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Back in the day, when I still had a crappy flip phone, I used to take advantage of the multiple alarms it offered. When I used an actual alarm clock, rather than my cell phone, I was apt to shut the thing off rather than hit snooze. This did not please my bosses at the time. My old phone, however, offered three different alarms, and I took advantage by setting all of them. So even when I silenced the first alarm, the second and third were waiting to go. When I got a BlackBerry I lost this functionality, at least natively. There are tons of alarm applications, but who wants to spend money on such a simple function?

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Your wireless carrier does not want you to leave. It likes your predictable monthly payments, and loves that you’re under contract for two years. The contract isn’t the only measure your carrier takes to retain its existing customers. It also locks handsets to its network. This, it hopes, makes you think twice about leaving. Who wants to pay for a new device, even when subsidized, when you have a perfectly good, working device already? Many people will stay with their current wireless carrier because of just this reason. Thankfully, this is not a necessity. If you feel your wireless carrier has wronged you, or else you just want to take your phone to another network, you might be in luck. There are ways to break the carrier’s lock on your BlackBerry.

NOTE: Read all the way to the end for an incredible offer from BBGeeks and CarrierUnlock.com
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Over the past two years we’ve developed a diverse audience at BBGeeks. Some are hardcore types who use their BlackBerrys every day. Others are beginners who find the site through Google or other search engines, trying to find answers to a specific question. That can make content creation a balancing act. Sometimes we’ll have a bit geared more towards hardcore users, while others will be geared towards the beginner. Today will be the latter, with apologies to our hardcore fan base. Today’s lesson will be the most basic of BlackBerry tasks: adding a new email to your BIS account.

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The BlackBerry has become a multimedia machine over the past few years, especially now that new models boast a high-res screen. Yet one of the most frequent complaints we get is how difficult (or convoluted) it is to transfer regular video files to the BlackBerry. The video on your computer sometimes isn’t optimized for viewing on your handheld. In order to view files, you’ll have to reduce the resolution to fit your BlackBerry screen. Thankfully, we’ve seen a number of applications over the years which can do just that. In this post we’ll run down a few of our favorites. If we don’t cover what you use, let us know in the comments or send an email (jpawlikowski at bbgeeks) and we’ll add it to the post.

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In thinking of an idea for a how-to article for this week, I went to the BBGeeks YouTube page to see what we’ve already covered. I realized that we need more videos up there. Over the next few weeks and months, expect a lot more in the way of video content. It might be stuff you already know, but a little video tutorial never hurt anyone. So, because I was already on YouTube, I went through and picked out some pretty good BlackBerry how-to videos. Hopefully you find something worth your while herein.

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BlackBerry Desktop Manager for Mac hit the airwaves recently, and we’ve seen no shortage of reviews. The application is pretty straight forward, though it lacks a few features of the PC version. One is the ability to install unofficial OS upgrades. But, like all things Berry, someone has created a workaround. The following video shows you how to get around the problem of having a .exe OS file on a Mac that doesn’t run the file type. After the jump, OS 5.0 links, so you can test it yourself.

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In many ways, a BlackBerry is a mini computer. Like other computers, it runs applications which require free memory. This becomes a problem, especially on older BlackBerry devices, where there is precious little space. The best way to avoid this kind of memory handicap — which can lead to memory leak — is to go through your BlackBerry every once in a while and clean up a bit. Delete some applications, clear the cache, that sort of thing. We’ve written about parts of this progress on BBGeeks before, and today we’re going to bring it all together.

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One application many BlackBerry users question is the Password Keeper. How do you use it, and what do you use it for? I hear this all the time, and until a few months ago I couldn’t have really answered it. It just wasn’t something I even thought to use. But after hearing so many questions, I decided to give it a whirl. There’s really nothing to it, but I think that’s why many people are confused. Perhaps there’s an implication that it’s more than it really is. Let’s take a quick minute to go over how to use your Password Keeper.

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It looks like we might need to update the UberTwitter for BlackBerry review. The folks behind the project have released a new beta, and this one packs in a few more features, including the much-needed URL shortening. That’s a great feature of desktop clients like TwitterFox, but something lacking from many BlackBerry applications (though I did enjoy it with Tweetcaster). After the jump we’ll list all the new features.

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One thing I’ve been using my BlackBerry for more and more is taking notes. I used to carry around a small pad and paper, but I’d either forget to bring it with me, or else lose it somewhere along the way. With the BlackBerry, it’s with me all the time. Plus, I’m not going to lose the thing — as easily as a pad and paper, at least. While I do use the MemoPad application frequently for chronicling such things as my to read list, I also leave myself a number of voice notes. While I listen to them right on my BlackBerry, I can understand why people would want to transfer those notes to their computers as MP3 files. That’s what we’re going over today.

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