Here ya go, Josh:

The New BlackBerry Addicts
Ubiquitous Professional Device
Becomes Staple of Private Life;
Emailing the Kids' Coach
By ANJALI ATHAVALEY
January 23, 2007; Page D1

Unlike most people who are hooked on their BlackBerrys, Casey Williams doesn't use the email device to keep up with his boss or clients. Instead, he uses his new BlackBerry Pearl to check email from his professors and send text messages to his friends when he is out at a noisy bar.

"It's pretty much my lifeline," says Mr. Williams, a student at Texas State University who ditched his Motorola Razr phone late last year and bought the $199 Pearl.

Wireless email devices used to be largely the domain of harried executives and professionals. Now, the so-called CrackBerry effect is beginning to afflict the masses. The BlackBerry has become ingrained in daily life, much like the cellphone and computer. The result is that a new demographic of obsessive users -- everyone from stay-at-home parents to college students -- is depending on BlackBerrys or similar email devices for basic daily tasks, such as checking sports scores, finding directions, emailing the children's baseball coach and keeping in up-to-the-minute touch with friends.
FOR THE MASSES

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See more information on the new smart phones.

In the past year, cellphones that come with extra features such as email and keyboards -- known as smart phones -- have made major inroads into personal lives. Last year, U.S. sales for the month of November were 787,507 units, compared with 220,796 units in November 2005, according to NPD Group, a market researcher in Port Washington, N.Y. Smart-phone "manufacturers and carriers have started to offer more mainstream prices and mainstream devices," says Neil Strother, research director of mobile devices for NPD -- a result of lower prices, smaller, sleeker designs, and improvements in software.

A host of new smart phones are hitting the market. This month, Apple Inc. announced it will launch a media-playing cellphone with email capability in June. The iPhone -- which has a base price of $499 in addition to a two-year contract with AT&T Inc.'s Cingular Wireless unit -- will target high-end consumers. Palm Inc. recently released the Treo 750, its fourth smart phone to be rolled out in the U.S. in the past year, on Cingular's network. Motorola Inc. and Nokia Corp. have also launched new smart phones. Also this month, T-Mobile USA, owned by Deutsche Telekom AG, brought down its price for the BlackBerry Pearl to $149 from $199. The Pearl -- Research in Motion Ltd.'s first consumer-focused BlackBerry device -- is now available in white.
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"The Pearl has attracted a lot of people to BlackBerry who we would not have otherwise attracted in the retail setting in the past," says Mark Guibert, vice president of corporate marketing for Research in Motion, of Waterloo, Ontario. Unlike other BlackBerry devices, the Pearl has a built-in camera and multimedia player -- features that help increase its broad appeal. "We are seeing people who are buying the Pearl with personal use in mind as the primary use," he says.

The growing appetite for smart phones is in part fueled by demand from independent contractors or small-business owners who don't receive wireless email devices from employers. Josh Hallett, a 34-year-old social media consultant who has his own business, says that while he bought his Pearl for work, he uses it to check sports scores and snap pictures for fun. "Occasionally you'll come across something bizarre that you'll just want to document," says Mr. Hallett, of Winter Haven, Fla.

Recently, he used it to snap a photo of the mountains behind his cabin while vacationing in North Carolina. He wirelessly posted it that same day to the photo-sharing site Flickr.com.

People are paying a higher price for personal use. While employers usually cover the monthly cost of smart phones for corporate users, consumers are paying for their own data plans, which let you send emails and surf the Internet, in addition to their voice plans. That can tack as much as $40 onto the monthly bill.

Many consumers say the extra cost is worth it. Tina Gill, 35, a stay-at-home mom in Austin, Texas, uses her BlackBerry 7100g to keep up with the fluctuating schedules of her two children. She often receives email updates from her children's golf and baseball coaches on where practice is being held that day. She also uses it to look up directions to the locations of her daughter's Girl Scout activities and respond to emails from her friends while she is running errands. "I'm on the road more than my husband, who has his computer in front of him," Ms. Gill says.

As the demand for on-the-go access to email and Web search grows among consumers, device makers are scaling up efforts to market their gadgets to the masses. Sunnyvale, Calif.'s Palm, for example, launched a $25 million campaign last year to generate mainstream awareness for its Treo smart phones.

Smart phones -- especially those designed to be slimmer and more lightweight -- have caught the attention of young consumers. Jessica Sellers, 21, a student at Louisiana State University at Alexandria, bought a Palm Treo 650 in August. "My friend had one, and at the time, it was the coolest phone out there," Ms. Sellers says. "I decided to get one, too."

She has found creative uses for her Treo. For instance, a month ago, Ms. Sellers asked a friend to send her a message while she was having coffee with a blind date to check how it was progressing. If the date was going badly, the friend had planned to give Ms. Sellers a fake emergency phone call so that she could bolt. Fortunately, the date wasn't too painful. "I texted her back saying, 'it's OK,' " she says.

wow, i am actually in that article. I've never read it before. i googled myself and this came up. very interesting!!!