Industry coverage, news, original feature articles, how to guides, videos, podcasts and reviews of BlackBerry service providers, software, accessories, hosted exchange providers and more

It’s time again for us to take a look at some themes for your BlackBerry. Every time I sit down to do one of these theme review posts, it amazes me how many are out there. Even moreso, I’m impressed with the time and effort put into creating these interfaces. If you’ll remember way back to April, I talked with Cherri Chiodo from All Things Berry, and she described a bit of her process. It’s true dedication to the BlackBerry craft. Today we’ve got three themes for your enjoyment: The HD Car “Sport” theme, X Icon, and Inverted Dimension Today Plus.

HD Car “Sport” Theme

The HD Car “Sport” is a pretty basic theme, featuring a home screen with six icons. You’ll notice the Ferrari logo displayed prominently on the main screen, above the icons and without any obstruction. And then you open up the applications menu into a blocks theme, which means you won’t get any blend from the background. That’s my favorite part about blocks themes. You can have a great theme that is ruined by the icons blending into the background (see the Transformers theme).

As far as sleekness goes, this theme brings the goods. The icons are easy to recognize and easy to use. They don’t blend in with the background, which is a major drawback of a number of themes. The theme logo is displayed without interfering with the layout. The red and black works well, though that’s a personal preference. Still, you could do a lot worse as far as color schemes.

The theme comes in two other varieties as well. Elegance is an icon theme, while Business is a Today theme. All the above links are for OS 4.5 on the 8300 and 8800 series. You can also check it out for the Bold, or if you haven’t upgraded your OS yet, it’s available on OS 4.2 and up.

X Icon

I have to admit, I’m a pretty big XBox 360 fan — especially now that it streams Netflix movies. However, that’s not what initially attracted me to the X Icon theme for the Curve. I was drawn in purely by the aesthetics. The color scheme and the icons are just so cool. Green and black certainly go well together.

This is a basic icon theme, so there aren’t many fancy bells and whistles. Just your main application menu, featuring icons straight from the XBox. It comes from Gadgetbean, so you know you’re getting one of the better quality themes out there. You might remember them from past appearances on BBGeeks: I totally dug the iBerry blocks theme, despite not liking the idea of an iPhone theme.

If you’re fine with not having more than one main menu, this one could work out for you. Personally, I’m a fan of the Today and Today Plus themes, but this one might convert me. It is awfully pleasing to the eyes.

Inverted Dimensions Today Plus Theme

Today’s final theme comes from our friends at BlackBerry ThemPark. It’s a Today Plus theme, so it’s right up my alley. However, it changes the format just a little. And by format, I don’t mean the layout or anything. All that retains the basic properties of Dimensions Today Plus themes. Which is a good thing, as you probably knew I’d say. However, aesthetically it sets itself apart.

It’s all in negative. Take a closer look at the screenshot above. It’s the same as the default Dimensions theme that comes with the Curve. Only, it looks like someone got a video board and hit “negative” on it. (Back in high school, someone in mass media class made her claim to fame by making music videos using the negative attribute. It as quite annoying.)

This works, in a way. The icons end up being more vibrant than on the default Dimensions theme — though the Voice Dialing girl looks eery. Everything looks rather clear, as in I didn’t have trouble identifying the icons despite their new look. The main screen, with the clouds, looks a bit more foreboding than the original. That one looks like an old PC racing game.

Share on Facebook | Add to De.licio.us | Digg This! | Technorati