I am also a gadget guru, enjoying every cool feature that manufacturers create to make devices even more exciting than their predecessors.  When the iPhone 2.0 device was launched a few months ago, I wrote a contract with AT&T and purchased an iPhone (and, I was one of those people standing in line at the AT&T store in Miami Beach).  I figured that this was the time to make the jump from button-pushing to finger-sliding.  Alas, I hadn’t tried an iPhone prior to that day, so I didn’t know what to expect.

I lasted about a day with the iPhone, before returning it to AT&T (and I was happy that I kept my T-Mobile Blackberry 8800).  While the Microsoft Exchange e-mail feature was a step in the right direction, it didn’t quite seem to have the immediacy of true Blackberry Exchange Server e-mail.  But, my greatest gripe with the iPhone was the disappointing battery life.  For a power use like myself, my iPhone was expiring after a mere four hours.  I quickly realized that while the iPhone was cool and sexy, it wasn’t the business-ready device that I needed.

So, fast-forward a few months and Verizon announces the Blackberry Storm.  The guy with the glasses from the commercial on television was getting the country ready for this mega-launch with a series of compelling ads.  It looked sort-of like an iPhone that clicked when you pressed on it.  In fact, the television ads really enhanced the clicking sound, just so we wouldn’t miss is.  My iPhone experience left me feeling a little un-ambitious about venturing into another touch-screen, so I didn’t give any further thought to the Storm.  I also wasn’t sure about defecting from T-Mobile, as I had a long relationship with them.  Also, their international services (data access while roaming for a fixed fee) were important to me when I travelled to Europe.

But, the day after the Blackberry Storm launched, I couldn’t stand the idea that I didn’t have the latest gadget in-hand.  So, I raced to my local Verizon outlet and picked up a Storm.  From a first glance, I noted that the overall size of the device was smaller than I had imagined it to be.  It was quite a bit heavier, though, than it looked, but I was fine with that.  When I turned the device on, the screen clarity and quality just blew me away.  I clicked over to the media icons and played a pre-loaded movie trailer for an upcoming Vin Diesel movie.  It simply dazzled me with color and sound, unlike anything I had experienced on a hand-held device.  This was like no other Blackberry that I had experienced before.

So, along came the big test.  Reading and writing e-mails.  Gone was the familiar track-ball, but navigation using the touch-screen was very obvious and easy.  The big thrill of this device, however, is that you actually have to push on the screen, so it clicks, for your selection to be acted upon.  This was a very odd technique of interacting with a device, and I wasn’t quite sure if this was something that I would enjoy on an ongoing basis.  But, the real test for me was how the keyboard was going to work for me when typing e-mails, something I do more than anything else on a Blackberry.  Seasoned Blackberry users are, by nature, going to reject anything other than regular, tactile keys.  When I started to type (and click the letters as I typed), I was entirely out of my comfort zone.  Spelling mistakes were rampant, and I often was pressing the wrong keys.  I groaned and moaned and wondered if this device was going to be headed back to its maker, just as my iPhone had been destined to do.  Time would tell.

After day 1, I had decided that perhaps I would not keep the Storm, but instead, would replace it with a Blackberry Bold and enable it for my T-Mobile account.  I also read a scathing review in the New York Times by David Pogue that, essentially, made me feel like a moron for even holding onto this device for more than a few hours.  So, part of me was getting ready to throw in the towel, and the other part of me wanted to give the Storm a few more days in my grasp.

Then, something magical happened.  As I continued to use the Storm that week, I found that my typing improved substantially.  I found that the icons and features that were important to me were easy to find and select.  I found that the speed by which I was typing and navigating around the device was increasing exponentially.  Plus, I now had a device that could take crisp photos, shoot video, organize media, read PDF and WORD documents easily, and, alas, browse the web at super-fast speed and with almost the same functionality as Internet Explorer (not quite, though).  I found that e-mail messages had rich and full HTML displays.  I found that my e-mails were being spell-checked and corrected for me.  All in all, I found that the Blackberry Storm was my new device of choice.  And, I have since turned off my Blackberry 8800 and cancelled my T-Mobile account.  I am a new Verizon customer, and I thank them dearly for bringing the Storm to me.  After all, it was the Storm that allowed me to type this entire review with only a handful of spelling errors, and in about 10 minutes time of typing.

So, to all of those people out there who are panning the Blackberry Storm, I would like to say to them that if they give the device a chance they will fall in love with it as I have.

South Florida business leaders are generally upbeat about the federal government’s proposal to buy up to $700 billion in bad debt from ailing U.S. banks and institutions, with many predicting the effort would speed the recovery of the region’s battered housing market.”Certainly, [the bailout] is giving banks and other institutions a sense of relief,” said Ron Shuffield, president of Esslinger Wooten Maxwell, a large real-estate brokerage firm based in Coral Gables. “The financing markets were just frozen.”

The bailout plan is in flux in Congress, but some would like to see quick passage. ”We need action, not talk,” said Martin Schubert, head of European Inter-American Finance Corp. in Miami. “The longer they wait to approve the Paulson plan, the worse the fear gets and the greater the danger gets of an all-out credit crisis.”

A key aim of the rescue plan is to stabilize U.S. banks so they will continue to extend credit to businesses and individuals to keep the economy flowing. By moving bad debts off their books, the banks would be in position to make new loans and have more confidence they would get paid back.

The U.S. housing market is in the midst of a credit drought, with many potential home buyers ready to purchase but unable to get mortgage financing.

Most financial institutions are requiring a 20 percent down payment on a condominium, compared with the 5 percent to 10 percent that used to be typical, according to Shuffield.

`A CREDIT PROBLEM’

Even though the slide in home prices has made South Florida more affordable to home buyers, he said, with 44 percent of the inventory listed at below $300,000, financing is so tight that many would-be home buyers can’t get a loan.

”Anything they do that will stabilize credit markets for home financing is a positive for us,” Shuffield said. “Our problem today is more of a credit problem than a real-estate value problem. We can’t get enough financing for people who want to buy.”

Craig Studnicky — president of International Sales Group, an Aventura-based condominium marketing firm — said he hopes the proposed bailout will provide the liquidity needed for real-estate transactions to proceed.

”Every broker and developer will tell you the biggest issue in 2008 is a lack of mortgage financing,” Studnicky said.

While he said that in the go-go days of 2004 and 2005 lending standards were far too easy, with almost anyone qualifying for a mortgage, “this year the pendulum has swung to the other side.”

Financing requirements for foreign buyers have become particularly tough. ”Every one of my sales offices has seen a significant increase in traffic: more people coming out to see real estate” — especially Venezuelans and Mexicans, he said. But lenders are requiring hefty down payments, quashing many deals, Studnicky added.

Ken Thomas, a Miami banking consultant and economist, agreed the massive government bailout could be good news for South Florida’s housing downturn.

”It could mean we see a bottom [in the housing market] sooner and not as deep,” Thomas said. “Now we will have a place where financial institutions could put bad loans instead of waiting for vulture funds or hedge funds to buy them.”

CONCERN

Some local business leaders are worried about the tremendous financial burden the U.S. government is shouldering in the bailout.

David Brandt, interim executive director of the housing finance authority of Palm Beach County, is concerned the Wall Street bailout plan could heighten inflation or dramatically “reduce the Fed’s ability to stave off another financial crisis that isn’t directly related to these issues.”

Richard Barkett, CEO of the Realtors Association of Greater Fort Lauderdale, also has some reservations: “I have a bad feeling it’s going to take many, many years to pay for this thing. But it’s got to be done.”

`CHAOS’

Armando Codina, chairman of Flagler Development Group, agreed the price tag is large, but he said government intervention is the best option. “Not to react would be much more costly. There would be chaos that would spill over to Main Street.”

Even outside the real-estate sector, many local business executives recognize the upside of the government rescue.

Victor Mendelson, president of the Electronic Technologies Group of Heico, a manufacturer whose clients include airlines, cargo carriers and defense contractors, said the bailout plan can only benefit his company, though not directly.

”It’s a question of how it affects the broader economy and how that affects our end-market,” Mendelson said. “If the economy benefits and there is more liquidity pumped into the economy, then consumers and businesses would have more money to spend, and that can benefit us.”

HELPING HOMEOWNERS

Some think the rescue package should be even broader, with provisions to help homeowners facing foreclosure — a measure some key Democrats in Congress want.

‘Two things they are pushing in Congress — capping CEOs’ salaries and providing more resources for families in foreclosure — are appropriate, and I think it’s what the public wants,” said Arden Shank, president of Neighborhood Housing Services of South Florida, an agency that provides counseling and financial services to help people buy homes. “It’s a little hard to swallow when a company goes under and the CEO walks out the door with millions of dollars.

“We’re seeing hundreds and hundreds of families on the other side of the deal — families in foreclosure. We’re trying to make sure families have options.”

PROTEST

ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), which advocates on financial issues for low- and middle-income individuals, plans a protest rally Tuesday at the Miami Federal Reserve Bank in Doral to urge Congress to include such homeowner-rescue provisions in the bailout package.

”Wall Street created and financed the tidal wave of predatory mortgage products that have led us directly to this crisis,” said Antonio Cruz, ACORN’s leader in Florida.

Miami Herald business writers Scott Andron, Jane Bussey, Beatrice Garcia and Ina Paiva Cordle contributed to this report.