Obama 12 Step

I think I'm the last person on Earth who used an HP iPaq 6315 on a regular basis. In its time it worked well for me as a phone, PDA, email, and web browsing, and had just enough bells and whistles to help me stay productive in or out of the office. I even used it to post to this blog during Hurricane Ike. But last week I finally put the 6315 out to pasture in favor of a Blackberry Curve 8320.

Let me just say that I thought I was hooked on the 6315. In less than 4 days I've become hopelessly addicted to the Blackberry. Even the move from the Windows Mobile operating system hasn't tempered my enthusiasm, and I know I haven't even scratched the surface of what can be done with this baby. I'm out of the office a lot, so for me a smartphone is a must. I really can't imagine doing business without one. And apparently I'm not the only one.

For years, like legions of other professionals, Mr. Obama has been all but addicted to his BlackBerry. The device has rarely been far from his side — on most days, it was fastened to his belt — to provide a singular conduit to the outside world as the bubble around him grew tighter and tighter throughout his campaign...

...But before he arrives at the White House, he will probably be forced to sign off. In addition to concerns about e-mail security, he faces the Presidential Records Act, which puts his correspondence in the official record and ultimately up for public review, and the threat of subpoenas. A decision has not been made on whether he could become the first e-mailing president, but aides said that seemed doubtful.

Give up the Blackberry? Email? Communication with the outside world? Man, that's cruel and unusual punishment. The job is going to be hard enough with forcing our new President to go through withdrawal at the same time. That's just cold.

I don't know how he's going to do it, but I wish him luck. He's going to need it. Thankfully, my correspondence is just not that important so I'll continue trying to figure out ways to maximize the potential of this new device. I'm open for suggestions. How do you use your Smartphone/PDA? Which one do you have? And what are the killer apps that an addict like myself shouldn't be living without?