I never thought anything could tear me away from my Crackberry. I was a proud addict, checking my phone from the moment I woke up until just before bed, and sometimes, crazily, even in the middle of the night. So I wondered, when I received the T-Mobile G1 phone to review, just how it could possibly get in the way of my relationship with my Blackberry. But after spending just a month with the phone, I am a total convert.

The T-Mobile G1 phone has all of the functionality and intuitiveness as other smartphones, but the touch dialer and hidden soft plastic keyboard is a lot simpler and sleeker than the tiny keys on the Blackberry. It has all the typical smartphone technical bells and whistles, along with the cool touch screen that looks just like the web, not a phone version of it. I was able to access online email easily, along with Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, and instant messenger applications like AIM are already set up to use as well.

But it’s the easy-to-set up email and free downloadable applications that really drew me in. I quickly plugged in my account information for three of my email accounts – work, business, and personal – and within seconds I was checking my messages. I’m an email addict – which I need to be since I get many time-sensitive requests related to my blogs, and the G1 phone allows me to refresh the inbox at my leisure (which is virtually every other minute!), or I can set it up to check at scheduled intervals. I also downloaded a slew of games including Solitaire, Brain Genius and Ms. PacMan, one of my favorite vintage video games, which looks and plays just like the original!

Of the various applications on the phone, one of my favorites is ShopSavvy. I use the 3 megapixel camera on the phone to scan a barcode on any item and the phone finds the item, which you can then browse on the web to buy, or email the link to yourself or someone else. I used it to plug in a few items that I want for Christmas, so I can easily send the links to family and friends, hopefully so they can buy them for me as gifts!

Another one of my favorite applications is Shazam. Aside from fashion, I’m a music nut and it just bugs me when I hear a song that I love but can’t figure out the name and artist. Well, no more. With Shazam, I just hold the phone up to the music source and in a minute it identifies the name of the song, the artist and the album. I’ve already put the Shazam application to good use in the car, at home, and even at Zen Burger! I was able to identify a song I heard years ago (Get a Move On by Mr. Scruff) and downloaded the entire album (The Chillout Sessions – Ibiza Sunsets) onto my phone via Amazon.com!

Finally, WordPress To Go is the ideal application for me. As a blogger, I’m always thinking of new stories to write and with my previous phone, I had to email my thoughts to myself for later posting. Now with WP To Go, I can blog straight from my phone!

Overall the phone is the ultimate in cool yet extremely simple to use. I didn’t even have to read the owner’s manual – I just set it up and it was ready to use! There’s a good mix of basic and fun applications and the touch screen mix with the keyboard gives you more variety. The G1 is a smartphone, simplified.