Testing the BlackBerry Bold 9700 battery has been an interesting experience. I always thought consumer electronics manufacturers embellished their battery life expectancies in order to impress the buyer. In this case, RIM has actually slightly under-stated the Bold 9700’s battery life, and really proved themselves to be an honest company when it comes to their battery life marketing. Could we say the same for Apple? I challenge TIPB to do the same with the iPhone, and see if it can play 39 hours of music off radio and last 29 hours with heavy usage. Speaking of Apple…the BlackBerry Bold 9700 lasts longer than the best iPod.

Just look for yourself, the BlackBerry Bold 9700’s battery, lasts longer than that of the best iPod available.

In Part 1 of the BlackBerry Bold 9700 battery stress test, we threw RIM a bone and checked out the music playback with the wireless connections off. For the second part, it was important to test how long the battery would last given very heavy usage. During the 29 hours that the BlackBerry was on, it went through the following:

• About an hour of voice over 8 phone calls.
• 10 SMS messages received, 7 sent.
• 13 Tweets from UberTwitter, 9 of which contained a pic.
• Google Maps running the whole time and updating Latitude.
• About 8 hours of music streaming and playing via Bluetooth.
• Received about 30 emails and replied to around 15.
• The remaining time spent with all connections on and pulling data.

This is the first BlackBerry that I have been able to run more than 1 full day of usage without charging. There are definitely updates and optimizations made to the OS that make music playback more efficient, as well as general improvements to the device that make the battery last longer than any other BlackBerry. If you’re interested, I could do similar experiments with other BlackBerry smartphones. Anyone want to know about the Storm2 battery?

This BlackBerry test proves that the Bold 9700 has a killer battery.

Special thanks goes out to Slacker for white listing my account so it can be played in Canada. Now if only the lazy bureaucrats can get their act together, Canadians would have an awesome music device.

UPDATE: The Bold 9700 battery just died. The BlackBerry Cool official time is 19:22, exactly 29 hours. This is 29 hours while using the device heavily. Let’s see an iPhone do that!

UPDATE: 16:19 and 26 hours into the test, with 10% battery left. Part 2 of the test has sort of changed. It started off as a test of the music playback under more strenuous network conditions and has turned into a test of how long the battery will last under power user conditions. I’ve been playing music, tweeting, taking pics, using Google Maps, running several other apps simultaneously, making and taking calls and constantly pulling data from both Maps and Twitter. There was a break when I went to sleep but I left all the connections and apps running so it was still very much active.

UPDATE: 14:16, 24 hours into the test, and the battery is at 25%. Something I’ve noticed is that making calls depletes the battery much faster than anything else. I knew this intuitively but the test really made it obvious. Streaming music doesn’t seem to have much impact on battery life at all.

UPDATE: 10:40 went through the night and we’ve been back on WiFi, radio for a couple hours. At 30% and around 20 hours we’re definitely going a full day no problem.

UPDATE: It’s 02:29, 12 hours into the test. The batter reads 40% and I have been using a very decent amount of apps and data. Holding the BlackBerry Button, it shows the following apps: Messages, UberTwitter, Home Screen, BlackBerry Messenger, Media, Radio Companion, Setup Wizard (I switch devices a lot), Visual Voice Mail, Google Maps, Browser, Gmail and Phone. I’m going to give the updates a rest until around 8 AM.

UPDATE: It’s 23:11 and I have been out and about for the past 2 hours. During that time, I wasn’t listening to music but I was burning through data and the battery pretty fiercely. I was Tweeting pics, using Google Maps and calling friends. I’m not sure if this corrupts the test or anything, but I’m back at the office and on WiFi, streaming music on Bluetooth. At 55%, the battery is still going strong. We’re about 9 hours into the test.

UPDATE: 20:11 and the battery is at 65%. I’ve been using the device pretty intensely over the past 6 hours. On a normal day, I’ll probably use 20 minutes on headphones and the BlackBerry Media Gateway for 30 mins the odd time. So far, I’ve used about 5 hours of streaming Nobex on WiFi and Bluetooth, and another hour on radio and headphones.

UPDATE: The time is 18:14 and the status screen is telling me the battery is at 80%. By the looks of the meter, I would say it’s around 95%, but we’ll see. We are almost 4 hours on WiFi, taking in emails, BBM, and SMS, streaming music using Nobex and playing it via Bluetooth over the BlackBerry Media Gateway. Go baby go!

UPDATE: The time is 15:55, just over an hour into the test and the battery hasn’t budged, we’re still full bars. I’ve had a few BBM’s, and about 10 emails come in through WiFi, all the while streaming music using Nobex and playing it off the BlackBerry Media Gateway. Things might change if I leave the office and get off WiFi.

UPDATE: Okay we’re good to go. I have the Bold 9700, running all connections, using EDGE, roaming on the Rogers network and this bad boy is sucking in data like a Dyson vacuum. The time is 14:22 and we’re starting off on WiFi, at my office, listening to the Bold 9700 via Bluetooth on 7.1 surround sound. I know, it doesn’t make a difference that it’s 7.1 but it’s still cool. I also made sure to make the amplifier read Bold 9700. Oh yeah, and I’m running Nobex Radio Companion for the music because Pandora and Slacker figured out I’m Canadian. We’re full battery.

So it turns out the BlackBerry Bold 9700 can play music for up to 38 hours, as advertised (the BlackBerry Cool official time is just short of 39 hours).

It seems as though we tested the Bold 9700’s music playback in a similar way that RIM would test it. There might be a standard for such a test somewhere, and maybe the National Institute of Standards and Technology could comment.

Let’s get on to Part 2 because it’ll be much more interesting. Playing the Bold 9700 with the radio turned off is really throwing RIM a bone. It’s time to test the Bold 9700 under some decent Power User conditions. For Part 2 of “Stress Test: How long can the BlackBerry Bold 9700 play music?”, I’m going to use the device as a primary communication and music device. I think the following conditions would be cool:

• Radio On.
• WiFi On.
• American SIM and device roaming on Canadian Network.
• Streaming Slacker Radio during down time.
• Headphones On, Volume Full and Bass Boost On.
• When at office and home, connected via Bluetooth and playing to stereo (this is a personal shout-out to BlackBerry Cool Reader Caspan).
• Taking emails, calls and SMS.
• Taking advantage of GPS and maps when appropriate.
• I might even take a pic or two.

So take your guess, how long will the Bold 9700 play music under heavy usage conditions? Comment your predictions and we’ll see the discrepancy.

The BlackBerry Bold 9700 is the latest update to the Bold series and it’s all the specs you would expect from a Bold device, slightly upgraded and in a smaller form factor. Like many of the devices we have been seeing from RIM lately, it is a hybrid device, combining the power of the Bold with the design of a Curve 8900.

The Bold 9700 from T-Mobile ships with OS 5.0.0.330, which is a welcomed update to the device. What is less positive about the launch is that the device doesn’t ship with the latest version of BlackBerry Messenger. The T-Mobile Bold 9700 ships with BlackBerry Messenger version 4.7.0 rather than 5.0 (this is based on the device I’m holding in my hand). Ideally, T-Mobile and RIM would have at least had a warning message of some sort that tells users where they can get the latest version of BBM.

Another preload on the T-Mobile Bold 9700 is the T-Mobile web browser called web2go. This preload really adds no value to the device and is likely related to some deal that T-Mobile signed independently of RIM. It’s a sub-par browser that isn’t even integrated into the native BlackBerry mail client. It would be great if T-Mobile stopped preloading these things and cluttering our homepage.

The Bold 9700 comes with a trackpad, which seems to be the new standard on BlackBerry devices. The trackpad makes navigation much smoother, and it will add to the shelf life of the device. No more cleaning your trackball or replacing it, the trackpad is here to stay.

As mentioned above, the Bold 9700 is reminiscent of the Curve 8900 form factor. While the keyboard is in the Bold style, with ergonomic and tightly packed keys, it is definitely closer to the 8900 in size. The Bold 9700 keyboard is quite tight and it seems as though this will be the defining feature of this BlackBerry. Users will either be attracted to the slim, tight, form factor, or they will look for a device with more breathing room such as the Tour or Bold 9000.

Overall, I would say this device is a great addition to the Bold product line, and you should ask yourself whether size matters. Personally, I don’t think the Bold 9000 needed to be smaller, but I know many users who didn’t like how it sat in their pocket. For those that want a smaller, more modern sized device, I know you’re going to love this BlackBerry.

Here are some quick points about the Bold 9700 to note:

• The Bold 9700 weighs 4.3 oz (122 grams) and is 4.3″ x 2.4″ x 0.55″ (109 mm x 60 mm x 14.1 mm).
• The screen is a 480 x 360 half-VGA+ display.
• Supports high-speed HSDPA networks for simultaneous voice and data usage, quick downloads and fast web browsing. Quad-band EDGE networks are also supported.
• Includes integrated GPS with photo geotagging support, plus built-in WiFi (802.11 b/g).
• Includes a microSD/SDHC memory card slot with a 2 GB card included (will support cards up to 32 GB), plus 256 MB of Flash memory.
• 3.2 MP camera able to record video, with flash, auto focus, image stabilization and digital zoom.

The Bold 9700 review is being compiled now, feel free to comment what you would like to see included in this review, and we’ll do our best to address your questions. Also, sorry about the lame pics. I took them with the Storm2 and they didn’t come out so good. I’ll have better pics soon.

The new BlackBerry Storm 2 9550 by Verizon is shaping up to be the BlackBerry touchscreen device we’ve all been waiting for. I remember back when Mike Lazaridis was taking criticism for the original Storm and his response was “sorry it was the number 3 selling smartphone in North America. I wish it could have been number 1.” Well this is the second time out the gate and they definitely have it right this time.

Will sales of the Storm 2 beat the original Storm? If the hardware is the deciding factor I would say yes. But what about all those who have bought the original Storm? How many will upgrade? How many new touchscreen BlackBerry users will this device convert? These are all questions that will have to wait to be answered until after the device launches, which we expect to happen in early November. Some are suggesting late October and this could also be true. We’re seeing a lot of leaks happening which means we are approaching launch date. Until then, lets take a look at the pre-release version of the Verizon BlackBerry Storm 2 aka 9550.

Something to keep in mind about this article is that it’s about a pre-release device. While the form factor will remain, it’s hard to say what will happen to the software. Also, it’s difficult to say what iteration of 9550 I have in my hands. I have heard rumors that the Storm 2 has gone through over 8 iterations as the RIM continually improves on the touch interface and the end user experience.

As previous leaks have mentioned, the latest BlackBerry Storm 9550 has some technology under the hood that makes for a much better typing experience. While the first BlackBerry Storm had a single contact point, the latest BlackBerry shows four contact points, dispersed equidistant to each other across the touch screen. It’s just speculation but this is largely what makes the typing experience so much better on the Storm 9550.

The touchscreen is really what you first fall in love with about the device. With my original Storm, it had a bit of a shake to it, and it felt a little loose in its casing. The BlackBerry Storm 9550 doesn’t have this in the slightest. The screen is a rock solid piece of glass, and pressing the screen really gives you a feeling of confidence.

As you can see from the pictures, the outside of the device has had some significant changes. The major change is obviously the Call, End, Return and Menu buttons are built into the screen, rather than being separated. While using our pre-release device, I found that at first the keys were slightly unresponsive, but a battery pull really helped. Because these buttons are now, and I’m assuming here, driven by software rather than physical keys, much of their stability and usability are dependent on your device’s performance. Again, this is one of the downsides of reviewing a pre-release device, you’re trying to comment on something that isn’t a finished product, so there’s really no telling if it will be like that when it launches. Other form factor changes include the side keys which are now rubber. This adds some durability to the device.

The typing experience is definitely improved on the BlackBerry Storm 2. Once you pick up the device and start typing, you can feel yourself getting to speeds that are closer to that of the QWERTY devices. It is really apparent that the new multi-contact point system means you can be pressing keys much faster and the device has no problem recognizing the letters. While I was making mistakes, it was a huge leap over the Storm 1.

When we first posted about the Storm 2, we asked BlackBerry Cool readers what they would like to know about the device, many readers asked questions that we simply can’t answer such as exact release dates and carriers, but there are a few we can address. Many readers wanted to know about the battery life. I really can’t say this battery is a huge improvement in any way over the original Storm. I was able to use the Storm 2 for an entire day without fully draining the battery, but any power user will tell you that regular battery charges are common for a BlackBerry.

The camera on the BlackBerry Storm 9550 is a standard BlackBerry camera. It’s a 3.2 megapixel camera, and the video quality seemed about the same. The pre-release Storm 2 I was using still had the camera lag that I experienced with the Storm 1, but it was slightly better. Camera lag is one of those issues that will certainly be addressed when the device officially launches, and being a software issue, I can’t say anything for certain about it given this isn’t the final version of the device.

The media player is slightly improved on the Storm 2 which is great considering this will be a device heavily marketed to the consumer space. If you use the speaker often, you’ll like the fact that the speaker is located at the bottom of the device, meaning you get better sound quality as it sits on your desk.

As you can see from the above picture, this device is using OS version 5.0.0.164. I can’t say for sure if this is the OS that the 9550 will have when it launches, but there are some decent improvements that I can see already. One of the most obvious changes is that the device finally has threaded text messaging. There are also some minor changes such as menu transitions and the overall responsiveness of the device has been improved. Switching from portrait to landscape was completely seamless and there was almost zero lag.

When RIM acquired Torch Mobile, it became official that they were developing a WebKit based browser and that we can expect a browser comparable to other smartphones such as the iPhone. It is really too bad that we aren’t getting that browser on this device, because the Storm 2 could have greatly benefited from it. While the browser was slightly better, it wasn’t anything spectacular. I really appreciated the ability to browse over WiFi, even though the device has 3G. As we mentioned before, the device now has multi-touch support, which is great for things such as copy and paste, but I was really hoping to be able to zoom in and out using two fingers as per the iPhone. Again, being a pre-release device, this may come when the device launches, but I doubt it. This sort of functionality will likely come with the WebKit browser that’s in development.

Overall, this device makes for a much more solid touchscreen smartphone experience. So many of the issues that I had with the Storm 1, which were all software related, have largely been addressed. What’s really positive is that this device isn’t even a finished product, and it already feels like a winner. Once we get closer to launch, we’ll see even more software improvements, which go a long way in making the end user experience better.

We’ll continue to post about the Storm 9550 and get around to answering more of your questions about the device. As we draw closer to launch, we’ll probably get our hands on an updated Storm 9550 which could prove to be even more solid than the one we’re using now.

RDM+: Remote Desktop for Mobiles, from SHAPE Services is exactly what its name implies, a remote desktop manager, and a pretty good one at that! As we go through this review, keep in mind you will have to install the computer-side client on the machine you want to remote to.

Here’s the quick rundown of features:

• All connection types are supported: BES, BIS, TCP/IP, Wi-Fi and HTTP connection are supported.
• Blackberry joystick and keyboard navigation.
• New Feature for Storm! Enlarging Glass:Touch and enlarge any fragment of the Desktop.
• User interface is available in two languages: English and German.
• Quick commands. You can use quick commands for starting/stopping system services and processes, viewing the list of desktop windows, checking system performance, displaying system information and rebooting or shutting down your computer.
• One-time fee. All further updates are free.
• All data, screen images, mouse movement and keys are encrypted for security reasons.
• You can create a password when starting up application. Without this password no one can access your client address book.
• Executing any console commands (like ping, netstat, ipconfig) is available.
• History feature allows to find and re-send stored commands.
• Full-screen view and zooming. In full-screen mode you can see the remote screen on the entire screen of your device. Zoomed mode lets you see enlarged fragment of the desktop in more detail. In zoomed mode you can also scroll the desktop up/down, right/left.
• Switch between different modes using the predefined and your own hotkeys and create device-specific keys for mouse click and open desktop menu.
• Navigational mini-map of your desktop which appears in the right upper corner while you scroll. Wi-Fi detection on your device.

Considering all this application does, the interface is incredibly simple. From the homescreen you have the option to view your computer’s desktop, go to the remote file manager, view a list of system options (for the remote computer), choose from you list of stored computers which one you will be managing, adjust your RDM+ options, or exit the program.

From your “Files” menu option, you can browse files and folders on your computer and choose various tasks to perform on them. The ability to mark multiple files here is extremely useful, and don’t forget that if something you want isn’t here, we have yet to get to the desktop view where you are directly controlling your computer just like if you were looking at its connected monitor.

Aside from the viewing/controlling your desktop, the “System” menu options are where this application really puts in work. From closing out windows and killing processes, to viewing system information like CPU usage and video controllers, this is the spot to access your system items quickly without getting bogged down in the OS.

This brings me to what really grabbed most of your attention in the first place: the remote control of your desktop. I can happily say this feature works exactly as expected on my Bold. Double clicking the trackball double clicks the mouse on the machine in the location you are pointing at, and typing on your BlackBerry device’s keyboard is the same as typing on your computer’s keyboard. On top of that, you are able to set shortcuts, and access other key commands not available to you on your BlackBerry’s keypad via your menu button. I also want to add that the screenshots do not accurately represent how clean the view of your desktop is. The one downfall is the inability to add mouse-clicks to shortcuts (eg no control-clicking in your browser).

Last but not least, the desktop side of things. The desktop application is quick and easy to install, and weighs in at under 2 MB. It hangs out in your taskbar, unless you choose to hide it, allowing single left click access to your computer number. Right clicking provides to other options like viewing connected devices and setting up new accounts with various permissions (read only, etc.).

So let’s hit the highlights:

• The file management system is superb. When people aren’t asking me to look at their phones, they’re asking me to look at their computers. I’ve started storing all the files I use the most when working on computers on my memory card. Then I simply transfer and run them all from my device!
• With the ability to set your desktop image quality from poor, to great, to automatic, you always get the best connection to your machine and the best image at the same time.
• I could easily spend an hour telling you the multiple uses I’ve found for this application!

As far as downsides go, I’m afraid I have to tell you there are a couple:

• When I’ve emailed support with an issue or question, response has been sluggish.
• If you want to connect to a machine behind a VPN, you’ll definitely want to download the trial version and give it a go before purchasing, and yes, this was one of the issues I contacted support about.

Overall, this is a great program with and endless amount of applications and at $39.95 it is well worth the price.

We have had the Photobucket Mobile Uploader here at the office for some time now and it’s a great application because of it’s simplicity.

We all know photobucket as one of the biggest and best managed image hosting and sharing sites out there. Photobucket Mobile Uploader is an application geared towards getting your pictures off your smartphone automatically. It quietly uploads them every ten minutes to your your choice of Photobucket account, email, and PC . You can also force an update if you need to post a pic right away.

The app is simple and clean with no hiding of options with a menu hierarchy. There are also no pop-up “are you sure?” bubbles which makes sense because the only time you’re going to actually be in the application is for configuration. The uploader allows to to use your camera freely while it takes care of the photo management.

After snapping a few photographs, I realized that I didn’t give a second thought as to when my next sync or file transfer will be: it was all taken care of.

If you’re a T-Mobile customer, pick your device and download Photobucket for Blackberry.

Although it seems like an eternity, the BlackBerry Storm has only been for sale for almost a year.  RIM went back and reworked with mechanics of their touch screen and cooked up a new(er) operating system. 

Now, we at BlackBerryCool.com have gotten our hands on a pre-released 9550.  Yes, the screen rebound is much better, thanks to the shortened travel distance, and we’re enjoying the more responsive keyboard.  Both of these aspects have been significantly improved. 

Instead of writing a review of a pre-release device, we’d like to know what burning questions you have about the device.  We’ll work to answer them.  Again, considering that this is a pre-release device, there are still bugs, quirks and gremlins clearly running wild. 

So drop us a line on what you’d like to know and we’ll do our best to answer your questions!

One of my favorite apps on my BlackBerry is the new BlackBerry Messenger 5. The features, UI, and style all make messaging an awesome experience. One of my favorite features is the threaded messaging capabilities used. Sadly, this is a feature left behind when it comes to SMS on the BlackBerry. Supposedly, this is a feature soon to be coming to BlackBerry OS 5 in the future. While we wait for RIM to introduce truly threaded SMS I went on a search for third party apps to bring this much needed feature to my phone.

I tried a few different options and finally settled on Empower SMS Viewer. Empower has loaded their app with more features and UI tweaks than any other, yet it still seems somewhat useless to me. A true threaded SMS experience is when messages from people (incoming and outgoing) are grouped into a single message in list form, much like all popular IM clients do. BlackBerry devices currently do not offer this feature and will remove conversation points as individual messages are deleted from the inbox. Empower advertises their application as a “Threaded SMS Viewer for BlackBerry” but sadly this isn’t entirely true.

What Empower SMS Viewer does is skins your SMS messages with a custom UI, giving it a threaded IM look. What it doesn’t do though is combine messages into a single user, thus not changing the current functionality of BlackBerry messaging whatsoever. As far as skinning, Empower SMS Viewer does a great job. You can set custom headers, backgrounds, and fonts for your SMS messages. There is quite a bit of control available for these options. They also support contact pictures and a plethora of emoticons. If you’re looking to make your SMS messages look more interesting, then Empower SMS Viewer gives you the tools to make it as custom as you like.

Pros:

• Excellent skinning options
• Fast and efficient on many devices
• Gives your SMS messages a truly custom “threaded” look
• Adds emoticon and profile picture support to SMS

Cons:

• Not really a true threaded option
• High price

With a high price tag of $14.99 I’m not sure if it’s worth it. If skinning is your thing, then you can’t find a better app, just don’t be fooled by the “threaded” claims made by Empower as they simply are not technically true. I will continue to wait for RIM to roll out BlackBerry Messenger’s SMS capabilities (though as we all know, that could be a long time).

Robert Losch

Snakeskin battery cover, yellow scroll ball, and Turkcell carrier bottom panel.

In the past couple of years we’ve seen BlackBerry go from a business-oriented uber pager, into the swiss-army knife of smartphone entertainment and productivity it is today. With so many high-end devices on the street, my Bold is no longer as special as it was when it first launched late last year. Time for a change that will elevate my device ten floors above the pedestrian and into the penthouse.

The Bold was the first BlackBerry that could be easily customized with interchangeable battery covers. On launch they had red and blue faux leather, now there are dozens of battery covers available from gold snakeskin to pink denim. We got our custom kits from Cellular Nationwide Network: an OEM parts distributor with a thorough selection of BlackBerry custom parts and quick shipping.

For these custom devices we wanted to switch the silver bezel and buttons out for a matte black set, I also wanted to switch carrier tags to add some international flavor. Ordering a battery back is simple enough but for these other modifications we’re going to have to so some disassembling and warranty voiding. Taking the device apart was simple enough, putting it back together is a little tough so here’s a disassembly guide just in case.

I would like to note how light the BlackBerry Bold’s guts are without the battery and external housing. To me the bold is a computer in every sense, but taken apart it weighs about as much as an Oreo.

Black denim battery cover, black scroll ball, matte black bezel with blank carrier bottom panel, and a set of black buttons.

If you’ve done any BlackBerry case modifications that you’d like to share please email us at tips(at)blackberrycool(dot)com.

There aren’t many great themes available for the BlackBerry Tour 9630 just now. Developers are still catching up after the Plazmic CDK was found to be incompatible with the Tour. BlackBerry Cool has put together 10 of the best themes we could find for you to browse. If you know of others you like, feel free to comment.

iBerry 2.0 with Today Plus

This Today Plus version of iBerry 2.0 features all the functionality of a Today style theme, with a popup set of 5 customizable zen style icons at the bottom.

Purchase the iBerry 2.0 with Today Plus theme for $7.99.

Apple Leopard OSX

This version offers bigger icons with reflection; dock stays in place while you can change the backgrounds to whatever you like; user changeable icons, and others minor improvements.

Purchase the Apple Leopard OSX theme for $6.99.

Solar Slideshow

In this theme, 10 images combined of the sun and nine planets in the solar system rotate on your screen’s background. The image changes once per 30 minutes, so your device will continually look fresh with stunning celestial imagery.

Purchase the Solar Slideshow theme for $5.99.

iGlass

iGlass theme features nice combination of a simple background with glassy (glossy) looking icons.

Purchase the iGlass theme for $7.99.

iBerry Pink Today Plus Theme

The iBerry Pink Today Plus theme is just like the iBerry theme only, you guess it, pink!

Purchase the iBerry Pink Today Plus theme $6.99.

Saltwater Theme

This animated theme has some tropical fish swimming around your homescreen. Keep your eyes open for special daily Easter Eggs.

Purchase the Saltwater theme for $6.99.

Windows Se7en

This theme is made to look like the Windows 7 OS with a few minor adjustments.

Purchase the Windows Se7en theme for $6.99.

iWorld

This isn’t the nicest looking theme in our list but again, there isn’t much out there for the Tour.

The iWorld theme is available for $6.99.

9000 Beach Holiday

Feeling a little stressed out about work? Relax with a beach theme!

The Beach Holiday theme is available for $5.99.

FlowBerry

FlowBerry is a theme based on the popular iTunes Cover Flow album system. Browse your applications in a slick and easy to use style.

Purchase the FlowBerry theme for $5.99.

Table of Contents

Background information
What you’ll find in this update
Performance enhancements
Customization
Shortcuts
Opera Link
Dual viewing modes
Criticisms
Pros and Cons
Conclusion
Opera Mini and my free web experience

Background information

Internet data consumption through mobile devices is growing at an incredible rate globally. BlackBerry devices and smartphones in general are at the forefront of this growth, and consumers are constantly on the hunt for the perfect browser. Opera Mini is a leading 3rd party mobile browser and I’ve taken the time to put together a review of the browser, as well as include a tip on how to use Opera Mini to get Internet access, without purchasing an Internet data plan.

What you’ll find in this update

Opera Mini is known for offering users the ability to have a full web browsing experience on their mobile phones. The new Opera Mini 4.2 is not much different from the beta version that was realized earlier this year, but it does features new upgrades for personalization and has increased the productivity with faster performance.

Performance enhancements

The main and most raved about update is the performance. Opera Mini’s software switched on a new US based Server Park in effort to deliver faster loading times – they promise a 30% speed increase for their US and Asian Pacific Users. The performance increase not only saves time but money too, with low res images and compressing pages up to 90%. Anyone who goes from using the BlackBerry browser to Opera Mini 4.2 will immediately notice how significantly faster web pages load.

Customization

The browser it self can now be personalized with new colour schemes of skins. If you remember, this was also offered in Opera Mini 3 but was later removed. Although it may look cute to have a pink or green title bar, you’ll find it more convenient to view pages in full screen mode without the title bar even showing.

Shortcuts

Opera Mini finds use for the keypad that makes web browsing conveniently easier. The number pad is used for quick scrolling and zooming, and a hotkey (#1) launches a menu allowing users to alter between mobile and web view.

Opera Link

Another big improvement to the Opera browsing experience comes with Opera Link, which can now sync your notes from your computer to Opera Mini. The bookmarks are easily accessed through a ‘Speed Dial’ which eliminates the need to go to the main page. Another great feature is how secure and safe Opera Mini is. It’s always nice to be able to do mobile banking and online shopping on the go without a worry.

Dual viewing modes

One of my favorite features of Opera Mini is the fact that it offers two different viewing modes. The one I use most often is the Desktop View, which emulates the desktop browsing experience. The other view, called the Mobile View, will resize images and offer the content in a single column. I use this view to read my favorite blogs and access pages with a lot of text.

Criticisms

While the above makes Opera Mini a fantastic browser, no application is without its downsides. One criticism I have for Opera Mini is when you open the application there is always a warning message asking if it has permission to access the Internet. I don’t believe this has anything to do with Opera, and is likely a requirement of RIM, but it still hurts the experience. Also, when making changes in your settings you have to manually select save through the menu, rather then be propped to save when you switch pages. These are just minor annoyances.

Another issue I have come across while using Opera Mini is in filling out forms. When filling out fields, such as a username and password, Opera Mini will open a new blank screen in which to enter the information. I believe this causes unnecessary navigation and impedes the browsing experience.

While using Opera Mini I have found a few bugs as well. Some pages tend to load awkwardly. Also, when I’m accessing larger sites, I sometimes get missing images. I’ve tried fixing this problem in the settings menu, but even with the image and visual options minimized, I still get this problem. It could also be an issue on the site’s end.

Pros and Cons

To summarize, I believe that Opera Mini features the following positive and negative features:

Pros

• Full, desktop-style web browsing experience.
• 30% speed increase for their US and Asian Pacific Users.
• Personalize the browser with new colour schemes of skins.
• Hotkeys make for a fast and easy browsing experience.
• Sync your desktop and Opera Mini using Opera Link.
• Two viewing modes including Desktop and Mobile.

Cons

• Requires permission to access the Internet.
• Settings menu requires manual saves.
• Filling out forms is tedious and time consuming.
• Some pages load awkwardly.
• Larger pages tend to have missing images.

Conclusion

Opera Mini 4.2 is definitely worth downloading, the performance increase out ways the downsides and I’m sure with future updates the browser will continue to improve.

Opera Mini and my free web experience

Opera Mini and my free web experience

Before Opera Mini 4, I had been using Opera Mini 3 regularly on my BlackBerry Curve 8310. I had no data plan, but I found a way to be able to browse the Internet using the Opera Mini browser with only an email plan, and my provider never catching on to charge me.

For this to work, all you need is an unlimited email data plan. This plan blocks any other type of data use, and is fairly inexpensive. The work around is to download a 3rd party Internet browser, specifically Opera Mini, to your computer and upload it to your BlackBerry through desktop manager.

Once Opera Mini is installed on the phone, change the TCP settings.

Options -> Advance Options -> TCP

My provider is Rogers so my settings are,
APN: internet.com
Username for APN:
Password for APN:
(Other service providers’ TCP settings differ)

Once the settings are changed, Opera Mini allows full browser access. This is an incredible advantage over the native BlackBerry browser, which blocks you from any browser use and encourages you to buy a data plan to unlock your phone’s Internet features.

I believe the work around is possible because the unlimited email plan fools your service provider into allowing you to browse the Internet for free. When you receive your bill from the carrier, it shows how much data you’ve used, but to the provider this data is only from the use of emails. According to the carrier, this is because with only an email plan you “can’t access the Internet.”

It’s nice to be able to have free browser access but I needed to upgrade data plans to suit some other needs, but Opera Mini continues to be my main browser.

Grand Prize: The winner of the Grand Prize goes to Alex Lombardi. Alex’s review of Opera Mini will be tomorrow morning for everyone to read. The winning review was a close call between Alex, @coffeedaze and a review submitted by Dennis from WAPreview.com.

The Grand Prize is a 7-day all-inclusive trip to Scandinavia this summer. Congratulations Alex!

Dennis is in a tough situation for prizes because he’s using an iDen 7100, and therefore none of our cases and accessories really apply. If anyone wants to trade a CDMA Curve for an 8350i, we can make this happen. We’re giving him:

We’re giving @coffeedaze

We’re also giving away:

So if you entered and have a Bold or Curve 900, leave a comment with the same username/email.

The BlackBerry Curve 8520 is a turning point for RIM. They have clearly realized that they have parts on their devices that can still remain perfectly functional while reducing their replacement and repair costs, as well as those of their customers. The 8520 is also a lower end device as noted by the cheap battery panel that pulls off without requiring a slider or a button. Since you’ve likely experienced the Curve 8900 at some point, I’ll use it as a point of reference.

Lets go through the new features with the BlackBerry 8520, and get a discussion going about the device. We want to hear your thoughts!

Convenience Keys

When you pick up the 8520, you’ll notice that RIM added extra rubber around the phone that reaches to over the bottom and top parts of the device. Gone are the silver convenience and volume keys that you’ve grown to expect. The buttons are still there, they just remain protected under the rubber coating. Compared to my 8900, the convenience keys and the volume keys require just a tad more pressure, but overall, work exactly as you’d expect. RIM did do something really special for this device. They added three media keys at the top for play/pause/mute, rewind and fast forward. Definitely a nice touch.

Keyboard

The 8520 continues in the lineage of RIM’s excellent keyboards. The keyboard feels quite similar to the 8900’s. They keys are shaped the same way. In comparing them side-by-side, the 8520’s keyboard has just a little more travel and the keys seem to be a bit taller than those on the 8900. The experience on both devices is fast and pleasing.

Screen

The 8520 screen appears to use the standard screen that you’ve been seeing for years on the 8300-series curve. It’s a standard 320×240 resolution that no one is going to get excited about. The 8900’s screen is obviously superior in terms of resolution, but also in brightness. Remember, though, the price point on the 8520 will likely be significantly less expensive than the 8900.

Camera

The camera is the standard 2 megapixel shooter that you’ve used to shoot pictures of the kids, your drunken buddies or the girl dancing on the table at the bar. Now, things get a little more complicated because RIM decided to eliminate the flash. It’s clearly not a deal killer though, since the iPhone folks have gone without for three iterations. You also won’t be able to do any geotagging because the phone doesn’t come with a built-in GPS.

Optical Trackpad

RIM’s jump from a trackwheel to a trackball was a huge jump. It took me a few days to not have my thumb reach for the side of the device when I switched from an 8703e to an 8830. The optical trackpad is just as large of a shift. There certainly have been a fair number of trackball failures due to skin oils, dirty hands, make up and any other thing you may have put into your phone (I don’t want to know). The trackpad on the 8520 is as smooth as (fill in the blank). Yes, it really is that slick. You slide your thumb on the pad and the cursor moves exactly the way you’d expect. I can certainly see some scores on Brickbreaker either jumping dramatically because of the responsiveness of the pad or dropping significantly because of the responsiveness of the pad. Having set my pad to 80, you can move the cursor really quickly. To select, just press down on the pad as you would on the trackball. I certainly see the trackpad as a major step forward for RIM. Having recently received my BlackBerry Tour, I’m already wishing my device had the trackpad as well. The newer RIM devices like the 8900 and the Tour have the trackball inserted without an easy removal method for cleaning, though they do look better than those on the 8300 and 8800 series devices. The trackpad keeps the look clean without sacrificing functionality.

All in all, I’m pleased with the 8520. It runs OS 4.6 very well, probably due to the memory in the device. It’s not a high dollar phone, but I can imagine that it will serve its purpose very well. As a T-Mobile phone, the 8900 remains on top with a higher resolution screen, better camera, and nicer materials. Compared to the 8300-series, the 8520 is a nice step up, besides the lack of GPS and flash.

For those of you on T-Mobile, is the 8520 a big enough shift to cause you to move up to a newer device from a Pearl or 83×0? Are you 8900 users a little jealous that your device is lacking an optical trackpad? Anyone on a different carrier and so compelled by the optical trackpad that you’re willing to take the leap over to the 8520? What do you think about the rubberized buttons? Share with us in the comments, let’s keep the conversation going.

The T-Mobile BlackBerry Gemini 8520 is slated as a low-end BlackBerry Curve, and it will definitely suit the intended market. While Power Users are going to yawn, early Pearl owners are going to want to upgrade to this device, especially because we’ve heard it’s going to come in some beautiful colors.

Before reading this review, as usual it’s not a commercially available device and therefore may not be the device you pick up from T-Mobile.

The 85xx Series Devices

The BlackBerry 8520 is a new-generation Curve and while the xx20 is the only device in the series so far, it surely won’t be the last. In the coming months (year), we can expect a rollout similar to that of other BlackBerry devices. The BlackBerry 8510 will have GPS and the 8530 will be CDMA.

About the OS

The 8520 that I’m using is running OS 4.6.1.227, which seems to be the consensus around other sites who have got their hands on the device. While OS 4.6.1 is decent, it isn’t the OS 5 that we’ve all been waiting to use. Because this is a pre-release device, it could possibly ship with OS 5, which would be a dream come true.

The Trackpad

The first thing that hits you about this device is obviously the trackpad. The shift to a trackpad is likely in response to the number of complaints from BlackBerry users about having to replacing the trackball because it got sand or dust in it. The trackpad seems impervious to this sort of damage and is sure to make your device last longer. At first, you may find the trackpad doesn’t respond exactly how you remember the trackball responding. Make sure to go into your settings, in the same place where you change your trackball sensitivity, and crank it up for a smoother trackpad experience.

While I like the new trackpad strategy, there is a learning Curve (pun intended). While navigating menus and browsing the internet, I found I was missing the mark a lot. This is because the trackpad requires a slightly different approach which I can only explain as “swiping” versus “rolling.” With a trackball, you can almost feel the cursor movement but with the trackpad, I felt I had to swipe my finger across the pad, and adjust. If this doesn’t make sense, all I can tell you is that it feels weird at first but you get used to it quickly. I didn’t test the trackpad in varying lighting conditions but I’ve heard this may have an impact on the responsiveness.

3G versus EDGE

Not having 3G doesn’t really have anything to do with RIM, and this is a decision that is made at the carrier relation level. It’s the same deal with WiFi, where I wish every BlackBerry came with WiFi but it’s clearly the carriers who put the kibosh on it. Since WiFi saves on data, carriers don’t want it on their consumer devices because they want their customers eating up large amounts of costly data. While it would be great to have 3G on all BlackBerry devices, EDGE is still a large market that needs servicing.

BlackBerry 8520 specs

For a consumer device, the 8520 has an average screen size and resolution at 320 x 240 pixels and 65,536 colors in TFT. For a device that is rumored to be a consumer phone, I’m a little surprised at the lack of consumer features. For example, the camera megapixels have been downgraded from the average 3.2 that comes with devices today, to only 2 megapixels with no flash. Picture and video are therefore going to be less than attractive for this device.

The battery has 1150 mAh (Milliamp Hours), which means it won’t be able to store as much charge as previous Curve devices. Perhaps this is where no flash will actually help in that there is less charge but less to use up the charge.

Form Factor

The first thing you notice about the form factor is the rubber bezel. The bezel gives it an Otterbox feel that makes you think you could drop it and never worry about scratches. Looking at my 8300 devices, the sides and corners are scratched up which would be almost totally eliminated with this device. The side keys are rubberized too, which will mean sand and dust won’t be able to get into the crevices and lock up your convenience keys. Overall, when you pick up this device, you immediately get the sense that it’s a sturdy device that will last a long time.

Although the form factor does make for longevity, there are some downsides to this new form factor. The fact that the case is completely rubberized, means it’s missing the charging contacts. This means there are a ton of accessories that won’t be compatible with the device. I don’t see how charging docks will work with the device. Also, signal boosting accessories will have a difficult time as many of them require access to the contacts to boost the signal. It’s not only the lack of contacts which conflict with accessories out there, it’s also the case market. I can’t see anyone being able to buy a new case for this device, as it already has one. Perhaps this is part of what seems to be the 8520’s strategy of being indestructible. RIM has seen the money in the case market, and decided to cut the middle man out.

Another big improvement on the 8520 are the media keys at the top of the device. These media keys are a great addition for the consumer who likes to listen to music on their device. I personally use my device as my main music player, and while the keys don’t really help the browsing experience, they’re great if you have a playlist going.

As I’ve already mentioned, the battery cover on the 8520 gave me a big headache. For some reason, I simply can’t get the thing open without using some aid such as a key. Bla1ze from CB pointed out that the 8520 he’s been using has the complete opposite characteristics and it’s really easy to open. At this point, it’s clear that we’re all just reviewing pre-release devices and we can’t be certain of the experience.

Keyboard

The keyboard on the 8520 is like the Curve 8900 in the way the keys are positioned, but the keys themselves feel like the 8300. While the keys on the 8900 were lower, the 8520 feel raised, and will surely remind you of typing on your 8330.

Overall, this device is going to be a hit with the Curve market, and I’m interested to see where and what carriers pick up the device. This 8520 is branded T-Mobile, so we’re sure to see it with them, but other EDGE supporting carriers will surely pick it up as well.

As this is just one man’s opinion, I’ve sent the device over to Nan Palmero whose going to give it a whirl. He’ll have much more insight than myself. I can’t even work a battery cover.

More beautiful pictures of the BlackBerry Gemini 8520

I’ve been playing around with the BlackBerry Tour 9630 on TELUS and I’ve put together my impressions, pics and some Bold and 8900 comparison points. This BlackBerry Tour is not a commercial unit, so while it’s running final code, it didn’t come with all the branded packaging – not that you would really care.

In general, this device is where the Curve 8900 meets the Bold. This is indicative of RIM’s latest device strategy of making hybrids to satisfy a gray area of customers, while working on the the more evolutionary devices which take longer to produce. This strategy is summed up as follows:

“You may not love every BlackBerry released by RIM, but rest assured there is a BlackBerry for everyone.”

Now let’s take a deeper look at this device.

Operating System

The device came with OS 4.7.1.40 so I wish I could show you some new OS features but there is nothing new here. OS 4.7 is almost identical to the OS that comes with the BlackBerry Storm, except of course you’re browsing with a trackball. The build seems really solid and I haven’t had any white screens of death or crashes since I have been playing around with the device. I wish RIM would launch OS updates a little faster as customers are spending considerable amounts on these devices and they deserve an OS that can compete with the other smartphones on the market. I’m thinking BlackBerry devices will probably start shipping with OS 5 later this year. Hopefully we’ll see it on the BlackBerry Storm 2, with a similar port to trackball devices soon after.

Screen

The screen of the BlackBerry Tour is the same size as the BlackBerry Curve 8900 (480×360), with a Half-VGA resolution, as per the BlackBerry Bold. The colors look great on this device and it’s clear that RIM has made sure to satisfy the video and media needs of consumers with this device.

As the BlackBerry Tour 9630 is a hybrid of the Curve 8900 and the Bold, here are some points relative to each device:

The BlackBerry Tour Relative to the Curve 8900

One of the first things I noticed while handling the Tour is that the battery casing moves ever so slightly just like the 8900 does. On the device I’m using, the issue is less prevalent than with the 8900, but it still worries me that this will be exacerbated over time. Over the course of a year, this issue becomes much like Chinese Water Torture: almost unnoticeable at first but will drive you mad over time.

In terms of form factor, another small but noticeable difference is with the trackball. For some reason, RIM has decided to make the trackball on the Tour is a little more recessed. While this isn’t a big change, I personally like the trackball better on the 8900 as it makes for easier scrolling.

The battery on the Tour is the same battery that comes with the Storm and the Curve 8900. This leads me to believe that RIM has made a conscious effort to standardize the batteries on BlackBerry devices, which is huge for owning multiple devices and sharing battery life. Now, if you buy 5 BlackBerry batteries, you have extras for yourself and your fellow BlackBerry addicts.

While reviewing this device, I noticed that the speaker on the Tour is louder than the 8900. This isn’t so much an improvement, just different. I personally have never found the speakers on the 8900 to be quiet and they’re more than enough for listening to music (rarely without headphones) and conference calling.

The BlackBerry Tour Relative to the BlackBerry Bold 9000

The battery casing on the Bold was just incredible. With the ability to switch it out for leather backs and various colors, it would have been nice to see this on the Tour. While the battery casing isn’t bad, it’s sort of awkward to look at. You can look for yourself in the pics, but it’s something about the fact that the hinge is in the middle of the case makes for an awkward release. Compared to the Bold, it’s a little easier to remove, but I still want RIM to make the battery casing experience easier in general. The Storm casing was the apogee of awkward battery case removals.

The battery on the Tour is great considering it’s a CDMA device. Compared to the Bold, I found the battery life much better, which is strange considering the Bold’s battery is bigger and it’s a GSM phone. It could be for the simple fact that my Bold is older than the Tour, but I suspect there is more to it.

The speakers on the Tour 9630 are definitely less loud than the Bold. This was a little strange to me as speakers seem to be a consumer-centric feature, while the Bold was positioned as a more enterprise device than the Tour.

The keyboard on the Tour is borrowed from the Bold. It has the same ergonomic keys as the Bold except for the keyboard feels slightly more cramped than on the Bold. It’s an incredibly small difference but while typing on the Tour, the keys felt ever so slightly smaller than the Bold, yet drastically larger than the 8900. Personally, I like my keys to be more separated, and I would have liked a keyboard experience closer to that of the 8900. Given RIM’s device strategy, I know that device isn’t far away.

Overall impressions

The first thing that hit me when I saw the official BlackBerry Tour specs was that it does not have WiFi. How can RIM still be releasing devices with no WiFi? It’s bothersome for the 8900 and a blessing on the Bold. If you were going to take the best from both worlds, it seems to me that you would definitely include it.

Other than WiFi, this BlackBerry offers a ton of incredible BlackBerry features for the Power User. Many users, not myself included, will love the Bold keypad, and the 8900 feel to the device makes it a very sexy device to have in your pocket.

This device fits nicely into the RIM product line and reflects their current market which is 50% consumer and 50% enterprise. The BlackBerry consumer will appreciate the 256MB of RAM and the 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera, while enterprise will appreciate the World Phone hardware and the Bold keyboard.

Relative to the other CDMA BlackBerry devices on the market, this is the finest BlackBerry to date. I’m still curious how the battery has managed to be so powerful, and if I were a TELUS subscriber, I would be upgrading immediately.

More Pics of the BlackBerry Tour 9630 from TELUS

* The battery door isn’t all glossy anymore, which was scratch city. It’s got soft-touch rubber on the outer part and the inner part is a carbon-fiber material. Really, really sharp.
* The dark chrome bezel which is also found on the BlackBerry Onyx looks stunning on the Verizon Tour.
* The device comes with a BlackBerry leather holster!

You’ll have to wait until the second part of the review is done for more, but in the meantime, check the gallery!”
Via BoyGeniusReport

PodTrapper Podcast Manager by VersatileMonkey is a really decent podcast solution, and they’ve just released their best update yet! With one of the most intuitive media playback systems on Blackberry, and so many functions it’ll make your head spin, this application is a must have for anyone who really wants to be entertained on the go.

Adding podcasts is quick and easy, as PodTrapper pulls directly from Apple’s available podcast database when you do a search. If you want to add a podcast that’s not listed, you also have the option of entering the URL. Podcasts are downloaded directly to your device or removable storage, for playback even with no service coverage.

Here’s a quick rundown of the features before we hit the highlights:
• Automatic downloading of new episodes via Wifi, Cellular and Desktop
• Keeps track of last played podcast
• Remembers where you left off in every episode
• Reliable pause and resume of downloads when connectivity changes
• Built in keylock to allow for control of audio in your pocket
• Pauses for phone calls and resumes when completed
• Built in large file downloader
• Bookmarkable playback of any file on your device
• Support for video podcast (if supported by device)

This doesn’t even scrape the top of the limitless options you can set for downloading, priority, and playback of podcasts and other media files. Anyone who has been using PodTrapper since its first demo can attest to the application’s constant evolution. An easy tie-in to this is the unbelievable developer support. With a main menu option to contact the developer (which goes directly to his email), fast response time to any queries you might have, an incredible forum, and online tutorials and help pages, you’ll never feel left in the dark with any questions you have.

Anyone familiar with a TiVo/DVR style of playback control will love the ability to skip back and forth with the easy play controls. Along with this, PodTrapper now has the ability to play/pause from the mute button (where as you used to have a second icon you had to waste a convenience key on.)

Even with all the features they’ve managed to squeeze into PodTrapper (in other words, more to go wrong) I have only a couple of suggestions is only one item I find issue with (I had six more bullets here, downloaded the latest update, and they were all fixed bugs or added features):

• Newer video podcasts work great, but some older ones don’t always play right, and a couple even cause my blackberry to do a hard reset.

All in all, this is a superb application with almost limitless functionality, and as fast as it gets updated I would expect to see any little issues become a thing of the past quickly. The mediocre price tag and endless entertainment value of PodTrapper make it a must-have application for anyone who likes to play as hard as they work.

Download PodTrapper for free for 30 days. After the 30 day trial it retails for $9.99.

A common criticism of BlackBerry devices is that the web browsing experience needs to be closer to that of the desktop browser. Opera Mini has been filling that need with a truer desktop experience.

From the beginning, Opera have been helped by communities such as BlackBerry Cool spreading the word about the browser and sending in valuable feedback. Because of their involvement, Opera Mini has become one of the most downloaded applications for BlackBerry.

Now, the company wants to give back to the community. This summer, one lucky reader from the BlackBerry Cool community will get to visit Oslo, Norway and visit the Opera headquarters. He or she will be accompanied by a correspondent from BlackBerry Cool, who will be writing about the experience. You’ll even get to visit Linkoping, Sweden where Opera Mini is made.

How to win:

All you have to do is download Opera Mini 4.2 on your BlackBerry (if you haven’t done it already) and write a review of the browser. We’ll be taking the top 20 reviews, publishing them, and giving them each cool prizes. The best review, as judged by the editorial staff of BlackBerry Cool, will win the grand prize. Some of the other prizes include: software gift cards, accessories and an advanced preview of an unseen version of Opera Mini.

Download Opera Mini by visiting mini.opera.com using your BlackBerry browser.

You can also download Opera Mini by SMS link or desktop.

Here are some guidelines for the review:

• Please keep the review to a maximum of 600 words.
• Be honest. You won’t win for writing the kindest words, but rather the most insightful piece.
• Doug’s review of the BlackBerry Bold is a great example of a well-written review.
• Robert’s review of Advanced Call Manager demonstrates the sort of pro/con analysis that should be included.
• Added points for your review if you include any video, screenshots, commentary or rich media.
• Points for personality too! Your review doesn’t have to be hilarious, but include something personal.
• Submit your review as a .doc

Contest begins Monday, June 15 and deadline for applications is Friday, July 10 at noon PDT.

Please send your entries to kyle at blackberrycool dot com with the subject “Opera Mini Review”

About Opera Mini

Opera Mini is the most popular mobile Web browser with more than 23 million users worldwide.

Opera Mini is the revolutionary Web browser that goes where you do. Designed for speed and usability, Opera Mini provides remarkably fast browsing on nearly any mobile phone—especially BlackBerry devices. Opera Mini is one of the most downloaded applications on the BlackBerry platform because of its ease of use and speed.

Opera Mini uses a remote server to pre-process Web pages before sending them to the phone. The majority of the processing and rendering is done on the servers, making it possible to access the Web without using up much of the phone’s resources.

Opera Mini 4.2 adds more language versions and offers added skin selections to personalize the look and feel of the browser. Opera Mini is renowned for its speed, as data is compressed before it is sent to the phone. This helps to keep end-user costs low, since the data delivered is kept to a minimum.

Upon downloading Opera Mini 4.2, mobile phone users will experience:

• More than 90 language versions, including the recently added Amharic, Armenian, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Kirghiz, Lingala, Marathi, Malayalam, Mongolian, Oriya, Punjabi, Pashto, Sinhala, Tajik, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Uzbek, Khmer, Kashmiri, Lao and Turkmen

• Funky new skins for personalizing the look of Opera Mini

• Opera Link support for notes, allowing users to sync their notes between the PC and Opera Mini

• Improved real time streaming protocol (RTSP) handoff. This increases the number of phones with support for mobile video.

Visit their site for more information on Opera Mini

Only North American residents are eligible.

By Ahmed Datoo, VP marketing, Zenprise

Zenprise is partnering with BlackBerry Cool to address how to resolve some of the most common BlackBerry activation problems. Through a series of 10 articles, readers will learn how to identify key log file errors, tests and configurations critical to identifying the root cause of enterprise activation issues.

The articles will explore common failures in the 4 unique stages of the activation process: stage 1 activation, stage 2 verifying encryption, stage 3 receiving services, and stage 4 slow synchronization process. Special thanks to Brian Bernard at RIM for providing the content for this troubleshooting series.

In this first article, Zenprise addresses what to do when a BlackBerry device is missing an Enterprise Activation icon on the home screen. For BlackBerry administrators, users experiencing this problem will typically not get past the first stage of the activation process (i.e., activation stage).

Issue 1 – The Enterprise Activation icon on the home screen is missing

If the end user does not see an Enterprise Activation icon on the home screen, than this implies one of two problems: either the BlackBerry smartphone is not set for wireless activation or that the device was previously activated on a BlackBerry Enterprise Server.

There are several possible ways to resolve this problem. :

1. Have the BlackBerry user verify with the wireless service provider that the BlackBerry is registered for service provisioning access.

Tip: To activate a BlackBerry smartphone on a BlackBerry Enterprise Server, a wireless service provider must first provision the smartphone for enterprise and prosumer service.

2. Have the user verify that the BlackBerry received the provisioning service book by selecting the following:

• Options > Advanced Options > Service Book
• The user should see an entry labeled Provisioning

Tip: The Advance Options* menu is available only in BlackBerry device software 4.1 or later. If the advanced menu is not available, the user can open the Options menu and select Enterprise Application.

If the BlackBerry smartphone is already activated on a BlackBerry Enterprise Server, you won’t see the Enterprise Activation icon. Once activated, the Enterprise icon disappears from the BlackBerry’s home screen.

Here is a possible workaround to this scenario:

1. Have the user perform a security wipe on the BlackBerry and then attempt the activation process again.

Tip: The following procedure will remove all data from the BlackBerry smartphone.

• Select Options > Security Options > General Options
• Display the menu and select Wipe Handheld

Once activated, you can also access the Enterprise Activation screen by selecting the following:

• Options > Advanced Options > Enterprise Activation

We would also like to share an archived webinar around Troubleshooting the 10 Most Common Enterprise Activation Issues.

Maximizer Software’s mobile CRM service for BlackBerry is a robust application powered by a company with a long history in the industry.

This mobile CRM solution offers both offline and online access to all the essential organizational tools needed to effectively manage your business. Use this application to track:

• customers
• leads and sales opportunities
• service cases
• notes and profiles
• document library
• schedule
• follow-up tasks
• call/email logging (including integration with BlackBerry)
• mobile dashboards

Maximizer Software have earned themselves the titles BlackBerry ISV Alliance Member and Microsoft Gold Partner. In addition, Maximizer Mobile CRM is certified on AT&T, Sprint, Rogers, and the company works with other carriers and mobile dealers around the world to bring mobile CRM to global mobile smartphone users.

The traditional field sales rep lugs around file folders or a laptop and makes their face-to-face sales calls. To keep track of their activities requires a customer relationship management (CRM) system to routinely update meetings, forecasts, and prepare for upcoming meetings.

Maximizer Mobile CRM with phone integration.

There exists a synergy between mobile CRM solutions and BlackBerry devices. Using Maximizer Mobile CRM on a BlackBerry, field sales reps have access to the customer and sales information they need to build stronger customer relationships, boost productivity, and provide real-time updates – anytime, anywhere.

Companies typically invest in mobile CRM for field sales for one of three reasons: to increase revenue, improve service, or reduce costs. Companies using mobile CRM have achieved a return on investment (ROI) in these areas through the following:

• Improved productivity by 17 – 20% (one additional sales appointment per day).
• Ability to provide seamless client service from in-office and field staff.
• Compliance for financial professionals to track all client interactions and requests.
• Greater visibility into field staff activities for managers to provide better coaching

See the Maximizer Software store for pricing information and sales.

See the following screenshots showing some of Maximizer’s Mobile CRM for BlackBerry features:

MaxMobile Actions will provide you with key CRM options for your contacts.

The Dashboard gives you a visual representation of your CRM metrics. As a side note, this feature looks particularly good on the Storm.

Of course no CRM application would be complete without LBS functionality.

Maximizer Mobile CRM offers seamless calendar integration. Again, a key component of CRM.

The new BlackBerry Storm OS 4.7.0.148 has made some long awaited improvements. RIM and Verizon Wireless have done a good job of meeting many consumer demands. Although the update has been leaked for some time, it is now official and fully tested. You will now find your BlackBerry to be faster, more responsive and the camera has a neat update.

The new selection tool that we found in OS 4.7.0.132 is still around and makes the copy and paste system much easier. When selecting text, you get a little box that can be slid either way to adjust your selection. Before this update, it was very difficult to select text because it was hidden beneath your fingers. Now you can select text accurately.

One of the major updates to the BlackBerry Storm includes an improved camera interface. When you take a picture with the camera, you’ll see a preview rather than a white screen. This is helpful because you’ll know immediately whether to take another, or save the file.

Another great update to the BlackBerry Storm comes with a slightly better web browsing experience. The latest Storm update makes for a more stable BlackBerry Browser experience. The latest browser update also comes with a little green “Go” button, which should help those new to the mobile browsing experience. Other than that, expect pages to look a little better, with pictures being clearer and the browser a little faster to load.

Before the most recent update, users had to download applications such as TalkLock, to ensure that they wouldn’t press the mute, end or speakerphone button during the call. This has been fixed in the most recent update along with a few other simple adjustments to make the phone experience more enjoyable. The signal strength indicators are more accurate and calls sound a little clearer.

Overall, this is a really great update to the BlackBerry Storm and I have a new-found love for the device.

Download the Verizon BlackBerry Storm OS 4.7.0.148 from BlackBerry.com.

See pictures of the complete changelog for the latest BlackBerry Storm update.

As we enter into summer and all start gearing up for vacations, I wanted to point out some helpful BlackBerry apps for the summer traveler. These applications are all available in BlackBerry App World.

Trapster

One of my favorite things to do in the summer is drive with all the windows down and enjoy the breeze. Trapster notifies you when you’re approaching speed traps, red light cameras and speed cameras, so you can drive worry-free.

Download Trapster FREE for your BlackBerry.

Transclick

Transclick provides a translation service to help you with any language barriers you may come across. There are also several dictionaries to choose from on App World, once you get a hang of the local language.

Purchase Transclick for $5.00.

TeleNav

TeleNav is a convenient GPS app that gives you driving directions as well as restaurant, hotel, ATM and WiFi hospot locations.

Try TeleNav free for a 30-day trial.

WorldMate Live

WorldMate can help you stay organized and connected so that you’ll save your business money as well as keep you focused on the important things while leaving the legwork to WorldMate.

Purchase a yearly subscription to WoldMate Live for $99.95.

Travel Genius

Travel Genius pro-sumer app that functions as an LBS search tool. Travel Genius helps you quickly find and get to the places or services you need when you are out and about.

Purchase Travel Genius on App World for $2.99.

Comment and let us know if you’ve tried any apps that would be good for a summer traveler.

MobiMouse allows you to turn your BlackBerry into a wired or wireless mouse and keyboard. With support for USB, Bluetooth, WiFi and mobile, there are a variety of ways to connect. With MobiMouse, you can launch and control Windows Media Player, iTunes, PowerPoint, or even a DVR application right from your BlackBerry. You can also assign shortcuts to close an application, open the default Browser, Task Manger, and more.

The installation was a breeze, and didn’t even require a reset on my BlackBerry. Now, you have to make sure that you download the file onto your computer, too, as you have to install a small application on any computer you want to use with MobiMouse. From there, it’s a piece of cake.

MobiMouse has become more and more feature rich over the few weeks that I’ve played with it. This is the third review of MobiMouse I’ve started to write, as they keep releasing new versions (good for them—too few companies continue to fix and improve their products).

You can connect your BlackBerry to your computer in four different ways:

Bluetooth: Far and away the best solution I found. Very little lag time, and very accurate control. All of the features work (including arrow-keys), and it was pretty fantastic. I was over at a buddy’s house with a big-screen LCD, and a desktop hooked up to it. He was pretty stoked when he realized he could ditch his mouse and keyboard, and control the computer from his 8900 Curve.

USB: You can connect your BlackBerry to your computer using the USB cable, but I’m not sure I can see why this would be useful…. Works fine, just not much use.

WiFi: This is the mode that I used the most, because it was easiest to set up. Install the app on any/all computers that you have, and you’re good to go. Just punch in the IP address of the computer you want to use, and you’re done (this is real easy, since the MobiMouse program on each computer tells you the IP address!). Now, I did notice a small amount of lag, and occasionally characters that I typed on the BlackBerry wouldn’t show up, but this was noticeably better after the recent updates.

Internet: This is the most complex to set up (port forwarding, etc.), but it is a pretty cool idea. You don’t even have to be in the same place as the computer in order to control it. Again, not sure how much use there is to it, but let me tell you, I drove my wife nuts all day yesterday while she was at work.

MobiMouse is a great product, particularly if you have a home entertainment system hooped up to a PC. My wife and myself, poor grad-students that we are, don’t have a TV; our PC is our TV. MobiMouse was great for us, too, as we can watch movies and Hulu on the laptop, and control it from across the room.

Cool: There are so many ways to connect to MobiMouse, great compatibility across OSes (new update even lets it work on Windows 7), basically all of the features you want, without much bloat. And, best of all, the frequent updates are fantastic. Great company.

Uncool: The lag when connected to WiFi was a drag. Fix it! Also, I would love to have a ‘media-player’ mode, where ‘next, play, previous, etc…’ are all dedicated buttons.

Purchase MobiMouse for the special price of $7.99 until May 23rd.

I have been lucky enough to be using the BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0 software for the past few months. It introduces several new improvements to the architecture of the BlackBerry domain, the most sought after being support for out of the box high availability. It was code named Argon, a stable gas, due to its promised reliability and solid performance. Below are some thoughts and findings that I made during my use of the software within my test environment. Screenshots are available towards the bottom.

A big thanks to Lee Williams from Gen-i for giving me the time and resources to familiarize myself with BES 5.0, enabling me to complete this article.

If you have any questions please let me know in the comments and I will get back to you promptly.

1. New Improvements and Features

The first change you will notice is the introduction BlackBerry Administration service. It replaces BlackBerry manager and is completely web based. It takes a while to get used to for every day tasks. It can feel a little cramped when attempting to select multiple users who don’t share the same group, IT policy, software configuration or otherwise. Yet after working with the interface for some time you do get used to it.

There is an API available for developers to write plugins for the BlackBerry Administration Service, so it will be relatively easy to introduce new functionality into the environment.

One of the best improvements in BES 5.0 is the more granular level of control admins have for role based administrator user accounts. You can add users to these groups, apply multiple groups to roles, and have multiple roles apply to a single user. Additionally, you can prevent certain users or groups from performing any changes on other certain users or groups. For example, in a 24×7 helpdesk scenario, you may not want to let the CEO’s account be accessed by anyone other than a few select users.

Users can also belong to multiple IT policies. This is quite cool, however, the order of IT policies are applied in a hierarchal, consecutive order. IT policies are not combined.

A feature that is well and truly overdue is the ability to whitelist applications. Finally! Default permissions can also be set for unknown applications. Additionally, the BlackBerry Administration Service downloads nightly builds of the device.xml file straight from RIM, so you don’t need to worry about updating to the latest version. Oh, one more cool addition to application deployment is adding your alx/cod files to the appropriate directory, you don’t need to prepare them for deployment by running the loader.exe /index command. This is now done automatically by the BlackBerry Administration Service, as it monitors the appropriate folders.

For those of you with high load SQL environments, you can now limit concurrent tasks by throttling transactions across the BlackBerry domain, not just per BES. This would be helpful when changing a setting within an IT policy applied to thousands of users, to limit the huge increase of I/O on your database.

Another extremely cool introduction is the Enterprise Transporter. This is used to move users between BlackBerry domains. Basically, you use this as a bridge between two BESMgmt databases that you authenticate against. Works with 4.0 SP7 and 4.1 SP6. In my lab environment, I used this and it was fairly simple to figure out, and I didn’t really have any problems. However, I definitely recommend careful consideration and planning when implementing this in a production environment – at the very least, a pilot program is a must.

2. High Availability

High availability has been available for BES Admins for some time now, through various third parties such as Neverfail and Doubletake. With BES 5.0, high availability can be enabled out of the box, for free. There is no additional cost per BlackBerry server.

There is an excellent document available called the BlackBerry Enterprise Server Planning Guide. This document goes into depth about the different features of High Availability. It’s a great read and provides some thorough insight into how the technology works. I have summarised the high availability options for the more common options here.

BlackBerry Enterprise Server

HA within BES has been designed so that even if the primary server fails, there is minimum downtime for end user’s message and data flow. High availability works by installing two BlackBerry Enterprise Server instances on two different computers.

The Secondary BlackBerry Enterprise Server tries to periodically connect to the Primary BlackBerry Enterprise server to perform health checks. These health checks are highly customisable (see the planning document for more information). If the Secondary BlackBerry Enterprise Server finds that a threshold is not met, it will try to raise its status to take over messaging duties.

Please note that for smaller environments, it is absolutely fine for you to install all of the below components on two separate boxes. You do not need to split out each service to it’s own separate box. You can also customise multiple broken out services on a single box (this is good and overdue).

BlackBerry Administration Service

The two main ways you can achieve high availability on your BlackBerry Administration Service – using a hardware network load balancer, or simply using DNS round robin.

Actually, a colleague of mine pointed out to me that HA for this component may be a little overkill for some organisations. During setup, you are asked to enter the high availability DNS pool name. But there’s nothing stopping you from using a different one for each installation, and give people two links to use and say “If this doesn’t work, use this one instead”. Most helpdesk staff should be able to handle this.

BlackBerry Attachment Service

This is not like your ordinary HA scenario, because the attachment service has some nice built in load balancing as well. This gets a little confusing so try and bear with me.

You can configure one or more pools, each with a primary group consisting of two or more Attachment server instances, and an optional secondary group with two or more Attachment server instances, for each BlackBerry Enterprise Server.

So, instead of having one attachment service doing all the work and another just sitting by waiting for it to fail, you can split this out by creating a pool. Within this pool, there is primary group, consisting of two or more attachment service instances.

You can leave it at this if you like – there is no requirement to add anything else. However, you have the option of creating another Secondary group with two or more attachment service instances in it as well.

You can set each instance to process only specific types of attachments. If an attachment cannot be processed in the primary group, it is passed to the secondary group.

BlackBerry Configuration Database

Can be achieved using database mirroring with SQL 2005 SP2. If the principal database fails, the BlackBerry Enterprise Server attempts to connect to the mirrored instance.
Other Services

High Availability can be achieved for the following additional services.

* BlackBerry Collaboration Service
* BlackBerry MDS Connection Service
* BlackBerry MDS Integration Service
* BlackBerry Monitoring (manual only)
* BlackBerry Router

Please see the BlackBerry Enterprise Server Planning Guide for more information on these services.

To setup BES 5, see Brendan’s breakdown of the screens you’ll have to navigate.

(This article was republished with the permission of the author, Brendan Zivcic)

Mycaption is a wonderful app for those on the go or who don’t care to type. I love the voice to text features of this app, and it works remarkably well. Salespeople, Doctors, Lawyers, anyone who would rather speak than type, slow typists, or those who don’t have the time to type will find this a great product to use. Make sure to enunciate very clearly. I found my first few messages to contain some errors, but after a few uses the errors on subsequent messages were either one or none.

Setup

I originally had difficulty getting everything setup properly. I Tweeted this and was contacted by Mycaption within hours. They showed me how to setup the Storm correctly to make everything work easier. After that, it worked like a champ. Their customer service is very responsive and helpful. Mycaption will set up links from your menu so that you rarely have to go into the software – everything is linked through the storm menu.

Instructions

The instructions on how to use Mycaption are on their website. I recommend reading these before using the app. They are very helpful and I used them several times in testing.

Operation

You can use this to record an e-mail, tasks, memos or a calendar entry. Select what you want from the main screen (e-mail, calendar or memo), and use the menu key to select what you want to do. For e-mail, you can select compose, reply, or reply to all. The main screen will appear, and will already be recording. At first I didn’t care for this feature (recording right away), but you get used to it, and it makes for one less step, which is always a good thing! You can have up to 50 contacts in the address book.

I particularly liked the memo feature – I often have to write down groceries to get from the store. I used Mycaption for my grocery list, and it worked great! What was even nicer is that I didn’t have to decipher my own handwriting.

Quirks

1. Nothing major – this is pretty simple to use. For the audio recorder, the buttons for pause, play, stop and done are very small and hard to hit correctly. I would like to see these larger. Mycaption is investigating improving this.
2. For calendar appointments, you can’t do recurring appointments. I found this disappointing, as I schedule quite a few recurring appointments. You need to go into the appointment and add the recurrence manually. They will be adding this feature in the future.

Subscriptions

1. There are quite a few options for subscriptions – something for just about everyone, from short (15 seconds) to long (up to 3 minutes), and pay as you go plans.
2. I suggest to start out go with the pay as you go plan, $10 for up to 20 minutes of talk time (up to 80 messages). Once you figure out where you are, then you can determine the plan that works best for you.

Recommendations

While this is a great app for business applications, adding social networking capabilities would be great. Updates for Twitter, Facebook & Linkedin would be a great added feature. Mycaption is continually reviewing these, and they may become an option in the future.

Purchase MyCaption for your BlackBerry for $10.

Before you say, “Hey, didn’t he already review a file manager?” I will correct you that this is the first time I am reviewing a GOOD file manager. While I might have been a little harsh in my review of Bilby File, it was because I knew there had to be something better… And I found that better something with File Manager Pro by Terra Mobility.

One of the first things I appreciated was the quick “tutorial” the application runs through the first time you open it. I really dislike opening a new application (especially one with as much depth as this one) and hitting every combination of keys trying to figure out the fastest way to complete a task, but this app has you covered from the beginning.

Now let’s hit the feature list and go over the high points:

• Support For The Storm — Provides double tap and multi-touch selections, and swiping for fast file list scrolling. No compatibility mode needed!
• All Standard File Operations — Copy, Move, Rename, Delete, New Folder and Send as Email. In addition, recursive Copy, Move and Delete operations are supported.
• Manage Your Zip Archives — Open and browse Zip archives the same as folders. Extract all of the contents or just a subset. Create new archives or add to existing ones.
• Select Multiple Files And Folders — Select a range of items, an arbitrary set, or any combination of both. Do any file operation on the selected items, including compressing them into a Zip archive.
• Search For Files And Folders — Search in a single folder or across multiple folders, even recursively. Specify whole words only or to use case sensitivity. Select search result items and perform any file operation.
• Fast Access With The Favorites List — Avoid tedious folder navigation and jump directly to frequently used files or deeply nested folders with a single click.
• Sort And View Files Your Way — Sort files by Name, Size, Type or Date, in Ascending or Descending order. Specify the display of file information, and control the viewing of hidden files.
• Launch Files In Documents to Go — Click on a Word, Excel or PowerPoint file and have it opened in Docs-to-Go. Click on media files — audio, video or image — and have it launched in your media application. (requires OS 4.5 or higher)
• Modify File Attributes — View properties on files and folders, and assign the Read-Only and Hidden attributes.
• Integrated Text Viewer — Built-in text file viewer that includes a Find feature for text searches.
• Unsurpassed Performance — Open and browse folders containing 1000’s of files with virtually no performance penalty.
The first thing we’ll take a look at is the options, most of which pretty much just cover how items are displayed. As you can see below, you can also choose your level of compression when creating zip files.


When you first open the application you’re presented with a main list of folders, which include Media Card, Device Memory, and System. You are also shown any folders you have added to your favorites, making it much easier than digging through your media card to browse to your most frequently used folders.

Once in a folder you have the ability to quickly select multiple files, and easily manage your selection. You can hold your shift key and scroll over multiple files, or hold shift and click individual file to add them to your selection.

The menu button quickly gives you access to all the features you would expect to find in a great file manager app… And one you wouldn’t! The compression feature is a great way to squeeze those items you couldn’t normally fit into an email on your blackberry. Another neat feature not listed in the features, is that File Manager Pro becomes the devices default application for zip files, making opening and managing them from anywhere a breeze.

The last few capabilities File Manager Pro brings to the table are the ability to edit file properties such as read-only and hidden statuses, and it even boasts a text reader! The search function is fast, and it handles large folders (standard and zip alike) with zero lag.

This is a well-rounded, lightning fast, can’t-live-without application, and the only thing I think I would add is the ability to view thumbnails when in a pictures folder… other than that it’s perfect!

Purchase File Manager Pro for a Special Price of $8.95 until May 1

I love productivity and system apps for my BlackBerry. I think there are a few that should be built into BlackBerry devices by default, such as Aerize Alerts (pop-up notifications of incoming mail/SMS/calls), QuickPull (restart your BB with a click), and QuickLaunch (shortcut links on any screen).

I recently tried another app that should come preloaded on the BlackBerry. AutoStandby, from makers, Steelthorn Software (also makers of QuickPull,) is a simple app that RIM should definitely put on all their devices.

Putting your phone in standby mode saves quite a bit of battery life as well as prevents accidental key presses. AutoStandby does this automatically, as the name would suggest, so you never forget. Installation is as you would expect. There is a lengthy EULA you’re made to read, but that’s about it. To save space, AutoStandby doesn’t have an icon. You can access the options via the BlackBerry options. I actually appreciate this as I find “system” program icons can become a little cluttered and I generally hide them anyway. There are a few options available for you as well:

* Disable if connected to PC.
* Disable if externally powered.
* Enable third-party interactions. This is useful for often used programs like Viigo and BeeJive.
* Seconds to wait after screen blanks.

Aerize Alerts is now automatically supported by AutoStandby as well so you know your notifications will still get through. When used in combination with the other system programs I mentioned, you can make your BlackBerry the device it was always meant to be.

It only took me a few minutes to find this app to be a great “must-have” and after seeing by battery life get boosted by at least 30%, I can easily recommend it to everyone.

Download AutoStandby for your BlackBerry on a free trial or purchase for $5.95.

[Special thanks goes to @coffeedaze for this review]

The blinking LED on our Berrys is great—letting us know when we have a new email / SMS / missed call / whatever. But the actual notification itself stops there. This is where Message Peek comes in. Rather than just getting a blinking LED, when you receive an Email or SMS, Message Peek pops up with a (beautiful) notification. Here, in big, readable font, you get the ‘From’ and “subject’ of the email, in addition to the entirety of the email below. You can then choose from the options at the tope to Close, Reply, Reply All, Forward, Mark as Read or Go to your Inbox. It’s as simple as that, but much like BerryBuzz, it’s a program that you won’t realize how much you need until you’ve had it for a few days.

So let’s dig in, and look at the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Installation:

Once you go the BlackBerryCool App Store and buy it, installation is a breeze. You’ll be sent a link to download it, and an activation code within the Email. From there instillation is a breeze. Just download Message Peek from the link, and paste your Activation-code into the form, and you’re good to go.

Setup and Options:

From here, you are by default taken into Message Peek’s options menu, where you can customize the program to your heart’s content. For most users, the default settings are pretty perfect, but there are all sorts of options. You can choose the default ‘Dark’ notification option, or switch to the Bright background. I switched to the Bright background, but both are nice, and it really is more of a personal preference thing. Like I mentioned before, Message Peek is pretty! The notification pops up in the middle of your screen (I’m running a Bold), but leaves a thin strip around it, showing whatever you were doing. Nice.

Back to options:

Here you can choose to display Email and SMS, or one or the other. I personally set it to only show emails, as I found that I would occasionally get a blank SMS notification…but I have a theory that this has to do with a bug with my IM program, not Message Peek. A killer feature is the “Show only messages from contact”. This means that you can choose NOT to get notifications of junk mail / list-serv contacts if you don’t want to—a Godsend if you use your email like I do. In addition, you can add a custom BlackList to leave off any specific addresses that you don’t want to be notified of.

Conclusions:

Pros: Great interface, inexpensive price for the usability that you get, nice features and options
Cons: No HTML view of email (meaning no pictures/no clicking on links), and the biggest con of all, there is no option to ‘open message’. Instead, if you want to view a message in all of its HTML glory, you have to go to the Inbox, and then choose the message. A pain, and a feature that they should have added.

Message Peek is a great program, with a few drawbacks that keep it from being perfect. That being said, this one is for sure staying on my ‘Berry. It’s a program that once you get, you won’t be able to remember how you ever lived without it.

3.5/5 – would be higher, except for the cons listed above. That being said, this program comes as RECOMMENDED.

Download Message Peek on a Free Trial or purchase for $9.95.

I do not know about you, but I am at a point in my life that remembering something is a near impossibility. Try as I may, my memory is constantly failing me. If it were not for checklists, I would never get anything done. Suffice it to say, organization is not my strongest attribute; however, I am never without my BlackBerry.

Having a checklist app in my pocket all day, every day, is the only way I can remain productive. Knowing what you have to do, and where to go to get that information is absolutely essential in today’s high demand work force, unless you are blessed with an eidetic memory.

CheckListPro for BlackBerry by Infodev Technologies helps one to keep their lists handy and organized. It not only allows complete control as to how items are sorted, but also how and when they are displayed. For the task oriented, CheckListPro is an absolute necessity.

CheckListPro offers a wide variety of ways to keep tasks and lists handy and at one’s fingertips. The ability to view items by multiple variables (i.e. by month, priority, category, etc) makes staying organized as simple as clicking a button. The search feature is very handy once the lists really start to add up. After one gets the hang of working with this app, it is almost impossible to keep from inundating one’s BlackBerry with information and to-do lists. Anything from call lists, to grocery lists, to birthdays can be easily retrieved at a moment’s notice.

In this writer’s opinion, this app (while functional) is still in its infancy. There are a few things that could have been thought out a bit further prior to its release, formatting of the screens being the main one. Aesthetics might not be high on everyone’s list of priorities, but alignment of text in relation to the backgrounds/borders can be crucial when it comes to ease of use. If the info is there, but not easily understood at a glance, some users would not take the time to “learn” the quirks of the app and move on to something else. At times, the header of the screen overlaps with the next line making it difficult to discern.

Ease of use is somewhat of an “acquired” trait as well. For instance, there is no simple way of entering a new item. There should be an “Add new item” option on the main screen. Instead, to enter a new item, one must click on ManageCategory, select the appropriate category, hit the menu key, and select add. Seems like a few too many steps. It should be as simple as clicking “Add new item” and selecting the appropriate category from there.

In item view, words that do not fit on one line do not move to the next, the app splits the word between lines. Another point that should be addressed is the simple task of going back to the previous screen. Depending on where one is in the app, going back requires one to “guess” the way back: some screens require a trackball click; some the spacebar; others require one to hit the escape key; while some require one to hit the menu key and select either “ok” or “back;” and yet in some screens, there is no way to go back at all. The only option being to close the app and re-open. Perhaps there is a way around this, but short of just hitting random keys there is no way to find out. The included help file does not address this at all.

If you are anything like me, you need to have a way to stay organized beyond the scope of the native BlackBerry Task List. Having a checklist app in your pocket is an absolute necessity, but there are not many to choose from. Although there is quite a bit of a learning curve, if you take a while to learn how to move around within this app, you will find it to be an enormous help in your day-to-day life. I am looking forward to some updates to this app. Once the bugs are worked out, this will be the most used app on my BlackBerry.

Download CheckList Pro for BlackBerry for $19.99.

I remember when I first give up my RAZR and monochrome two-way RIM pager for a blackberry, my first whine was “WHAT?!? I have ONE alarm?” Of course, you can always add reoccurring calendar items, but if you’re a professional who actually uses their calendar for business, this can become cluttered and annoying. Fortunately, Adorno! MultiAlarm Pro from Adorno has the solution. It has such a simple and intuitive interface, you have to wonder why the built in alarm application isn’t a little more like this.

Creating alarms is an easy process, even given the many options at your disposal.

You first option is frequecy, which to be honest, has more options than I think any one person will need:
• Fixed Date – Choose one date and time for an alarm.
• Weekly – Choose the days of the week you want the alarm on and the time on those days.
• Once – Choose a one time alarm. (This is the alarm type set by a Quick Alarm.)
• Daily – Choose a time for an alarm to go off each day.
• Hourly – Choose a minute for an alarm to go off each hour. (I’m sure this one must serve SOME sort of medical purpose, as I can think of no other reason to annoy people THAT often.)

Your next option is the sound the alarm will play. You can choose one of the three preset tones or choose Customize to browse your own media collection. You can also use the menu to choose to play a song before or after choosing it.

From this point you can set your Volume:

Set your snooze time:

And also set your auto begin snooze time (time it will wait before it stops alarming you and starts counting down your snooze timer:

You can also go back and easily edit previously created alarms in the same setup screen if you need to make changes (as I did to remove Sunday from my alarm I set up to remind me to take vitamins, after having my Family Guy sound clip of Peter selling “Butt Scratchers” went off in the middle of church.)

Back on the main screen, you can easily edit, delete, turn off (which can also be done with a click of your trackball), or even create quick alarms.

This is another one of those applications that is so useful and will get used so regularly, you will quickly forget it didn’t come already installed on your phone.

The only thing I would add to this app is the option to choose my snooze time when the alarm goes off. As we all know, some days might require an extra ten minutes of sleep while others require a good half hour!

Sample Alarm

Purchase Adorno! Multialarm Pro for the special price of $6.49 until Apr 30.