Well, I answered my own question online and I have ordered my new Blackjack. Yes, I know there’s a more-advanced Blackjack II, but with the mission trip coming up I didn’t want to spend the $199 out-of-pocket cost, even though $100 of it would have been rebated eventually. The original Blackjack was free with a two-year contract extension.

They promise delivery in two business days, so I’m assuming the phone will get shipped Monday and I’ll have it Wednesday at the latest.

Between now and then, I’m going to go through the contacts on my Palm and weed out ones that I’m not sure are still accurate or where there’s little chance I’ll ever need the information again.

I’ve already downloaded the instruction manual so I can see what all it can do!

UPDATE: AT&T is now showing that the phone has been shipped, even though today is Saturday. Woo hoo!

If anyone reading this uses a Blackjack smartphone (not the Blackjack II), answer me this: is there a way to synch the phone (calendar, contacts, etc.) with one’s computer using a cable? Because I don’t want to pay for a $30 / month data plan. I have a $5.99 / month data plan on my current phone, which I use mostly to check GMail using its mobile app.

AT&T is having major DNS problems. I had problems with my Internet connection right before I left for the Bicentennial reception, about 5 p.m., and was still having problems when I got home three hours later. If you have an online pal you haven’t heard from tonight, this may be the reason.

After reading the news article referenced above, I have tried using OpenDNS. It’s now working fine. Is anyone else using this? Should I switch back to the AT&T DNS servers once the problem has been resolved, or is it OK to keep using OpenDNS?