“You’ll have half the participants BlackBerrying each other as a
submeeting, with a running commentary on the primary meeting,” Mr.
Reines said. “BlackBerrys have become like cartoon thought bubbles.”

Some
professionals admitted that they occasionally sent mocking commentary
about the proceedings, but most insisted that they used smartphones for
legitimate reasons: responding to deadline requests, plumbing the Web
for data to illuminate an issue under discussion or simply taking notes. — Alex Williams, New York Times