We’re all looking for a fresh start in the new year. Yesterday we went over some ways you can use your BlackBerry to help with 2012 resolutions. But that just gets at things you’re striving for. Today we’ll take a step back and look at things you really need to be doing, but sometimes slip your mind. Like, say, recurring bills. These are easy. They are mostly fixed in amount, and they come at the same time every month. Yet it’s easy to miss payments and incur late fees that not only increase what you owe, but can damage your credit rating. Thankfully, you can use your BlackBerry to help you out here.
I knew something was fishy when I came upon this app in the BBGeeks Store. The name alone set off the alarms. OneClickWeb web launcher does have one redeeming quality, in that its name describes its function. Of course, its function is freely available to anyone who has a BlackBerry device running OS 5.0 or higher (and, really, it might even be available in 4.5). OneClickWeb might have a neat little interface, but it provides no functionality over what’s natively available. that makes it pretty much a waste of 99 cents. But hey, we can take a positive from this and go over the process of putting websites on your home screen.
Read the rest of Do It Yourself: Add website icons to your home screen…
It’s a complaint that most of us have had at some point or another, and yesterday on CrackBerry Jared DiPane let it out. Adding numbers from your phone log is easy enough when you’re creating a new contact, but for some reason RIM has not given us the ability to add a number to an existing contact. It seems like an easy function, and something that should be in OS 7. But, given that it didn’t make any OS versions through 6, I wouldn’t bet on it. As a solution he points us to an app that is aptly named ATEC (add to existing contacts). It’s a neat idea, but it’s probably easier just to do it yourself.
Read the rest of Do It Yourself: Add new number to existing contact…
One section of the BBGeeks Store I enjoy is the up and comers. The new apps section sometimes gets flooded with junk — ebooks and other reference material that I’m not going to feature on the site. The up and comers touches on relatively new apps that I might have missed along the way, and which might be of use to you. Today I ran into an app called LockIt, and I thought it would make a great Do It Yourself. Essentially, the app locks all or parts of your BlackBerry, requiring a “combination of keys” to unlock it. This prevents pocket dialing, which can be a great annoyance. I’ve had a problem with it, even though I lock my BlackBerry. But then I realized that you can just do it yourself.
Read the rest of Do It Yourself: Locking your BlackBerry with a password…
It’s been a while since we’ve looked at an app in the BBGeeks Store that performs a function you can do for free otherwise. It might seem as though I enjoy ripping these apps, but I really don’t. I don’t like that some developers charge for apps that do things you can do yourself with just a couple of clicks. Maybe the app makes it one degree easier, but honestly, for most things it’s better to spend your buck or two elsewhere and just take the extra two seconds to perform the task yourself. Up today, resetting your wireless connections.
Read the rest of Do It Yourself: Reset your wireless connections…
It seriously annoys me when I flip through new BlackBerry applications and see ones that users can perform for free. The app might add a slight convenience, but it’s rarely worth paying the extra money when the function is available to you freely. This mostly goes for flashlight apps, but it also goes for most calculator apps. All it takes is some button pressing and a little ingenuity to figure out how to divide a restaurant bill using just a normal calculator. Still, there’s a new app in the store that might actually be worth it. It’s called MultiCalc, and it provides six specialty calculators in one.
Read the rest of Do It Yourself (kinda): MultiCalc for BlackBerry…
When I wrote about my BlackBerry as my workout companion last year, I missed one important aspect. To make sure that I’m moving through my workout smoothly, I make sure to time certain activities. This might be rest between sets, or it might be a static movement that I want to hold for a minute or two. Whatever case, I use the built-in timer and stopwatch features constantly. It struck me as odd, then, to see a couple of apps in the Store that accomplish these freely available functions.
This morning we got a host of new applications in the BBGeeks Store, but one of them stood out to me. It was called, simply, Restart BlackBerry. You can imagine what it does. While having the ability to perform a soft reset — that is, simulate a battery pull — is useful, it can be done without software. And even if you do it with software, you can do it for free. After the jump, the myriad ways to freely perform a soft reset.
To open 2011, I’d like to introduce a new feature for BBGeeks. It won’t be something regular. Instead, it will pop up any time I see a certain type of new application. Every day we see new BlackBerry apps released. Surely they can’t all be useful. When we write about BlackBerry applications, we’re usually shooting for something that will appeal to a certain portion of our readership. Few apps will appeal to everyone. There are a number of apps, though, that you can probably do on your own, without the help of an app. Maybe the app makes it easier, and maybe that’s worth your buck or five. Our new feature will take these apps and show you how to do it without buying anything. Up first: ThinkOfMe.
Read the rest of Do It Yourself: ThinkOfMe important date reminder…
