One of our readers, Pei, asked me how he could listen to Podcasts on his BlackBerry. The honest answer is that so far there is no easy way to subscribe to a podcast on your BlackBerry. There are a few solutions that I will detail out below but none of them are seamless and most of them have issues. Hopefully RIM will release a new feature in Roxio to allow for Podcast subscriptions.

The only good procedure I have found so far is using Juice Receiver which is free. The second and third option I detail are fine but they require you to install devilware iTunes. The only downside with any of these is that Podcasts tend to be long so if you lose your place or want to rewind a few seconds you will be stuck with the pitiful BlackBerry media player which only allows you to move forward and back by a minute or two. This gets really annoying when you just want to rewind a few seconds and have to listen to the whole minute again.

Option 1: The simplest and free (just the way I like it )

Download Juice Receiver free from this link on sourceforge.net. It is available for Mac, Windows, and Linux. You then subscribe to some RSS Podcast feeds and it will automatically download them. The best place I go to find Podcast feeds is at http://www.podnova.com/ which has quite an extensive collection. Juice just downloads the MP3 files but you will then need to copy them over to your BlackBerry memory card using Roxio or the Mass Storage Mode.

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I have been hearing some rumblings that we don’t cover 8800 series themes as much as we do the Curve and Pearl so I decided to rectify the issue.

Geenyc has released a cool Batman logo theme for the BlackBerry 8800 series. I am not sure if it is compatible with both the 8800 and the 8830. The styling of the icons fits perfectly with the background and they have a cool 3d look in the screenshots. The text is a little bit too small for my taste but otherwise looks good.

There are still no OTA links at Themes4BB but hopefully Steven will help out Geenyc with that.

Link to theme: http://www.themes4bb.com/t4bbforum/showthread.php?p=9278

Normally this would be small news but personally I think this is an example of one of the best registration systems I have seen for BlackBerry software. One of the biggest problems with 3^rd party applications is that when you change your BlackBerry or upgrade you have to go through the tedious process of emailing every vendor to get new registration codes. I have done this 3 times just this year and I have mostly given up.

For example I owned a copy of Rove Mobile SSH but since I recently changed devices I just did not bother contacting Rove to get another key. They have just announced a new feature called Rove My Account that lets you change your registered key online immediately. This is a big boon for me and I was back up and running in a few minutes. If you currently own any Rove Mobile software you should have received an email with your login and password to your account.

I think other 3^rd party vendors could learn a thing or two from Rove’s new system. The whole process of changing devices is a pain because all the registration codes you have are based on your PIN. With such an account feature this would be a thing of the past since you would easily be able to switch between devices. Better yet I dream of a day that RIM will implement a system that will allow developers to automatically update your registration codes. For example your registration would be tied into your BIS account or something… don’t yell at me we all dream

BTW I did notice that their OTA download page has changed to http://ota.rovemobile.com . It used to be their homepage redirected to the mobile site but it no longer does that.

Gemblock has finally followed up on their original Black Diamond Theme for the 8100 by releasing the theme for more devices. The new update brings the Black Diamond theme to the 8300, 8700, 8800 & 8830 devices. The theme has the same subdued look of the original Black Diamond and looks pretty slick. The whole theme is black and white which I know many people like. Personally I like color since it helps my eye differentiate between icons. The only fault I can see with such a theme is that 3^rd part icons will look very out of place compared to the themed ones.

UPDATE: I just found that this theme is no longer free and has to be purchased for $6.95 from GemBlock. Sorry about the confusion but this is the first I have heard of it.

Check out the theme at the following links:

Download Black Diamond Theme for Curve
Download Black Diamond Theme for 8700 Series Phones
Download Black Diamond Theme for 8800 Series Phones
Download Black Diamond Theme for 8830 Phones

BTW does anybody know what happened to the Gemblock theme competition?

I have been asked countless times about how to encode video to play correctly on a BlackBerry. So I decided to write up a post with a short description of the 2 free pieces of software I use to re-encode video to play on my BlackBerry 8310 Curve. There are other commercial video encoders but personally I always try to use free software alternatives. On the other hand the commercial video encoders will do a better job of holding your hand through the conversion process and simplifying the work.

The most popular software  is SUPER (Simplified Universal Player Encoder & Renderer). The software is completely free and does a great job of encoding video. It is basically a GUI for ffmpeg, MEncoder, mplayer, x264, and quite a few other plugins. The software is simple to use but you do need some help in choosing what format to encode the video into. SUPER is very quick and the unique part about this encoder is that you do not need to install any codecs or anything because they are all included in the package.

These are the settings I use for SUPER:

Output format - MPEG4
Video Scale Size - 320×240 or 240×260 for the BlackBerry 8100 Pearl
Output Audio Codec - AAC
Output Video Codec - MPEG-4
Bitrate - 384 kbps
Frame Rate - 25 fps

You can download SUPER at this link

The second encoder I sometimes use is called MediaCoder which is also free. This software also includes the codecs and has a very good batch mode for converting multiple files in a row. I use MediaCoder mostly when I have videos that have issues or problems with SUPER. It has a better error correction system but does not work as fast in my opinion. The support for MediaCoder is phenomenal and their forums can answer just about any question.

The settings I use for MediaCoder are:

Output Format – MPEG4
Video Size - 320×240 or 240×260 for the BlackBerry 8100 Pearl
Video Bitrate - 400K
Audio Codec – MP3
Audio Bitrate - 48K at 22khz or 44khz (Personally 22Khz works fine)
Video Frame Rate – 30fps works fine but 24fps seems to be faster

You can download MediaCoder at this link

Let me know what software or settings you guys use!

I have been jealous of my British friends SpinVox service for quite awhile. SpinVox is a Voicemail to text message service that only really worked in Europe until recently. The downside is that Rogers implementation seems to be based on SMS messages without the option of getting the transcribed voicemails as an email.

If you are not a Rogers subscriber (like me) and you live in the US or Canada you can get the SpinVox service through uReach.com. The pricing for uReach is $9.99/month for 40 messages.

First things first. I really think the marketing people at Rogers need to work on a better name than: Rogers Voicemail to Text powered by SpinVox service

The nice part about Rogers service is that it is great for people who are constantly receiving voicemails. Their pricing is a $15 unlimited plan which is quite cheap considering the main competition, Simulscribe, charges $29.95 a month for the same unlimited plan. For the casual user I still have to recommend Simulscribe since they have a more decent 35cent a message a la cart package that is better for people like me that only get a few voicemails a month . Simulscribe also has a $9.95/month plan which includes 40 voicemail transcriptions.

The SpinVox service on Rogers will cost you $15/month with the first month free. They actually have a promotion currently that if you sign up now you get another 30 days free. The new service is available this month in seven provinces, including BC, Ontario, Québec and the Atlantic provinces. The service will launch in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba in early 2008.

You can checkout a demo video of the service at this link. You can sign up for the service on Rogers website at this link.

Seidio has released a great low-price cradle for the BlackBerry 8100/8130 Pearl. The new cradle uses the charging contacts on the bottom of the Pearl just like the original BlackBerry cradle that costs more than twice as much. The new cradle. As usual Seidio has had the foresight to make sure that you can charge your Pearl without removing your case! This means that the charger works with their Crystal Case, Skin Case, or Rubberized Case without you removing it.

As with all of the other charging cradles that use the charging contacts on the back of the BlackBerry, you cannot use the cradle to sync with your computer. To do that you will still have to plug in the Mini-USB jack into your BlackBerry. The cradle does not come with a charger so you will have to use your own.

The 8100 charging cradle costs $29.95 directly from Seidio’s website which is a great price compared to other offerings. Hopefully they will release a cradle for the 8800 and 8300 for the same price since they also have the charging contacts to support a cradle.

Google has just fulfilled the holiday wish of many BlackBerry users. They have just released version 0.4.2 of their NEW Google Calendar Sync application. The new application works with both regular Gmail accounts and Google Apps For Your Domain! For more info go to this link and to download OTA go to this link.

During my short testing I did notice that the Google Sync application did not sync my BES calendar entries with my Google Calendar. It may be that this solution will not work for BES users or it could be that there is only a one way sync option.

From Google’s Mobile Blog:

Since we know how much Calendar users depend on their schedules, we are always trying to make it easier to access at any time. For example, I live in London, and like many people in major metropolitan areas around the world, I spend a lot of time underground, on the Tube (a.k.a. subway, Metro, U-Bahn…). At least in London, there is no mobile network coverage on the Underground, so I cannot always access Google Calendar on my phone.

But now there’s a solution. Starting today, you can use Google Sync for mobile to synchronize your BlackBerry handheld with Google Calendar. Simply go to http://m.google.com/sync in your mobile browser to download and install the Google Sync for mobile application. Once installed, simply click on the Google Sync icon, sign in to your Google Account or your Google Apps account, and that’s it. The Calendar application on your BlackBerry will always be synchronized with your Google Calendar. You can even edit events or create new ones on the handheld.

You can also read Google Systems writeup on the new software at this link. Thanks for the tip Josep!