In October 2009, you may remember that I received an iPhone 3GS, well it proved to be a short-lived phone.  Before I had the iPhone 3GS, I had its predecessor, the iPhone 3G; both were great phones, the 3G more than the 3GS - more on this upcoming!

So, you'll be busting a gut to here that I now have  a Blackberry Bold 9700.  Now, you may be wondering, why I changed and how I changed so early.

First and foremost the reason I changed was because I pure and simple was bored of the iPhone.  After having the 3G for 1 year, and the 3GS for 3 months, I was getting fed up of a touch-screen phone.  However bored I was of the touch-screen, I wouldn't have gotten rid of it until the screen smashed whilst on holiday at the end of December.  By the way, in NO WAY (no joke here) did I mean to smash the phone's screen: it fell out the pocket of my shorts when I jumped, landed on its bottom and cracked.

Fair play to Apple, however, as the phone did work with a smashed screen - which I was surprised at - however it was a health hazard!  I could have sent it away for mending, by the insurance company, but luckily I was due a phone from O2 anyway.

I hear you say "how the hell can he be due a new phone only 3 months after receiving one", well you are right.  I'm lucky in that when I got the 3GS, it was a new contract that was taken out for my sister - but she got my old 3G and I manage to wangle to get the 3GS!  It is all pretty messy...

Anyhow, I chose the Blackberry Bold 9700 to get away from the iPhone, and I have to say: I don't miss the iPhone one bit.

The email client on the Blackberry is so much better.  I never used to be able to get my Microsoft Exchange emails directly to my iPhone (had to log into Webmail every time), but now the phone alerts me when I have an email.

I also much prefer the physical keyboard on the Blackberry compared to the on-screen one of the iPhone.

As for Apps for each phone, I grant the iPhone has a better (much better) app collection, but I never really used them - apart from the Twitter app.  Now that Blackberry has its own Twitter app, I'm as happy as Larry (who is Larry anyway?)

The thing I most miss from my iPhone is iTunes.  I used to love how well it integrated into iTunes - but the Blackberry does the job - and it copies Playlists.

Overall, I'm happy with my choice.

Basically, my gripe is nowadays when you want to enter a public building (a shopping center for example) you walk in with a headache, choking for breath, all the side effects of inhaling the smoke from others cigarettes - otherwise known as 'passive smoking'.  Throw into the equation the putrid smell of cigarette smoke, it's horrible.

Obviously it is the smokers choice of whether to smoke or not, this doesn't bother me.  I'd rather people never smoked, but I guess someone has to prop up the public purse.  However, what really bothers me is that some people who choose to partake are so ignorant.

What I ask the smokers is that they refrain from standing at entrances/exits of public places; for the non-smokers it is horrible - for reasons defined above.

There are the people who stand at doorways smoking, but then there are the intensely ignorant people who think it is OK to blow the smoke into your face, or the people who don't at least try to exhale the smoke in a direction which is clear; which at the front of busy shopping centers cannot be done!

Basically what I ask people to do is smoke in the designated smoking areas.  By the way, I do not want to tar all smokers with the same brush, some already do this.

Also, the Government could do with bringing in legislation in which states something akin to  "Smoking 30-meters from a public building is not permitted"; this is if they haven't already - I had a look through the law, but nothing stood out at a quick glance.

Scottish legislation: http://www.opsi.gov.uk/legislation/scotland/acts2005/asp_20050013_en_2#pt1.

Sorry for the very unstructured rant!  This has been a pet-hate of mine for a while, however it was only aggravated today by a terribly ignorant individual.

Please follow me (@marc_fraser): https://twitter.com/marc_fraser.

Thanks

Marc

I was so impressed with the iPhone 3G, that I've decided to get the latest version - the iPhone 3GS. It should arrive on Wednesday; how it is getting here I don't yet know. If its Royal Mail, I'll be lucky to see it before Christmas!

I'll post my initial impressions when I receive it.