDGE, capable of maybe 150Kbps on a good day. However, there's a bonus feature that the other carriers seem to have disabled or ignored: 802.11 wi-fi connectivity. And, unlike the iPhone, you can actually use the wi-fi for voice (though T-Mo dings you for the minutes connected using UMA unless you have an unlimited UMA plan for $19.95 a month).

I didn't spring for UMA, but the wi-fi comes in real handy for surfing the 'net. Many of the buildings that have a steel roof or other barriers to good cell coverage also happen to have free wireless hotspots (like my health club, for instance). So I get blazing data speeds -- far better than the 300Kbps that I typically get on my Verizon EV-DO aircard, for instance. Yes, I know Verizon says that EV-DO Rev. A will do "speed bursts of up to 2.0Mbps." After numerous speed checks using several performance testing sites, I can safely report I've never seen faster than 330Kbps.

The only major hassle with the 8320: RIM didn't bother to include a holster with it. What crackhead in Marketing came up with that brilliant decision? I've never seen a Blackberry that didn't arrive with a useful holster... until now. So be prepared to fumble around with your device until buy one.

Here's the only troubleshooting I did. I happened to install Google Mobile Maps (only about three trillion times better than any freaking service provided by anyone else). After the installation, it asked if I would allow the connection to google.com. My finger slipped and I accidentally hit "Deny" rather than "Allow."

Trouble. Real trouble. Every time I clicked on Google Maps, nothing happened. No error message, no prompt, nothing. I uninstalled, rebooted the device, reinstalled, changed application permissions to allow everything, you name it. After plenty of web surfing, I finally discovered the solution to the problem. Basically, you need to reset your firewall prompts. Anytime those prompts come up when you load a new application always be careful to allow the connection, otherwise the app won't work. Ever again.

So for those Google surfers who are looking for a solution (one which I found extremely difficult to find), here are the directions:

* Options >> Advanced Options >> Applications >> highlight Google Maps, hit menu, select Edit Permissions >> hit menu again, select "Reset Firewall Prompts"

* Do a hard reboot (pull the battery after shutting down, then re-insert after 15 seconds)

Now run Google Maps again and select allow access -- carefully, this time! Special thanks to John Clark of Blackberry Forums for this solution, by the way. Just a note for RIM, this appears to be a relatively serious bug in the Blackberry firmware: when you uninstall an application, all of its permissions should be removed as well.

As an aside, Google Maps is about the coolest freaking cellphone app you can imagine. Not only can you get satellite views, real-time traffic illustrations, and turn-by-turn directions, GOOG recently added "My Location." Even though the carriers have disabled GPS on most of their phones (they want to charge you a monthly fee for the service), Google uses your cell tower locations to estimate your location. Yes. It's just that cool.

Blackberry 8320 Review: after a couple of weeks with the 8320, I've got to give it two thumbs up. It's a jewel. So don't hate the playa, baby! Hate the game!