Changing your BlackBerry Curve trackball light

Thought that only original BlackBerry Pearls supported a color-changing trackball? Well, that’s true, but you can still pick a single different color for your trackball. Check out this video.

If you don’t have a pair of tweezers, you can still remove your trackball by other, simpler means. Check out our post on how to clean your BlackBerry trackball for the details.

Take apart your BlackBerry Storm 9500/9530

Sick of your original BlackBerry Storm? Why not take it apart so you can see what makes it tick? This is for more advanced users, of course, but even if you don’t plan to take apart your Storm it’s still a neat sight to behold.

How to fix a bricked BlackBerry

I wish I had seen this video when my BlackBerry Curve died. But, instead of searching for how to fix a bricked Berry, I instead searched for my specific issue. Turns out if I’d done this, I might have fixed it a day or so earlier. The on-screen instructions make this a great video.

Note that I do not approve of the music in this video.

For more BlackBerry how-to material, check back at the BBGeeks YouTube page frequently, as we’ll be adding more videos.

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Videos on how to do stuff to your BlackBerry

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Videos on how to do stuff to your BlackBerry

All of the OS 5.0 files are hosted on Mega Upload.

8830 – 5.0.0.230
8900 – 5.0.0.238
9000 – 5.0.0.238
9530 – 5.0.0.230
9630 – 5.0.0.230

Once again, we must disclaim that these are unofficial operating system files, and they may cause unexpected errors and malfunctions to your BlackBerry. Be sure you have a backup in place, just in case you need to wipe your device and start over again.

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Installing unofficial operating systems on your BlackBery with a Mac

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Installing unofficial operating systems on your BlackBery with a Mac

Deleting sample media and apps

Your BlackBerry might be useful — possibly the most useful device you own — but it contains a lot of stuff you just don’t need. You can let that stuff sit and take up valuable memory, or you can go in there and wipe it out, giving yourself a few more bytes to play with.

The place to start is sample media. These sample audio and video files come preloaded on your BlackBerry so you can test the media player. They’re unnecessary. You can delete these files the same way you delete any BlackBerry application. Go to Options, Advanced Options, Applications. There you’ll have your list, and you can kill BlackBerry Sample Video, and if it’s present, BlackBerry Sample Audio.

While you’re at it, why not delete all of those applications you never use anyway? You’ll want to avoid stuff like BlackBerry Core Applications, but go right ahead and delete that game you installed five months ago and played once, or that app you got and swear that you’re going to use one day. You’re not, so you might as well kill it and save the space for other, more important things.

To delete applications from the Applications option, just over over the desired app, hit the Menu button, and select Delete. You’ll get a last warning prompt, and once you select Yes the application will go away forever. Most times the device will prompt you for a reboot, but you can do that after you’re done with your deletion binge.

Clear your cache

Most, if not all, Web browsers these days create two types of files: cache and cookies. While they take up memory, they actually do serve a purpose. With a larger cache, your browser can load pages faster, and with cookies it can remember where you’ve been. If you’re looking to optimize your BlackBerry, you should consider clearing these. They’ll propagate soon enough, anyway.

To clear your cache and cookies, launch your browser, hit the Menu button, and select Options. Cache Operations should be in that list, and that’s the one you’ll want. From there select Clear History, and you’re good. Hit the Escape key, and your Berry will lag a second while it disposes of all those files.

On that screen you can also delete Pushed Content and Cookie Cache. That won’t save you as much memory as clearing your cache, cookies, and sample media, but it’s still something.

Trim the fat

The best way to boost memory is to delete worthless files. It’s easy to identify worthless applications — the ones you don’t use, you should delete. But what about the things you don’t know about? Cooper went over some of these a while back, and we’ll recap here.

• Pare down your contacts and inbox. Deleting contacts saves memory, so you can delete the people with whom you don’t plan further correspondence. You can also reduce the amount of time messages are stored in your memory by going to the Options menu in your messages application, followed by General Options. Lowering the Keep Messages field will keep more memory free.
• Delete pictures and random media. The sample files aren’t all that clog your BlackBerry. Every time you use your camera, you’re allocating memory to those photos. You can delete these through the media player app. Just go to that and highlight the target. Hit Menu and then Delete, and you’ll have that much more space.
• Delete themes. This is the same process as deleting applications, only you’ll select the theme file instead of an app. Make sure you know which themes you’re deleting — some of them have tough to decipher file names.
• Delete your phone logs. You can delete individual entries by hovering over the number, hitting the Menu button, and then selecting Delete. To delete in bulk, hold down the Shift key and scroll down, then follow the delete process.
• Delete your event log. As we mentioned in the BlackBerry secret codes post, you can pull up your events log by holding Alt and then pressing L G L G. Once you’re there, click the Menu button and then select Clear Log.

Use BlackBerry Memory Cleaner

Your BlackBerry has an on-board memory cleaner, and it’s probably worth running every once in a while. I’m not sure how much it really does — the process took something like two seconds. But it’s already on your device, so you might as well run it once a month or so, just to let it run its course.

To do this, go to Options, Security Options, General Settings. There you’ll see Content Protection. Change it from Disabled to Enabled. A prompt will notify you that you’ll need to set a password. Even if you don’t want to, you can change this all back afterward. Hit the Escape key to back out, and you’ll get the prompt for your password, and then verification.

After you choose your password, back all the way out and come back into Security Options again. There you’ll see an option for Memory Cleaning. Click into that, and change the Show Icon on Home Screen option to Yes. You’ll recognize it easily: a paper going through a shredder. Run it, and that’s it.

To reverse the process, go back into Security Options, General Settings, and disable Content Protection. Make sure to disable your password as well if you don’t want one.

Run MemoryUp

If you’re looking for an application to help manage and optimize your memory automatically, check out MemoryUp. From the app’s description:

It helps your BlackBerry run at optimum speed by efficiently defragmenting your BlackBerry’s memory, recovering memory leaks from poorly behaved applications, flushing unused libraries temporarily out to disk and so on. By all this optimization tricks your favorite applications and games will run faster and efficiently even on old BlackBerry.

If you don’t mind the $10.19 price for the yearly subscription, you can get MemoryUp from the BBGeeks Store until September 30, when it returns to its normal $16.99 price. Then again, as we’ve been saying over the past few days, if you have it available for free, why pay for it? You can keep your BlackBerry running in top shape by following the instructions above. If that’s not your bag, though, at least you have an app like MemoryUp to lend a hand.

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Clean up your memory for an optimized BlackBerry

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Clean up your memory for an optimized BlackBerry

Getting started

To begin using Password Keeper, just locate the icon on your Applications Menu. It will probably look something like a safe, though depending on your BlackBerry theme, it might be something a bit different. In any case, there should be a text indicator at the bottom of the screen, so you’ll know when you scroll over the Password Keeper application.

Upon running the app for the first time, you’ll get a prompt to enter a password, and then confirm it. This password is for the Password Keeper application only. In fact, everything you do within the PK application is isolated from the rest of your BlackBerry. You’ll see in a moment why this is both a plus and a minus. So make up your password and enter it twice.

Each time you launch PK thereafter, you’ll have to enter your created password. You’ll have 10 attempts to do so, after which the application will wipe itself, and you’ll restart the process as if you were launching the app for the first time.

NOTE: This will have no effect on the rest of your BlackBerry. If you fail to enter the correct password 10 times, only the data contained within Password Keeper will wipe. Everything else on your BlackBerry will continue functioning as normal.

Using the application

In essence, Password Keeper is a a secure text file. It stores information separately from the rest of your BlackBerry, so if the device is lost or stolen you won’t have to worry about criminals or even innocent bystanders gaining access to your sensitive personal information.

Once you have it running, click the Menu button and select New. Here you can enter in all the information for your password, including the login website (you can copy and paste that from your browser), your username and password. Then, when you want to retrieve the information, you can go back to this entry and either review it, or even copy and paste it. You can hit the Menu button and select options to copy the username and/or password.

What you can’t use the application for is automatic logins. This would make sense, but apparently it’s too much of a security concern, because you can’t do it. So even if you have a password stored for a certain site, you still have to go to the Password Keeper application each time you want to retrieve it.

Random passwords

Many people like having a different, difficult-to-figure password for each account. This provides a greater level of security, but it makes remembering everything tough. Password Keeper obviously helps with this. You can store your online passwords (even on sites you don’t visit on your Berry), plus credit card information, bank routing numbers, and other information you want secure.

So you can easily create unique passwords for these, PK provides a random password generator. Just select the option from the menu, and it will spit one out according to the options you set. You’ll obviously have to change your password to reflect this random one, but that’s easy enough.

To set the options for your random password, click Menu and select Options. Here you can set the password length and the characters it includes (alpha, numeric, symbols). Changing up these settings from time to time can make your passwords even more secure. Even if you leave the same settings, it’s better than having the same password for all of your important accounts.

Other options

Password Keeper also allows a few more customizable options. You can add a confirmation dialog before you delete password entries, set the number of password attempts before Password Keeper wipes its data clear, allow or disallow copying to the clipboard, and decide whether or not to show the passwords. All of this will provide you with a level of security you’re comfortable with.

Does anyone out there use Password Keeper? I don’t know many BlackBerry users who do, but when I tell them about it I always get, “yeah, I might have to try that out.” Do you use another password storage system? Or do you think that even with the security measures that it’s still a bit too insecure for you?

Apologies for the lack of screen shots. I can’t get them from my device — it kicks me right out of Password Keeper and has me re-enter my password. Good security measure, I suppose.

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Keep a list of your important numbers with Password Keeper

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Keep a list of your important numbers with Password Keeper

• Multiple Accounts – You can now configure multiple accounts, each with their own set of on-device preferences.
• You can now BLOCK people!
• Video Integration – We have partnered with TwitVid.com to offer you an outstanding video integration.
• Goto user – You can now enter twitter users name and go directly to their timeline
• URL Shortening – we’ve integrated with bit.ly so you can easily send those long URLs now and not bump up against the 140 limit
• MUCH faster photo uploads, significantly improving the user experience.
• Use of the internal GPS is now solidly supported with proper fallback to cell tower based location when GPS isn’t available.
• Icon Caching If you have and SD card, we will cache avatar icons on the card, increasing the speed of timeline displays and reducing network traffic.
• You can now select pictures and videos that have already been take and are on your device. The interface shows the most recent at the top and offers a preview so you can verify it is the picture/video you expected!
• When composing a tweet you can now insert symbols from a large selection of commonly available characters such as smiley’s, hearts, etc.
• Integrated advertisements – Please note, the ads are there to support the freely distributable version of ÜberTwitter. Users that purchase ÜberTwitter will not have advertisement in their version.
• We’ve streamlined the friends and followers lists
• You can now see both the number of friends, followers, and tweets sent when viewing the details of a tweet.
• Replying to a DM from the timeline will now correctly send a DM and not a regular tweet
• Fixed the bug in reply all where it would truncate some twitter user names
• Added reply all to the menu when viewing a tweet

And, as always, they’ve supplied us with a little preview for what’s to come:

• Notification icons on the homescreen! We have heard you loud and clear, we will be adding this.
• Integration of a high functionality third-party photo service – We are VERY excited about this as we believe that it will bring an extremely rich photo sharing experience to our users.
• Integration into the BlackBerry browser such that URLs can be included directly in a tweet from the browser menu.
• Saved searches – integrate the new Twitter saved search API. Searches saved via the Twitter web site will be useable on ÜberTwitter and vice versa
• Twitter name menu – Type ‘@’ and a list of your friends automatically pops up allowing selection

This might not be all good, though. As much as we love UberTwitter, the ads could become an annoyance. In fact, as Robb notes, some users are staying away from this new version just because of the ads. Of course, ads help keep the software free, so if you don’t want ads but aren’t willing to pay for the software, well…

This also brings up an interesting question: How much would you be willing to pay for UberTwitter? It does seem to be the best client on the market (though once they add automatic updates, I’d put Tweetcaster up there). What’s it worth to you? Will you deal with the ads to keep it free? Or would you rather pay, say, $5 for a copy?

UPDATE:

As of this morning (August 13, 2009) Uber Twitter has decided to listen to their fans and disable the ads running in the tweet stream. The ads will be removed until they have released their payed version of the app. At that time you will have the choice of downloading a free ad supported version of the app or paying a nominal fee for a year long subscription.

You can download UberTwitter Beta 4 here.

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

UberTwitter Beta 4, with ads, now available

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

UberTwitter Beta 4, with ads, now available

Record your voice note

Obviously, the first step is to actually record your voice note. To do that, locate your Voice Notes Recorder application and open it. It’s a pretty simple interface which allows you to hit the record button to start the process. Once you’re done hit the pause button. There you’ll see a list of functions, much like the Camera application. The options to the right are save, send, and delete. You’re going to want the save one, which looks like a folder. Make sure to save it to your memory card. That’s the best an easiest way to extract it from the device.

Connect to computer

Next up is connecting your BlackBerry to your computer, either Mac or PC, via a USB cable. That should bring up a prompt on your BlackBerry asking if you want to enter mass storage mode. Select Yes. Now your computer should display a removable drive which you can explore. Find the directory you saved the voice note under, and drag the file to your desktop. It should be in .AMR format, which is what makes the conversion a pain in the first place.

After this you can disconnect your BlackBerry. Just make sure to eject it before you pull the cord.

Convert and play

The .AMR file you dragged to your desktop will play on a few different audio programs, like QuickTime for the Mac and RealPlayer for Mac or PC. These are relatively easy to use — QuickTime comes with Macs, and RealPlayer can be found here. If all you want to do is listen to the voice note, you can end here. If you want to convert the files to .MP3, read on.

You’ll need to convert the file. If you have QuickTime Pro on your Mac, rather than the standard QuickTime, you can save the file as a .mp4, and then convert to .mp3 by opening the file in iTunes and creating an MP3 version. If you don’t have QuickTime Pro for the Mac, you’ll need software to perform the conversion. I stand by Audacity, which serves many other audio purposes as well.

There are many options for a PC conversion, most of which are free. You can check out Format Factory, which does the job just fine. Googling “.amr to .mp3″ will bring about many more options, in case you feel like checking for something else. In any case, that should leave you with an MP3 of your voice note.

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Transferring MP3 voice notes from your BlackBerry to your computer

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Transferring MP3 voice notes from your BlackBerry to your computer

Download and sideload

You’ll need two bits of software to install BlackBerry Messenger 5.0: BBM itself and BlackBerry Desktop Software. If you’re a Mac user or don’t want BDS, we’ll go over the OTA process in just a minute. Until then, head to BlackBerry Rocks to get the links. If you’re going to download the files and use BlackBerry Desktop Software to load them, make sure to download the .zip file. You cannot install .jad files from the desktop. If you don’t have BlackBerry Desktop Software, you can download it here.

Once you have downloaded it, unzip it to a place you’ll remember. Then open up Windows Explorer and go to the unzip folder. There should be a For 4.7.0 (or something similar) folder. Move the cod files from there so they’re in the main unzip folder, along with the .alx file.

Then fire up BlackBerry Desktop Software and run Application Loader. Select Add/Remove Applications, and then hit browse. Head to your unzip folder, and then select the .alx file. Hit Next, and you’re home free. Desktop Software will install the software and give your BlackBerry a reboot. You should be set to start playing.

Thanks to BlackBerryOS for the install tip.

OTA

There are now a number of over-the-air download links for BBM 5.0. The BlackBerry Rocks post will have them as well, for almost all compatible devices. Navigate to the link from your BlackBerry browser (I tend to email myself links like this, but BB Rocks has them in shortened URL form, so you can just copy them into your browser). A lot of them are dead, but this one worked. You’ll need 1.5 MB of free space on your BlackBerry.

Just click the download link and install as you normally would. You should now have a working version of the newest BlackBerry Messenger. Again, there could be problems. Not every installation will go perfectly — in fact, there’s a good chance something can go wrong. We state again that you should not do this unless you are sure you can get it right and deal with any problems along the way.

If you’re experiencing any problems, you can visit the official BBM 5.0 help thread at BlackBerry OS. There’s tons and tons of information in there.

Happy messaging.

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

How to install BlackBerry Messenger

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

How to install BlackBerry Messenger

To install the app, head to http://blackberry.wordpress.org/install from your BlackBerry browser and download. Whenever an update is available, you’ll get a prompt to update. I downloaded and tested the app yesterday morning, and by the afternoon there was already a new version. Pretty killer, eh?

You’ll also have to grant the application permissions before starting up, and will have to do that after installing an update as well. Once you do that, though, you’ll be on the home screen.

Before you even try to add your blog, you’ll have to change one of the settings. Login to your admin panel, and go to Settings -> Writing and make sure XML-RPC is enabled. Otherwise you’ll get an error message when trying to register.

There you’ll either click the Add Blog button, or click Menu and select Add Blog. Here you will enter in your blog URL, plus your WordPress username and password. You can set how many recent posts you want to see in the edit screen, and finally you’ll have the option to automatically resize photos for quicker uploading. Save it up, and you’re ready to do some mobile blogging.

The interface is rather simple. The home screen links include Posts, Pages, Comments, Options, and Refresh.

In Posts you’ll see however many recent posts you set when adding your blog. Get used to manually refreshing this screen — it seems to not automatically refresh even when you log out and then log back in. From here you can create a new post by hitting New atop the screen. You can also edit posts by hovering over and clicking the trackball or hitting Menu and selecting Edit.

Post information includes Title, Tags, Categories, Status, and the post body. Predictably, there is no visual editor. To add or edit categories, hit the Menu button and select Categories. In order to publish a new post, you must manually change the status to Published. Then click Menu and select Submit. You can also add photos by hitting Menu and selecting Photos. And, of course, you can save your draft without publishing by hitting Menu and Save Draft.

Settings are also available on posts, which allow you to edit the timestamp on the post, set a password, and automatically resize photos.

Pages works the same way as Posts. Comments will list comments from users in reverse order. Options will bring up the same screen as when you add a new blog. Again, it’s pretty simple.

I have a few gripes, of course, like the inability to close comments on posts, but this is beta so I’ll keep most of them to myself. You’ll need a self-hosted WordPress Blog running 2.5.1 or higher, plus a BlackBerry with OS 4.2.1 or higher to run the WordPress mobile app. Expect a full walk-through once we get a full release.

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

A quick look at the BlackBerry WordPress app

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

A quick look at the BlackBerry WordPress app

Getting started

The first thing you’ll want to do, of course, is to download the application. Head to the download page from your computer and you’ll see a few options. Go from your BlackBerry and there should be just one link. Click it and you’ll have the download.

When you first run the program you’ll be prompted to grant ÜberTwitter permissions. Save that up and you’ll head to the introduction screen. This explains that ÜberTwitter is beta software, and this is the testing process. It also notifies users of a Feedback menu feature, which allows you to report problems and request new features. As you can see in the list of upgrades in the newest Beta, they do listen.

Then comes the screen where you enter in your Twitter username and password. You’ll do that, and then hit Verify Account. If you see Success! in a dialog box, hit Next. If not, try again. On the next screen is the option to integrate Google Talk. If you have a GTalk account, you can enter in your information, and then your Twitter updates will also be your Google Talk status. This is good for lazy people like me, who tweet when something ticks them off but is often too indifferent to update a status message.

You can also allow for location broadcast with ÜberTwitter. You have the option to use the built-in GPS if it’s available. I’m on Verizon, so it is not at the moment. You can add location to every tweet (denied in my case), automatically add location to pics/vids (makes sense), let you choose whether to add your location after every tweet, and update your Twitter profile with your current location (denied, denied, denied).

After that it’s onto font settings. If you can read small print, you can opt to reduce the font size and make more of each tweet visible on the timeline. Best of all, there’s a preview right there so you can play around until you’re comfortable. You can also bold the font. It default at 16, but I found 13 eminently readable. The same process applies for the tweet text. This defaults as bold and 21-point font. Point 18 and non-bold worked just fine for me.

It just keeps going, too. After you take care of the font it’s onto the interval at which ÜberTwitter will update. It defaults at 10 minutes, but I like quick updates. It makes conversations flow a bit better. Then you’ll get some interface options, including the display of confirmation dialog, merging replies and DMs into the timeline (yes, please), receiving notification of new tweets, and then the maximum number of tweets in the timeline, icon cache size, and the maximum number of tweets to receive at a time.

Finally — FINALLY — you can set advanced network options. The recommendation from both ÜberTwitter and me is to leave it on Auto Network. If you have a Wi-Fi device, you might want to check Use Wi-Fi if available. One last screen lets you choose whether to run ÜberTwitter in the background instead of completely closing it. I’m sure most tweet-heads out there will choose Yes. Once you check the box, hit save, and you’ll get a familiar dialog box. Then it’s onto some serious tweeting.

Navigating the timeline screen

If you already have a Twitter account — and if you’re downloading ÜberTwitter I’m assuming you’re already at least partially addicted — the setup process will take care of most everything. Once you finish you’ll see a timeline main screen, which lists all past tweets — plus replies and direct messages, if you so chose it during the setup process. There’s so much you can do here, it’s tough to find a place to start.

The Menu button is your friend right here. Hit it and you’ll see a number of options. Choosing Update My Status brings you to a familiar “What are you doing?” screen. Obviously, all you have to do here is type in your message and it will show up on your Twitter feed, including the ÜberTwitter timeline. The next option is Refresh which, as the name suggests, allows you to manually check for new tweets. I tend to use this during conversations with other users, as to not leave them hanging for three minutes or five or however long I set my auto refresh.

The next two options allow you to view replies and direct messages (DM). This is more useful if you haven’t chosen to merge replies and DMs into your timeline. I have chosen to do so, so these two options aren’t of much use. However, it makes it easy to check for things people said to or about me if I haven’t checked my device for a while (sorry, but there are just times when I’m not going to go through all 400 tweets I missed).

Replies are a neat function in ÜberTwitter. They work like normal replies, except here there is an option to Reply All. What this does is, as you can see to the right, send out a tweet directed at everyone contained in a message. This works well for responding to retweets (RT), or creating group conversations. The only drawback, of course, is that the usernames deduct from your total characters, forcing you to follow Rule 17 a bit more strictly.

Next up are ReTweet and Direct Message. Both of these are self-explanatory for Twitter vets. To retweet a message, highlight it and hit the Menu key, selecting ReTweet. As with normal retweets, it will start off with RT @username, followed by the message. Etiquette, as I’ve seen it, is to add your own thoughts after double front slashes (//) or contained in brackets. Direct Message works the same way. Just highlight the person you want to message, hit the Menu button, and select Direct Message. Remember, you can only send DMs to mutual followers.

The final two options at the top of the timeline menu are for Get Link and Make Favorite. Get Link only appears when you’ve highlighted a tweet containing a link, usually of the condensed format. Make Favorite is the same as starring a tweet. After you select the option you’ll get a confirmation box.

More timeline options

Seriously, ÜberTwitter has a ton, ton of options. So much so that we’re breaking this down into two parts to make it a bit easier to read. A line divides the main menu, so in this part we’ll discuss the options under the line.

First is My Friends. This will give you a detailed look at your friends, from newest to oldest. This includes their name, bio, pic, website, and other information you’d see through their Twitter profile. From here you can hit the Menu button to view their full profile (which is basically the same, plus their latest tweet. Below that is My Followers, which is, as you might have guessed, a list of those following you, from newest to oldest.

Everyone is an option you might want to avoid. As it implies, it’s all of Twitter. Or at least that’s what it looks like. All I know is that it took forever to load on my BlackBerry, and it featured tweets from three and four seconds ago. Everyone Near You will break down the list to people who has their location set — either by GPS or by their own setting — to near you. The menu in both of these screens gives you the option to follow the user, reply, retweet, and view their profile.

Thankfully, the last four options won’t take much time. Favorites allows you to view the tweets you’ve previously marked. Your timeline lets you see the tweets you’ve made. Search Twitter lets you take advantage of Twitter’s search engine. Trending topics will bring you to a list of the most popular topics currently being discussed (usually noted with the # sign).

There’s one more set of menu options below, but they’re all pretty basic (and can be explained in a mere paragraph). Copy Tweet does just that. Options brings you back the options you set in the Getting Started section. About tells you about the version of ÜberTwitter you’re using. Feedback sends your thoughts off to the ÜberTwitter team. Set Permissions again brings you back to the permissions you set upon first launching ÜberTwitter. Finally, Exit totally closes the program, while Close will (if you set it so) will move ÜberTwitter to the background.

Sending tweets

When you send a new tweet, or are replying to a friend, you have a number of options. To start, either click Update My Status or reply to a friend’s Tweet. Type your message, and then hit menu for a number of options.

First, you can shrink your tweet. This basically takes out all of those pesky vowels so you can say more in your 140 characters, even if it makes it appear that a three-year-old wrote it. There’s also an easy Select option, so you can copy your text to the clipboard. Don’t want to delete the entire string? Select Clear Field. You can also spell check your tweet, which is nice in most instances. Unless, of course, you’ve shrunk your tweet. Then it’s just silly.

This is also where you can send pictures. In the menu, select Take Picture. That will open your camera app, and you can snap one to send to a friend. This will automatically attach the picture to the tweet.

Once you’re done, hit Send Tweet, and your timeline will update. Depending on your connection and your camera settings, it might take a while for the picture to upload.

Viewing the picture is a simple matter, too. If you click on a message from a friend who has a picture attached, it should show up in the message screen, below the text. If for some reason it doesn’t, you can always select Get Link and view it in the Web browser.

Random thoughts on ÜberTwitter

Just a couple of thoughts on my experience with ÜberTwitter so far:

• It eats battery. I accidentally left ÜberTwitter running overnight and it knocked a full bar off my battery. Then again, my battery is in its decline phase, so it could be a combination of the two.
• Some things take forever to load. This not only means a delay in the information, but it slows up my BlackBerry in general. Not a big issue if I’m only using ÜberTwitter. You have to expect long load times because of all the info and graphics it’s pulling from the server.
• The interface is pretty awesome. I use TwitterFox as my laptop client, and ÜberTwitter simulates that well. It works better, actually, because it integrates my replies and DMs, while TwitterFox has a (sometimes annoying) separation of them.

I’m sure plenty of BBGeeks readers are using ÜberTwitter already. So what are your takes on it?

NOTE:If you would like to check out some other options for using Twitter on your BlackBerry, please be sure to read our BlackBerry Twitter Applications Ranked post where we fill you in on all the best Twitter apps available.

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

The complete guide to UberTwitter for BlackBerry

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

The complete guide to UberTwitter for BlackBerry

Setting up BlackBerry Messenger

The best part about BlackBerry Messenger is that it comes preloaded on your BlackBerry. All you have to do is find the icon for BBM. It will look different depending on the theme you use, but in general it should look like the BlackBerry logo inside a dialog bubble. Kinda like the image to the right.

Unless you deleted BBM, your phone should have it already loaded. If not, there are a couple of things you can do. Normally I’d recommend going to http://www.blackberry.com/messenger/ to download it. Unfortunately, that site appears to have been removed. The other way to reload BBM is to connect your BlackBerry to a PC and run BlackBerry Desktop Manager. You’ll then run Application Loader, where you’ll check the box for BlackBerry Messenger, then hit Next until you get to Finish.

The first time you run BlackBerry Messenger you’ll be prompted to enter your display name and a password. Simple enough. Just enter that and you’ll be ready to move onto adding contacts.

Adding contacts to BBM

What’s an instant messaging client without a bunch of contacts? BBM makes it easy to add other BlackBerry users to your contact list. Simply depress the Menu button and select Add Contact. A small dialog box will pop up prompting you for the contact information. Here you can enter either the user’s email address or PIN number.

A quick note on adding contacts via email. While it has worked in almost all instances for me, there have ben a select few where I couldn’t do it that way. The only way I could add these rare contacts was through their PIN number. I have no explanation, but I’ve seen a few complaints on message boards of a similar issue. The contact stays as pending, even if he or she accepted the contact invite. If you need your PIN, or you need the PIN of someone you’re trying to add to BBM, you can read our quick tip on finding your BlackBerry PIN.

Once you enter in the contact information and click in the trackball, you’ll see an Add a Message dialog box. It comes with a stock message to send along with your contact request. I always just stick with this one, but you might want to modify it depending on the contact. Click OK when you’re satisfied and you’ll get a confirmation notice. On the bottom of your contact list you’ll see a field for Pending, under which your contact will be listed. The contact will remain there until he or she accepts the request.

Did you know? Changing contact names

By default, your contact list will display the name selected by each contact. For example, if you add me it will say Joseph Pawlikowski. However, if you find my name grotesquely long you can change it to anything you want. Just highlight the contact and press Menu. There you’ll see an option to Rename Contact. Click that, and you can change it to whatever you’d like. I don’t want to go putting ideas in people’s heads, but this feature is quite useful if you want to mask your contacts and conversations. Hey, a conversation between me and “Josh” probably seems a bit more benign than one between me and Mindy. Just sayin’.

Contact groups

Like most instant messaging clients, you can create various groups for your contacts with BlackBerry Messenger. While in the main contact screen, hit the Menu button and then select Add Group. You’ll then name the group. To add contacts to that group, highlight the contact’s name and hit the Menu button. Select Move Contact. A dialog box will pop up listing all groups to which the contact does not currently belong. Select the appropriate one and click it.

You can repeat this to move the same contact among groups. You can also move the contact back to your general contacts list if you want, by performing the same function. If you want to delete the group, you must first move all contacts out of the group, then hit the Menu button while highlighting the group, and select Delete Group. That option will not appear until the group is empty.

Conversing with contacts

Once you’ve set up your contact list, you can finally get to the good part: sending and receiving messages. This is done in the most obvious manner: click the trackball when you’ve highlighted the contact. That will bring you to a conversation screen. The folks at RIM were kind enough to give the basic instruction to Start typing here for new conversations. Just do that, then click the trackball when you’re ready to send.

Once you click the trackball, the menu will pop up and you’ll see a number of options. You can just click the trackball again to send the message. You can also check the spelling of the message, send a file, send a voice note, edit AutoText, and clear the field (or clear your conversation history with this contact). There’s an option to Ping Contact as well. This essentially send him or her a message that says PING!. No, seriously.

If you want to send a file to a BBM contact, start up a conversation with them, hit the Menu button, and click Send File. A dialog box will appear with options to select a file from device memory or media card. Click through and find the appropriate file and click it. This one click will send the file, so make sure you’ve got the right one. Your contact will receive a message with the file name and size, and will have the option to view, save, or cancel.

To send a voice note, start up a conversation, hit Menu, and select Send Voice Note. Make sure you’re ready to talk right away, because it will start recording immediately. There’s a time limit, too, so be sure you keep the voice not concise. You’ll see a progress bar letting you know how close to 100 percent full your message is. Your contact will receive a message with the file name voicenote.amr plus the file size. They’ll have the option to play it, save it, or cancel.

Once you send the message (or PING!), it will appear in the message area. Next to each message will be a check mark along with either the letter D or R. D means delivered — basically a confirmation message that the message went through the servers and was delivered to the contact. R means read — that the contact has seen the message on his or her BBM. So when someone says “oh, I didn’t get that IM,” you can say, “Well, it shows on my BBM that you saw the message.” Oooh. Burn.

Finally, you can add other users to the conversation. When in the conversation screen hit the Menu button and click Invite. This will bring you to a dialog box containing your contacts. Scroll through and select the appropriate one, and he or she will be added to your conversation. You can do this for as many contacts as you’d like. This will essentially act as a chat room — a throwback to the old AOL days.

BBM Options

Whenever I use a BlackBerry application I make sure to explore every facet of it. This includes looking through the entire menu, especially the Options part. In BBM there are two other relevant menu items: My Status and Edit My Info.

First, My Status, Here you can define yourself as available or unavailable, by selecting the appropriate radio button. Additionally, you can add a status message, much like GChat, AIM, MSN, and other popular IM clients. Your contacts can then see that message. It’s probably more useful for when you’re not available (to explain why you’re not available and when you will be again), but hey, everyone likes expressing themselves via short messages these days.

If a contact is unavailable, you’ll see an option in the Menu for Set Alert. This will send you a message when the selected contact becomes available. Once he or she is, you’ll see a dialog box saying so, and will give you the option to send him or her a message.

Next up is Edit My Info. This one is rather straightforward. It simply allows you to change your display name. So if I, for some reason, want to shorten mine to Joe Pawlikowski, I can go in there and do it up. Just edit your name and click OK. Nope, nothing much to see here.

Finally, we have the Options menu. There are four settings you can change. First is Vibrate When Receiving a Ping. I tend to keep this set to Yes, but it should be noted that your phone will only vibrate when one of your contacts selects Ping Contact. If you want BBM messages to vibrate or make a tone, you’ll have to edit your message settings in Profiles.

Next is Ask Password Question When Adding Contacts. This allows you to send along a question with your contact invitation. You’ll also set an answer when you send the invitation. The contact must then answer the question in order to accept the invitation. I’ve never used this myself, but it could be useful if you’re sending out an invitation to someone you’re not sure about. Why you would do that in the first place, I don’t know. Can someone who has used this function explain in the comments?

The last two options are Allow Forwarding of Requests and Show Conversations in Message List. They’re pretty self-explanatory. The former will allow you to forward contact requests to other contacts. The latter shows your current conversations along with your contacts list. It makes it easier to keep track of open conversations that way.

Missing anything?

We’ve tried to make this this most comprehensive BlackBerry Messenger guide out there. Yet even though we explored the depths of BBM, we’re sure we’ve missed something. If you have anything to add, leave it in the comments and we’ll revise this guide a bit later.

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

The definitive guide to BlackBerry Messenger

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

The definitive guide to BlackBerry Messenger