In the above screen shots, you can see on the left that there is no option to assign a contact to A. Darn. That just means we’ll need a workaround. With the A spot highlighted, click the Enter button. That brings you to your contacts list. Scroll to the contact you want to assign to the key, and click Menu. The top option should be Add Speed Dial To [Contact Name]. Select that, and you’re done. You’ve overridden the RIM system, assigning a contact to a previously unavailable speed dial key.

Warning: Once you assign the A key to a contact, it doesn’t appear you can change it back to the lock function. Additionally, you cannot assign another key to lock the device. So beware when assigning a speed dial to these keys; there is no going back.

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

Change your “A” , “W”, and “Q” speed dials

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

Change your “A” , “W”, and “Q” speed dials

To change the trackball sensitivity settings, go to Options, Screen/Keyboard. Near the bottom you’ll see three settings for your trackball: horizontal sensitivity, vertical sensitivity, and audible roll.

The sensitivity settings go from 20 to 100, with 20 being a slug’s pace, and 100 being Usain Bolt on amphetamines. Vertical is the more critical of the two, as there is plenty of vertical scrolling in menus and on webpages. If you do a lot of scrolling, you might want to change the setting to 80. You can try 90, but it’s tough to get precision on that level. Same goes for 100. But you’ll scroll really, really fast.

The other setting is something I’ll ask you do, out of courtesy for those around you. Please, please turn the audible roll to mute. It doesn’t serve much of a purpose, and the trackball has an audible click while scrolling anyway. Just a personal thing, and if you really like the audible roll and can’t live without it, I mean, it’s your call. I just find it a bit irritating to hear someone scrolling through Perez Hilton on the train.

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

Changing your BlackBerry trackball sensitivity

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

Changing your BlackBerry trackball sensitivity

I learned about the problem from BerryReporter, but ran through the update myself just to be sure. I really don’t use App World that often, so it was a pain to go through the download, install, and reboot just to see if the currency had changed. Also, scrolling through the T&C, where the “B” shortcut doesn’t work, was a bit of a pain. But when I finally got to the app listings, I got my listing in US dollars.

So what gives? Why did I get US dollars, while many users, including Justin from BerryReporter and chrisy520 on the CB forums, got Euros? It appears — though I cannot confirm this — that RIM pulled that update. Justin says it happened to him on 1.1.0.19, but when I downloaded my update on Sunday, it was 1.1.0.15. If this is the case, it’s good of RIM to recognize the problem quick and pull back the update.

If you have already downloaded 1.1.0.19, there’s a quick fix to get you back on US dollars. Go to purchase an app (not a free one). You’ll see the price in Euros, but click on it anyway. Once you go through the motions, you’ll enter in your PayPal login and see a final confirmation. That’s when you’ll see the fix. App World will recognize the US dollars in your PayPal account and switch you back to that currency, as you see in the screen shot.

I’m not sure what updates 1.1.0.19 was supposed to bring, and I’m not sure if they’re going to re-release that update. It seems to be that way with many App World updates. We saw some noticeable upgrades in 1.1, but the subsequent updates haven’t brought much. App World still has its issues, and problems like the default Euro doesn’t help matters — though RIM did mitigate the situation by pulling the update quickly.

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

Currency issue in latest BlackBerry App World update

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

Currency issue in latest BlackBerry App World update

After launching your BlackBerry calculator, enter in the amount of the check. I know people who tip before tax and people who tip after. Either way, this works the same.

Multiple that number by 1.20, with the .20 representing the tip percentage. You can adjust this according to how well or poorly you want to tip. A 15 percent tip would be 1.15, an 18 percent tip would be 1.18, and so on. The number on your calculator will be the amount to enter in the Total field. If you tip before tax, make sure to enter the tax back in — it’s on the check.

Obviously, from here it’s easy to divide the check. Just divide the total, with tip, by the number of people present. Also, just as a personal note, I never find it necessary to actually enter the tip amount on the check, just the total. The total’s all that really matters, anyway.

This is not meant to be condescending or anything like that. It’s just meant to save people a few bucks on a completely unnecessary application. Why pay for something that’s so easily accessible for free?

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

Your BlackBerry already has a tip calculator

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

Your BlackBerry already has a tip calculator

To create a group, head into your Address Book and hit the Menu button. There you’ll see an option for New Group. Select it. Your screen will say *No Addresses* so clearly you have to add some. But first, while your cursor is up there, type in the name for your group.

To add a member, hit the Menu button and select Add Member. That will bring you back to your address book. After you select the user, you’ll be prompted for whether want to add their phone number or email address. So, really, this can be used for mass SMS as well as mass email.

Once you’ve added all the addresses, click Menu and select Save Group. Now you’re set. When you go to enter the To field of your email, your group will now pop up. Select it, and you’re good.

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

Set up groups on your BlackBerry

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

Set up groups on your BlackBerry

As pictured on the right, the newsletter offers tips on your camera’s settings. This includes setting the default flash, the white balance, picture size, and picture quality. Each has a different effect on how your digital picture appears, so knowing what works best in what situation can be the difference between a sparkling scene or a throw-away shot.

Beyond that, there are tips for storing your pictures, which can be done on your device memory or your media card. I’ve always found it easier to just pop in a memory card, even a small one, to take care of pictures. There’s limited on-board memory on older devices, and I usually reserve that for applications. Even a ~500MB memory card can store a decent number of pictures.

Then there are tips for viewing pictures. This includes setting pictures as your Home Screen wallpaper and viewing them as a slide show.

If you want to start taking pictures on your BlackBerry, or if you need a refresher course, make sure to check out the BlackBerry Connection newsletter.

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

BlackBerry camera quick tips

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

BlackBerry camera quick tips

The process is rather simple. You’ll have to pull your battery and then replace it. As your BlackBerry device reboots, the red LED will light up. Once that goes off, press and hold the Escape key (or the Back key, however you refer to it) until you see a dialog which notes that you are in Safe Mode.

You’ll have limited application access in Safe Mode — Phone, Messenger, Messages, and Browser — but you can also delete apps right from the main screen. Hit the Menu key when you have the app’s icon selected and you’ll have the option to delete it. That’s that.

Once you’re done toying around in Safe Mode, just remove your battery again to restart the device back in normal mode. Again, this only works with OS 4.6 and up, which is a shame, because us 4.5 and lower folks could use a mode like that.

Thanks to Al Sacco for the tip.

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

Use Safe Mode if your BlackBerry is on the fritz

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

Use Safe Mode if your BlackBerry is on the fritz

There are essentially two ways to go about extension dialing, though there’s a shortcut to one or the other, depending on your BlackBerry. These are the Add Pause and Add Wait options, which can be found in your edit contact screen. After entering the phone number, click the Menu key and you’ll see both of them.

Add Pause is a hassle-free option. It waits a few seconds after you dial, and then automatically dials the extension you noted in your address book. This is also handy for voice systems which always prompt you to press 1 for English right off the bat. You can click Add Pause, and then use 1 as the extension. That will automatically select that for you upon dialing.

There are pitfalls to this, as Kevin notes. For instance, it automatically enters in the extension after a few seconds, so if there’s more than a few second wait, Add Pause might not work at all. There is another option, though.

Add Wait sets a prompt for you to dial the extension. This is handy when the wait between dialing the number and your prompt to enter it is more than a few seconds. Once you’re into your call, you’ll have a prompt to either dial the extension, skip the process, or end the call. That makes things pretty simple. It also works well if you have to enter in another number before dialing the extension.

What Kevin adds to this is that you can just hit X (which is alt-X when entering in phone numbers) to automatically add a pause or wait. Which is it? It’s going to depend on your Berry. Kevin says that on his 8900 it’s a pause, but on his Tour it’s a wait. So you’ll have to check with your own BlackBerry to see which one works best. But for easy of entering in a number with an extension, an X will usually suffice.

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

Adding an extension to your BlackBerry contacts

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

Adding an extension to your BlackBerry contacts

To set your on-off settings, go to Options, then, predictably, Auto On/Off.

The software divides the Auto On/Off feature into weekdays and weekends, so you can choose to only have your device turn off when you’re not working. You’ll have to enable one or both, obviously, in order to set the Auto On/Off.

This is a daily setting, so if you’re going to set an off time for weekdays, make sure it’s not when you need it (i.e., when you’re working). Also, make sure that it’s not around the time you use your alarm. The last thing you’d want is for your alarm to go off while your device is rebooting, or worse yet, still sleeping.

There you have it. If you ever want to stop the BlackBerry from shutting off automatically, just go back into the Auto On/Off settings and return the Weekday and Weekend fields to Disabled. Then your Berry will power through the day and night. But when you wake up in the middle of the night and can’t resist the temptation to see what’s behind the blinking red lights, don’t blame us.

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

Setting your BlackBerry to turn off, and turn back on, at certain times

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

Setting your BlackBerry to turn off, and turn back on, at certain times

To get started, go into your call logs and hit the Menu button. Then scroll down to Options. Second in the list will be Call Logging. That’s the one you want.

As the heading suggests, this is where you choose which of your calls shows up in your messages list. Missed Calls is up top and default. You can choose to have All Calls route to your message list, or if you want to keep your messages free and clear you can select None.

Easy enough, right? So now you can see as many or as few call logs in your message list as you want. Simple, but effective.

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

Add or remove call logs from your BlackBerry messages

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

Add or remove call logs from your BlackBerry messages