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Our BlackBerry goes where we go. It does not matter if it is the office, the beach, or the coffee shop down the street. Wherever we are, our BlackBerry is within arms reach.

It makes sense then that the BlackBerry, with its myriad of functions has started to take over the role of other gadgets and accessories we used to cart around in the same way.

We posted a couple days ago about a new BlackBerry Watch prototype and asked our Twitter followers how many of them would actually wear one. The response was a majority NO. A large number of the NO voters commented on the fact that the BlackBerry was now their main source of date and time info. They may wear a watch, but it is just for show. when they need to check the time they reach in their pocket/purse/holster and whip out the Berry.

Which brings us to our latest BlackBerry application review for ZenMinder. ZenMinder is a great new Multiple Alarms application that aims to bring you more control over your alerts and how the BlackBerry handles them.

In it’s default configuration you are very limited in the way you can set your alarms. As a matter of fact, you are limited to one alarm at a time. Most people use this for their morning alarm.

so what if you want to have 3 or 4 alarms go off during your day?

If you are like me, you are extremely forgetful and tend to get sidetracked from tasks that you swore you would “get to today”. I am the kind of guy that needs multiple alarms and ZenMinder is the remedy to my absent mindedness.

With ZenMinder I can set up as many alarms and reminders as I need with very little effort. One particular use I found was setting repeating wake up alarms. Now I may be absent minded at times, but mornings are hit and miss for me. Sometimes I hear that alarm at 5am and I am up in a flash, other times I find myself hitting that snooze button without pause. The problem I have with the BlackBerry is that my alarm will only go off once – when I hit snooze it refuses to alert after the designated time (or maybe I just sleep through it again). For these times I have found it ideal that I can set up a 5am, 6am and 7:05am alarm with ZenMinder, just to make sure I am up in time to start the day right.

Another really efficient use for the ZenMinder BlackBerry application in my opinion is using it as a lifestyle coach. How can a BlackBerry application be a lifestyle coach you ask? Quite easily actually.

Picture this scenario: You are an artist who finds themselves stuck in a cubicle all day which cramps your creative ability and tends to separate you from any moments of inspiration. You make a pledge to yourself that you will be creative and make some type of painting or drawing or sculpture at least once a week in order to get those juices flowing again.

This is a great start, but the human will is easily bent and you will more than likely find that, while you had the best intentions at the beginning of the week – the weeks pass and no artwork is made.

ZenMinder helps you tackle this imposition of human nature in a straight forward manner. It allows you to set up multiple repeating alerts/reminders that pop up and help to reinforce your weekly objectives. ie. two or three times a week you get a customizable message that reads something like: “Have you seen beauty today? Look around you – what will you paint?”

Granted, that example is not suitable for everyone but it is a strong one none the less. Other possible reasons for a reminder to be sent: medicine reminders, sports practice, stop smoking or even reminders to water your plants every couple days so they don’t wither and die out on you.

There are so many reasons you can use multiple alarms in your day to day life that it seems like nothing short of a massive oversight that RIM has not included this functionality as default in their latest device offerings. I will say it, this should have been default way back in the 7100 days.

Can ZenMinder do anything else?

While the purpose of ZenMinder is pretty straight forward (as most alarm apps are), it does have one feature that stands out from the pack. ZenMinder allows you to set up all your reminders and alerts without having them added to your BlackBerry calendar. This is huge for me.

I hate looking at my calendar and seeing a bunch of crap in there that is not business related. I want my calendar to tell me where I need to be that day and who I need to talk to. I don’t want any kind of daily reminders or alarms showing up there (which is often the result with various alarms apps). ZenMinder handles this perfectly by storing all of your presets and configurations right on your device in its own location. You can rest easy knowing that your alert to pick up (insert embarrassing prescription here) from the pharmacy will not be visible in your calendar and better yet, won’t be synced on your work servers for shared viewing.

Final thoughts on ZenMinder for BlackBerry

In my opinion, ZenMinder is one of the best multi-alarm applications for the BlackBerry. It features a nice user interface that is easy to navigate and very straight forward when it comes to setting up your various alarms and alerts.

The sound library available for your use is comprised of quality audio files that are not as harsh as traditional “alarm sounds” and really make it a pleasure to wake up to. Similarly, on days where I have many alerts programmed, I rarely get annoyed at the repetition of the chosen sounds. This is a huge bonus to me as I tend to get irritated at loud ringing or obnoxious beeping coming from my BlackBerry (or anywhere else for that matter).

Tie all that together with the fact that my BlackBerry calendars remain pristine and uncluttered by non-urgent notifications, makes for an application that I would recommend in a heartbeat to every BlackBerry owner out there.

ZenMinder is available through the BlackBerry AppWorld, or through the BBGeeks Store.

Bonus for reading the whole article

Congratulations on making it to the end of the ZenMinder review! If you have made it this far, chances are you are interested in setting up some multiple alarms yourself and we want to make that extra easy for you.

ZenMinder carries a price tag of $8.99, however, if you are one of the first 50 people to head over to the BBGeeks Store and purchase ZenMinder for your device, BBGeeks and BBHacker.com have decide that you should be rewarded.

Simply enter the following promotional code and you will get the application ABSOLUTELY FREE! Promo Code = ZENFORBBGEEKS.

If you are a little slower than the pack and miss out on one of the 50 free licenses, you can still get ZenMinder at a discounted rate (50% OFF) by using the promotional code ZENFIFTY.

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