BB Geeks

BBGeekcast: November 20, 2009 – Episode 91

Joe — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:45:24 +0000

It’s all devices, all the time at the BBGeekcast. Or at least it is this week. We’ve seen a few new releases over the past few weeks, including the Storm 2, the Bold 9700, and the Curve 8530. Never the types to be satisfied, we run down what’s in the near future for RIM.

So click on over here to hear the BBGeekcast (10 min, 7 sec)

And don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast so you won’t miss future episodes!

You can also subscribe to the BBGeekcast in iTunes.

Highlights include:

We start with the next generation BlackBerry Pearl. Pictures of the device, plus a YouTube video, were recently posted by Salomondrin. It’s pretty, for sure, with a higher res screen and an optical trackpad. We should start hearing more about this soon, along with the new version of the Tour.

Next up, the BlackBerry QWERTY slider touchscreen that we’ve heard about for nearly two years now. The patent was filed — or, at least, someone discovered it — in February 2008. It’s been an on and off discussion, though I’m not sure there are any plans to produce it.

Finally, the BlackBerry Magnum, or whatever they’re calling the Bold with a touchscreen. This is the winner, I think. I know a lot of people who loved the Palm Treo because of the touchscreen/mechanical keyboard combination. It worked well enough for Palm for a while. I’m sure RIM can make a success of their spin on it.

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

BBGeekcast: November 20, 2009 – Episode 91

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

BBGeekcast: November 20, 2009 – Episode 91

A BlackBerry theme for every city

Joe — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:30:14 +0000

BlackBerry themes have been a prominent topic this week. It started on Wednesday when, as we do every other week, we reviewed three premium BlackBerry themes. Two of these were created using BlackBerry Theme Studio 5.0, so yesterday we went over how to create your own BlackBerry theme. I kiddingly urged someone to make me a custom theme, but I think I’ve found something to keep me occupied for a bit. Via BBCool, I found out that Bplay has launched a series of themes for cities around the world. Yeah, I’m totally getting the New York one, pictured below.

It’s not only that beautiful skyline, though. The theme rotates every 10 minutes, featuring various sites from around each city. That should keep things even more interesting for those who like to change up their theme every once in a while. So if you’re looking for a new theme, make sure to head over to Bplay and check out their Embrace brand of themes. They’re $5.99 each.

Los Angeles
New York
London
Paris
Rome
Barcelona
Bejing
Berlin
Tokyo
Vancouver
Moscow
Washington

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

A BlackBerry theme for every city

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

A BlackBerry theme for every city

BlackBerry News From The Wire for the Week of 11/16/2009

Joe — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:30:11 +0000

Purchasing a BlackBerry is a serious decision. Not only does the device cost up to $200, but you’re then committing to two years of service. We discussed the total BlackBerry cost a while ago. Voice plan, messaging plan, data plan — it all adds up over two years. Earlier this year we saw a prepaid carrier, MetroPCS, launch the BlackBerry Curve 8330. The service cost $50 per month for unlimited voice and messaging, plus BIS ($60 for BES), making it cheaper than most other BlackBerry service plans. It’s attractive because there is no commitment — not in the contractual sense, at least. The device cost over $400, and that kind of investment can keep you tied to the service. It appears T-Mobile is trying a similar gambit.

T-Mobile Complete

In an attempt to compete with prepaid carriers like MetroPCS and Cricket, T-Mobile has launched a new program, T-Mobile Complete. It’s complete, I suppose, because it offers unlimited features for a flat monthly rate. You can have unlimited voice, unlimited voice + text, or unlimited voice + text + Web starting at $50 per month. It’s a bit more expensive than MetroPCS and Cricket, but T-Mobile has the advantage of a nationwide network.

Yet because there are no contracts, T-Mobile has to keep users hooked somehow. Like their competitors, they’ll go on price. The BlackBerry Curve 8520 will cost $299.99. That is more than 10 times what the device costs, subsidized, on Wal-Mart’s website. So there’s a trade-off. Would you rather be locked into a service because of a contract, or because you invested so much in a handset? But hey, at least you can unlock the handset.

T-Mobile isn’t the only company that has started offering a prepaid BlackBerry solution. Optus in Australia is also offering the Curve 8520. Their version is $100 more than T-Mobile’s, but the service plans start at $30.

Tip of the week: Change your A, W, and Q speed dial keys. Just understand that once you change then, you can never go back.

Could Microsoft buy RIM?

Everyone wants to predict the future smartphone landscape. Who will reign supreme in a few years? Will Android grow into the lead? WIll RIM hold onto what it has? How much market share will Apple have by that point? What’s in store for Windows Mobile? These are all questions that are impossible to answer. Yet every day it seems like someone wants to give it a go. Most of the time, from the articles I’ve seen, people predict Apple to be on top, though I’ve read a few instances of Windows Mobile.

Windows Mobile? Really? I’ve never been impressed by Microsoft’s mobile platform, and that makes me wonder what other people see in it. Microsoft is working on a new version of WM for next year, but if that doesn’t work out, they could always buy RIM. It might sound far-fetched, and I doubt it ever happens, but the linked article suggests as much. Another site picked up the story (which has apparently been an analyst suggestion for years), and predicts that this will go down by the end of June, 2010.

Again, I just can’t see it. Microsoft would have to go all-in for RIM. And then what of Windows Mobile? I’m not ruling out this acquisition, but I do see too many moving parts to make it work.

Smartphones could lead to denial of service attacks

Sports fans became familiar with the term, denial of service attack, in 2007, when ESPN radio personality Colin Cowherd instigated one against the blog The Big Lead. Others found out this summer, when U.S. and South Korean websites fell victim to a distributed denial of service attack (DDOS). The basic idea behind one of these attacks is to use many computers to send so much data to a certain server at once that it crashes. There is a fear this could now happen with smartphones.

RIM VP of security Scott Totzke recently addressed the issue. Unless security measures are put in place which prevent this type of attack, it seems like an inevitability. Regarding smartphones, they could be used to attack a carrier, rather than just one specific website. Says Kevin Mahaffey, CTO at mobile security software maker Flexilis, “These are not telephones anymore. They are computers. So people are going to have all the problems on their phones that they have on their computers. We’ve already heard warnings about viruses. DDOS seems to be just as big a concern, though.

Need a new BlackBerry theme? Make sure to check out our bi-weekly theme review feature, where we discuss some new OS 5.0 themes. We also discuss how to create your own BlackBerry theme.

Some hands-on takes of the BlackBerry Storm 2

The Storm 2 has been out for a few weeks now, so we’ve seen most of what we’re going to see about it. Well, then again, it’s a new BlackBerry device, so there should be no shortage of reviews. We’ve already seen a ton of pre reviews, including an excellent one by Kevin at CrackBerry. But let’s take a look at a few of the more general-interest sites — ones that don’t tie themselves to just the BlackBerry.

First up, Engadget, which has just undergone a pretty redesign. Stop by and admire how far superior it is to their old design. They have a long, comprehensive view of the Storm 2, which you can read here. I think I’ll let theri video do the talking, though.

The definitive line from Engadget: “Only problem is, Waterloo is clearly woefully unequipped to handle the creation of exceptional, effortless usability that’s demanded of a lustworthy mobile device these days.” It’s harsh, but it’s reflective of the current smartphone market.

Boy Genius Report is a bit more attached to BlackBerry than Engadget, and as such their review is a bit more glowing. Still, they’re not totally impressed. Maybe that’s because there are a ton of other touchscreen devices on the market that can do more than the Storm 2.

New BlackBerrys for AT&T, Telus

The Curve 8520, Bold 9700, and Storm 2 are already out. They’re not out, however, though AT&T and Telus. We learned this week that the Bold 9700 will hit AT&T on November 22, while the CUrve 8520 shouldn’t be too far behind. We also learned that the Storm 2 will hit Telus. Good news for people on those carriers.

Software roundup

Just some software tidbits from the last week:

I reviewed QuickLaunch, an app that allows you to quickly launch (duh) different applications and functions on your BlackBerry. It’s a great app for the productivity gurus out there.
Yahoo! Go? Yahoo! No. (I learned that in my “how not to write a headline” class). Yahoo will discontinue it’s Go application. We worked with Go a lot here on BBGeeks, so we’re sad to see it go.
TwitterBerr = OpenBeak. It seems like more than a few Twitter clients are changing their names to remove the word Twitter. Orangatame did one better, removing references to both Twitter and BlackBerry. The good news: there’s a new version out.

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

BlackBerry News From The Wire for the Week of 11/16/2009

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

BlackBerry News From The Wire for the Week of 11/16/2009

Create your own themes with BlackBerry Theme Studio

Joe — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:30:41 +0000

As mentioned in yesterday’s theme review post, RIM recently released BlackBerry Theme Studio, an application which allows anyone to create new BlackBerry themes. While we’ll always appreciate the work of the professional designers who create vibrant premium themes, we also know that many people have an idea for the perfect theme in their heads. I know I do. There have been a few themes that have come close to that, but none have been the perfect Joe Theme. If you’ve been longing for your own perfect theme, and you have some time on your hands, you can now give it a try.

The first step is to download BlackBerry Theme Studio 5.0. You can do this at http://www.blackberry.com/themestudio. Unfortunately, if you’re a Mac user, you get the old school treatment from RIM. You’ll need Windows XP Professional or Vista to run Theme Studio, which is a shame for some of us. It doesn’t mention anything about Windows 7, but if it’s compatible someone please let me know. Otherwise the requirements are pretty straight forward. You’ll need BlackBerry OS version 4.2.2 or higher.

Theme creation is a long process. Thankfully, the folks at Inside BlackBerry have taken the time to write out a full tutorial. Check out Part 1, where they go over the different elements of theme design. This covers aspects like creating the different screens — home screen, applications menu, lock screen, incoming call screen, etc. — and how they work within Theme Studio.

Once you’re familiar with theme creation, read Part 2, which goes step-by-step through the creation process. After reading both of these articles, you should be well on your way to creating the perfect theme for you. And, while you’re at it, if you want to create the perfect theme for me (since I’m a Mac user), all I need is a two-row bottom dock, Today section for messages, and access to Clock, Profiles, Manage Connections, and Options through the home screen icons (signal, battery, time, etc.).

Anyone up for it?

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Create your own themes with BlackBerry Theme Studio

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Create your own themes with BlackBerry Theme Studio

Theme Review: GreenTech, Winter Wonderland, Liquid Chrome

Joe — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:04:20 +0000

Over the weekend I had a big choice to make. As I mentioned Monday, I got a BlackBerry Tour on Saturday. After I set up all the technical aspects, I was left with a decision over which theme to choose. I went through a bunch of our theme reviews, and eventually cape upon something interesting. Apparently, I said that I’d load up the Aliencology theme once I got a Tour. So, true to my word, that’s what I picked. It’s just as awesome as I remembered. But, I still want to find alternatives. It’s not perfect, at least for me. I think there’s a perfect BlackBerry theme for everyone, and that’s part of the purpose of this feature. Let’s see if you find yours this week.

GreenTech

I’m assuming most readers do not have OS 5.0 yet. It’s only officially available for certain devices, and since those are brand new it’s safe to say that most of us are waiting for our carriers to release it. Hedone Design — who else? — got ahead of the game recently, constructing the GreenTech theme. The first sentence of the theme description is enticing enough to draw in anyone. “There are number of features in this new theme, which so far we have not included or could not be done.” Previously unavailable features? No way I’m not checking this out.

Hedone has made this theme available in separate versions for OS 5.0 and OS 4.6 and above. This means I can’t really test the new features available for 5.0 users. As you’ll see, this is a disappointment. The Home Screen features six icons in the dock. If any of these are Calendar or Messages, a Today Preview is available. The battery and signal meters are conspicuously in the top right corner in the form of analog gauges. Below that is the Sounds icon. All of this is pretty standard. So what’s with the new features?

The only thing I notice in the description of “multifunction icons.” That appears to mean the clock and meters on the Home Screen. This, however, is not a 5.0-only function. It’s the same thing on Aliencology. The signal meter acts as the Manage Connections function, the battery icon brings you into Options, and the clock brings you into the alarm clock. So I’m still unclear as to what the new 5.0 features are. Too bad I can’t test that version for myself.

If you’re interested in this theme, you can get it for $3.99 until November 23, when the price will increase to $7.00. Again, you can get this for OS 4.6 and up, and maybe you’ll find new features on the 5.0 version.

Winter Wonderland

Hedone used BlackBerry Theme Studio 5.0 to create the GreenTech theme. Another new user of Theme Studio 5.0 is a BBGeeks fave, Cherri Chiodo. She also has a few new themes out, centered around the incoming season. People love winter for different reasons, whether it be the holidays or the snow. Today we’ll look at a theme for the snow people. Appropriately, it’s titled Winter Wonderland.

As with most of Cherri’s themes, the visuals rule Winter Wonderland. It’s a very basic theme from a functional standpoint, featuring eight Home Screen Icons, line up on either side of the screen, leaving enough free real estate for a Today Preview. Really, there’s no excuse to not include a Today Preview these days (that is, to not at least include it as a theme option). The whole theme has a silver and white theme, including the main graphic, a snow-covered pine tree, and the icons. I think it looks especially good against a black BlackBerry (before now I for the most part had silver Berrys, and I never knew how much the contrast between theme and hardware color mattered).

You can get the Winter Wonderland theme for $7.99. That’s the link to the Tour version. There are versions for all models running OS 4.6 and above.

Liquid Chrome

Ready for another OS 5.0 theme? This one comes from BlackBerry Theme Park, a subscription-based service that allows you unlimited themes for a one-time membership fee of $20. I’ve said it in the past, but that’s a great deal if you’re someone who gets sick of a theme quickly. The theme we’re examining today is called Liquid Chrome, which describes the wallpaper graphic. Given the yellow and black color scheme, all I could think of was Sprint Nextel.

Liquid Chrome features a hidden dock, which creates a cleaner Home Screen. Once you highlight the first item, the entire six-icon dock appears. This is, of course, fully customizable. I’d recommend putting the Messages and Calendar applications in there, though, because the theme features a seven-item Today Preview. On the Applications Menu the icons are easy enough to decipher, and some of them are downright cool. I’m a particular fan of the camera icon.

You can get the Liquid Chrome theme a la carte for $6.99. But, again, the subscription might be a better option.

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Theme Review: GreenTech, Winter Wonderland, Liquid Chrome

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Theme Review: GreenTech, Winter Wonderland, Liquid Chrome

TwitterBerry changes name to OpenBeak

Joe — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:30:53 +0000

It was barely a month ago that we re-reviewed TwitterBerry. We originally reviewed it in early 2008, but the company behind it, Orangatame, brought it up to date, adding many features that users demanded. Unfortunately, TwitterBerry is no more. Orangatame has changed the name to OpenBeak in hopes that it “allows the app to grow beyond both the Twitter platform and BlackBerry smartphones.” With the name change comes a few new features, including two that I had complained about in the TwitterBerry review. Previously, TwitterBerry made it difficult to post photos. Users had to go into the camera application, snap a picture, and select “Send to Twitterberry.” Even then, there were some issues with sending pictures. It appears that Orangatame has fixed this, creating a feature which allows users to post photos to Twitter sites like TwitPic. They’ve also added a search function, which was conspicuously absent from previous releases. These are the two major updates, and they’re more than welcome. Other features in OpenBeak include:

Post updates to Twitter, including a character countdown from 140 characters
One-click access to view friends timelines, replies, your favorites, your own timeline, and the public timeline
Post pictures to Zannel, TwitPic, Twitgoo, or yfrog
Take a picture with a one-click embedded camera (BlackBerry® Device Software version 4.6+)
Reply to tweets from each timeline view
Send and receive direct messages
Mark tweets as favorites
Notification icon that indicates the number of unread messages, like new emails or missed calls (BlackBerry® Device Software version 4.6+)
Cache all avatar images to internal memory, thus saves network access and helps faster loading
Search Twitter with a keyword or from a list of currently trending topics
Active text recognition of @usernames and #hashtags
New Setup wizard
Two modes of list views: a “fixed height” view and a “variable height” view

As with TwitterBerry, OpenBeak works with any BlackBerry device running OS 4.2.1 or above. You’ll also need a data plan, of course. To download OpenBeak 1.1, visit m.openbeak.com from your BlackBerry Browser. As a closing aside, there is at least one more Twitter client that has removed the brand name from its own. I used to use the popular TwitterFox browser plugin, but that has since changed to Echofon. I can’t be sure, but it seems like these developers want to keep their own brand front and center, rather than using Twitter’s. It’s a lot easier to do this once you have a large following, as both TwitterFox and TwitterBerry did.

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

TwitterBerry changes name to OpenBeak

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

TwitterBerry changes name to OpenBeak

Walkthrough of QuickLaunch for BlackBerry

Joe — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:30:16 +0000

There are many applications that make your BlackBerry and even better productivity tool. Last week we examined StudentDocket, an application that provides organizational tools superior to those natively on the BlackBerry. While StudentDocket can streamline your professional and personal lives, it doesn’t streamline your BlackBerry itself. This week we’re going to look at an application that does. It’s called QuickLaunch, and the name couldn’t be any more appropriate. It will make navigating your BlackBerry that much easier.

Overview

When I first saw QuickLaunch, I immediately thought of my new favorite Mac application, Quicksilver. The ideas behind both are the same. Instead of drilling down through menu after menu to launch an application, or launching your web browser and looking around for a site, these applications allow you to open these with minimal keystrokes.

QuickLaunch allows you to open more than just applications and web pages. You can quickly call, email, text, or BBM your most common contacts. If you’re a multimedia person, you can add QuickLaunch to audio and video files, allowing for quick and easy access. That’s the entire idea behind QuickLaunch: cutting out unnecessary steps so you can get on with what’s important.

Adding to the QuickLaunch library

The more applications, websites, contacts, and media files you add to your QuickLaunch library, the easier it will be to use your BlackBerry. It means that everything that’s important to you is just a keystroke or two away.

When you first run QuickLaunch, you’ll get the screenshot you see to your right. This is where you add to your library. To get started, let’s look at adding an application. On this screen, you’ll click the trackball on Application. That brings you to a screen where you can choose from any application on your BlackBerry. That will add it to the QuickLaunch menu, which we’ll examine in a moment. You also have the option of adding a shortcut key. That will allow you to access the application from the QuickLaunch menu, so you don’t have to scroll to the item.

Adding a website works in the same way. Click on Website, and you’ll get a screen with a few fields. First is Menu Display Text, which is for the website’s title. Then you enter in the URL, with the option of assigning a shortcut key. The only qualm I have with the website section is that you cannot add a bookmark directly from your browser. That would be a great addition.

The process works the same way for phone calls, email, SMS, and PIN messages. Click into the appropriate menu item, and then you can select the contact from your address book. Finally, for media files, you can choose from your device memory or from an SD card. All of these items will be added to your QuickLaunch meny for easy access.

Navigating the QuickLaunch menu

Once you have added applications, web pages, contacts, and media to your QuickLaunch, it’s time to start using the application. After you exit QuickLaunch for the first time, you’ll see the menu in the upper right hand corner of your screen. You can back out of this menu at any time by hitting the Escape key. To relaunch the QuickLaunch menu, just click on the application.

Tip: Set QuickLaunch to one of your convenience keys. Check out our quick tip on how to set your BlackBerry convenience key.

To access anything on the menu, either scroll to it and press the trackball, or otherwise press the shortcut key you assigned to it. That’s all there is to it, really. It’s why QuickLaunch is such a perfect application for your BlackBerry. Once you have it up and running, accessing everything on your BlackBerry is simple. You might never need to access the Applications Menu again.

Everything with QuickLaunch can be accessed by the menu. This includes adding new items or editing the highlighted item. To add a new item, click the Menu button with the QuickLaunch menu open, and select Add Item. You’ll then see the main screen, where you can repeat the process from the above section. If you want to edit the highlighted item, click Menu and select Edit item. A dialog box will pop up in the middle of the screen, allowing you to edit the display text and the shortcut key.

You can delete any QuickLaunch item by selecting it in the QuickLaunch menu, clicking the Menu key, and selecting Delete Item.

Creating submenus and separators

For greater organization capabilities, you can add submenus and separators to the QuickLaunch menu. As you can see in the corresponding screen shot, I’ve created a submenu for IMing applications, and then have created a separator below the BB Messenger item. The process is pretty easy.

In the QuickLaunch menu, click the Menu button. To create a separator below the highlighted item, select Add Separator. To create a submenu, hit menu (while selecting any item) and click on Add Submenu. You can add items to a submenu by highlighting it in the QuickLaunch menu, clicking the Menu button, and selecting Move to Submenu.

QuickLaunch options

QuickLaunch allows a few customization options to allow you the best possible experience. These options include the color and font, as well as the menu’s location (either on the right or left side of the screen). You can also instruct QuickLaunch to add the date and time to the menu — it will even add the current temperature if you want it to.

Once you’re in the QuickLaunch menu, you can set your convenience keys to perform different tasks. Well, okay, not really. You can set the convenience key to close the application, but that’s about it. I’d really like to see this expanded in a future release. If the application already overrides the convenience key, why not allow users to access other apps through it? It would essentially create two sets of convenience keys: two for when you’re outside of QuickLaunch, and two when you are inside.

There are a few other small options, but one that I truly appreciate is the option to hide the menu during screen capture. QuickLaunch comes with its own screen capture feature. The problem with using it is that when you see the item in the QuickLaunch menu, well, the menu is up on the screen. You can check a box at the bottom of the options page which will allow you to take a screen shot without the menu present. I unchecked the box when doing this write-up, but turned it right on afterward.

Demo video

Everyone loves a good web video, so here’s one demoing QuickLaunch.

Get QuickLaunch

If you’re looking to spend as little time as possible navigating your BlackBerry, I suggest giving QuickLaunch a try. I recommend it especially for Mac people who use Quicksilver. It’s the same concept, and it can save you time from pointlessly scrolling through various menus.

You can get QuickLaunch for just $4.99. It is compatible with almost all BlackBerry models, OS versions 4.5 and above. This includes OS 5.0 on the BlackBerry Storm.

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Walkthrough of QuickLaunch for BlackBerry

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Walkthrough of QuickLaunch for BlackBerry

Change your “A” , “W”, and “Q” speed dials

Joe — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:49:50 +0000

One thing I noticed after getting my BlackBerry Tour is that there are three keys which you cannot assign a speed dial. Holding down the “A” key locks the system, holding down “W” goes to voice mail, and holding down “Q” puts you into quiet mode (vibrate only). These can be convenient, but for someone who had older operating systems and were used to having these keys available, it can be a slight nuisance. We at BBGeeks are dedicated to eradicating those nuisances so you can better focus on the big issues. So today, a quick way to assign speed dials to A, W, and Q.

In the above screen shots, you can see on the left that there is no option to assign a contact to A. Darn. That just means we’ll need a workaround. With the A spot highlighted, click the Enter button. That brings you to your contacts list. Scroll to the contact you want to assign to the key, and click Menu. The top option should be Add Speed Dial To [Contact Name]. Select that, and you’re done. You’ve overridden the RIM system, assigning a contact to a previously unavailable speed dial key.

Warning: Once you assign the A key to a contact, it doesn’t appear you can change it back to the lock function. Additionally, you cannot assign another key to lock the device. So beware when assigning a speed dial to these keys; there is no going back.

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Change your “A” , “W”, and “Q” speed dials

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Change your “A” , “W”, and “Q” speed dials

Making the font smaller on your BlackBerry Tour

Joe — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:50:23 +0000

What at one point appeared to be another frustrating BlackBerry weekend turned into a pleasant surprise. After upgrading the BlackBerry WordPress app, I rebooted my Curve, as required. The next time I checked it, it was frozen. I rebooted again, but soon found myself in the same situation as a few weeks ago, when my Curve died. This time I took it to the Verizon store, knowing that even if I fixed it again, I’d get the same problem again eventually. The rep was receptive to my plight, and offered to exchange my Curve for a Tour. I couldn’t say no. Immediately after booting up and activating, I noticed an issue with the font.

I’m a pretty big BlackBerry Gmail user, and it appears that the font issue has something to do with that. While email appears normal on some emails, on others it’s gigantic. This might be a benefit for some, and I’m not saying it’s necessarily a bad thing, but I prefer a smaller font, especially with the high-res screen. But going to Options – Screen/Keyboard and changing the font to the lowest setting, 7, still didn’t accomplish anything. I was still getting large font emails from some users.

Unfortunately, it appears that this occurs between Gmail users. This is a problem, because some of the people I contact most frequently use Gmail. A user on BlackBerry Forums, ran through the technical part of the issue, but that doesn’t really help. I want to read emails from my Gmail contacts the same way I do everyone else.

The only solution I can find is to hit Menu and select Get Plain Text. That takes off all HTML coding, but that’s not a big issue from my Gmail contacts. It’s a slight nuisance to do this for every Gmail message of more than a sentence or two, but it’s better than constantly scrolling through a 500-word email. Anyone else have a way of solving this, other than using the Gmail app?

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Making the font smaller on your BlackBerry Tour

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Making the font smaller on your BlackBerry Tour

BBGeekcast: November 13, 2009 – Episode 90

Joe — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:00:24 +0000

It’s a change of pace this week on the BBGeekcast. While we’re usually all over the latest devices, this time it’s about the software. RIM just held the second annual BlackBerry Developers Conference, and we got some interesting news that could enhance the BlackBerry platform. That’s going to be the next step for RIM, and that’s our main topic on the BBGeekcast.

So click on over here to hear the BBGeekcast (12 min, 2 sec)

And don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast so you won’t miss future episodes!

You can also subscribe to the BBGeekcast in iTunes.

Highlights include:

Flash. We know it’s coming to mobile platforms, and that it will hit BlackBerry eventually. What we learned this week is that RIM will allow developers to use Flash and Adobe’s Creative Suite to create BlackBerry applications. I’m pretty excited by this prospect. Anything to make the RIM platform more powerful.

Still, it’s all about the e-mail, and RIM can’t neglect that going forward. It’s what won them customers in the first place, and what continues to fuel at least part of their growth. The multimedia and advanced features are nice, but the reason I got a BlackBerry is because of email. I don’t want that to change. It might get even better, too, as RIM opens its Push platform for developers.

Oh, and there some device news, too, including a way to essentially get a BlackBerry Curve 8520 for free.

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

BBGeekcast: November 13, 2009 – Episode 90

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

BBGeekcast: November 13, 2009 – Episode 90