BlackBerryInsight

I must admit before my years of blackberry abuse I was a die hard TREO fan, even switched back from the Blackberry 8800 to the Treo 750…but woke up and grabbed a Curve. But, while writing my latest for Blackberry Insight on my struggles to be a one device guy..no laptop..no desktop..just me and my Curve on the weekends and throughout most of the day. I realized that the Doomed Palm Foleo, was maybe on the cutting edge, we all love the qwerty keyboards, but I must admit that there is nothing better than a real keyboard for long assignments and long emails. The ability to see your blackberry screen and applications and access them on a 10, 12, or bigger screen would be glorious, I don’t want the start up time, or other 3rd party window apps or windows for that matter, I just want an instant on and offsee my Blackberry screen and type from a larger keyboard thingamajig , just a bluetooth keyboard and a screen, just to make it a little more comfortable and usable. So I started searching the net and found ALMOST what I wanted….ALMOST… here —> Bayalink Liberty
which gave me everything I wanted except more charges to my data, this happens because it render’s your blackberry screen through Firefox, or IE and you have more data being presented and requested, same with their mail attachment service….so it was close, but no cigar, I still need something similar but simpler, how about a bluetooth Monitor…..Anyone, Ferris, Bueller,…Then there is RedFly same Idea as the Foleo, but for Windows Smartphones only So what I have done is started to test out using a bluetooth keyboard with the Blackberry While having it plug into the usb of my laptop and using Rove Mobile Viewer. So know I can see my blackberry screen better in bigger format and use my bluetooth keyboard to type faster and for longer……..Have I solved my issue…..apparently not, Blackberry’s only work with a few Bluetooth Keyboards (mainly the stowaway type) none of which I have, so now I need to buy a keyboard…no biggie, but would still really like an ALL IN ONE solution, isn’t there anyone able to make a program to simulated the BB Screen on a PC and have the keyboard work as well……auuurgggggha.

So back to my original thought, a Foleo like companion for when you truly want to be mobile and as unplugged as cellular will let you be, even if you had no cellular connection you could still do it all from your BB and thingamabob, and then when you back within signal range send what you need.

Anyways I’m done my rant, if anyone knows of such a device, or knows of one coming down the wire,please let me know. Thanks from the aching thumbs, and my squinting eyes.

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Recently I bought a trailer in Ontario, Canada. And although we are relatively close to cities and towers, I don’t have internet for the Laptop, (The other tool I have that is surgically attached to my person). So that left me with the task of truly testing my blackberry as a standalone device. First let me explain that I am an internet person, I love checking the news, maps, looking for stuff, eBay, stores, local happenings and such, so much so I don’t like being without my info for more than say 4 to 8 hrs if I am sleeping that is.
So having to put everything I do on the internet into one device and survive without withdraw..kind of made me a little mad (mad that I had not picked a better Park with Internet) and mad that I don’t have a bigger screen’d device…like say and Iphone…?. But the deal was done my fee’s paid, my network and devices well planned out years before….I have to make the best of it, So into the fire I went, the first day or so I was starting to feel a little internet withdraw, but then decided I would dive into the Blackberry much farther than before, It helped that I was running OS 4.5 beta, so the internet with the pointer was much easier and enjoyable to use.
I also found that the use of the GPS and Google Maps to be indispensable as it allowed me to find everything I needed in the area, and to inform me of what things were too far to bother with, like store brewed coffee, beer..You know incase I ran out. I found that the browser was soon to be my best friend, while fishing I could track my locations along the river, and find new spots to try out, although it could not tell me where the fish were it could tell me where I was, where I was headed and what was ahead of me, all the while sitting along the shore. I used the browser to look up fish types and attributes, read the news and daily blogs, I also found although I love Viigo, I was using the Google reader feature a lot more than normal, and it allowed me to keep up my morning rituals of news checking and the checking of every single Blackberry site known to man. I was even able to blog from the shore line…It was finally kicking in, I don’t think there was anything I could not do from this device that I could of done from my laptop, mind you I am not a huge Youtube fan or DVD movie fan, so I didn’t do any video watching, but with OS4.5 on board I did take some fishing videos and lots of great pictures, things I could not do from my laptop!
I also thought it was necessary to leave my laptop at home (although this was hard, it had to be done).So I would have no temptation to drive to a wifi patch somewhere and jump on the internet. I did find out that using the big computer as apposed to my Blackberry curve (my minime), there were lots of things to keep you busy, like tabs on your browser multiple windows, etc etc…It was making me realize that I barley use my blackberry for other things, like games, music, alarms, stuff!!, so this trip got me searching for lots of new software and things I can do on my BB, and you know what I’m loving this thing….I guess sometimes you have to lose something(like your laptop) before you realize how much..You don’t actually need it.

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I received a feed from Blackberry Review about “Where”

What is WHERE……well I’ll let WHERE explain it simply.

WHERE GPS widgets make it easy for you to customize your phone. It’s simple. You can add and delete them by dragging and dropping them to your phone from your account on where.com or by adding them directly from your phone.

“But,” you may be saying, “What exactly does that mean to me?”

In a nutshell, it means you get access to a growing set of widgets. Widgets such as:

local — search locally for points of interest around you
directions — get directions and maps from where you are to where you want to go… or from anywhere
saved places — save your favorite places to easily access them in the future and share them with friends
location notes — write notes about the places you’ve been for others to find, or keep them private if you don’t share well
weather — get the local weather for your location
ski report — local ski reports
earthquake! — find the most recent earthquakes by proximity
world largest — a fairly comprehensive list of America’s huge roadside attractions
fore! — golf course finder
roadside help — towing service and repair shops
state parks – enjoy your local state parks
winery finder — take a wine tour at your local wineries
rent a car – you know you want to
brewery finder — get to know your local breweries
nexrad radar — see your local nexrad radar
And more widgets are coming online

Well WHERE has just come out with a blackberry connection, the software and site have been around for a while I guess and has just done the blackberry thing, as far as I can see…….since it was a free add app I thought I would check it out, I have always like any GPS enable software, think its the cats meow at times. But this Where really blows my mind, not only because of what it can do, but that it works based on your position…really any position even here in small time Canada, it found Events, gas prices, coffee, rental cars etc etc all based on my location …Sweet.

I have seen similar products, but they don’t usually work unless you are in the big cities and mostly US cities, or you have to be subscribed to something, or the place your looking for has to subscribe to be a part of there search, but this is easy, user friendly and you can pick from a wide arrange of Widgets that you can drag and drop onto your screen..virtually, then it shows up there. Man I am very impressed with this software and give a big shout out to Blackberry Review for the Alert and to K and Blackberry Insight for allowing me to post it.

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I always seem to be looking for my Blackberry to be doing more, there are many times when I look at it and think, what can we do right now I’m bored, I check my apps, read my Viigo, check my facebook….but I need more. I find myself constantly downloading every new app I can get my hands on, admittedly I am not much of a gamer….mainly because I suck at it, but I would imagine that gaming could cure a lot of my want for wanting more to do on my Blackberry. Most of the times I also search for ways to be more productive or for ways to make my device work better. Currently I use Twitter a lot ( you can hook up with me on twitter, look for Hollywoord42), if you don’t already know Twitter gives you three ways to interact 1. IM (Gtalk, Live journal, jaber) 2. through text, sms 3. Web Only. Twitterberry uses the Text Sms option. But beacuse I have a corporate plan on my berry, it doesn’t have much text sms leeway, thus I am trying the IM approach, and because I dont have many people on Gtalk it seemed kind of useless getting Gtalk all hooked up with an accounts and so on. That was until I learned that Gtalk can actually be used to interact with all your other IM clients…Did you know this…I did not. But I found an article that shows you how to hook up Gtalk on your PC that will allow you to use Gtalk on your blackberry and have all your different friends IM’s on board. So with out further a due please read on and enjoy.

Thanks to Jeff over at Big Blue Ball for putting this article together. Hope you all enjoy………..Andrew

http://www.bigblueball.com/forums/general-other-im-news/33739-connect-google-talk-aim-msn-yahoo.html

Connect Google Talk to Aim, Msn, & Yahoo

Posted by Jeff on 01-22-2006, 11:34 PM

Google has announced plans to get Google Talk and AIM talking, but with a little elbow grease you can do that and more today.

Now that Google has opened up their Google Talk servers for federation with other Jabber servers, you can use Google Talk to connect to your friends on AIM, MSN, Yahoo or ICQ. Here’s how, step-by-step with screenshots.

First, download and install the free Jabber client called Psi. It’s a fine Jabber client, and you might want to keep it, but you won’t need to once you’ve set everything up. The Psi wiki has a great step-by-step for connecting to Google Talk. Follow their instructions and you’ll be able to see your Google Talk contacts.

Next, go to Service Discovery and browse the Jabber server ursine.ca and you’ll see the transports available.

Click on a transport and Psi will gather data.

Right-click on a transport to register. Registration involves entering your username and password for the given IM network. Once you do, Psi will connect to that network and retrieve your contacts. You can also add new contacts.

Once I had “registered” each of my IM accounts, I had a lot (hundreds?) of system messages.

Basically it asked me to confirm that I wanted to add each of these contacts. Once I did, they showed up in my Psi contact list.

Now exit Psi and fire-up Google Talk. You’ll have all your IM contacts right there on your Google Talk contact list.

Once you’ve done so, you can chat with your friends on AIM, Yahoo, ICQ, MSN — all using Google Talk. You can also add contacts directly within Google Talk. Just use the format [screenname]@[transport.dns.name]. For example, to add my MSN screen name you would enter jeff@msn.ursine.ca

What’s the deal with ursine.ca? You can use any Jabber server you’d like — you’ll find a complete list here at Open Jabber Servers — ursine.ca was just the server I used.

This process works, although in my experience, the MSN transport has not been reliable. One of my friends reported an weird “echo” effect. Everything she typed was returned back to her as if from me (I saw none of her messages). I’ve also sent IMs to MSN contacts, only to have them immediately appear “offline.”

As with any of these kinds of hacks, your mileage may vary. But you’ve got to admit — it is very cool to be able to use Google Talk as a universal IM client.

Resources

• Download Psi - Configure for Google Talk
• Download Google Talk

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We have built in, BB Messenger, PIN Exchange, Google Talk, Yahoo Messenger, Face book, and now down-loadable Blackberry Twitter, Blip, Find Me, and many more which make the blackberry truly the most socially advanced and acceptable device to date. Now we have the ability to listen, watch, track, interact with friends, co-workers, employers, governments and news agencies the ability to track and participate in events from around the globe and do this all on one simple to use device, …..but what makes the Blackberry even more social-able is its acceptance by millions of people and businesses as a legitimate and safe way to communicate. I know that the Apple guys are working on a iphone only social network and toting it as the greatest thing every….BUT we are already there and should be flaunting it and using it to its full potential. Soon you should be able to walk down the street and know when there is another blackberry user around you maybe someone with similar interests, or maybe someone that you follow there blog or converse on a forum with…..having the right security settings in place, people will be able to reveal if they are looking for work, looking to hire people, looking for a partner opportunities, friendship, or just to lend a hand to others…..or whatever …we have the ability to be an open social society, where we can collaborate and help one another and create a better more secure world to live, work and communicate in.

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