Seriously those will be good tears. I am hoping RIM is paying attention to the new Anastasiadis BlackBerry Concept design posted up by Kevin @CrackBerry. The concept was created by industrial designer John Anastasiadis who happens to also be a BlackBerry fan. This is his version of a dream BlackBerry that really blows your mind and makes you want to jump a few years into the future to have one of these… if they are ever made.

John’s envisioned device includes:

• Wrap around screen. This allows you to incorporate soft-keys on the underside for gaming, navigation, etc.
• The asymmetrical shape allows you to know the orientation of the phone (while holding) without having to look at it.
• There is one hard button that serves multiple functions (screen lock, picture taking, etc.)
• The phone has some artificial intelligence that can predict if you intended a command. For example, sometimes while using an iPhone it will slip out of my hand, causing me to grab for it any which way I can, thus hitting all sorts of buttons on the screen.
• The front and back cameras are behind the screen. The screen will illuminate to act as the flash.

Anybody else thinking that RIM needs to hire John to help them tweak the next BlackBerry 10 phones? The only issue I have is the lack of a physical keyboard and an indicator light…

If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:

• BlackBerry Empathy Concept Phone is Plain Creepy…
• RIM Shows Off Law Enforcement Concept Car with BlackBerry PlayBook
• Rumored BlackBerry 10 Milan Slider Concept Rumored to be Cancelled
• QNX Shows Off Concept Car With PlayBook Integration
• Review: Case-Mate Privacy Screen – Shield Your Berry From Unwanted Eyes

Posted by the BerryReview Team for ©BerryReview, January 20, 2012, 12:16 pm. | Anastasiadis BlackBerry Concept Design Will Bring Tears to Your Eyes | 21 comments |

While writing up about the new LoudTalks push to talk service I could not help but think about BBM. RIM could have a real hit on their hands if they integrated push to talk features to BBM. I know that it would be walking a fine line in terms of keeping carriers happy but in this mobile game it is either innovate or deteriorate. RIM did a brilliant job of adding Groups to BBM but I think adding voice or better yet video streaming would make it 10 times cooler!

BBM already has the infrastructure to send peer messages and audio files between devices. I already know people who use the BBM voice note feature to send messages back and forth. It would be downright brilliant if RIM would simply add half duplex push to talk groups to BBM. It would be a huge hit for businesses who have been looking for a more modern push to talk groups solution. Better yet would be the ability to streamline taking a video and streaming it to multiple people in a group.

What do you think? Do you see RIM ever adding push to talk voice capabilities to BBM? I am kind of curious to see if a developer will be able to create their own push to talk service using the new BBM peering APIs…

If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:

• Free BeepUs App Makes Push to Talk BBM a Reality
• HipVoice Bringing Cross Carrier Push To Talk To Companies For $10/month
• Verizon Releasing New BlackBerry Tour 9630 OS Tonight with Push To Talk & Free Trial
• AT&T Joins Verizon – Push To Talk Rate Now Down To $5
• More Details Revealed About Verizon Push To Talk Launch in Early April

Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, June 8, 2011, 9:04 am. | DreamBerry: RIM Should Add Push to Talk Features to BBM | 22 comments |

I have been meaning to write this piece for awhile now but every time I start thinking about it my head starts to hurt. Since the PlayBook launched we have heard reviewers harping about how you “need a BlackBerry” to get email on the device. RIM took it all in stride and announced that native email and PIM (Calendar, Contacts, Tasks, etc) are coming “this summer” for the BlackBerry PlayBook. They even showed off how it will look with a live demo. The thing is I am really curious about is how exactly RIM is planning on making it work.

Don’t get me wrong I don’t think it is impossible in any way I am just curious what the workflow will be and if it will change the current BlackBerry smartphone paradigm. I understand why RIM is taking their time on releasing the native Email and PIM clients since they need to build the infrastructure to bring QNX to BlackBerry smartphones. They also need to include all of the BES integration and security/certifications required for a business call RIM device which does not happen overnight. The thing is I see many forks in the road for RIM on how exactly email and PIM will be handled on the PlayBook especially when you consider it from both a BIS (consumer) and BES (enterprise) perspective. Keep in mind many of these “forks” are similar for any tablet or companion device and not just the BlackBerry PlayBook.

The Split Personality Conundrum

When you get an email will both your PlayBook and BlackBerry or other smartphone notify you? I can see myself in a meeting scrambling to silence two devices. How about calendar reminders? If you snooze it on your PlayBook will it automatically snooze on your phone? What about if you read an email or accept a calendar invite will you have two different calendars? Better yet what if you send a calendar invite from your smartphone then will it also show up on your PlayBook?

I realize BES might solve some of these issues with synching to an exchange server but what about regular BIS users? Don’t get me wrong other tablets have similar issues but the elegance and simplicity of the BlackBerry Bridge suddenly makes sense. I am hoping RIM wont go down the route of using desktop manager as a way to reconcile the two devices like other tablets do.

How Many Sets of the Truth?

Similar to what I said above their is a bit of a tricky issue in terms of synching. For example, If you add a contact on your PlayBook native contacts app will it come over to your BlackBerry? How about vice versa? Will you have to deal with multiple different lists of contacts between the device?

This gets even more complicated once you start walking out the door. Currently you can get all of the latest email and PIM on your PlayBook through the BlackBerry Bridge. What happens when you throw in native email and PIM? If you have a 4G or Wi-Fi connection that could work but what happens if you don’t? Will you have to open the bridge to get the latest email or will it reconcile itself? Will the native email and PIM clients use the BlackBerry smartphone to download yet another copy of the email? That does not sound like something RIM would do.

Bigger Pipes Means…

Right now the way BIS and BES email and PIM infrastructure works is all about conserving data. That concept does not fit in well with native email and PIM on the PlayBook in many use cases. Say you are at home over a Wi-Fi connection but want to walk out of the house. It would not make sense for RIM to do what it does now and only deliver the first few lines of an email and no attachments since you might not have a network connection later. That means quite a bit more data transfer going through RIM’s NOCs.

United or Divided?

Right now the strongest use case for the BlackBerry PlayBook is for users who have a BlackBerry smartphone who can make use of the slick BlackBerry Bridge features. The question is how RIM will decide to execute their strategy to both entice BlackBerry and non BlackBerry smartphone toting users.

I would really love to hear what you all think about native email and PIM on the BlackBerry PlayBook and its future on BlackBerry smartphones. Feel free to ask any questions or expand on what I wrote above in the comments!

If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:

• Will Native Email Come to the BlackBerry PlayBook in Mid June?
• A Bit of Explanation of PlayBook Native Email & the BlackBerry NOC
• Verizon BlackBerry PlayBook FAQ Confirms Native Email Calendar and Contacts is Coming Soon
• RIM Porting Native Email & Pin Java Apps to the BlackBerry PlayBook?
• Demo Video of BlackBerry PlayBook Android App Player and Native Email

Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, May 25, 2011, 10:06 am. | How Will BlackBerry PlayBook Native Email & PIM Work? | 14 comments |

There is one thing I am really missing on the BlackBerry PlayBook that I have always treasured on my BlackBerry Smartphone as far as I can remember. Data activity arrows showing you what is going on when the app does not offer you a progress notification. I can understand that they may be distracting in some apps but when you are in the browser or other apps it would be really nice to be able to visually see that there is something going on. In the browser it would be even better if it could show you the items it is requesting in a bottom status bar kind of like Firefox 4 or Google Chrome does.

I am really curious to know if I am the only one missing this “feature” on the BlackBerry PlayBook. RIM could even integrate it into the current top left red arrow style by adding in a top right arrow where it would show a horizontal line for data transfer coming in and a vertical one for data transfer going out.

What do you think?

If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:

• FAQ: Activity Log – Find All Your Activity With A Contact
• Dear BlackBerry PlayBook Haters, Stop Drinking the Kool-Aid
• Acaras File Manager for the BlackBerry PlayBook – Network Support Coming!
• IM+ for the BlackBerry PlayBook Finally Available! Multi Network Instant Messaging
• Dear RIM, What Happened to BlackBerry Protect?

Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, May 19, 2011, 12:06 pm. | Dear RIM, Can We Get Network Activity “Arrows” on the BlackBerry PlayBook? | 9 comments |

My thoughts  are that if RIM plans to eventually put QNX on BlackBerry devices I would think that they will have to make a new UI and improve BBM to work better with the QNX OS instead of just porting the OLD BBM to the PlayBook.  That means that they could start from scratch and probably do away with a lot of bugs found on the current version of BBM. With the QNX OS I would think they would have more flexibility in creating a better looking UI and add more options. If they are not currently planning on doing this which many  users of BBM have ask is “will RIM add video chat to BBM?”

I believe that if they are planning on doing that on the current BBM would be hard but if they developed a new BBM with the QNX system they could probably pull this off. That may explain why we have not seen a native BBM app for the PlayBook. This are mainly speculation but it would be awesome if RIM did bring this to both the PlayBook and future BlackBerry devices.  The current BBM is great but it lags specially in group chats, and is a battery hog.  This would give RIM a chance to improve BBM and not be stuck with the limitations of the OLD system.  Who knows maybe RIM is already working on this, but if not it sure is a good dream right? Share your thoughts or ideas below.

If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:

• Video Chat App For the BlackBerry PlayBook Available May 3rd
• BlackBerry PlayBook Tutorials Show Off Video Chat and OS Upgrade Process
• Latest BlackBerry PlayBook Commercial Features Bridge & Video Chat
• RIM Details The Ports Needed for BlackBerry PlayBook Video Chat
• ReelPortal Brings Free Cross Platform Video Chat to BlackBerry PlayBook

Posted by Luis Merlos for ©BerryReview, March 15, 2011, 11:00 am. | When BBM Makes it to the PlayBook Will it Have Video Chat and a New UI? | 20 comments |

I touched upon this topic in a thread I started in the forum, but I thought I’d elaborate on it here as a posted article. BerryReview, a few while back, highlighted this piece in Business Insider rounding up its “Best Tech Acquisitions of 2010”.

Guess which one was ranked at the top?

Research In Motion bought QNX, a software division of Harman International, in April. The QNX team is already making a huge impact creating software for RIM’s PlayBook tablet, which looks promising. QNX is also platform of the future for the BlackBerry phone lineup.

It beat out some other significant purchases by Microsoft and Google. QNX’s Real-Time Operating Systems have been at the core of a huge number of embedded systems spanning a myriad of industry sectors. RIM is now betting on QNX to be the foundation for its devices for the next decade.

RIM also acquired The Astonishing Tribe (TAT) last month presumably to help bolster the visual user interface elements in upcoming Blackberries and the Playbook platform. Take a quick glance at some of their concept designs and we’re already getting a sense that RIM is looking to innovate the UI to levels we haven’t seen in a Blackberry device.

Both acquisitions to me speak to RIM’s recognition in needing to increase its appeal with the growing market of consumers that are looking at high-end, but not necessarily corporate smart-phones. It’s easy to see what draws them to RIM’s main competitors—Apple and the plethora of high-end Android based devices sport large high resolution screens, smooth UI effects, along with sleek and slender form factors.

The acquisition of QNX has already shown promise for RIM’s future. Showcased at this year’s CES, I don’t recall reading a single report that came away disappointed with how the OS looked and performed.  The demonstrated power in multi-tasking and masterful use of the touch sensitive bezel was seen as impressive by most. And I don’t even think we’ve really seen the full potential of this platform yet. In addition, I also doubt much of what we’ve seen so far has incorporated anything from TAT yet, so the potential for great functionality and a visually powerful UI is exciting. Indeed, according to reports, TAT is currently working to design even more creative ways of using the touch sensitive bezel.

So, RIM has seemingly gone and actively pursued external assets (through acquisitions) for both the core operating systems that will drive its next generation of Blackberries and the creative design elements of the user interface.

But, it begs the question: Is there some other asset RIM should be pursuing?

What about an Industrial Design firm?

RIM should look at whether or not there is a cutting-edge company out there that can help them reinvigorate the exterior design of future Blackberry devices. An acquisition of this type would not be revolutionary in the industry. Some may recall CISCO purchasing a company in order to more fully prepare itself to enter the consumer electronics market. Now, I’m sure RIM has an in-house team that’s always been working on hardware design for a long time, but the company is also struggling to shake the so-called “Refresh” label in its 2011 Line-up.  Even with some significant improvements in technical specifications, there is still a perception out there that all of RIM’s new phones just, well, look the same as they always have.

While all of us are fond of and may even prefer the unassuming and simplistic look—the design of the new Dakota has some welcome subtle updates—the 2011 Blackberries nevertheless could still stand to add some innovative flare.  Don’t get me wrong, the Dakota (or its CDMA variant Montana) will be the best looking Blackberry ever; the thinnest RIM has ever designed if the reports are true, and with a luxurious fully machined stainless steel frame, this phone will be hot! But in my observations, it still fails to impress those that need to be impressed, namely the smartphone buyers that are flocking to Apple and Android phones.

I have had friends that majored in Industrial Design during college, but not knowing much about the field myself, I did a quick web search. One company that turned up was RKS Design, whose clients include Apple, HP, and even Gibson guitars (I should however disclose I’m a Fender guy myself J).

They had an interesting concept for a phone shown here:

Of course this particular concept doesn’t really match the usual monochrome and low-key looks Blackberries are renowned for. Nor am I advocating for something like the odd “Empathy” concept (shown at the top of this article) that BerryReview wrote about a few months back. But, I think bringing in some outside talent could breathe some new life into the existing Blackberry models. There are many similar design firms out there doing some interesting things.

Digitalhomeboy.ca’s concept for a Dakota-like phone also comes to mind, and has been mentioned by BerryReview before:

With a dedicated design team working alongside QNX and TAT, along with RIM engineers to retain the most beloved aspects of Blackberries (reliability, security, build quality and great battery life), they could go toe-to-toe with their growing competitors in the field.

What are your thoughts?

If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:

• RIM Also Working With YOU i Labs Design Firm? (Designers of HTC Sense UI)
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• New Loop Theme from Hedone Design
• RIM SVP Todd Wood Talks About the BlackBerry Design Process
• Vote PlayBook for T3 Tablet of the Year and Design Award!

Posted by barrist for ©BerryReview, February 11, 2011, 11:08 am. | Should RIM Acquire an Industrial Design firm? | 29 comments |

I WANT PLUGINS! I know that Firefox plugins slow down the browser a bit but they provide amazing functionality that I wish I had on my BlackBerry. Awhile back some developers stepped in to create one or two BlackBerry browser plugins like a Bit.ly plugin but I want more.

Here are the kinds of plugins I want to see. I am not sure if they are possible with the current BlackBerry browser but I sure hope they will be coming with BlackBerry 6!

• Save Passwords – RIM definitely needs to integrate a password manager for the BlackBerry browser. I should not have to keep on putting in my password on every website. RIM already has a password safe. How hard would it be to integrate it into the Browser? Pretty please RIM?
• Sync Bookmarks – We could really use a bookmark synchronizing tool like Xmarks for the BlackBerry browser. When I add a bookmark from my computer I should be able to access it from my BlackBerry. Browsers like Chrome & Opera already have this as a standard feature. Can’t we also get it for BlackBerrys?
• GreaseMonkey – Now this would be an awesome plugin. GreaseMonkey for Firefox is a must have plugin which lets you integrate your own JavaScript plugins in a page. Like you can automatically reformat items or any of the thousands of scripts available at userscripts.org.
• Translator Plugin – A plugin to automatically put a website through Google Translate or some other machine translation so you can read it. Would this really be hard to do???
• Browser Widgets – It would be really cool if we could get some widgets in BlackBerry 6 like a weather widget that would automatically update a site on a regular schedule. I know you can do this with synchronized bookmarks but it is not elegant at all.
• User Agent Switcher – It could be really cool to be able to change your user agent to whatever you want. Not sure if RIM would be cool with this.
• A developer tool – I use developer tools like FireBug and Web Developer Toolbar all day to do things like disable cookies or view the HTML. RIM already lets you view the HTML with a shortcut but they do not give you access to see what CSS or JavaScript or images were loaded on a page. RIM really needs such a tool or at least a good desktop alternative if they want web developers to take mobile development for BlackBerry seriously.

Any other plugins you can think of that you wish were available for the BlackBerry Browser? Let me know in the comments!

If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:

• RIM Can Innovate by Adding 3rd Party Browser Addons or Plugins
• DreamBerry – Custom Browser Options For Certain Websites/Bookmarks
• FAQ: How To Quickly Change The BlackBerry Browser
• BlackBerry WebKit Browser Tested Against iPhone 4 & Samsung Captivate
• Rumor: Screenshot of BlackBerry Browser With Tabs? – Is it Finally Coming With OS 5.0?

Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, July 27, 2010, 8:04 pm. | DreamBerry: Can We Get Some BlackBerry Browser Plugins??? | 5 comments |

I have a dream…

Back in the day on my S60 Nokia 3650 & N-gage (Yeah I admit to having one) I had a really cool program that I wish was available for BlackBerry. It would constantly monitor your location based on the cellphone tower you were connected to and allow you to set certain rules based on which tower you were connected to or just disconnected from.

For example:

• You could set it to send your wife a text or email when you left work or were almost home.
• You could make it automatically set your profile to vibrate when you get to work and turn it back to normal when you leave.
• You could make it automatically set your alarm clock when you are home.
• You could set it to turn off or on Bluetooth or WiFi when you are home to save battery life.
• Set a custom alert to remind you to go shopping when you are near the store.
• You could set an alert to remember your keys, lock up, or other information before you leave the house.
• It could land a plane on the moon while you are waiting in traffic (kidding)
• And more…

As you can see this could have a ton of cool uses. Implementing this based on Cell Tower information is the best but GPS could also work. The problem is that GPS eats extra battery life, takes a few seconds to get a location, and does not work indoors.

So I have to pose this question to all BlackBerry developers out there… Is my dream possible?

If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:

• Profile Assist Changes Your Settings Based on Location, Time, or Battery Level
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• SmartWiFi Turns on WiFi Based on Cell Phone Tower Location
• ToySoft Location Profiler: Automatic Location Based Profile Switching

Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, January 29, 2009, 4:00 pm. | DreamBerry: Tie Your Profile & Wireless Settings & More To Your Location (Cell Tower or GPS) | 12 comments |

Once you delete an email on your BlackBerry you are out of luck. There is no easy way to get it back. RIM even admits in a knowledge base article that they do not intend on storing this data due to space considerations. They only mention that new BES and OS 4.5 email accounts let you search your inbox remotely to recover these emails.

Personally my solution recently is to fire up the Gmail mobile application and move the item back from the trash folder but that option is not available to all. I just wish RIM would provide a sort of recycling bin for emails. That way you could store a few days of deleted emails that you can undelete or at least view. The space consideration is a bunch of crap since 1000 emails is less than 1 megabyte and they could offer this as an option you could turn off.

So I am curious. Is it possible for a developer to create an application that will delay the deletion of an email so that you have even a few minutes to recover? Or have you found another workaround? I know some of you are going to say I should turn the confirm option again but that just reminds me of the annoying Windows “Do you really really want to delete this file” prompts. That is why even they created a recycling bin.

If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:

• DreamBerry Idea – Email Scheduler
• e-Mobile Email…another way to get email on your BlackBerry
• Suggestion Box: Is A Undelete Email Function Possible?
• BES-Mailbox Version 1.0 Released – Folder Based Alerts
• DreamBerry – Maximum Vibrations/Rings In A Minute

Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, January 23, 2009, 3:07 pm. | DreamBerry: Deleted Email Items Folder – Recover A Deleted Email | 9 comments |

I had a request from one of the forum users on BlackBerry Forums Au last week requesting if there was an application available that could switch off the blinking notification LED during video playback on a BlackBerry. At first I dismissed the idea by just answering, ‘switch off the indicator manually whilst playing back video’.

Then I thought, well, I’ve had a heap of luck dropping ideas in the DreamBerry section before as it tends to inspire the developers minds and with the Bold (and upcoming Storm), the screen quality is getting to a stage that makes it not unbearable to watch a half hour episode of Southpark or Family Guy whilst I meant to be working.

So if anyone has heard of such an application that can switch off the notification LED during video playback or someone is willing to develop it, there might be a market…

(Sorry about the picture, but it’s about all I could come up with on a Google image search of BlackBerry and Dream… )

If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:

• DreamBerry Idea – Scrabulous Multiplayer For BlackBerry Please?
• DreamBerry Idea – Email Scheduler
• DreamBerry Idea – Timezone Calculator For Contacts
• Video Chat App For the BlackBerry PlayBook Available May 3rd
• Video Shots App Lets You Grab Pictures From Video

Posted by Greg for ©BerryReview, October 28, 2008, 12:00 pm. | DreamBerry Idea: LED Shut-off during Video playback. | 3 comments |

This annoyance has happened to me four times: lose all my profiles. First, one application reset all my ringtone profiles. Then another one did the same a few months later. “That’s what backups are for,” you must be thinking. But that is not so simple.

First off, I am a Linux user. I run Windows on VMWare very occasionally, so I don’t have the habit of making copies of my Blackberry data, and effective backups have to do with habit. It won’t work well if you don’t have the habit. My backups were all stale and I had to reprogram my profiles manually.

Then I upgraded my OS to 4.5. Of course I did a backup, but the restore operation did not work on the ringtones. On the ringtones only. So I lost them for the third time.

Then one day I woke up to a strange sound. It was my Blackberry telling me I had mail, but that sound was not familiar. Long story short: my profiles had all been reset while I was sleeping and I have no idea how that happened. It just happened. Four times in total. OK, this time I had a backup. But which is worse: reprogram everything by hand again…

or

launch VMWare, wait for Windows to boot up, connect device, enable USB connection, wait until it is really working (USB is extremely unstable in VMWare), launch Desktop Manager, wait until it recognizes the device, click about 14 interface elements to find the latest backup and tell Desktop Manager which one I want to restore, pray that the USB connection doesn’t drop during the operation, oh but it will, say profanity, disconnect, connect, wait until Desktop Manager detects it again, click 9 interface elements, see USB drop again, smoke in the collar, slam desk, curse RIM, disconnect, connect, try again…?

I always end up reprogramming everything by hand. It’s even less of a hassle than restoring my backup.

Note that by this time I don’t bother reprogramming ALL the profiles anymore. I just reprogram the “Normal” profile and that’s what I use all the time. And there goes a nice feature remarkably underused.

Alright, enough with the sob story. The problem with reprogramming all my profiles is that the existing management application is remarkably dumb. Let’s remember what is in that application’s screen:

First problem: I don’t like the LED flashing. It drives me nuts, it is like a child tugging on my sleeve. And I don’t even have kids. But that is the default in all events and most profiles. So I have to disable it in each single goddman event in each darn profile. Why can’t I disable it in ALL the events and profiles wholesale? All events, not just the phone or SMS. Everything.

Second problem: number of vibrations. Defaults to 2 in all events. I hate that. I use 2 vibrations for the phone, which means “someone is calling, attention required immediately”. For everything else, I want one vibration only. Again, I have to tweak each single damn event and profile.

And there is the volume. It’s too low, especially since I installed OS 4.5. Change each one individually to Loud etc. ad infinitum. Nightmare.

Also, why can’t I make one profile be a complete and exact copy of another profile? Then I would just need to make a couple of adjustments. For example, I want all my ringtones to be exactly the same in the Normal and in the Quiet profiles. I also want the same In Holster/Out of Holster behavior. I just want the volume to be different. Ideally, I should be able to “copy” or “clone” the Normal profile into the Quiet profile, then change the Quiet profile by changing the volume of all events from Loud to Medium or Low in one single stroke. Easy as pie.

But none of that is possible with the current profile management application. Nothing is possible with it except manually change each single one of all 11 options of each one of all 10 or so events in each one of the four or five profiles freaking in-di-vid-u-al-ly.

Man, I hate it when the man is forced to work for the machine. It has to be the other way around, always. (Please refrain from the Linux jokes – I’m with you!)

I don’t expect RIM to solve that problem for me. RIM has already shown us what they’re up to in relation to profile management. I need some developer to tackle this and make me a happy camper. Any takers? Am I the only one who hates the stock profile changer?

If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:

• DreamBerry: Tie Your Profile & Wireless Settings & More To Your Location (Cell Tower or GPS)
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• Fill Out Your BlackBerry Beta Zone Profile and Win Prizes!
• Today Only! Profiler – Automatic Profile Switcher 50% Off – $5

Posted by luc-mobile for ©BerryReview, October 14, 2008, 7:28 am. | Dreamberry: better profile management | 10 comments |

Turns out that our friend Fabian was listening and created an app to fix this exact annoyance. It adds a new menu option to the call log to “save number as…” and it will ask you if you want to save the number as a work, mobile, or home number. I have not had a chance to try the app out myself but hopefully it will soon also allow you to add a number to an existing contact.

The app is an annoyance fixer which makes the price point of $2.95 pretty reasonable. The app also only takes up 4Kb of ram which is impressive. Now if only RIM would add this to the core OS… I am sure Fabian would be glad to sell the code.

You can pick it up in the store for $2.95 at this link

If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:

• SaveNumberAs Update – Can Now Save Number To Existing Contact
• SaveNumberAs Sale – $0.95 For Today Only! 65% OFF
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• Save The Weekend – Free App Delays Email Until Work Hours
• Giveaway: AddContactX – Save Contact After Call – 30 Copies

Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, September 26, 2008, 12:00 pm. | SaveNumberAs – Save New Numbers As Something Other Than Work | 11 comments |

Would it kill RIM to add a prompt asking what type of number it is? Even my age old Sony Ericsson t68i had this feature! Or better yet could RIM let us add a number to an existing contact? RIM has PIM management down to a T on the BlackBerry which makes me wonder why there is such a glaring oversight such as this….

Has anybody managed to find a way around this? Or do we once again need an entrepreneuring developer to step in and fix the little things.

So I add this to RIM’s should have always been there feature list:

• Vibe+Ring
• Silence camera
• Default number other than work…
• …

Got any others to add?

If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:

• SaveNumberAs – Save New Numbers As Something Other Than Work
• SaveNumberAs Update – Can Now Save Number To Existing Contact
• Add To Contact: Easily Add Phone Number, Email, or PIN to Existing Contacts
• Save The Weekend – Free App Delays Email Until Work Hours
• Mr. Number Service Adds Reverse Lookup & Spam Call Reporting

Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, September 18, 2008, 1:08 pm. | DreamBerry: Default Save Number To Mobile Instead Of Work | 17 comments |

There is just one major feature that that I wish Google would add to the application. The ability to sign in and have a profile. It is surprising that they haven’t already implemented such a basic feature. It could empower simple functionality such as:

• It could let you send/save an address or directions from the desktop version of Google Maps so that you don’t have to print out a copy. Come on, Google. Help us go green!
• You could have your favorite locations saved every time you reinstall Google Maps or change devices.
• It could save your current tracklogs for later viewing on your desktop. Or it could even store the distance you ran that day.

Those are just off the top of my head. I realize that there are some privacy implications of Google knowing where you are going, but I don’t see this as being any worse than having a Gmail account.

I have heard rumors that Google is working on such a feature in a 3.0 version of Google Maps for mobile, but I could not corroborate that information. I really hope they are… If you have heard anything, let us know!

If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:

• Google Maps Adds Overlay Layer for New York City Subway
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• Google Maps for BlackBerry v4.5.2 Released – No Change Log

Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, August 1, 2008, 5:00 am. | DreamBerry – Login To Google Maps Mobile | One comment |

Zaventh has already posted some screenshots of the application. If you are interested in testing out the beta you can send Zaventh a PM on CrackBerry Forums.

Thanks for listening Zaventh!

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Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, July 29, 2008, 3:30 am. | MessageScheduler – Coming Soon! | 7 comments |

Desktop Video Link | Mobile Video Link

It’s called Reality Arcade. It’s a first person target shooting game. Pretty much self explanatory. But here is the best part, the background of the game utilizes the camera so you are having to use your surroundings in order to search for the targets. The managers at my works were having a blast with the game trying to get the best score. I’m sure we all looked a little goofy to anyone who didn’t know what we were doing, turning around in circles trying to find the targets but it was all in good spirits.

Why can’t BPlay or Concrete come up with a game that uses more from the BlackBerry. Is Palm really that far ahead of the smartphone competition when it comes to games? I would like to doubt that. Is there a restriction against the camera being used in games? If this can ever become a reality, I would like to be a part of the Beta Program. And I know a few others who’d want to as well.

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Posted by Summer for ©BerryReview, July 28, 2008, 4:00 am. | DreamBerry – Arcade Game Using Camera | 5 comments |

Well then you know how I feel. I wake up in the morning and turn on my BlackBerry to a barrage of emails. If I forget to put it on the Phone Only profile it would not stop buzzing for 5 minutes straight.

Also my BIS emails tend to come in in bursts. I will be sitting in a meeting and all of a sudden my belt does not stop vibrating. It makes it very hard to pretend your paying attention to the topic at hand.

I so wish RIM would implement an option in the profile to limit how long it will wait until it vibrates again. Or some kind developer would come up with a simple application to suppress the vibrations for a minute or two between.

RIM got a little bit closer when they started letting you set each email to vibrate 1,2 or 3 times. I just wish they would take this one step further…

It’s such a good vibration
It’s such a sweet sensation…

Sorry could not help myself. For some fun flashbacks check out the Good Vibrations music video on YouTube.

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Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, July 25, 2008, 4:24 am. | DreamBerry – Maximum Vibrations/Rings In A Minute | 3 comments |

Wouldn’t it be great if you could copy and appointment and then paste it in another location. Don’t get me wrong you can already just edit the calendar entry and change the date. On the other hand I miss the Outlook functionality of just being able to select an appointment and drag it or paste it to another time.

Better yet would be the ability to duplicate an entry. For example you have a dentist appointment followup. I would want to be able to just copy the first appointment and paste it to the new date and time…

Such small things…

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Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, July 22, 2008, 3:00 am. | DreamBerry – Copy & Paste Calendar Appointments | 3 comments |

Have you ever found that two websites you visit regularly on your BlackBerry require 2 different browser settings to get them to work? For example, your bank website may require Netscape emulation and Reuters looks better with BlackBerry emulation? Or you don’t want to see tables or background images on one website?

So I always find myself fiddling with the Browser options to make each website look readable or even load at all. I wish RIM would let you setup a custom exclusion list where you could set certain bookmarks or whole domains to use different browser settings than the global settings.

I don’t see this as too hard to implement. What do you guys think, would you find this useful?

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Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, July 18, 2008, 12:30 am. | DreamBerry – Custom Browser Options For Certain Websites/Bookmarks | 3 comments |

Josep

So if you were wondering how BoyGenius and the other myriads of fans create their own mockups check out the directions. Keep in mind you will need to have a copy of Photoshop handy. You might be able to get away with the free GIMP but your going to have to cut some corners and figure it out by yourself.

Check it out at PSDtuts.com

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Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, July 7, 2008, 8:40 am. | How To Photoshop Your Own DreamBerry | 3 comments |

This would be such a handy piece of software. You could set up pre-set emails messages for your friends or workmates birthday (especially if you are on a business trip or holiday), reminders to group emails for meeting etc, set a scheduled email to your house-sitter that the garbage is due to be collected the next day, etc, etc. Another example would be if you need to send an unimportant email to someone overseas and if you sent it straight away you would probably wake them up. Or even a cooling off period for those angry emails we sometimes write. (If you set say a 3 hour delay on the send then you have that time to think about what you wrote and change/delete it if you want).

So if there is nothing out there like this come on developers, this could be the next Big Application. Your thoughts ???

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Posted by Greg for ©BerryReview, July 7, 2008, 8:00 am. | DreamBerry Idea – Email Scheduler | 7 comments |