The Blackberry

I've had my Blackberry Tour for and I've come to love it. I rarely use it as a phone; it sees much more use a mini-computer. I'm notoriously bad with dates and remembering events so the calendar and its reminders is frequently used. Likewise, I can't remember phone numbers, so the address book is also frequently used. I even use the Blackberry software to synchronize my Outlook address book on the computer with the Blackberry address book. I frequently find myself without internet access so the Blackberry often times serves as my internet access, allowing me to keep up with friends via Facebook and to keep up with news and events via the internet and Twitter. I've found the Blackberry to be a very useful tool as well as a fun toy.

I'm not a Blackberry expert nor am I a software, technology, or application expert, but here is a list of suggested Blackberry apps that I've come up with based on my experience:

The Google App
The Google App is my favorite app for the Blackberry. It includes Gmail, Google Maps, Google News, and the Google Reader all wrapped up in a free App. The best part of this app is Google Maps. It integrates with the Blackberry's GPS and radio and turns your Blackberry into a personal navigation device. You can not only see where you are but also get search results based on your location and directions. You can search for what is near you and then tell the application to give you directions to that location. You can also activate Google Latitude and see where other friends that use Latitude are at on the map. Did I mention that this app is free? You can get part of what it does from cell providers at an extra fee, but the Google App is absolutely free.

Facebook
Facebook is a good way to keep up with friends and family. The Facebook Blackberry App is a simplified and basic Facebook interface you can use to keep up with your Facebook News Feed. It's not as full featured as the web version, but it is easy to use on the go. It also integrates with the Blackberry address book and calendar so you can link contacts and dates with Facebook friends, their birthdays, events, etc. You can also set the app to alert you when you have Facebook messages and replies.

Uber Twitter
Uber Twitter is a Twitter client for Blackberry. It goes beyond other mobile Twitter clients in that it can tag your Twits with your location. It can use your location from the GPS or a general location based on the cell tower that the Blackberry is working through.

Twitter is a great way to not only keep up with your friends, but also keep up with the news and what is going on around you. Among the Twitter feeds I follow are: (I tried to follow WTOC as well, but it says that they have blocked me...)

• WSAV
• WJCL
• Savannah Chatham Metro PD
• Federalfire (he posts public safety incidents)
• GeorgiaEMA
• noradnorthcom
  

The Weather Channel App
For obvious reasons... The Weather Channel App also intergrates with the GPS and radio to determine you location and you can get weather based on you current location. You can also create a list of locations to check the weather for. In addition to current conditions and forecasts, you can also check weather alerts, get weather radar imagery overlaid on maps, and airport weather/delay information.

The Bolt Browser
More advanced than the Blackberry Web Browser, the Bolt browser views not only mobile sites, but does a much better job on regular internet sites than the Blackberry browser does. It also works, in my opinion, much faster than the Blackberry Browser.

Fuze Messenger
Instead of using seperate clients for AOL IM, Yahoo Messenger, etc. you can use the Fuze Messenger client which is like a Blackberry version of Trillian (if you are familiar with it). You can use AOL IM, Yahoo Messenger, Google Chat, etc. all from the same application.

BBScanner
The BBScanner App is a must for radio geeks. It integrates with Radioreference.com's online scanners and other online scanners and lets you listen to scanner audio from all over the country and the world on your Blackberry.

Mac McCormick III, KF4LMT

Blackberry Problems

I am awaiting the arrival of a replacement Blackberry Tour in the next couple of days. The left-right action on my Tour's trackball has always been a bit problematic but over the weekend it practically quit working left-right at all. Monday morning I went to the Verizon store and before I could a sentence halfway out of my mouth, the Verizon rep knew what my problem was. Unfortunately they didn't have any replacements in stock, so they are FedEx-ing me a new one.

It seems that the problem is defective trackballs in the early examples of the Tour. RIM apparently is aware of the problem and it was fixed in later examples.

Mac McCormick III