The following is a collaborative effort by Joe and Cooper. Yes, it takes two of us to come up with this tripe.
So you swear you are a Blackerry Geek. You you can never seem to put the device down for more than a minute. Your family and friends have grown accustomed to conversation consisting mainly of grunts, half acknowledgements and the virtual extinction of eye contact — and your children are 8 inches taller and three years older than you last remember them. Sure you are a BlackBerry addict, but that is a far cry from being a BlackBerry Geek. It is for you o’weary thumbed one that I wrote this guide to becoming a better BlackBerry Geek. You see, it is not how long you use your BlackBerry for, or how quickly you can reply to that ever growing stack of email in your inbox. Becoming a better geek is all about taking the everyday geeky things you do day in and day out and doing them smarter and on the go.
In conjunction with whatever model of BlackBerry you are currently fixated on, BBGeeks.com presents. . .
12 Ways to Become a Better BlackBerry Geek, Part 1
1. Perfect your eBay sniping while in transit
eBay is a marketplace rife with geek gear. Looking for a throwback item that can’t be found on any retail shelf? Check eBay. Looking for a rare collectible figure? Yep, it’s probably listed somewhere, if not somewheres, on eBay. It might have destroyed the market for some geeky collectibles — baseball cards comes to mind immediately — but that just means that collectibles can be found on the cheap.
The best way to get what you want on eBay is to snipe. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, here’s a definition. Essentially, it’s keeping a watch on an item until the auction is nearly closed. Then you swoop in and place a last-second bid, with the hope that you catch it with a second to go and therefore cannot be outbid. Since you can be out and about with your BlackBerry, mobile sniping might be necessary. Yahoo! Mobile Services has an eBay widget that can help you do just that.
What kind of stuff can you get with your mobile sniping skills?
You could get yourself a vintage computing systems like the Sinclair 1000 or the original Apple Macintosh.
How about some sweetStar Trek Dilithium Crystal. Yeah, we went there.
You could even add to your killer vinyl collection — though is Black Sabbath really geeky?
Since no trip to the eBay store is complete without checking out a few Lego sets, you can get those too! — Still trying to hide your geekish ways? If you get caught checking out the latest Star Wars play set you can always claim it’s for the kids.
2. Easily locate every comic shop, costume store, computer dealer and allergist within a hundred miles of you — and get turn by turn audio/on screen directions
TeleNav is one of the better-known GPS services, and they’ve been making aggressive steps to create a better product for BlackBerry. At WES 2008 they put together a presentation of how their product could aid deployment by BES administrators. Yet the application can be used average Joes like you and me to locate local business of all types, geeky or not. Check out TeleNav GPS feature – BizFinder .
Otherwise, Google Maps for BlackBerry is an attractive, free option. Hopefully you have a Berry with a GPS unit that you can actually use. Yes, that’s yet another shot at Verizon and their GPS-crippling ways. That’s another geeky must: ripping communications companies for their consumer-unfriendly policies. I’m shaking my fist at them right now.
3. Never be left without a clever quote
Spring is upon us, which means flowers are blooming and birds are migrating back north for the summer. Imagine hanging out with a group of friends and hearing one of them say, “oh, look, that’s a swallow.” Dirty jokes aside, the proper response to his/her observation: “What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?” You don’t want to miss a quotation opportunity like that.
Quotes referencing pop culture have always been a bit geeky, so never miss out on an opportunity to quote The Simpsons, Bio-dome, or Monty Python.
Here are a few bookmarks to get you started:
Best Bio-dome quotes ever!
A classic collection from Monty Python and the Holy Grail
The gentleman and scholar: Homer Simpson
My cat’s breath smells like cat food…
4. Follow your multiple online conversations
Most popular online forums allow you to receive an email whenever a new post appears in a thread on which you’re active. Of course, you can use this do your advantage while you’re on the go and have them pushed to your BlackBerry.
Using Gmail with your BlackBerry is an easy way to set up an email specifically for forums. However, I can understand if you don’t want to flood your inbox with forum replies, especially if you use forums frequently. So why not create a page that will collect the comments using MobilePlay?
Then, you can set up an RSS feed with Litefeeds and have it sent right your favorite BlackBerry RSS reader.
Thats really geeky =)
5. Have a buddy system
Every good geek is on to at least one conspiracy theory. This can range from a mainstream conspiracies like the Kennedy assassination and Area 51 to super-niche ones, like the giant ants you see nightly from your telescope.
(And I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords. See what I did there?)
You can set your BlackBerry to track your movements using GPS, publish them to the web in real time so that your friends will know when you have been kidnapped by secret agents. Alien secret agents. Applications like Mobile Tracker and social networks like Loopt can help you accomplish that.
In the event that you do get snapped up, you will want to have your files and SMS encoded. Do it with these apps.
Protect your SMS messages with MobeCode, or encrypt your umm . . . “sensitive images” with MyPhoto. If it is overall file structure security you are after, Mobile Secretary 3.0 will do the trick.
If you want to keep tabs on your friends — you know, so they don’t get taken by the body snatchers — you can use apps like Contact Mapper and Mologogo . If they’re ever taken, you’ll be the first to know. You will have to act quickly though, as we are not sure how good the tracking functionality will be once they have left the earths atmosphere.
6. Learn a new language
As a geek, you might find it tough to find a date unless you’re quite rich — well, except at sites like this, which may or may not work. In another country, though, you’re just an anonymous face. No one will know your geekiness, and you can use that to your advantage. The first step, of course, is to learn a new language. Your BlackBerry can help you with that (what can’t it help you with?).
Not sure what language to tackle? French is always good, it is the language of love after all. You could go for Spanish and learn to rrrrrrrrrrr-oll your rrrrrrrrr’s until the fine ladies are swooning. Or you could stay true to your geeky roots and finally learn some Esperanto. It’s not quite a BlackBerry application, but you can view it through your browser. Plus, if Shatner is doing it you just know you should be too. Beiks is a good source for learning foreign words, and Translator+ can help you translate sentences and paragraphs.
Once you’re a bit more advanced, you can send and receive SMS and email which is translated from one language to another. Yeah, isn’t that freaking cool? Cool for a geek, of course. Check out Transclick, which could help accelerate your language learning.
BONUS LINK
Not quite the romantic? Try this: bone up on romance with these classic romance stories right there on your BB. Ultimate Romance. You might just pick up some moves. . .
Coming next week: becoming a better geek, numbers seven through 12.
