Posted by & filed under Developer Blog.

Often I just want to take my Blackberry Curve and throw it through the window. Why? Because it has a freaking track ball. Whoever thought a track ball was a good idea on a device that becomes as unresponsive as the Blackberry, should be stoned to death (or maybe they were just stoned at the time?).

The reason this has become so frustrating to me is because of the slow processor. Yeah, it’s a small device and I can’t expect it to be a super computer, I get it. But if in the moment that it becomes unresponsive, even for a fraction of a second, I happen to be using the track ball for any reason the results are often disastrous.

You see, as I scroll through options, and land on the one I want, for example “yes” instead of “no,” and then I click the button, sometimes I actually scrolled too far and actually click “no.” But I don’t know that until it becomes responsive again and “catches up” and suddenly the wrong option is highlighted and clicked before I can do anything about it. This doesn’t take a huge delay to cause problems (though huge delays are common).

When “no” gets selected instead of “yes” or vis-versa, or whatever I’m trying to use the track ball for, I get really frustrated. And it happens that I get frustrated a lot throughout the course of the day. Hence my frustration becomes anger.

Yes, my phone makes me angry. I’d really like to replace it, but it’s the only one my company will pay for me to have, and my anger ain’t worth the money. All I can do is shake my fist in the air and long for better days when my smart phone had a touch screen.