Next-Gen BlackBerry feature request: Let me talk and send email at the same time…

For all the folks in Waterloo, Ontario who think up all the new features that come out in next-generation BlackBerry devices, I have a request. Allow me to talk on the BlackBerry and send & receive email at the same time.

This request may not seem all the important to BlackBerry users that don’t fly all that often, or when they do, have the luxury of taking direct flights. For those of us, however, that have to fly out of regional airports, almost always having to take a connecting flight, a BlackBerry that allows you to talk while pulling down email would be a thing of beauty.

There are times when I am traveling for business via a connecting flight that I am on the phone from the time that I land on the first flight until the flight attendant announces that it is time to turn off all electronics on the second flight. During this time, no email is being sent or received. The productivity loss here is substantial… So much so that you often see road warriors with a BlackBerry and a mobile phone.

I don’t want to carry another device. I am at the threshold for the number of electronic devices I carry in my backpack when going through security. Lets see… I’ve got a laptop, an external hard drive, an iPod, a Sony PSP (for those long trips with no inflight movie), an electric razor, a Bluetooth headset and and charger, a digital recorder (This is something else that should be added to the BlackBerry, however, that is for another post), a laser pointer, and a BlackBerry. If I carry anything else that runs on electric current I am sure to be stopped at every security checkpoint every time going forward.