Matchstick Message #3: Battery too low for radio use

from	Tara Raffi
to		Student Information Requests
date		Sun, Sep 26, 2010 at 6:16 PM
subject		Matchstick Message #3:

Dear RIM,

So let's say you are just sitting in your room minding your own business, and all of a sudden that cute boy from physics class that you have a crush on (he always says the answers so articulately) calls you. You listen in heart-pounding astonishment as he says, "I've wanted to tell you this for a while... but I didn't know how... but I wanted to...um uh...ok so I'm going to say it..." and all of a sudden his voice cuts out and you look to your screen to see, to your horror, "battery too low for radio use".

You think, ah! I will just plug my phone in and call him back while he's still formulating his thoughts. No such such luck, because--unlike my ancient Samsung E380 flip phone that had this capability a half decade ago--the BlackBerry cannot use electricity to enable the radio if the battery charge is below 5%. Even if you plug it in immediately, you have to wait at least three minutes to have enough battery to place a call. By that time he's convinced himself that you've rejected him by pretending to break your phone, or started solving a problem involving velocity-time graphs and forgot about you.

Since I switched to the Tour, RIM has made one step in the right direction, by not requiring you to manually turn your signal back on. That was really the worst--collapsing into sleep after a Saturday night out and waking up Sunday at 11AM to realize my signal had been off all morning and everybody went to brunch without you.

So my message is this: if a Blackberry is plugged into a charger that is plugged into a electricity socket that is working, the BlackBerry should be able to make calls. Please fix this.

Sincerely,

Tara Raffi

Electricity Enthusiast

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