Featured

Dominate with a Blackberry

Those who know me understand that I’m never very far from the Blackberry. It’s an addiction, and I fully admit it. I’m not going through rehab any time soon either. Right now, my model of choice is a BB 8320 from T-Mobile which has held up very well under heavy use. Nothing has worn out yet, aside from the back cover from nervous “blackberry spinning”. I do plan to upgrade to the 8900 at some point.

Here’s how I use it:

- All messages go into one folder…text, email, everything. All other folders are hidden.
- Google Talk is a critical app.
- Facebook app comes in handy, though it’s lacking in some areas. I still use it all the time.
- Definitely need Google Maps.
- Have it set to delete messages automatically after 15 days. At any given time there will be between 1000 and 4500 messages on it.
- Using the smallest font possible…that way I can see the most info at once.
- Am using Callwave for voicemail. All voicemail gets emailed to my gmail account for safekeeping, and I don’t need to delete anything ever. Callwave is programmed into the “C” button. Hold down “C” and it calls voicemail. Handy.
- I have BBText2IM installed to support a “conversation view” like an old treo. Honestly I don’t find this very useful.
- Search hot-keys are programmed so that Alt-T brings up all Twitter messages, Alt-B all Brightkite messages, and Alt-R all property matches from our local MLS. If my BB starts to lock up, I can delete messages in bulk this way. This will become a non-issue when I invest in the 8900.
- Trackball sensitivity is set to 100% for both vertical and horizontal. Pain in the ass sometimes, but I’m getting used to it. 90% for both was not a problem.
- Pressing “Q” from the home screen starts a text message.
- Pressing “P” takes a series of 4 pictures one after the other, with the shutter sound muted. Tricky.
- Right side quick key locks the phone.
- Left side quick key opens the phone log.

Apps that I have installed:

Brightkite
Google Talk
Text2IM
Pandora
Facebook
Twitterberry
Qik
Google Maps
TxtForward (not in use…haven’t paid for it yet, but forwards all texts to an email account. Cool for keeping a backup of them)
Max Mem
Peek-A-Boo
QSms
Gmail

Memory card: 8gb

In summary, the Blackberry works almost EXACTLY as I need. The drawback to the 8320 is I can’t save the amount of messages I would like. Ultimately with the increased memory of the 8900, I should be able to set it at 15 days and let it go without having to clear them out to free up some memory. I love being able to keep 5 or 6,000 messages in order to search for something.

It shows no sign of quitting yet, so perhaps I’ll hang on to it for awhile longer…

Cheers!

© 2009 FreshAmounts.com.