Hi, I’m Jay Goldman and welcome to BlackBerry Tips and Tricks Series. Today, we’re going to be looking at some BlackBerry Basics with the BlackBerry 8800 which includes the roller ball technology that first appeared on the Pearl and now it’s also available on the BlackBerry Bold and Javelin lines. The alternative to that is a BlackBerry Storm with a touchscreen and we’ll be showing some BlackBerry tips related to that in an upcoming episode.
One of the first things to note is obviously the roller ball which allows you to navigate menus up and down as well as side to side. You can also use it for moving the insertion point when you’re typing on the Blackberry and so it’s really quick to move around the screen and find what you’re looking for. The other important thing to notice and we’ll come back to this is the BlackBerry menu button which is immediately to the left of the roller ball and allows access to menus and virtually all of the applications.
Below that is a full QWERTY keyboard which is one of Blackberry specialties and in this case very easy to type on. And on the side of the device, we find things like a USB port for charging and syncing, headphone jack obviously for headphones and a convenience key which can be programmed to do different things. On this side of the device, volume, up and down buttons.
Navigating as I mentioned is the simplest rolling the ball and in this case we’re on the home screen so we see some of the options that are available here. You can also select applications at the bottom and view the full screen of applications. Selecting an item involves clicking the button in the middle of the roller ball. And for in this case will take us into the address book. And once we’re in there, the Menu button will open a menu of options that are related to the applications we’re in.
So in this case, a number of options related to addresses. I can create new ones. I can email myself and I can set options for the address book application. Using the return key takes you out of menus and right back to the home screen. The home screen itself can be customized on all BlackBerries by opening the menu item and then choosing for example Move icon which allows me to reorder applications so that the ones I used most often can be at the top.
If I have applications that I don’t use on a regular basis for example, I might not be a big break breaker fan. I can open the menu and choose to hide the icon which will gray it out. If I open the menu again and turn off the Show All mode, all of the icons that I’ve hidden will disappear and I can easily get them back by opening it again and choosing Show All. That’s BlackBerry basics. I’m Jay Goldman. Thanks for watching, stay tuned for more.
Hi, I’m Jay Goldman and welcome back to the BlackBerry Tips and Tricks Series. Today, we’re going to look at the BlackBerry Storm, Rims, Touchscreen Blackberry device and you may notice looking at the storm that there is no physical keyboard which makes it different than all of the other BlackBerries that are out there. Taking the keyboard away does give you a nice big screen but it also means that all of the interactions have to be done using the touchscreen including typing. Let’s take a look for example at the memo pad application. Add a new memo and that will bring up the onscreen keyboard in Portrait mode. This version of the keyboard uses RIM’s technology that includes two letters on each key and so the device will predict what you’re trying to type as you’re typing it. If I turn the device into Landscape mode, the built-in accelerometer will automatically switch the keyboard to Landscape mode and that gives me a full key QWERTY keyboard.
This works the same way as it does in the iPhone. The difference here is that the Storms touchscreen includes two levels of touch sensitivity so I can hover over letters which will show a very slight blue glow behind them or I can actually click on letters and that will push the screen down so that I know that I’ve clicked on them. Now, you see that I’ve made a typing mistake there but the Storm’s predictive type has corrected it for me, the butterscotch and I can select that just by tapping on it.
The Storm includes a number of ports around the outside edge as well as buttons that you can customize. So on this side, we’ve got a headphone jack, volume up and down and a convenience key. And on this side, we’ve got a USB port and another convenience key. A special note about this USB port, it’s not actually a standard mini or micro USB cable but rather a new version of USB that is starting to shift on some of the newer devices and accessories. Make sure that you’ve got the right cable as it looks very similar but if you grab the wrong one, you won’t be able to charge or sync your Storm. I can customize the function of those convenience keys using the options application which might actually be inside of the folder in your application section.
Look for the screening keyboard option and then scroll down to find the right side convenience key and left side convenience key options. Those can be customized to select almost anything that’s installed on your BlackBerry as well as a number of functions like email settings or clock and camera. Thanks for watching the BlackBerry Tips and Tricks Series, stay tuned for more.
Hi, I’m Jay Goldman and welcome back to the Blackberry Tips and Tricks Series. Today, we’re going to take a look at syncing and charging your BlackBerry which is all about USB. Depending on the model of Blackberry you have, you want to look for the USB port. On this 8800, you’ll find it on the side right there which is where it usually is but it might not look exactly the same as that. There are a number of different USB standards and different Blackberry devices used different cable so make sure when you’re grabbing your cable and your device, the two matched properly.
Plugging it in will show you on the screen that the device is charging and you’ll see it up here in this case indicated by the little plug. When you’re plugging it into a computer, make sure that you’re plugging it into a powered USB port so if you plug it into a non-powered one which you might find for example on the keyboard, you will typically get a message on the computer telling you that you have a low power USB device.
Syncing is done using the software that comes with the Blackberry which is great on Windows and if you’re looking for something for the Mac, take a look in Google for pocket Mac which is a free alternative that was licensed by BlackBerry for all Mac users or from missing sync for the Mac which is actually a much better and more reliable solution though you will have to pay for it. Thanks for watching BlackBerry Tips and Tricks, stay tuned for more.
Hi, I’m Jay Goldman and welcome back to the Blackberry Tips and Tricks Series.
Today, we’re going to take a look at using the address book in your Blackberry and we’ve got two different models here, a BlackBerry 8800 and a BlackBerry Storm. The biggest difference between the two is that this is a touchscreen device and has no keyboard whereas this uses the roller ball and a full QWERTY keyboard. The address book is basically the same on both so if you access your menu, you’ll find an address book icon looks like a little book when it’s closed and an open book with a card highlighted one when it’s open. And this BlackBerry only has one entry in it which is me and on the Storm, the contacts book has no entries on it.
Adding a contact is as easy as opening the BlackBerry menu, choosing new address and then filling in the information. So for example, if we wanted to enter Andy Walker, the General Manager of Butterscotch, I could just type this information, I could even enter a picture, email, company, job title, etcetera. There are lots of fields in here and if you’d like there are even some fields right at the bottom that you can use for whatever notes or use it to find values you’d like.
It’s basically the same process on the storm so you just pick Add Contact and then you got pretty much the same view. Of course in this mode you get the storms portrait keyboard and if you want to use the full keyboard, you can just rotate the device and get the landscape one. Somebody might send you an email with a V-card attachment on it which allows you to add an address that they have in their Blackberry or you might want to send the same to somebody else. So, if I discard the changes on my new entry and I open the menu on that item, I can choose send as attachment and open an email with this V-card attached to it to send to another BlackBerry user. That’s the basics of using the address book. Thanks for watching, stay tuned for more.
Hi, I’m Jay Goldman and welcome back to the Blackberry Tips and Tricks Series.
Today, we’re going to take a look at using email on your BlackBerry device in this case on a BlackBerry Storm.
The first thing you’ll want to do if you haven’t already done it is configure your email account. You can access that inside of the set up application which you’ll find on the main screen applications towards the bottom.
Inside the setup folder, there’s an email settings program which will actually load the webpage from RIM servers where you can configure email addresses. You’re going to need all the information from your email provider including your Pop or iMap server and your — login information.
If you’ve previously configured an email address on your Blackberry, you can log in using the login form at the bottom. And if this is your first time through the process, you can create a new account at the top.
I’m going to close this because email has already been configured on this BlackBerry as you can tell from the 241 unread messages at the top. Escaping out of the setup folder back to the main screen and scrolling up shows us the messages application which gives us access to all of the messages on this device.
In this case, we have a number of missed calls as well some email addresses at the bottom. Tapping on an email message will open it and I can compose a new email message either by tapping on the new email button or by opening the BlackBerry menu and choosing compose email. You see that I can also compose pins which is a BlackBerry to BlackBerry message, SMS text to any mobile phone or MMS to any phone that’s supports a multimedia short message service.
I can also do instant messages from here to friends who are using instant message services. New emails can also be composed directly from the address book so if you go into your contacts and—–listed here, you would be able to contact them directly from this list. That’s the basics of using email on your Blackberry. Thanks for watching the BlackBerry Tips and Tricks Series, stay tuned for more.
Hi, I’m Jay Goldman and welcome back to the Blackberry Tips and Tricks Series.
Today, we’re going to take a look at how to play some received phone calls on your BlackBerry, in this case a BlackBerry Storm.
Now, you’ll note on this storm we’ve already got a missed voicemail up here as indicated by the little tape icon. Oh and there’s Andy Walker calling us right now. I’m not going to take this call because we’re actually in the middle of taping so by clicking on the ignore button I can actually send Andy directly to voicemail and he will leave a message for me and I can get back to him later.
If I wanted to call him back right now, I could go and take a look in messages which now has a red dot to indicate this new one and also there’s missed call from Andy. I can select that missed call and hit the BlackBerry Menu button which will give me an option to call Andy Walker.
Depending on the BlackBerry you’re using, you’ll see a number of different options available on this screen that you can choose to use during the call. So for example, I could put Andy on speakerphone, I could mute him, I could flash to the other line if I had another call coming in or you could use conference calling capabilities by adding another participant.
I’m going to hang up on Andy. And you see we’re disconnected and that will take us back to the missed call screen. I can also call Andy by going into my contacts selecting him in the list and then choosing to call him by opening the BlackBerry menu item. You’ll note that I also have some other options available here including sending him an SMS or an MMS. If this phone had an email address for Andy, I could also choose to send him an email directly from here. Thanks for watching the BlackBerry Tips and Tricks Series, stay tuned for more.
Hi, I’m Jay Goldman and welcome back to the Blackberry Tips and Tricks series.
Today, we’re going to take a look at texting, in this case using a Blackberry Storm. I’ve just received a text message so let’s go and take a look at who it was from. You see that the SMS and messages application has a new red icon on it to indicate that there’s an unread message. Tapping on that will show me that I’ve got a new message from Andy Walker and a voicemail that I haven’t listened to yet. I can top on Andy’s message and that will actually show me that he’s sent me something asking how the tutorial series is going and I can choose to reply to that directly from here by using the Reply button.
So, I’m going to let him know that this is going great, BlackBerry message key, Menu key to open the menu and Send to send the text message. If you’d like to send to one of your contacts directly without receiving a message from them first, look in the contacts application, pick their name on the list and then use the BlackBerry menu key to open the menu which will give you options to contact that contact. In this case because I only have a phone number for Andy, I can call him, send him a text message or send them an MMS. If I had an email address forum, it would also give me the option to send the email directly from here.
That’s texting on the BlackBerry. Thanks for watching the BlackBerry Tips and Tricks. Stay tuned for more.
Hi, I’m Jay Goldman and welcome back to the Blackberry Tips and Tricks Series.
Today, we’re going to take a look at using Media on your BlackBerry, in this case a BlackBerry Storm.
Right here on the home screen, you’ll note that media application icon which gives us access to all the different types of media that the Storm supports and most of these application works better in Landscape mode on the Storm so I’m going to turn the screen that way and you’ll see that we’ve got access to music, videos, ringtones, pictures and voice notes.
Starting off with music, the Storm comes preloaded with some sample songs and I believe on this one we’ve got one and you can play that using the speakers if you don’t have headphones plugged in or through headphones if you have them. Same thing goes on the bottom—jump to the next and previous song or to stop the music that’s playing right now.
Use the Back button to return to the previous screen and Back button again to get back to the main area. Videos includes videos that you’ve preloaded onto the device, so in this case for example, a trailer from the Babylon AD movie. And the video, the full screen video on the device is actually pretty clear and crisp or things that you’ve taken using the built-in video camera. And this is one place where the BlackBerry Storm definitely tramps the iPhone because the video camera supports full motion video. So in this case, we’ve got a video of me waving to the camera.
Ringtones includes a number of preloaded ringtones on the device as well as ringtones that you’ve created yourself. Pictures again includes all the pictures that you previously taken and access to the camera so that you can take it once. And we’ve got a picture in here of Mac our producer who also host the butterscotch on deck show. And lastly, voice notes which allows you to record notes yourself that you can playback at a later time.
This is particularly handy if you’re driving in your car and don’t have access to a piece of paper and a pen. That’s the media application on the BlackBerry Storm. Thanks for watching the BlackBerry Tips and Tricks Series, stay tuned for more.
Hi, I’m Jay Goldman and welcome back to the Blackberry Tips and Tricks Series.
Today, we’re going to take a look at using the camera in your BlackBerry to take a new wallpaper background for your home screen. We’re going to start in the media application which gives you access to all of the different types of multimedia supported by the device. In this case, we’re looking for pictures and we can either browse through previously taken photographs or we can activate the camera by selecting camera.
The camera is on the back of the BlackBerry so point it at the thing you want to take a picture of, in this case the dude from—and use the Camera icon to actually snap your photo. BlackBerry will show you the photograph as it was taken so you can decide if you’re happy with it and you can use the red extra cancel out of here if you’d like to take it again. You can also use the cropping tool to make changes to it or the green folder icon if you’d like to save it. I’m going to save this with a different name so I backspace over what was previously there and then I will type Dude so we can save it with the appropriate name. That will now save this photograph in my Saved images so I can back out of the camera. Go into my all pictures and see my photograph of the Dude.
Use the BlackBerry menu item to open the menu and you’ll see a bunch of different options that you have here including send as email, send using Bluetooth, it set as the color ID for one of the contacts in your address book or set as home screen image. Taking the Set as home screen image, we’ll set this as the home screen for the BlackBerry. So, if I use the hangup key to back out of this, you’ll see it now present behind my menu items on the home screen.
Thanks for watching the BlackBerry Tips and Tricks series, stay tuned for more.
I’m Jay Goldman and welcome back to the Blackberry Tips and Tricks Series.
Today, we’re going to take a look at newly launched Blackberry App Store, a fantastic way to download it and install new applications on your BlackBerry.
The first thing you’ll need to do is install the App Store application itself and you can find a link and instructions on the butterscotch.com show notes.
Once you’ve downloaded the application, you’ll find it in your Downloads folder on your device under BlackBerry App Store. The App store is organized into a number of easy to navigate sections which are outlined along the bottom of the main screen. The first is Categories which shows a long list of categories that you can browse through. The second is tap Downloads which shows the most popular items, the 3rd is Search which allows you to search for an application using keywords and the last is my World which shows any previous applications that you’ve downloaded. You can browse through the applications in the featured items by clicking on the left or right icons or on the Storm by sweeping your finger back and forth.
Tap on an Applications icon to view details about that application including reviews and screenshots as well as the ability to recommend. And see that the AOL instant messenger application is rated 2½ out of five stars and is a free download 1.45 megabytes. Make sure that you’re aware of the size of application you’re downloading as they will count towards your data plan if you’re using your BlackBerries data connection while you’re downloading them.
Doing a download is as simple as tapping on the Download button which will take us over to the My World screen where you can see that I have previously installed an application. I have a Pause download and I’ve got a new download going. Use the Back key to return to the main screen, Back again to see the list of featured applications. And in this case, we’re going to jump over and take a look at an application that has a cost associated with it.
Brain Challenge too is a great game, it’s $49900 and can be purchased directly from App World. Instead of a Download button on the apps detailed page, you’ll see a Purchase button which you can tap on and take you into a paypal check out. If you don’t have a paypal account already, go to paypal.com on your computer not on your BlackBerry and sign up for new account and then come back into the App Store on your device and go ahead with your check up. If you do have an existing paypal account, you can just tap on okay and do the check out directly from here.
Once the application is finished downloading, it will run the installer automatically and completely install it for you. You can hit Tabs on your downloads as they’re going onto My World page and this is a much better process than they’re used to be for installing applications on the App World. So, although it may not be quite as sleek as Apples App Store, it’s a big step forward for BlackBerry owners and highly recommended.
Thanks for watching the BlackBerry Tips and Tricks Series. Stay tuned for more.
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