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We’re going out on a limb with this week’s Theme Review Wednesdays by taking on a Storm theme. To say I’ve been reluctant to do this in the past doesn’t quite describe it — it’s more that I’ve been unable because I don’t have (nor do I really want) a Storm. Thankfully, my brother visited last week and I convinced him to let me download and review a theme or two. He’s a good kid, I tell ya. We’ve also got themes from Gadgetbean and BlackBerry Theme Park, two outlets that haven’t gotten nearly enough love in recent weeks.

Broken Glass

BlackBerry Theme Park makes its return to Theme Review Wednesdays with a Curve 8900 theme, Vista Broken Glass. It’s a sharp, sharp looking theme, which is what we should expect from the higher-res BlackBerry models. The Home Screen features a bottom dock with six customizable icons. Up in the right hand corner, tucked away and not taking up much screen real estate, is the time, date, battery and signal gauges, and WiFi/Bluetooth connctions. If anything, I’d like to see that bigger, since it doesn’t take up much room, or to see the saved real estate utilized in some way (calendar, messages, etc.).

The theme stands out because of the neat-looking broken glass image in the background. This does not cause any issues whatsoever on the Applications menu, as the icons lay nicely over it. Speaking of the icons, it’s neat that they used ones like Firefox for the browser and Thunderbird for messages. However, it can get confusing at times — like the MSN Messenger logo for BlackBerry Messenger. I use MSN on my BlackBerry, and while the two icons would probably be slightly different, they’re alike enough to be a slight pain.

You can get the Vista Broken Glass theme from BlackBerry Theme Park through their subscription service. I’ll tout this again, because it’s a pretty cool concept. Instead of buying individual themes, you can subscribe for like $20 per year and get all the themes you want. If you buy three themes from our store, it would work out to about $21, so this is a good deal for frequent theme switchers.

EGO

I’m always on the prowl for unique themes, and I hit the jackpot with EGO, a theme by Gadgetbean. At first glance it might look bland, as it features white icons on a black background. Yet that is the entire point of EGO. The creators say: “Turn your BlackBerry into an expression of yourself with the EGO Theme.” In other words, this theme is built to handle custom wallpapers, so you can use the excellent features of the theme while setting the background to your liking. You know, just so long as the background doesn’t blur the whites of the icons and text.

EGO features two docks, which you can’t see normally. They’re tucked away off-screen until you highlight them. The bottom features a customizable five-icon dock, and the right side contains another four icons, also hidden. Maybe this is just a novelty that will wear off in time, but I really liked playing around with this theme. Navigation was easy even with the hidden docks. The only complaint I had was that some of the brighter-colored wallpapers don’t show up well with the white text and icons.

You can get the EGO theme at the BBGeeks Store for $7. That one link gives you all of operating systems compatible with the theme. I really hope more designers start taking advantage of this. It’s so much easier to give one link than it is to say, “this is the Curve version, but just search out the rest.”

Streamline

Our final theme for the week comes from one of our favorites, Jason Calhoun. Not only that, but it’s the first Storm theme we’ve covered in this feature. It takes advantage of the format, as it uses a tall image for the background. This is what attracted me to the theme. The dark, imposing clouds and the endless road ahead give this theme an aesthetically-pleasing feel. I actually stared at the damn thing for a few minutes before snapping out of the trance.

The Home Screen features four customizable icons for easy access. With a screen the size of the Storm’s, it would seem silly to not have plenty of material on the Home Screen. Calhoun takes care of this by adding a Today Plus aspect to the bottom half of the screen. Here users can access their contacts, messages, and calendar. So in reality there are seven icons on the Home Screen, four of which are customizable. The Applications Menu is as basic as it gets. Just rows and columns, the way it should be.

You can get the Streamline for Storm theme at the BBGeeks Store for $7. If you’re a Storm user looking for a new theme, this could be a good option.

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