Blackberry on Wingate365

Trillian for Blackberry

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 10:22:00 +0000

Out in beta now, Trillian for blackberry brings all your IM networks into one tidy and slick application.

My home screen is now much less cluttered with only one IM app icon. While chats are not yet integrated into the 'Messages' list the app is fully integrated with the profile manager and notification zone.

The bubble style chat looks great and the app shows the current time and network coverage at the very top, not something I thought an IM app really needs, but its actually very handy if you are trying to chat in an area with patchy coverage...

Check it out for free from http://www.trillian.im/get/blackberry/

NimBuzz for Blackberry

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 20:48:00 +0000

Finally a decent and free IM chat client for the BlackBerry that supports messaging for MSN (Windows Live), Skype (Chat only), Gmail (Google Talk), Yahoo! Chat and Facebook chat (and a ton of others).

BlackBerry users have been waiting for ages for a decent Skype IM client and NimBuzz is it.

Nimbuzz is well integrated into BB OS: you can set a tone in your profiles for 'New Message', a notification icon shows up with the mail, SMS etc and the app icon also shows the red asterisk if you have an unread message. No other IM client that I know of is this well integrated for Skype chats. It also works fine for MSN, Facebook Chat and Google Talk as mentioned earlier. This has allowed me to remove all the individual chat apps for MSN, Yahoo and Gmail and just use NimBuzz and a single app for all my IM chats..

Thanks NimBuzz. This app can be installed via BlackBerry App World

Read more about it here on the official NimBuzz blog

Geocaching on a Blackberry 8900

Sun, 03 May 2009 23:32:00 +0000

Had some visitors this bank holiday weekend and got an introduction into Geocaching. This is a great combination of computer geekary and getting outside for fresh air and seeing some nice sights. The most surprising thing is to discover so many interesting places in and around your home that you never saw before. In summary Geocahcing is “a sport/hobby where you use multi-billion dollar satellite technology to find plastic boxes hidden in the woods”.

Managed to find the tools to play this kinda odd but rewarding GPS game using a blackberry.

Blackberry keyboard shortcuts

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 19:21:00 +0000

Keyboard shortcuts are always good to know. Here is a list of the handy ones for a Blackberry 8900.

General functions

Any text fields
Shift+roll ball: highlight text
Shift+Del: cut
Alt+click ball: copy
Shift+click ball: paste

In lists and web pages
Space: page down
Shift+Space: page up

Home screen
Tying: will start a search of your contacts, except the number keys that will also enter that number
Green handset: recent calls. also when on a call after you went to the menus this takes you back to the phonecall screen.
Q: hold down to turn on Vibrate only profile.

Messages
E: next message with an error.
R: starts a reply to the selected message, using the same address it was sent to.
T: goto the top of the list.
U: next unread message.
P: previous day
S: starts a search
F: froward selected message
J: next message with same subject
K: prev message with same subject
L: reply-to-all for selected message
Del: deletes message
C: compose new message
V: see saved messages
B: goto the bottom of the list
N: goto next day

Alt+I: show incoming messages
Alt+O: show outgoing messages and calls
Alt+P: show all phone calls, incoming and outgoing
Alt+S: show SMS messages
Alt+V: show voicemail messages
Alt+M: show MMS messages
Alt+Enter: another way to compose a message

Calendar
W: week view
A: agenda view
M: month view
D: day view (keyboard shortcuts don’t work on Day view if you have ‘Enable Quick Entry=On’. I turned mine off as its so fast to create a new appointment by pressing enter)
G: goto date
T: goto today
C: compose new appointment
Enter: compose new appointment
N: next day/month
P: previous day/month

Browser
R: reload
Y: history
U: hide/show top status bar
I: zoom in
O: zoom out
P: page info, possible to copy or email the URL
A: add bookmark
S: settings
D: close browser
F: find on page
G: goto ULR, also shows web search, bookmarks and recent history
H: goto home page
J: refresh page wirh java enabled
K: show bookmarks
C: connecton info
V: search for on page/find next on page
T: top
B: bottom
N: forward

What are the best Blackberry apps?

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 09:20:00 +0000

There are plenty of berry apps out there, some good some bad. After installing a pile on a brand new 8900 curve (and bricking the handset in the process - App Error 200 - there was no O2 validated OS available at the time for a complete wipe and reload). I thought I would share what I have learned in the process.

So far on my new device, I am mainly sticking to free RIM published apps, the app that causes the big error was a Skype program either IM+ or iSkoot dont know which but I was in the process of installing and removing those when it happened.

Currently Installed and working well