The BlackBerry Q10: My first day with it…

Got a new toy to work with and play with.  It arrived on Friday, a few days before it was scheduled to make its debut nationally.

Yes, I finally got it.  My BlackBerry Q10 cell phone.  In white.  Be nice and I’ll put you in my contact list.  HA!

Of course, getting the phone is one thing.  Now I have to do all the prep work BEFORE I can even use it.

And of course, this is going to require some assistance from Verizon Wireless.  Lots of calls to Verizon Wireless.

Eventually, the partnership of Verizon customer support and me were able to transfer over 100 telephone numbers from my old BlackBerry 9650 to my new phone.  And after some finagling, I started changing the ringtones from some built-in spacey twinkle-note song to person-specific ringtones.  And yes, I started off by adding “10-9-8” for my girlfriend Nicole’s ring tone.  I need to make sure that if she calls, I know it’s her.

After Verizon and I dialed everything in – get it, dialed everything in, haw haw that’s a knee slapper – I downloaded my first app for my new phone (oh man, “new phone” – mmmm).  The app, called AutoReply, allows my phone to send an automatic “I’m not able to text right now” message; perfect for when I’m driving or in a meeting or unavailable for contact.  And it’s only 99 cents to download.

Trust me.  I’d rather lose a friend over not responding back to a text, than gain five points on my driver’s license because I DID respond.  And I speak from experience – not from getting a ticket for texting, but having dealt with someone who didn’t understand that I can’t text and drive, and who got very angry at me because I didn’t respond to their texts in less than two minutes.

Of course, now the other factors have to be added to the mix.  I have to twin the phone to my Bluetooth car speaker – none of this “use the phone’s speaker for voice work” stuff here.  Plus, I have to read the owner’s manual from cover to cover.  This is not just a phone.  This is a miniature workstation with a Wi-Fi hotspot built in.  This is a business phone, and I mean business.

Answering the phone when it rings is a little different than with my previous phones.  I have to swipe up on the touchscreen when someone calls me.  This takes a little practice, because some swipes and finger-draws do different things, depending on the screen or on the usage.  Again, it’s a learning curve, but I’m a fast learner.

So things are working well with the new phone.  And for the first time, I actually have a piece of technology that came out on the first day of availability.

Check that.  All the rest of you BlackBerry Q10 users will have to wait until Monday to get the phone at your local Verizon Wireless stores.  Hee.

So let’s see what I can do with this bad boy… as the weekend progresses.