The cool new techy gadget I had been waiting (semi)-patiently for since June was the new BlackBerry Bold.  This is by far the coolest BlackBerry yet, mostly due to the beautiful, high-res, screen.  The phone was finally released this past week and my worst nightmare came true: I wasn’t able to get it.

A little backstory: when I signed up my new wireless plan (after leaving RIM, who had provided a phone) with Rogers (Robbers?) 6 months ago I had my own BlackBerry device.  As such, I did not take advantage of a subsidized phone purchase.  In the lead-up to the Bold release I had assumed I would still be eligible for one subsidized/upgrade device purchase.  On the release date I called Rogers to confirm and they said “No, you are only entitled to an upgrade after 12 months, and every 12 months after.”  I calmly explained my situation, which made logical sense, and the guy on the phone became a jackass and replied “Well, every carrier has been like this for as long as I’ve worked in the industry.”

Now, at this point, if Robbers did not have an effictive monopoly in the Canadian market I would have seriously considered paying the cancellation fee and moving to another carrier.  But, alas, they do.  The only other major carrier is Bell but they are CDMA so not a chance.

Further, as badly as I wanted the Bold I would not pay the $700, mostly on principle, but also because I’d kind of feel funny paying that much for a phone.

A few days prior to this a helpful person in a Robbers Wireless store had said “Well if you can’t get the Bold you can get the iPhone 3G at the upgrade price.”  At the time I shrugged it off as blasphemy considering I used to work at RIM.  Now this idea was running around in my head and soon I was getting excited to try it out.  Putting aside my ties to RIM for a minute I was able to see that the iPhone may be a good device for me considering my usage habits.  I was nervous about the touch keyboard but excited for the full-screen device.

I’ve had it for a few days now and Wow is it cool.  The browsing experience is amazing; good enough that I don’t feel the need to move to a computer when I want to check something online.  It has some limitations like no push notifications yet and apps cannot run in the background, but I believe both of those should be fixed soon.

I also can’t wait to try out the full-screen BlackBerry device that shouldn’t be too far off in the future.