iStuff and the Blackberry Passport.

Photo courtesy Aple via YouTube.

I've never had any interest in investing in an iPad, but I'd learned about a bunch of 21st Century Education tools this summer in a Master's course at UVic. When the school offered me an iPad for educational use, I decided to set aside my biases and give it a shot. I recognize that numerous apps can help in the classroom and with enrichment, so it wouldn't be a bad thing to learn about how they work.

I've had it for a month. I'm not very impressed. It hasn't converted me. It's just another screen. I don't like tapping screens; I don't like the small scale of apps; I dislike the need to constantly revisit the App Store.

Now, to be honest, I've never cared much for Apple. I preferred PCs at University through my bachelor's degree and very much prefer using Windows-based laptops and computers. I've worked through two iBooks in my teaching career and now I'm using this iPad. My wife bought an iPhone 4 a few years ago and now has an iPhone 5, and I use them now and then. But the OS doesn't connect to me. I imagine part of it is my bias-by-upbringing, but I nonetheless would never choose to use an Apple at this point.

This has been a little bone of contention between my wife and I. She'd like me to get an Apple phone of some sort so we can take advantage of all the "features" of paired devices. I don't like paired features; I prefer to manually load devices without having to consider any other devices. And, as I mentioned, I really could care less for the interface and whatnot; if I haven't reached for her iPhone for the last three+ years, I don't see why I would want to have one in my pocket at all times.

And I would like to upgrade my phone as well. I need to replace my Blackberry Torch 9800. It's old. It's all scratched up. It works fine, but it's backwards and archaic. I'd like to have a post-iPhone styled phone that works a little more effectively.

I'm quite tempted to pick up a Blackberry Passport, but first I'd like to hold one. I know they lack apps and that they're weird, but I like the wide screen, the keyboard, and the in-keys touchpad. It seems super cool to me in a totally dorky way. I'd gladly be the loser with the weird-ass phone in a lineup, and I like how the wide screen would make it easy to read the news and whatnot.

http://www.opptrends.com/

But I also understand that it's a pricey thing to get when it's so weird. I mean, If I'm gonna' fork out the cash, even on a contract, for a fancy-dancy new phone, shouldn't I get something more accessible, something that everybody recommends? Like an HTC One M8? Or at least I could wait for the upcoming Blackberry Classic so I can keep my keyboard and trackpad on a much, much-improved phone?

Or I could just get an iPhone?

The thing is that I could care less for apps. I use my phone for phoning, for Internet access, and for notes and a calendar. I don't have any desire to go through the annoyance of Apple updates, iTunes, the App Store, or any of that stuff when I won't be using it to its full potential. The hang-ups of an iPhone severely beat out my desire to have one. Hell, I could probably handle using a Windows phone, considering the ways I use my device. 

Crazy as it seems, I might end-up just holding on to my trusty Blackberry Torch. I don't know if I can handle the stress of these constant upgrades, of always knowing that the new, better phone is just around the corner, that my newfangled device will be obsolete in a couple years. 


Then again, all that might change when I finally get to hold a Blackberry Passport in my hands.