I switched from an Android (G1) to a BlackBerry (9700) back to an Android (Nexus One) and back to a BlackBerry (9700) and stuck with BlackBerry up to now for basically one reason: BlackBerry Group Chat. Not to be confused with the standard-use BlackBerry Messenger (which it’s a part of) — I could’ve lived without that. Me and about ten other friends kept a group chat active (typically very active) for about a year and nine months. I don’t know how much I’m embellishing, but I’d guess we knew what something like 75% of the group was up to about 75% of the time through the group chat.
We switched to GroupMe a few months ago (it doesn’t run great on my BlackBerry so I stick to the web version). That essentially ended the BlackBerry group chat. A lot of us switched to iPhones last week and that really felt like the final nail in the coffin. But I wanted to write a tribute post to reflect on something that kept a lot of us in touch. That tribute post isn’t this one. It’ll be longer. I copied all of the pictures posted to the chat that I have saved to my computer and have been browsing through them. I think I might just do a best of and post one picture from each month.
Since I’m not exactly hasty with these kinds of posts, I’m going to post one picture right now as a preview. It’s one of the better ones I found from a quick skim, featuring a CD my brother burned. Origin date of the CD is unknown, only that it had to be after printable CD labels were invented but prior to printable CD labels going out of style. Considering I found the CD at our parents’ house, it appears he burned it — and more importantly, designed the label — for himself:
