Shireen is not familiar with the bendable mobile phone or Modu’s ‘match your mobile with your attire’ concept. Not yet. She would love to bend the rules, she says; so what if it’s the cell phone to begin with. Needless to say, Shireen, in her early twenties, is an avid cell phone user. Allow me to liken her possessiveness for her handset to that of an overbearing girlfriend’s presence in my friend’s life (yes, he has a couple!).

Shireen guards her cell phone. Like a diamond. It is more than just a call-text device for her. She has acquired and mastered all modern-day imperatives on her cell phone – getting work done by sending ‘do-it-or-die’ texts to colleagues, staying connected with friends through instant messengers to being part of the 21st century web phenomenon - social networking - on Facebook or Orkut.

Enter 35-year old Neev Singh. It’s Friday morning here and Neev tells us his laptop just crashed. He cannot access his emails and Office files and this is getting on his nerves. The marketing head of a reputed media firm, Neev says he has just been saved from a mild heart attack. Why we ask. Because while his data may be inaccessible at the moment, his mails are not; he can check them all on his Blackberry 8700g. The Crackberry, as it is popularly termed, is the ‘first device’ in his life.

Shireen and Neev happen to be colleagues. When we interviewed the duo on cell phone usage, we were surprised to see them jump onto a warship, ready to tear their hair apart about what’s the hot thing to do on cell phones. Neev doesn’t understand the concept of facebooking on the cell phone and Shireen has not yet matured to the Blackberry phenomenon. The rattling continues and we realized it was time we intervened and got them on the peace table by helping them articulate what they thought was the best that happened to the mobile and why.

Web-mobile convergence is the best thing to happen to mobiles, says Shireen. “You don’t need a laptop to access the Internet and a lot of us socialize on mobiles because we don’t want to lug the extra two kgs. Mobile browsing has made the laptop pretty much extraneous for our age group. I can’t afford to spend 25K and I don’t want to when I can surf conveniently on my N73. And you don’t need a Blackberry to browse,” she says.

What we have to say: EGPRS and Wi-Fi features in mobile phones allow you to participate in hassle-free surfing (EGPRS allows faster data transfer whereas Wi-Fi allows wireless Internet access within a limited area). The Nokia E Series, for example, are phones designed to suit the mobile browsing junkie. The E61i (priced Rs 18,669) has a QWERTY keypad too.

Neev totes his laptop around like all corporate top shots do. But he swears by his Blackberry. “To say I check my mails once in 30 minutes would be an understatement. I check my mails all the time!" And what better way to do it than with the QWERTY keyboard; typing on it is a breeze and the ergonomic body allows easy, single-handed operation. "Besides, I have access to my mails on the Blackberry even before they have hit my desktop," he quips.

Recently Neev was out of office for two days and he received around 617 e-mails. "I wouldn’t be glued to my Blackberry for leisure," says he. According to him, the Blackberry is to mobile what iPod is to MP3 players. Shireen, on the other hand, checks mails on her phone only during SOS situations.

What we have to say: If you need always-on access to email, the Blackberry is your phone. The Blackberry 8800 and 8820 , for instance, don’t have a camera but cater to road racers with the built in GPS feature.