Why I Chose the Samsung Captivate

I recently took the plunge and signed up for two more years with AT&T. I had been using the HTC Wizard and was long overdue for a new phone. I needed a smartphone and it had to be on AT&T due to the shared-minute plan I am on. My original plan was to get either a BlackBerry for its great e-mail and notification capability or an iPhone because of the great apps. I assumed that I would end up with a BlackBerry because it had a physical keyboard.

To help determine if an iPhone was right for me, I borrowed a friend's iPhone 2G. Unfortunately I could only keep my $30 unlimited data plan by going straight from my current phone to a new phone so I used the iPhone in WIFI only mode.

It took me a few days to a week to get used to the virtual keyboard. If it weren't for Apple's error correcting, it would have taken much longer. I was definitely much better in landscape mode, but still not as fast as with a physical keyboard.

After playing with a number of free applications and determining that the virtual keyboard would be good enough, I realized that my decision was between having the notifications of a BlackBerry along with the ability to tether for free and having a great mini computer that had an okay e-mail program. I wanted to get the iPhone, but I was torn.

It was at that point that I started looking into Android. With Android, I could get some of the same (or similar) apps as the iPhone. I also had the openness to install any application I wanted without rooting or jailbreaking my iPhone, which I refused to do. Android phones exist with all major U.S. carriers, so I would have the ability to keep my apps and switch providers, if I desired. I was intrigued.

My choices switched to the iPhone or the Samsung Captivate. I had the ability to play with the Captivate before it was available for sale. I also played with the iPhone 4. While some feel that the Captivate is too light, I enjoyed the feel of it much better than the iPhone 4. In fact, I enjoyed the feel of the iPhone 2G better than the iPhone 4. The bigger screen on the Captivate also helped typing on the virtual keyboard.

After much thinking and research, I settled on the Captivate despite the lack of the front-facing camera. I still wish AT&T had included it, but the openness of the Android platform (both apps and carriers) as well as the integration with Google swayed me.

I picked up my phone the day it came out. While I've had some issues with it, I still think it was the right choice. Stay tuned for more on my experience with the Samsung Captivate.

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Blackberry E-mail Service is Down

Apparently, the popular BlackBerry devices from RIM are 100% dead in the second major outage in a year. With many people in business, politics, and government reliant on these devices for day-to-day operations, it may encourage more people to jump ship to Apple's iPhone, Danger's Sidekick, or Microsoft's Windows Mobile devices.

UPDATE 2:42 PM: I an reading that the outage has been resolved.

Variations on a theme from this week...

iDevices vs Work-Home-Balance

PCWorld has up an interesting article about a kerfuffle in the Australian government offices. One ministry attempted to issue Blackberry devices to all of their employees, but distribution was stopped when too many high-ranking people complained about Blackberries violating the home-work balance, by forcing longer workdays and intruding into free time.

Most of you know that I own an iPhone, so it may surprise you to know that I am very much against the distribution of Blackberry devices to employees who do not specifically ask for it. One of the reasons I chose an iPhone is it is incompatible with my work e-mail system (unless one uses the web browser to access that portal) and thus my employer can not use it as another way to contact me. I am a great believer that employers should pay for the time they demand, and that it is inappropriate to demand most employees to carry with them a tether that ties them to the workplace. Even cell phones are sometimes too much.

What do you think? Are Blackberry and other iDevices a blessing, a necessary evil, or a curse?