BB Geeks

Get 42 BlackBerry smartphone and PlayBook games for just 99 cents each

Joe — Wed, 16 May 2012 12:33:51 +0000

Sometimes you just want a distraction. We say it pretty much any time we write about BlackBerry games. While your BlackBerry smartphone is first and foremost a professional device, it also has plenty of recreational uses. In fact, there seem to be more and more games popping up on the platform. RIM understands that games are important to their users, and they’ve helped accommodate that market. Their latest deal brings you 42 games from Gameloft for just 99 cents each. This covers some PlayBook games as well as BlackBerry smartphone games.

The deal includes 32 BlackBerry smartphone games from Gameloft, plus 10 PlayBook games. You can note the PlayBook games, since they all contain HD in the name.

For the PlayBook there are such popular titles as Modern Combad 2 Black Pegasus and Asphalt 6 Adrenaline.

For BlackBerry smartphones there are some surprising titles — surprising, in that they don’t seem games perfectly fit for BlackBerry OS 4.5. Yet many of them are compatible even with 4.2. Go figure. For example, I wouldn’t expect Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood on an OS 4.5 device, but that’s what you can do.

Again, each of these games is just 99 cents. You can check out all 42 games at App World.

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

Get 42 BlackBerry smartphone and PlayBook games for just 99 cents each

Tips for Tuesday: Message screen shortcuts

Joe — Tue, 15 May 2012 12:32:00 +0000

All told, navigating your BlackBerry messages is pretty easy. RIM made it that way, of course, because messaging is the most important part of its platform. With just a few clicks you can get to pretty much any message screen, from any other screen. Yet sometimes we yearn for even more convenience. Again, RIM has obliged. They’ve built a few quick keystrokes into the Messages app that will bring you to various message lists. You don’t ever need to leave the messages app. Just use these keystrokes, with the Escape key, to find your way around.

Alt + P. This brings up your phone log.

Alt + S. This brings up your SMS, even if you’ve separated your SMS from your main Messages app.

Alt + V. This brings up your voicemail messages.

Alt + I. This lists all incoming messages, which is probably your default anyway.

Alt + O. This brings up your outgoing messages. At least with Gmail, this includes messages you sent from your computer.

S. No Alt key required. This one brings up a quick search box, which allows you to search for a sender name or subject line in any folder, including outgoing mail.

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

Tips for Tuesday: Message screen shortcuts

Follow the 2012 MLB season with ScoreMobile and MLB At Bat

Joe — Mon, 14 May 2012 12:30:58 +0000

We’re about a month into the baseball season, and things are getting weird. The Baltimore Orioles, predicted by consensus to finish last in the AL East, sit on top. The Red Sox, one of baseball’s powerhouses, sit in last place. Josh Hamilton and Matt Kemp are hitting at torrid paces. If you don’t follow baseball you probably don’t know what I’m talking about. But if you do, perhaps you just got a little excited thinking about it. The 2012 baseball season promises to be an exciting one, and if the first month is any indication we’re in for a treat this year. What better way to follow the season, then, than with ScoreMobile for your BlackBerry device?

ScoreMobile is one of the most downloaded BlackBerry sports apps, and for good reason. For starters, it’s free. And for that wonderful price of zero dollars you get so many features. It covers not only baseball, but all major sports, including the NBA and NHL, both in the middle of playoff runs, the NFL and CFL, soccer, golf, auto racing, tennis, cricket, MMA, and college sports. No matter what your sports obsession, there are live scores, stats, betting odds, and stories. It even has BBM 6 integration, allowing you to talk about the game right from the app.

That might seem overwhelming, but the ability to customize the app to favor your favorite teams makes it much easier. The only thing the app is missing, really, is access to the many quality blogs that ScoreMobile produces. Which reminds me: any baseball fans out there, especially those in Canada, would do well to follow TheScore’s Getting Blanked, run by buddy of mine Dustin Parkes. They cover MLB news from all angles.

You can get ScoreMobile for free from App World.

Of course, MLB has its own app. It has one huge advantage over ScoreMobile, in that it provides live in-game updates. MLB’s Gameday interface is used on the app, so you can see the game unfold pitch-by-pitch (including pitch speed and location). It even has video highlights, and they update as the game is in progress. A few hours after each game’s conclusion there is also a condensed game, which is basically a 10-minute full-form highlight reel. And yes, it has news, standings, and all other basic features you’d expect from an official MLB app.

(The app also includes radio broadcasts of every game, so you can follow that way, too.)

The one thing MLB At Bat doesn’t have for BlackBerry is live game viewing. On Android and iPhone, At Bat features live games for users who have MLB.tv subscriptions. We can only hope that this feature will come to BlackBerry 10 next year. But for now At Bat remains a useful, but not revolutionary, app. You can get MLB At Bat in App World for $14.99.

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

Follow the 2012 MLB season with ScoreMobile and MLB At Bat

Are you willing to wait for BlackBerry 10?

Joe — Fri, 11 May 2012 12:35:08 +0000

This week RIM made a quick announcement for the BlackBerry Curve 9320. It seems odd for RIM to announce a new BlackBerry 7 device right after its big BlackBerry 10 event. Of course, there are many issues at play here, and they mostly look beyond the North American smartphone user. But the 9320 release did make me think: are people going to wait for BlackBerry 10?

Contract terms

In North America and elsewhere in the world, we sign contracts with cellular carriers. In exchange for pledging our service to them for two or three years, they provide us a steep discount on our phones. Whenever our terms are up, we’re eligible to upgrade our phones. Plenty of contracts will expire between now and the BlackBerry 10 release, and many of them will be BlackBerry users. Will they wait?

Perhaps the better question is, will you wait if your contract expires before BlackBerry 10? Surely you won’t buy a BlackBerry 7 phone at this point. Maybe a new adopter, looking for an entry level phone, would pick up something like the Curve 9320. But to buy a 9930 right now? That seems a bit odd, considering we’re just a few months away from a vastly better platform. But when we’re stuck with a phone for two years and are afforded an opportunity to upgrade, it’s tough to pass up.

The concept of cellular contracts does bring up another issue. It’s an important one, considering the focus RIM has put on BlackBerry 10

BlackBerry 7 support

Many people upgraded to BlackBerry 7 smartphones in the last few eight or nine months. When they made that upgrade, chances are they signed two-year contracts. Yet after just one year, RIM will release BlackBerry 10 devices. The focus will shift to them. What, then, will become of BlackBerry 7? Will owners be stuck with a stagnant platform for another year before their contract term is up?

Thankfully, RIM isn’t going to hang its customers out to dry. At BlackBerry World CEO Thorsten Heins did note that RIM will continue to support BlackBerry 7 devices. You might not see many new apps for them, since developers will be more focused on BlackBerry 10. But nor will you see an abandonment of the platform. You’ll still be able to get support, and RIM will still work on software updates.

Part of this is because RIM is still going to push BlackBerry 7 in emerging markets. That’s kind of the point with devices like the 9320 and the 9220. They’re meant for people who are buying a smartphone for the first time. If RIM is going to continue pushing these smartphones in smaller markets, they’ll have the resources to support them in larger ones. That’s a sigh of relief for those who jumped on the BlackBerry 7 wagon.

The waiting

It might not be tempting to use an upgrade on a BlackBerry 7 device, but BlackBerry users will certainly be tempted before BlackBerry 10 drops. New Android devices get released seemingly on a weekly basis, and many of them are top of the line smartphones. They have quad-core processors and vibrant displays. And it seems every manufacturer is getting in on it. You won’t just see high-end devices from Samsung and HTC. There will be plenty of quad-core LG cell phones as well. The selection alone will make people wonder.

And, even though many BlackBerry fans openly disdain the iPhone, the iPhone 5 will probably tempt many. Who knows: maybe some of the features contained in the iPhone 5 will be to a BlackBerry fan’s liking. Perhaps that’s why RIM got out in front of the game and showed off BlackBerry 10 at BlackBerry World, despite no phone being available for another five months. In any case, the waiting, in the words of Tom Petty, will be the hardest part. Will BlackBerry fans be able to wait it out for BB10?

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

Are you willing to wait for BlackBerry 10?

Convert your Voice Notes to WAV format with AMR to WAV Converter

Joe — Wed, 09 May 2012 12:33:27 +0000

A while back, a friend asked me if there was any easy way to convert a BlackBerry Voice Notes file into an MP3. Ugh, I thought. Yes, there are a few ways to do this, but they’re mostly convoluted and might require you to pay for conversion software. (Even Mac users will need QuickTime Pro, not regular QuickTime, for the conversion.) A new app in the BBGeeks Store does require you to pay, but it’s cheaper than most conversion software I’ve seen. As the app name suggests, it converts your Voice Notes AMR files to WAV files. From WAV, you can basically make a copy in any audio format using iTunes.

AMR to WAV converter is a pretty simple app. After running it you can select from your Voice Notes files and wait just a few seconds for a conversion. Yeah. That’s it. You’ll have a .wav file waiting for you on your BlackBerry, which you can then either user or easily convert into another format.

Due to the typically large sizes of .wav files, you might need to transfer the files via USB cable. But if they’re small enough you can always just email them to yourself. From there you can either use the file as-is. If you prefer MP3, though, you can easily do a conversion via iTunes (which, of course, is free).

To do that, open up iTunes and go to preferences. On the General screen, click the Import Settings… button. On the next screen you’ll seen an Input Format drop-down. Select MP3. Then add the file to your iTunes library. Right click it, and select “Create MP3 version.” iTunes will then make a copy of your file in MP3 format. Easy as that.

If you’re willing to pay a small price for convenience, you can get AMR to WAV Converter for $2.99.

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

Convert your Voice Notes to WAV format with AMR to WAV Converter

Tips for Tuesday: Insert current date and time into any text field

Joe — Tue, 08 May 2012 12:30:03 +0000

Some emails and documents call for time and date stamps. Sure, you could go and type out the time and date; it’s easy enough to look at a clock and calendar and then type in the information. But you don’t need to, since there are quick and dirty text snippets that can insert them for you.

To insert the current date, type the letters L and then d, followed by a space. To insert the current time, type the letters L and then t, followed by a space. Your BlackBerry will automatically take care of the conversion.

There are a few little notes to go along with this tip.

For starters, perhaps you use LD or LT as an acronym. It would be inconvenient to have the date or time inserted every time you typed those letters, then. If you hit backspace twice, though, you’ll wipe out the date or time, leaving the original LD or LT. Just hit space and keep typing as usual.

If you don’t want to do even this, you can delete the entry from Word Substitution. We covered how to use Word Substitution in a previous quick tip. Just find the entries for LD and LT, and delete them. You’ll also see here that you can use %D or %T to insert the date or time. Clearly, though, using LD and LT requires fewer keystrokes.

Note, too, that case matters. If you type a lowercase d, the date will come out with normal capitalization. If you type an uppercase D, however, the date will come out in all caps.

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

Tips for Tuesday: Insert current date and time into any text field

Scan documents and images on your PlayBook with Handy Scanner

Joe — Mon, 07 May 2012 13:54:47 +0000

If you want to turn your BlackBerry Playbook’s camera into a PDF scanner, Handy Scanner has your solution. The app provides a straight forward service. Using the PlayBook camera, or image files already on your PlayBook, you can create PDFs with just a few steps. The app isn’t perfect yet — it’s missing a few features that would make it a must-have. But for those seeking a quick solution, Handy Scanner makes it relatively easy.

Using your PlayBook camera, you can snap multiple pictures and have them added to the same multi-page PDF. Scanning documents, then, becomes a snap. As long as you have the right lighting for the camera, and can fit the page into the PlayBook camera’s viewfinder, you’ll have a nice and easy multipage PDF that you can then attach to email or load onto your computer.

The same goes for image files already on your PlayBook. These turn into PDFs just as easily, though there’s obviously less of a need for this feature. It works in the same manner, so you can create quick PDFs of those random images you’ve downloaded or captured with your camera.

In her review of the app, CrackBerry’s Alicia Erlich notes one feature that I think this app needs to be a must-have: the ability to edit PDFs. Sometimes you might want to snap more pages rather than fewer, just to make sure you have enough. But the app does not let you edit the PDF to remove pages. It also doesn’t let you crop some of the images, which is something it definitely needs. Camera scanning is inexact and you’ll often have a hard time creating a perfect scan. The ability to crop images is pretty necessary. It would also be nice to edit text, but that’s a fairly advanced feature I’d expect from an app specifically designed for PDF editing.

Still, Handy Scanner gets the job done in a pinch. You can get Handy Scanner at App World for $2.99.

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

Scan documents and images on your PlayBook with Handy Scanner

And now we wait for BlackBerry 10

Joe — Fri, 04 May 2012 12:35:19 +0000

It’s going to be a long few months. This week RIM unveiled the first official details of their BlackBerry 10 platform, and for a day or two all eyes were on them. Investors apparently weren’t impressed, but that’s understandable. Basically, unless RIM had a feature that would brush your teeth and scrub your nether regions, investors weren’t going to be impressed. But observers seemed to take a liking to the new interface that BlackBerry 10 offers. It was enough to get almost any BlackBerry fan excited for the eventual release.

I’ll keep this short, since everyone seemed to opine on the big BlackBerry news this week. In fact, it was the general tenor of the opinions out there that has me optimistic. There weren’t many people unimpressed with what they saw. Most outlets held back their opinions, of course, because all we saw were slides of BlackBerry 10 and a developer phone that doesn’t quite run the full OS. But reading through posts from Engadget, CNET, and The Verge, it definitely seems as though RIM has a fighting chance to win some fans with BB10.

In fact, the only negative report I read came from a site that I’m sick of citing. BGR, of course, trashed RIM. But that’s nothing new. A BlackBerry fan up until the original Bold 9000, The Boy Genius has turned on RIM in particularly vitriolic fashion. He’s not hesitant to print anonymous ramblings, and he seemingly jumps behind all of them. So there was little surprise when he claimed that RIM is dead anyway. It’s been the MO of him and his operation for quite some time now.

(It should be noted that The Boy Genius himself admits that RIM did not provide his operation with a BlackBerry Dev Alpha model. And why would they? He’s railed against them using anonymous sources for over a year now. Why do favors for someone who prints such scathing remarks without a shred of credibility?)

I don’t want to get too excited for the new BlackBerry platform, but as is clear, it’s too late for that. Maybe they won’t convince the hordes of iPhone and Android users that their platform is better. But they will convince some people. And for us, BlackBerry 10 can be something new, from something old that we love.

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

And now we wait for BlackBerry 10

RIM unveils BlackBerry 10, to much rejoicing

Joe — Wed, 02 May 2012 12:33:34 +0000

Normally I reserve the BlackBerry issue posts for Friday. The goal of this blog, after all, is to explore BlackBerry devices, so most of the time that means posts about tips, apps, and accessories. But it’s tough to ignore when the internet is abuzz about a new BlackBerry product — especially when the buzz is mostly positive. Yesterday RIM unveiled a ton of details about BlackBerry 10, and it seemed like quite the coup for them. We’re still a few months away from a consumer device, but RIM did provide developers with a device, the BlackBerry 10 Alpha Dev, which will let them get a head start on app development. The whole endeavor looks quite promising.

The Verge put together this neat-o video that takes a look at what RIM unveiled at BlackBerry World 2012.

One of the interesting, and much discussed, parts of BlackBerry 10 is that apps continue running in the background when you’re not using them. They don’t pause, they don’t close. They just run. This leaves open a few questions regarding memory usage and battery life, but I highly doubt that RIM would sacrifice either for the sake of keeping apps open.

Make sure to read the above Verge piece in its entirety, as it relays the thoughts of a neutral tech reviewer — that is, not wedded to the BlackBerry platform. I’ve found plenty of negative BlackBerry swipes from supposedly neutral reviewers in the past, but this post is quite even handed.

While I do suggest reading The Verge article, because it does contain a lot of information that I could only regurgitate here, I do want to point to one issue they raise at the end. It is possible that when RIM says they’re looking into licensing BlackBerry 10, they’re not talking about letting Samsung create BlackBerry 10 phones. From The Verge”

“RIM also tried to position BB10 as a “mobility platform” instead of simply a smartphone and tablet platform. It pointed out that it can (and perhaps will) replace QNX as a powerful and pervasive car computer solution and hinted that it would likely be interested in finding other use cases for it. Given that RIM has repeatedly floated the idea oflicensing BB10 to third parties, our suspicion is that we’re more likely to see that arrangement happen with these non-standard mobile devices rather than seeing Samsung begin making BB10 phones.”

As for developers, they get a nifty device to help them develop applications for the BlackBerry 10 platform. It has a 4.2-inch display at the same 1280×768 resolution as the PlayBook. CrackBerry has the full spec rundown. Interestingly, the Alpha Dev device does not have a removable battery. Will that carry over to the first BB10 phone? A hardwired battery would certainly aid battery life…

As for the devs themselves, RIM is thinking big. In fact, they tweeted: “Quality certified apps submitted to App World before launch will earn at least $10,000 in the 1st year on the market.” That’s quite a promise. But if RIM can continue impressing audiences with BlackBerry 10, maybe it will become a reality.

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

RIM unveils BlackBerry 10, to much rejoicing

Tips for Tuesday: Navigate through threaded messages with ease

Joe — Tue, 01 May 2012 12:30:04 +0000

When BlackBerry 6 OS finally dropped, I rejoiced at one of the new features: threaded messages. Years of Gmail use made threaded messages feel so natural. Instead of a new listing for each reply, Gmail groups emails and their reply threads in one listing, which makes life a lot less cluttered. BlackBerry 6 brought this innovation to our favorite smartphone in 2010, and it made an already great email system even better. Did you know that you can easily navigate through threaded messages with just a couple of keystrokes, though?

Once you’ve opened an email in a threaded message, you can hit J or K to navigate. Pressing J brings you to the next oldest message, while pressing K brings you to the next newest message. So if you’re on the most recent message in the thread, K won’t do anything, but J will bring you to the second-newest message. In the same way, if you’re on the oldest message in the thread, J won’t do anything, but K will bring you to the second message in the thread.

Since discovering this I’ve used it constantly to flip through messages in a given thread. It’s much easier than backing out and selecting the next or previous message. It’s even easier than backing out and selecting a different message in the thread. In other words, it’s efficient. Aren’t we BlackBerry users all about efficiency?

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

Tips for Tuesday: Navigate through threaded messages with ease