Manual Transmission

Speaking of advertising and marketing, at what point did user manuals devolve into little more than marketing brochures? I just bought a BlackBerry via Nextel, and it came with three different user "guides" ("features-at-a-glance," "quick tips to get started," and "user guide") all of which had essentially the same text in them, and all of which had little more than highly excited prose about all the wonderful, phantasmagorical things I can do with my BlackBerry, but few actual details on how one specifically does them. Thus, getting the bloody thing functioning required a trip to the Nextel sales office, two long conversations with tech support (you know, if the manual had said that I have to go to the Nextel Web site and set up a BlackBerry e-mail account first, then there would have been no problem), and a great deal of trial and error. Look, I like puzzles as much as the next guy, but really. Would it have killed them to explain how one adjusts the volume of the ringer in the user guide?

On the plus side, once I figured it out, I actually do like the BlackBerry. I found a freeware app that lets me sync my Mac's Address Book with the BlackBerry so I don't need to manually enter phone numbers, names, and e-mail addresses. The Nextel signal is stronger in the house than the Verizon Wireless one (which isn't saying much), and I do like the ability to check e-mail from the phone rather than lug the laptop around. My only gripe with the e-mail is that there appears to be no way to set it to manual. That is, it automatically transfers messages from my e-mail accounts whether I want it to or not, which I don't always want it to do. There may be a way to change this, but, well, you know the user "guide" has nothing to say on this subject. All it says is, "Check your e-mail accounts from your BlackBerry device!!!!"

With any luck, this device won't be plummeting down the stairs any time soon...