Blackberry and My Family

I was away from this tiny island of Singapore for 11 days. Went back to my small little town - Siantar in Indonesia. The first day when I arrived, I almost felt "crippled" as I didn't have access to my Blackberry :p ... the gateway to my social network. The next day, my parents helped me to find a shop that sell prepaid BB SIM card. It was something new to them too as they were still using the old fashioned Nokia that they never dropped nor broken any of the parts. They are amazing in taking care of things. :)

The next 10 days, they witnessed my obsessions with BB. Taking picture of all my favourite foods and straight away shared it with my friends in Jakarta, Singapore and even America. They were really amazed.

The day before I was supposed to fly back to Singapore, my dad insisted that he wanted to go to a mobile phones atrium sales event. On the spot, he bought a Blackberry Torch. Apparently, they have been watching me in "envy" on how fast I was able to send information all over the world with BB users. I was really happy that finally I am able to communicate with my parents "cheaply" through Blackberry Messenger (BBM).

However, I was worried. The learning curve for using BB especially for people who are not too tech-savvy, can be very very steep. I taught my mom a few things and within few minutes, she has forgotten them. I almost lost my patience! Then my mom sent me a message through BBM saying "my blackberry teacher is as fierce as a tigress". HAHA! That cracked me up. I said, well, it's payback time. You used to teach me with a rattan stick on one hand, and now we need to apply the same teaching method. :D

Now, I am back in Singapore and they are still learning on how to use BB - even I am still learning up to this day. There are so many short cuts to be discovered and how to make it a really effective and productive tool. Then few days ago, my mom sent me a voice note through BBM saying she is the most diligent student who studies in a very careful manner. Then my dad managed to change his profile photo and status to - everyday is a lucky day. Followed by my mom who's able to insert emoticons (smileys) into the messages. Next, my dad even confidently SMS his BB Pin to my friend who's not even using BB to begin with!

Not only those mini events brought me laughter but it made me feel so proud to have parents who still love learning and never succumb to age and negative beliefs when it comes to technology. Sure, my mom may type like a turtle and my dad still has tons of questions but the fact that they are no longer being restrained by their age when it comes to approaching something totally new - amazes me.

I am so proud of you, Mom and Dad. I hope when I am as "young" as you, technology doesn't scare me too.

2 SIM Cards 1 Number

As most of you might have known that I'm currently blogging from my Blackberry. It has been a wonderful experience indeed. I did mention briefly about how I'm able to also use my Nokia N97 by using 2 SIM cards with only 1 phone number. I dedicate this post to this amazing technology since one of my friend was asking.

Thanks to the M1 customer service personnel who was listening to my sad plea about how I still want to keep my Nokia and not going to abandon it, he then introduced me to the 2 SIM card option.

Basically you will only have 1 number and you are able to enjoy the goodness of 2 phones; especially iPhone and Blackberry which tend to be the most popular combination. You will then be given Primary SIM Card and Secondary SIM Card. And these are what each card can do.

Primary SIM Card
- Incoming calls: When calls come in, they will first reach the Primary card
- Receiving SMS: When SMS comes in, it will only reach the Primary card
- Outgoing Call: Able to call out
- Sending SMS: Able to text out
- Surf the internet using 3G service
- If your primary phone is a Blackberry, you will be able to use its function too

Secondary SIM Card
- Incoming calls: When calls are not being picked up on the Primary card, it will then be diverted to your Secondary card. Yes, your second phone will ring.
- Receiving SMS: You can't receive any SMS through this card
- Outgoing Call: Able to call out
- Sending SMS: Able to text out
- Surf the internet using 3G service
- If your secondary phone is a Blackberry, you will still be able to use its function too

Changing and Checking
- You may check which phone is the Primary by dialing *137#
- You may change the Primary by dialing *136# on the designated Primary phone (Yes! It's that easy!)

Charges and Fees
Depends on the service provider there are some charges involved with this service:
- 1 time fee for the SIM card (around $19)
- Monthly fee ranging from $2.50-5

Advantages
- You are able to enjoy the goodness of 2 phones while still having only 1 number
- When you run out of battery on one phone, you still have the other phone as back-up
- You don't need to tell the whole world you have new number just because you have a new phone

Disadvantages
- You need to pay for this
- When both phones have no batteries (Trust me, it happened!)

Overall, I'm just grateful this service exists. I was delusional enough to believe I'm able to use 2 phones at the same time while everyone around me thinks I was being ridiculous. Then the universe sent that helpful customer service personnel to let me know that I'm apparently not the only insane greedy phone user around. When you believe it hard enough, the answer may just be presented to you. Who knows. :)