7. How Well Do Smart Phone Services Work? Continued

Another thing, I find it absolutely frustrating is trying to get to Internet sites not on Cingular's small list of supported websites. Trying to connect to almost any site returns the dread error message "Page Cannot Be Displayed." If it's not that it's "Cannot access server." The former message rears its ugly head when I access a website with even minimal complexity. The latter often shows up when I try to get to websites I think I've paid a premium to access, like Consumer Reports site with a monthly fee of $3.95.

Regarding the first message, I guess it's just that Cingular doesn't want to commit the resources to recode most Web pages for viewing on their smart phones miniscule displays. The second message seems to be related to the company's inability to actually sell access to pay-to-use websites. Though my account on Cingular's website shows that I've purchased Consumer Reports, I haven't been billed for it. I hope they're not waiting for me to send them a monthly check.

Please don't tell me to ask Cingular what's up with Consumer Reports. Trying to find out what's going on with phone service from all the carriers I've used is pretty much like finding someone on a merry go round running at 1,000 miles an hour. Phone access almost always leads to endless waits on hold and an almost infinite number of transfers between the cell phone people and the people who handle data services. Inevitably I hang up after either waiting an hour or more or getting the person I started with. Escalating to another level of customer service worked once, but has failed many times since then.

And, forget email. I've yet to get a response to any email inquiry I've sent to any carrier's customer service department. I take that back, one company very quickly stopped sending paper bills when I foolishly asked it for that bit of carrier-friendly anti-service. Unfortunately, I can't get them to start sending the bills again no matter what medium of communication I use.

Generally, accessing the Web on my Blackberry is no different than accessing it on my laptop or desktop computer. It may take a little longer with sites that use complex style sheets and such to format pages, but the site comes to me properly formatted for the small screen, complete with all embedded links in place and working.

Meaningless bells and whistles aside, I pay about the same for services on the Morotola V557 (Cingular) and the RIM Blackberry (Verizon), about $100 a month. "Yikes," I can hear you saying, "One hundred dollars a month?" Yes, grrrr. But that's the subject for another "Who Designed This Crap?"

Conclusions

I love my job. I get to look at tons of cool and not so cool hardware. If I don't like something, I can say so and then readers and vendors can pound on my cage and tell me where I'm wrong. In rare cases a vendor might even fix a problem I've identified. I'm looking forward to getting my hands on smart phones that work better than the two allegedly "top of the line" ones I'm currently using.

Until then, I'm going to turn in my smart phone. I'm even willing to pay the $170 early cancellation fee Cingular is going to charge me to get out of smart phone Hell. I love my Blackberry. Unlike the smart phone, it's a well designed, safe and fully functional Swiss Army Knife.

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