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What at one point appeared to be another frustrating BlackBerry weekend turned into a pleasant surprise. After upgrading the BlackBerry WordPress app, I rebooted my Curve, as required. The next time I checked it, it was frozen. I rebooted again, but soon found myself in the same situation as a few weeks ago, when my Curve died. This time I took it to the Verizon store, knowing that even if I fixed it again, I’d get the same problem again eventually. The rep was receptive to my plight, and offered to exchange my Curve for a Tour. I couldn’t say no. Immediately after booting up and activating, I noticed an issue with the font.

Read the rest of Making the font smaller on your BlackBerry Tour…

I’ve been unfortunate over the past few years to have BlackBerry devices with properly functioning hardware. My screen, battery, and other parts have continued working (though I have had multiple software issues). There are a few options if your BlackBerry is damaged, though none of them are attractive. The two most common: get it fixed or get a new one. I’m sure you can see the dollar signs already. Buying a new BlackBerry, especially without the subsidy of an upgrade, can be expensive, but repair can be an even bigger relative cost. In my daily BlackBerry reading, I came across a site that gives you a third option: sell your defective model and put that money towards a new model.

Read the rest of CashForBerrys.com is an alternative to BlackBerry repair…

One of the steps in my weekend BlackBerry saga was to wipe the device. I didn’t want to do it, but given how slow the device was running after I restored it, I had no choice. After the wipe, I finally decided to upgrade from OS 4.5.0.77 to 4.5.0.138. After doing this, I found something not quite right about the Berry. When the backlight was out, there was a noticeable delay between when I pressed the trackball and when the screen lit up. I thought this was a lingering problem from my weekend issues, but after some searching it appears this is a general problem for .138.

Read the rest of Delayed screen backlight in OS 4.5…

A minor catastrophe struck on Thursday. After getting some breakfast in the city, I took the subway back to Queens. Once we came above ground I checked my BlackBerry, only to find it stuck in a reboot cycle. After fidgeting with it for a while, a logo with a battery and a lightning bolt appeared. So I did what most BlackBerry geeks would do: I pulled the battery. But as in many situations, it did nothing. The phone would go through the boot sequence and hang up on the carrier logo screen, frozen.

Read the rest of My Curve died this weekend……

It can happen any number of ways. Something might spill on it; you might accidentally drop it into a glass of water; your friends might throw you into a pool. No matter how it happens, there are few things worse for your BlackBerry than getting it wet. It’s a pretty serious topic, and we’ve covered mainly in two posts: What to do if your BlackBerry gets wet and What not to do when your BlackBerry gets wet. While there are plenty of home remedies, like putting the device in a bucket of rice, I heard of a new product recently dedicated to just this cause. It’s called a Bheestie Bag, and it’s only purpose is to get all the moisture out of your valuable electronic devices.

Read the rest of Use a Bheestie Bag to dry out a wet BlackBerry…

Maybe you’ve seen it on your desktop browser before. You click a link to a website and instead of loading the page your web browser calls up a dialog box. There’s a problem with the certificate: your browser is trying to open a certain domain, but the server’s certificate indicates a different domain name. On your normal browser you can see if the discrepancy, and if you’re not satisfied you can cancel the connection. There’s a chance that there’s a phishing scam behind that wall. Al Sacco explains. A software update is on the way, but until then it’s recommended that anyone who sees a security certificate dialog box selects Close Connection, even if it looks perfectly safe.

Read the rest of RIM reveals security issue with BlackBerry browser…

I have a conundrum, and since it’s BlackBerry-related this seems like the best forum for it. Perhaps some of you out there have a similar issue. That’s the hope, at least. See, I have an upgrade coming in November. That means subsidized new BlackBerry, which has me excited. Even more so, that’s around when the BlackBerry Storm 2 is set to hit. Seems like an obvious choice, right? Well, not exactly. See, I like my mechanical keyboard, and after playing around with the Tour for a weekend, I’m kinda hooked on it. This leads to another question: do I try to pull a few strings with my Verizon dealer and see if an early upgrade is possible?

Read the rest of Do you wait for an upgrade to get a new BlackBerry?…

How touchy is the subject of BlackBerry etiquette? It’s something the business world has been wrestling with for years now, and with so many smartphones hitting the market over the past few years it’s become an even bigger issue. People tap away at their BlackBerry (or other) devices while others speak, and it gets mixed receptions. Some think it’s perfectly alright, while others believe it disrespectful to the speaker. Alex Williams of the New York Times takes a look at the issue.

Read the rest of Establishing proper BlackBerry etiquette…

To cap off the week, right before we get the BBGeekcast (which is the universal sign for “it’s the weekend!”), we bring you a massive, simply massive list of BlackBerry error messages. Well, actually, it’s brought to you by BlackBerry.com with an assist from BerryReview. This is for all the BIS users out there who might get one of these two dozen or so messages and don’t really know what to do with them. After the jump we’ll pick out a few of them as examples.

Read the rest of What does that error message on your BlackBerry mean?…

Ina Fried of CNET faced one of the worst situations for a BlackBerry owner — short of dropping it off a 12-story high rise, that is. She did what 885,000 Britons do every year and dropped her phone in the toilet. It was a BlackBerry Curve, so you can imagine our concern. It’s like witnessing a particularly gruesome sports injury. No, it didn’t happen to me, but the empathetic pain borders on physical. She Googled “what to do if your cell phone gets wet,” which is a shame, because if she Googled what to do if your BlackBerry gets wet she would have found our article on BBGeeks. Unfortunately, Fried didn’t follow much of the advice. So did her BlackBerry survive the dunk in the tank?

Read the rest of What not to do when you get your BlackBerry wet…