I have recently started using a Blackberry on Verizon wireless – I was amazed at the experience shock (kind of like culture shock) I had. You take an iPhone out of the pack and it just works, no user manual needed. You take the Blackberry out (and I think most of the blame lies with Verizon’s packaging and programing), and it’s not obvious what does what – you end up pressing random buttons. You accidentally lock the keyboard and can’t unlock it – the Tips manual (that runs to 115 pages) HAS THE WRONG INSTRUCTIONS on how to unlock it, so you have to resort to the web.

What else? Oh yes, a time zone automatically set to Casablanca – how many Blackberries do Verizon sell in Morocco exactly? How about having to accept a page of legalese each and every time I want to download an app?

Then there’s the crippling of the phone that’s solely in Verizon’s court – my Blackberry (but not every model) has its GPS functionality removed, unless I want to pay Verizon more money per month, and even then, full functionality isn’t restored. Visual voicemail? That’ll be another $3 a month.

On the plus side, my calls should at least be more reliable, and the keyboard is nice. I do still keep trying to multi-touch the screen to zoom though. Yeah, that doesn’t work – it’s not even a touchscreen.