smartphone

Apps I can’t live without.

May 9, 2013 by koalateagirl

Hi everyone,
It’s been awhile – I’ve been busy with life and spending far too much time with my BlackBerry Z10. The advantage of spending so much time with my Z10 is that I have a shortlist of the “Can’t miss Apps” for BlackBerry 10. These are my favourite apps, the ones I use on a daily basis.

1) Password Keeper – This app was standard on earlier BlackBerry devices, and is a free download for the Z10. It has all the functionality that I wrote about here but is on your BlackBerry 10 Device.

2) BlackBerry Messenger – Another old standard but one that I use daily to keep in touch with friends and family. It’s just so convenient. The Video chat feature on BlackBerry 10 devices allows you to do more than simply type to your contacts, you can actually see them and have a face to face conversation.

3) BlackBerry Remember – I had my doubts on how useful Remember would be. I was so wrong. I use it every single day. It’s better than any other notepad app I’ve used. It allows you to flag emails and put them into a file folder within the Remember App, but more than that, it allows you to add photos, videos, voice notes, and documents to the folder.

I have a BlackBerry Live folder and my airline tickets, hotel confirmation, event schedule, and hotel shuttle emails are all inside that folder so that I can easily find them as I need them.You can assign due dates to items within a folder and never forget a deadline again. You can also pull in contacts so if you are working on a project with a co-worker, you will have their contact info alongside all the information for the project. The BlackBerry video about Remember gives a pretty awesome overview of this amazing app.

4) CrackBerry 10 – I admit it, I’m a CrackBerry addict. I was going to the website a couple of times a day to keep up with the latest BlackBerry news. The CrackBerry 10 app for BlackBerry 10 allows me to catch up on the latest news and reviews in a really nicely designed and user friendly manner. To access the category feature simply tap the CB home button at the bottom of the screen in the app:

Once you do that, you will be greeted with a list of categories – I tend to read everything but if you only want to read reviews, it can be really helpful to go straight to the reviews category. My favourite thing about the CrackBerry 10 app is that it’s built for BlackBerry. I have nothing against Android ports but they don’t always work in quite the same way that apps built specifically for the BlackBerry 10 platform.

5) Blaq – The native Twitter app on the BlackBerry 10 operating system is not as good as the version I had on my Bold 9900. I use Twitter a lot and needed something better. I have used Blaq on my PlayBook, so when it was released for the BlackBerry 10 in late April, I eagerly downloaded it. It took a little getting used to and I’m still discovering little gems like the ability to quote tweets. (You can only do it from inside the tweet itself, not from the main screen) I will do a full post on Blaq soon for all my Twitter addicted friends who need a solid app that works well and is stable

6) Podcasts – I’m late to the podcast party, but I love listening to them as I walk around town. I had a few different Podcast apps on my Bold 9900 but my favourite wasn’t available for the BlackBerry Z10. After consulting some of my fellow BlackBerry Elite members, I downloaded Podcasts for BlackBerry 10. I love how easy and intuitive the app is to use. It also doesn’t drain my battery the way other podcast apps have. The selection of podcasts in the app is pretty good but you can search and manually add your favourite podcasts within the menu if they aren’t on the list. The only complaint I’ve heard is from my friend Nick who listens to a lot of podcasts while riding his bike to and from work – he would like a feature that skips back 5 or 10 seconds in the podcast when you restart after a pause, so that you don’t miss anything. I agree it would enhance the app but even without that feature, the app is head and shoulders above any other podcast app for BlackBerry 10.

These are my favourite (non game) apps so far. I’m going to be testing BlackBerry Travel next week as I journey to BlackBerry Live, and I will let you know how it works on BlackBerry 10 afterwards.

What are your favourite BlackBerry 10 apps? What app do you really want to see on the platform?

Identify yourself with the BlackBerry ID

June 29, 2012 by koalateagirl

BlackBerry ID falls into the category of things your really need to do first on your BlackBerry. It makes life so much easier. Once you’ve created your BlackBerry ID, you can use your email address and password to log in to any product that supports the BlackBerry ID. For example, you will use the same one on your Playbook as on your smartphone. With BlackBerry ID, you can manage apps that you download from BlackBerry App World and keep them if you switch devices.

Setting up a BlackBerry ID is easy, there are 2 ways to do it. You can either do it from an app that uses BlackBerry ID – it will prompt you the first time you use something with that feature, or you can do it online by going to the BlackBerry ID website and creating one there and then entering it on your device. If you are using the BlackBerry 7 operating system, you have to have a BlackBerry ID. Same goes with the Playbook – it’s not an option. Once you have it though, it makes life so much easier.

The important thing about your BlackBerry ID is to associate it with an email address you check regularly. It doesn’t have to be one that is associated with your device but you need to be able to get to the account if you forget your password because that’s where the recovery information will be sent. You can change the details of your BlackBerry ID once it’s been setup. To do this go to options on the home screen, the one that looks like a wrench.

From the settings box go to Device settings – this is where you can schedule other cool stuff like Auto on / off times (more about those in a later post)

Select “BlackBerry ID” and you’ll get a screen that looks like this (but with your details filled in)

Change the details you want to change and then hit the BlackBerry button and then Save. If you don’t save, it will prompt you to do so before you leave the screen.

BlackBerry ID is becoming more and more integrated into apps, so pick a password you can remember easily or use the password keeper to help you remember it.

BBM

June 26, 2012 by koalateagirl

One of my favourite applications on my Bold 9900 is BlackBerry Messenger or BBM. BBM is more than simply a messaging system – it’s an easy way to keep in touch and coordinate events with my friends and family. BBM allows me to share my calendar appointments with the people I need to – I can invite a friend to a concert or my parents to a family dinner. It also allows me to easily send pictures in a compressed format. I use this feature while shopping if i need a quick opinion from a friend on a shirt or a pair of shoes. With BBM connected apps I can chat with my BBM contacts within certain apps such as foursquare or twitter. The biggest advantage BBM has over text messaging is that messages in BBM can be up to 2000 characters long. This means that I can send 1 longer message and get the whole story across. My favourite feature of BBM (apart from it not using any of my data because of the plan I’m on) is that I can see when my messages are delivered and read. I can invite multiple people to join a conversation – which comes in very handy when I’ve been at a large event and want to meet up with people. Adding people to BBM is really easy too – from the “invite to BBM” screen, you can enter the person’s name, email, phone number, or PIN. If you’re in the same room as the person you want to add you can scan their BBM bar code – it’s really neat and easy to do.

Displaying your bar code for others to scan was a bit tricky at first but then I learned that all I had to do was hit the BlackBerry button while in BBM, select “view my profile”, and then scroll down to “personal bar code” and select “show”. Quick and efficient.

A feature that I’ve started using recently is BBM Groups. BBM groups are different from simply having a chat with multiple people in it. For starters you can have people in your BBM group who aren’t on your BBM contact list. You can have up to 30 people in a BBM group. I have one for my football contacts and love being able to make and share appointments and pictures quickly within the group. Joining a group is as easy as scanning the group bar code. You can invite other people to join a group you’ve made by getting them to scan the group bar code as you display it on your phone. I was a guest of BlackBerry at the Manulife Financial LPGA tournament in Waterloo last week, I couldn’t attend the final day (Sunday) due to other commitments, but because I had scanned a BBM bar code from BlackBerry@LPGA I was kept up to date with tournament and scoring information. Several other organizations have similar promotions – you can become a BlackBerry Blue Jays Insider by entering the PIN or scanning the bar code found at Bluejays.com. This gives you access to contests, video content on your device, score updates and more.

To be honest, I never thought I’d use BBM as much as I do. It has become something I just can’t live without.

The Camera Question

June 14, 2012 by koalateagirl

By far the most frequent question I get asked about my Bold 9900 is about the camera. People ask why I would want a smart phone with a crappy camera. My answer is simply, I don’t. Here are the specs on the camera on the Bold 9900:

5 megapixel camera
720p HD video recording capability
4 x digital zoom
Flash
Geo-tagging (So helpful when sorting through the pictures!)
Zero shutter lag. ZERO. You can capture a memory the instant it occurs.
Multiple scene modes. I actually find this very useful – I have tried out all of the modes, and while Auto is great, the Party and Landscape modes are quickly becoming favourites.

All of this wouldn’t be worth anything without the amazing resolution on the screen – VGA 640×480 high resolution with 287 pixels per square inch. In short – pictures I take on my Bold 9900 look fantastic on my handheld and on the computer.

The touch screen on the Bold 9900 is also very useful for taking pictures. You can zoom in or out swiping the right side of the screen, you can either use a key or touch the camera icon in the middle to take a picture. When you are looking through your photos, the touch screen enables you to easily move between pictures.

I have a 32gb MicroSD card in my Bold so that I can keep photos on the phone, but also transfer them easily with the help of an adapter to any compatible device. I would highly recommend getting a card if you’re going to be storing music or photos on your Blackberry.

A picture really is worth 1000 words, so here is one I took with my Bold 9900 at a friend’s party.

Oh and the header on the blog? Yeah, I took that with my Bold too.