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

If you are new here, you may want to subscribe to my feed or subscribe to us on Twitter!

I couldn’t be more excited to be doing another edition of Theme Review Wednesdays. Why the excitement over a few premium BlackBerry themes? Because this week we’ve got a brand spankin’ new design from personal favorites Hedone Design. This one will not disappoint. Plus, as always there will be a couple other high-quality themes (or prominent themes that have flaws), so follow the jump and see what we’ve got in store for this week.

BussFast

Honestly, I have no idea what the name means. Looked it up on Google, and all I could find were links to the theme itself. Oh well. With a theme this sharp, who needs a recognizable name? Yes, I’m going to suck up to Hedone now, not because they do anything in particular for me, but because I like their themes so damn much. BussFast is no different. This one almost looks like a computer desktop, with status bars on the top and bottom of the screen.

It’s a dock-style theme, featuring six Home Screen icons for the 83xx and 88xx versions, and an L-style for the Curve 8900, Bold, and Storm which can add up to five more Home Screen icons. The theme also utilizes the scroll-over Today functions for the Bold and Curve 8900, meaning you can see messages or calendar events on the Home Screen by hovering over the icon. The theme itself is beautiful, featuring a number of nature-style backgrounds. The green ones look best, especially the golf course one. That strip of blue sky at the top of the theme, though hidden by icons, really brings the theme together.

You can get the BussFast theme at the BBGeeks Store for $6 until June 6. After that it’s back up to the $7 price point. This link includes the OS 4.5, OS 4.6, and OS 4.7 versions.

Aluminum

Today marks not only the return of Hedone, but also the return of BBGeeks fave Cherri Chiodo. She always comes up with interesting designs, and her latest is no different. It’s titled Aluminum, and it looks pretty much how one would envision an aluminum theme. It’s semi-relevant, at least in my isolated world, because the College World Series is currently running, and they use aluminum bats. Not doing it for you? Okay. It’s still a sharp, simple theme.

Like many of Cherri’s themes, this one comes in both a TodayPlus and Zen style. The grayscale nature of the theme means there’s not really any room to blend. Everything has to stand out against the background because otherwise you wouldn’t be able to see a thing. It might not be something for the glitzy color-oriented type, but for the simple folk among us it’s a nice alternative the flashiness you see with other premium themes. Everything is straight forward, including the font. This has been my favorite development of Cherri’s lately. The fonts are eminently readable.

You can get the Aluminum theme from the BBGeeks Store for $6.99. That link is for the OS 4.2 through OS 4.5 TodayPlus versions. Here’s the one for the OS 4.6 and 4.7 versions.

Genesis

When I first saw the name of this theme from JC Designs, my mind immediately shot to Sonic the Hedgehog. Of course, it could have been Genesis the band (hopefully during the Peter Gabriel era). Or it could have been Genesis in the Biblical sense. Alas, it is more of the dictionary sense: the origin or coming into being of something. No matter the definition, this is a great theme from JC Designs. I might even make it my theme, which says a lot.

This theme does just about everything. It can be best illustrated by the Bold and 8900 versions, since that has available a number of functions not available for older OS users. It features a slide-out dock on the Home Screen (which is available for older OS users), meaning less clutter. Slide it out and you can have up to six custom icons. You can scroll over calendar or messages for the Today Preview, again one of my favorite OS 4.6 features. Not only that, but it has a dedicated slot for WatherBug or WeatherEye, so you’ll always know the weather around you. And as if that weren’t enough, it features hidden buttons for Manage Connectins (by the battery meter) and Alarm (up by the clock). JC Designs really thought of everything with this theme.

You can get the Genesis theme at the BBGeeks Store for $7. That one link gets you versions for OS 4.2 through OS 4.7.

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