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Codebreaker

Blackberry, feel my shame

Millie Jefferson Oct 13, 2011

So, after three days of messing up our lives, Blackberry came out with its big apology. You can check out the whole thing here, But here’s the gist. Blackberry’s sorry for messing up your e-mail, your top-secret, super-encrypted BBM, your connection to the world, yada yada.

But who’s going to compensate me for my humiliation? Blackberry users don’t dare talk about this outage or any other unfortunate event. The outages, the endless loading clock, the blank screen, they’re all off limits. There’s no sympathy for us. It’s like crying to a good friend about a break up, when everyone but you knew the guy was a jerk.

As we discussed “the outage” at our morning editorial meeting, wondering if yet another Blackberry collapse was worth airtime (Here’s the story we ended up doing), I chimed in to say that I, too, was a victim. And here’s what I got: everyone holding up their iPhones and taunting me and my fellow misguided colleagues. “Have you heard, let me introduce you to the iPhone” and “Well, you do have a Blackberry”

And that wasn’t the half of it. My so-called friends with their iPhones and HTCs won’t give me a break. Even people who are still carrying Palms in their pockets are getting in on the ridicule. My Twitter feed brings up things like this:

“if your blackberry’s still acting up, know what’ll fix it? a time machine #getwiththetimes #itsnot2005anymore”

I’m wounded. I’m embarrassed. I’m stuck.

So for now…I’ll pray my Blackberry has no more problems. And if it does, I’ll just pull out my iPad (make at least a few people jealous) and get back to work.

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