Real World Computing

Before I start on this series, I want to make my starting position clear.  I'm generally "phone-agnostic".  I've had a Blackberry Bold 9000 for years and before that it was a Blackberry 8800.  Prior to that I had a Nokia "dumb-phone". My only non-work phone choice recently was a HTC Android device for my wife. I've never spent much time with Apple and I've traditionally disliked their computers.  I guess that means that; 1. You have to take any criticisms here with a pinch of salt. 2. If I end up really liking the device, then it's even better than I say. The longer term plan for this series will be for me to start looking at how to use Lotus Traveler to make the iPhone a secure device like Blackberry. Initial Thoughts Packaging The apple packaging is very slick and much nicer looking than the blackberry packaging.  (A win to Apple). Weight The apple device weighs considerably more than the blackberry bold - probably twice...

A couple of weeks ago my Blackberry Bold suffered misfortune during a canoeing event with the Scouts. I had to temporarily revert back to a barely functional pearl. Now however, I've got a replacement Bold and I'm reloading all my "stuff" onto it. I could have simply restored my settings from a backup of my old Blackberry but I figured that I'd rather exclude applications which I haven't used. So I did a manual reinstallation. I thought this might give me a chance to talk about some good blackberry apps. So... what have I got on my blackberry now? The Default Applications It goes without saying that I have mail, calendar, SMS, Messenger (which I never use), MemoPad (which I use heaps) and all of the rest of the default Blackberry apps. Google Applications Google Mobile App ( http://m.google.com/search ) - FREE This is usually the first thing that I put back on the blackberry. It gives you a google search portal but more importantly, it's a great starti...

I've noticed this on Blackberry a lot over the years and it always irritates me. Today, I thought I should post a quick rant to pass that irritation on. See the picture... Why the discrimination against Australians and South Koreans? I'm sure I could bypass this with the right IP filter but that's not the point. Why do we get picked on. What have we ever done to Blackberry?

I was asked to help someone with this today and I spent ages searching for the option (because it's not in the obvious place). I didn't get a lot of help online either, so I thought I'd put a post out there to fill in the gap. It's not on the spanner icon (settings) where you'd expect it to be. Procedure From the front screen of your Blackberry Push the green phone button Push the blackberry button Scroll through the menu to find "Options" Choose "General Options" Scroll down to "Show my Number" If it says, Yes, then your caller id displays when you ring people. If no, then it doesn't. Change it to whatever you want by pushing the pearl Push the Blackberry button and choose Save. It should take effect immediately. Bear in mind though that lots of people won't accept calls from unlisted numbers - though if you're having trouble getting people to accept calls from YOU on a listed number, maybe going unlisted is a better opti...

I've been complaining for some time about the horrible memory problems on the Blackberry Bold. I've been running most of the same applications on the 9000 as I did on the 8800 and it's clear that there's a massive memory leak. Not only that, but the battery life has been abysmal compared to the the 8800. Well.... no more. Problem Solved Blackberry have released a patch for the Bold which updates the firmware to 4.6.0.365 I've been running for several weeks on this patch and haven't had to reboot once since applying it. The battery life is back up to the 3+ days I've come to expect from the Blackberry too.

(warning... this is rant - I know you're not supposed to blog about things when you're irritated but I've been irritated with McAfee for ages and it's not going away). My irritation with McAfee's Anti-Malware technologies has slowly been building for the past six months. For a start, I find myself disabling their firewall more often than I leave it enabled. The thing constantly tries to chew up 90+ percent of my systems resources. What's the point of having security software if, for usability reasons, you have to constantly turn it off? Whenever I start Lotus Notes 8.0.2, I have to remember to stop the McShield service (from the services part of control panel) before I double-click the icon. If I forget, my PC slows to a crawl and I can make filtered coffee and still get back with plenty of hourglass watching time. It would be easy to blame Notes for this but it performs so well when McAfee is off. In addition, several of my other bits of software perform mu...

I've had quite a few people ask me about the call log on the Blackberry Bold but as yet, I haven't found it. I did get this little tip from Craig Wiseman's blog ; Blackberry Call Log - Can anyone help? http://www.wiseman.la/web/cpwBlog.nsf/dx/blackberry-call-log-please-help Apparently the calls really are there in with your emails but they're almost impossible to see. To see all your calls do the following; Go into your main mailbox Press the Blackberry button to open the popup menu Scroll all the way down (past the bottom of the screen) to highlight Search and Click on it. Scroll to the bit at the bottom that says type and click on it Change it from Email to Phone Press the Blackberry button to open the popup menu Click Search Your blackberry will now be showing you all of the calls. When you push the Esc/ Back button, it will return to normal. Thanks Craig, not only for helping me to find the calls but also because he highlighted a very useful set of Blackberry featu...

Obviously these instructions apply to other Blackberry Models too. I've listed all of the steps that I followed but you can probably skip ahead to the second URL (step 5); Note that these instructions assume that you already have a MySpace account. Start the Blackberry browser and go to; http://www.myspace.com/blackberry Click Send to My Blackberry . Fill in your name and your Blackberry email address (it doesn't have to be the same email address you use for Myspace). After this, you can close the window (Don't bother with the link, just exit the browser). Your blackberry inbox will soon receive a new email. It contains the second URL I mentioned earlier. http://www.blackberry.com/email/myspace2 Click the button marked Download . Another download button will appear... Click this one too. A quick Bar Graph will draw and then you can click Ok and close the browser . Look in the Downloads folder for the App. For ease of use, you might want to press the blackberry button on i...

Why would you need to do this? Sometimes accidents happen. Sometimes you accidentally restore a bit too much of your CEO's old Blackberry 8800 over the top of his new one (and then you re-activate it on the network). Sometimes your CEO mentions to you that he now has four calendar entries... Yep. It happened to me. Erasing the device without deleting the extra applications allows you to redo the restore and activation tasks properly. The Procedure Press the Blackberry Button Choose Options (Spanner Icon) Choose Security Options Choose General Settings Press the Blackberry Button Choose Wipe Handheld from the Popup Menu Click Ok At the Message: Warning all application data will be lost! Message service and other services will be turned off. Make sure that [_] Include third party applications is deselected Click the Continue button type the word blackberry when prompted and press the Enter key. Wait for about 90 seconds while the blackberry whitescreens and reboots Getting Star...

Blackberry Professional vs Blackberry Enterprise Server One of my greatest disappointments with RIM's recent "downgrade" of the Blackberry Enterprise Server to a Blackberry Professional Server for small business customers was the loss of Lotus Sametime. When I first read about this, I was really miffed. After all, we hadn't yet got around to using Sametime on the blackberry and they were going to block it. The other thing that I couldn't understand was exactly how the version of Blackberry Server affected the use of Sametime anyway. After all, blackberry messenger still works and Google Talk works extremely well on the Blackberry. The Blackberry server has no impact on these applications so why should it affect Lotus Sametime. The answer is I don't know and it doesn't. It certainly doesn't affect Sametime in any way that I can see however perhaps I'm not using all of the features that were once available. Installing Sametime for the Blackberry...

The Problem The Blackberry bold is going well for me but the one thing that I missed from my 8800 was the game Ka-Glom. It was seriously addictive. In any case, I figured that I could just go to http://mobile.blackberry.com/ and get them again.. right? wrong... It seems that the site doesn't properly recognize the Blackberry Bold and as a result, it doesn't offer any games for it. The Solution The solution was easier than I expected, you just need to know the full path to the JAD files and enter it into your blackberry browser. Be warned though, these games can be addictive and if you install all of them, you'll probably run out of space on your blackberry device. Coping with Change Also, Blackberry change the links sometimes when they reorganize their site. If the links don't work, find some free games there which DO have working links and then try their URLs with the .JAD file names listed below. You can also do a google search for specific files (eg: KaGlom.jad). ...

The web browser in the Blackberry Bold is very much improved but I've still found a few places where it doesn't work as expected. When that happens, you want a different browser. You want... Opera Mini. Use the web browser to go to http://mini.opera.com/ Click on the link marked Download Opera Mini . The Blackberry bold is currently downloading the OperaMini 8830 version but I've found it to be very compatible. (Had no problems so far). Choose Download . You might get a message about the applications signature but this isn't a problem, just a scary message. Click Ok . Click Ok when the application has been installed.

The Problem Recently we moved some of our people onto Blackberry Bold. As part of the process, we've had to delete them off the BES Server and re-add them. It's not only their device PINS that have changed. It's also their SIM Cards (as the older cards didn't always support 3G). I discovered that if you do this, email will still route nicely after activation but the number of past message brought over to the device is quite small. You won't be able to get all your messages but you can increase the window backwards from 5 days before activation up to a maximum of 14 days. Here's how to do it. The Procedure On Your BES (or in our Case , Blackberry Professional) Server, Start the BlackBerry Manager . Click on the Tab Marked Home . In the Tasks box (top left corner), Click the link marked Edit Server Properties . A Dialog box will appear. In the left hand panel of this dialog box, click Messaging . Scroll through the right hand panel of the dialog box to find the...

I had been fretting recently about the Shift+Alt+Delete keystroke not working on the Blackberry Bold 9000. For those who don't know about this keystroke, it's essentially the same as removing the battery (ie: a hard reset) but without the hard work associated with it. The blackberry device is very particular about hard resets - and there's often a reason why you need to do one instead of a soft reset (which is just turning the device off and then on again). In any case, the keys still work but now only the right shift key can be used. I've also heard some users complain that they have to do the key combination twice before it takes effect.

The Blackberry Bold 9000 has gotten a bit more serious about how things are stored on it with the new software. The Blackberry folder and its special sub-folders (documents, music, pictures, ringtones, videos, voicenotes) have always been there - well, there are a couple of new ones. Unfortunately now the blackberry media player makes it difficult to play talking books. In particular, it now tends to play everything out of order and it mixes my songs folders up with the talking books folders. Luckily I've found a solution. I've now created two folders above my blackberry folder, one for eBooks and one for Talking Books. I can now point my applications MobiPocket eBook Reader and Mobiola xPlayer at those directories. This means that I can play my talking books using xPlayer and I can play my songs using the Blackberry media player. Even better, I don't have to keep switching from one playlist to another.

I'm still continuing with the development of a SOE for our corporate Blackberries. Next up, the Facebook application. Sure, I know it's not necessarily "corporate" but I'd rather that IT does a standard install than the users try to do it themselves. Open your blackberry web browser up to http://www.blackberry.com/facebook Choose Download this program . Scroll through the massive legal disclaimer and choose I Accept then click Next. Choose Download and wait for the Bar Graph. You'll be dropped back in your web browser but should find the icon in the downloads folder.

If you've got a gmail account, then you really ought to have the Google Chat facility loaded on your blackberry. Here's how; Go to the Browser and enter; http://www.blackberry.com/googletalk Scroll down the page until you find a button marked Download and click it. Choose your language and then click Next Scroll to the end of the terms and conditions and click the option button marked (o) I Accept and then click Next . The application will then start to download. It should take about one minute. At the successful install dialog, click Ok For some reason, the install drops you back in the browser. Click the blackberry button and choose close. You'll find the icon in the downloads folder, though you might want to move it to home.

Installing the Installer Go to the Browser and enter; http://www.google.com/mobile Scroll down the page until you find a link marked Download Google Mobile App Click on the link to Download and install it. At the end of the install, you can run it automatically. If you don't choose to run it immediately, you can find it later by pressing the blackberry button then scrolling to (and clicking on) the downloads button . The app is marked with a red G Installing and Accessing Components The google app is quite bare looking with greyed out icons for Gmail, maps and news. Go to each greyed out icon and click on it. It will install automatically (unless it's a web application, in which case it will just open). After install, you'll be asked if you want to grant these applications trusted status . If you don't, they won't work so I guess you need to. In terms of application permissions, allowing http to google.com is probably sufficient in most cases. Not general http. T...

Today, I got a new Blackberry Bold 9000, so there's probably going to be a flurry of Blackberry related posts as I try to install stuff on it. The Blackberry Bold seems to ship with a 1GB media card, which really isn't enough for serious use. This procedure allows you to replace the card would one that is of a decent size. Getting the Old Card out and the New One In On the left-hand side of the blackberry about in line with the Q key, there is a small door with a picture of a card on it. This door opens from the bottom (camera side) of the blackberry upwards. Once opened, you should be able to see the card in the slot. Do not attempt to use tweezers to pull the card out as this will damage the blackberry. Instead use a finger or pen push the card in further. The slot is spring-loaded and the card should pop out part way. From here you should be able to grab it, but if not, it's safe to use tweezers at this point. If you find yourself having difficulty at this stage, try ...

Well, it's been quite a few days now and I've tried all kinds of different tricks to overcome the Blackberry OS 4.5 rebooting problem on the 8800. I've tried different media cards, different types of handheld erasures, different types of card formatting. Nothing... I can get the device to stop rebooting with the card in but as soon as I try to put any data on the card, *REBOOT* This morning, I found the only solution that works for me. It's called Blackberry OS 4.2.1101 That's right, I downgraded and my problems disappeared immediately. Henceforth, I' m referring to OS 4.5 as Blackberry "Vista" (or Blackberry ME).