BlackBerry

I was grasping for a terse explanation of the OtterBox Commuter, thinking what niche does this case fill(?).  OtterBox’s own marketing lingo sums it up - "It’s protection without the bulk."  Ah yes, that’s exactly what I was thinking - well almost - because you have to include the benefits of a hard outershell amongst its top attributes. 

A lot of folks do not like to carry their phone in a holster on the hip.  They prefer to ensconce the case inside a leather pouch that they can then drop in a bag or large pocket.  However, their justified fear is that it’s just a matter of time before they fumble the naked Tour while taking it out of the pouch and drop it on the ground.   What follows is a mild cardiac arrest as they check the device for damage!

Enter the Commuter case….

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The folks at OtterBox have taken on the challenge of keeping our hand-held gadgets protected.   Having recently purchased the BlackBerry Tour and being notoriously rough on cell phones, I was excited to receive OtterBox’s solutions - the Impact and Defender Series - for protecting one of the most important gadgets I own. 

Last May I raved about the OtterBox rugged laptop 7030 case which unfortunately has been discontinued, as OtterBox is now concentrating their product line primarily on hand-held technology.  I can understand the shift in focus, as it further underlines the ever-increasing, important role smartphones are playing in our hectic lives.

I have been a consumer of smartphones since 2004 when I purchased the Treo 300.  Since then I’ve owned seven different smartphones including Treos, the XV6700 and BlackBerries.  With each phone I desperately searched for the perfect case, and inadvertently became what is referred to in the gadget world as a "casewhore".  That’s fine, I wear the badge proudly, and claim pundit status when it comes to protecting my smartphones.

With that said… I’d like to introduce to you two of the best rugged cases on the market for the BlackBerry Tour:

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So you finally bit the bullet and purchased a smartphone eh? There’s so much to learn about your new gadget and this "tethering" thing seems to be all the rave.  But what exactly is tethering?

Wikipedia defines tethering as: ‘using some type of mobile device to gain internet access on another device’.  Your smartphone (i.e. BlackBerry, iPhone, Treo, Palm Pre, etc) can access the internet via your cellphone plan, right?  You can then use that same internet connection to access the internet on your laptop by way of tethering (connecting) your smartphone to your laptop.  Got it?

Tethering isn’t new.  I’ve been tethering for about three years via the BlackBerry. For those of us who understand how to tether, the excessive cost of wireless PC cards and separate internet data plans are quickly becoming a way of the past.

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Following up on our article - The Benefits of a Smartphone in a Writer’s World - we have gathered together a list of smartphone applications to help you stay productive. The links below are for BlackBerry applications, but most have an alternative for Palm and Windows smartphones.

And, let’s not forget the iPhone.  Do you realize there are over 50,000 iPhone and iPod applications  available through the App store to date (June 2009)?  It’s hard to even wrap your brain around the depth of innovation Apple has spurred by opening the pipeline to developers with one simple question in mind - If you could hold a computer in the palm of your hand, what could it do?  We’ve taken some time to comb through the App Store and come up with quite a few applications that can enhance a writer’s tool belt.

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Smartphones  are quickly propagating the cellphone landscape, making anyone who whips out a mundane flip phone appear slightly "out of touch".  The point of this article is to discuss whether or not the benefits of owning a smartphone are to the writer’s advantage.  But first, let’s answer a few general questions about the gadget.

What is a smartphone?
In a nuthshell it’s a cellphone that allows you to do a host of other things via mobile applications. 

What’s the difference between the iPhone, the Blackberry, and all the others?
In a word…OS (Operating System).  In order to access email, internet, IM, pictures, etc on your computer you need an operating system like Windows or OS X, right?  Same thing goes for  smartphones  - which are basically tiny, limited computers that allow you to easily make phone calls. The iPhone’s OS is derived from OS X.  BlackBerry has a proprietary OS created by RIM.  Treos either use Palm or Windows Mobile. Google has also entered the smartphone market with its Android operating system. In addition, each carrier has propriety operating systems on their less expensive QWERTY cellphones (i.e. VZ Navigator) that don’t quite qualify as a "smartphone" because of the limitations of the OS.

Is the smartphone an imperative tool for writers? 
Let’s put it this way; you can live in a log cabin with no indoor plumbing or electricity and create the greatest novel known to man using a 1935 Remington typewriter.  So technically, technology isn’t imperative to a writer, but it does make life easier.  That’s exactly what the smartphone does for a writer - IT MAKES LIFE EASIER - for the reasons listed below:

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Since we don’t post multiple times a day here at the Founders’ Blog, there’s no reason to create articles from our mobile device.  However, we do filter comments to ward off spammers.  WordPress does a great job of letting us know via email when a comment has been posted so we can get your comments up ASAP. However, using the BlackBerry default browser can be difficult when accessing the WP admin dashboard and some have found it impossible.  [click to continue...]