The Verizon Blackberry

After hearing from my friends all the benefits of having a Blackberry I decided to purchase one for myself, despite the high cost. The main reason for my purchase was for the Internet and email capabilities of the Blackberry, which are said to outrank other phone models. This is where my first problem started. Naturally, as soon as I had turned on my phone the first thing I wanted to do was access the Internet. This task was far more complicated than need be. I saw a globe which I assumed to be the Internet application and after clicking on it I was directed to a page with Verizon applications such as weather and sports, and others which you could purchase, but not one simple address bar or even a search engine. After becoming so frustrated about not being able access the web I decided to make up my own way of doing this, by sending myself a text message that said www.google.com I was able to click on the link and be directed to googles page which I was able to save in my bookmarks. Still after having the Blackberry for almost a year this is the way I go about accessing the web. This relates to the article " The Psychopathology of Everyday Things" by Donald Norman, because it seems as though a phone who's main feature is Internet capabilities, should be a lot easier and more instructional about how to use the internet on your phone.

My second problem with the Blackberry, came about when I put a password lock on my phone (actually months after I had put on the password lock), everyday, every time I accessed my phone I was asked to enter the same password to unlock it. One day out of the blue I was notified after entering my password, that this password was incorrect. I thought that maybe I somehow hit a wrong key, so I entered my password for the second time. After being notified 10 times that I had entered an incorrect password (which I am positive was not true and I had entered the correct password) my Blackberry screen turned white and a message reading "wiping" and the progress of the "wipe" were displayed. During this time no key worked on the phone, and after the process of "wiping" I turned my phone on only to discover a completely restored Blackberry, with absolutely none of my information, contacts, email settings etc. After calling Verizon and dealing with a Blackberry technician I was informed that all of my prior applications and settings were lost and irretrievable.

So as you can see, not all of the new technology is all its cracked up to be. I had a lot easier time using all of my past phones, which had no email or Internet capabilities. Although the Blackberry is like having both a computer and phone in one, I sometimes think I would just rather keep the two separate.

"Wait for Green" or "NO Turn on Red?"

Have you ever stopped at a red light ready to make a right turn but first noticing the sign in front of you stating "Wait for Green?" I can't begin to count the number of times that I have noticed this sign and had to think to myself what does this actually mean? Why if I wasn't allowed to turn on red they wouldn't have simply used the sign NO Turn on Red? After many times of pondering to myself and asking others if the Wait for Green sign was just a suggestion that you should wait for the green light to make a turn, or if it actually was just another version on the sign NO Turn on Red. I decided to do some research on the use of these signs. After going to the PENNDOT website and reading their driver's manual, there was still no answer on what the Wait for Green sign actually meant, it wasn't even listed in the section that showed all the different street signs in Pennsylvania and gave a definition of what they meant. In the manual they had listed multiple versions of the NO Turn on Red sign, and even a sign that said Opposing Traffic has Extended Green Light, but not even a mention of the Wait for Green sign.

I feel that the confusion of this sign is a major usability issue for drivers. By not following this sign you could be pulled over and ticketed, but if the meaning of the sign is not posted anywhere would it actually even be lawful for a ticket to be issued for not following what the sign said? While researching this topic many people have stated that they do believe that this sign means the same as NO Turn on Red, but many others said they have no idea and were confused like myself about why, if it did mean the same thing, PENNDOT would not have just used a NO Turn on Red, making confusion obsolete.

In my case I will continue to treat the Wait for Green sign as a suggestion, until the meaning is completely clarified, if it ever is.