Archive for October, 2009

Get More Productive with Voicemail on Your Blackberry

Friday, October 30th, 2009

Here are some tips for getting your voice mail messages more quickly:

One-touch voicemail access – Hold down the number one. OK, you probably knew that.

Pre-program your voicemail password – By pre-programming your voicemail password, you can have one-touch access directly to your recent messages. Keep in mind that anyone who picks up your phone can now easily get into your VM:

  • From your main screen, hit the green button to get to your calling menu
  • Hit the Blackberry button (the one with seven dots)
  • Select “Options”
  • Select “Voice Mail”
  • In the Password field, type your voicemail password followed by “#1″. The “#” is a 3-second pause – this allows your voicemail to accept your password before automatically asking to play back messages.
  • Hit the Blackberry button and choose “Save”
  • Now, you should get right to new messages when you hold down the “1″ key

. . . or stop using a voicemail password – If your initials aren’t POTUS and you don’t care about the security of your voicemail, you can remove requiring a password for access:

  • Enter voicemail
  • Press 3 for Personal Options
  • Press 1 for Settings
  • Press 1 to skip your password

Streamline voicemail menus - If you have used voicemail before, turn on Expert Mode. This will simplify the often lengthy instructions from the voicemail lady:

  • Enter voicemail
  • Press 3 for Personal Options
  • Press 3 for Expert Mode
  • Press 1 to turn on Expert Mode

Stop playback of VM date and time info - If you don’t care much about when someone called (you can always look in your call log), you can stop playback of this info:

  • Enter voicemail
  • Press 3 for Personal Options
  • Press 1 for Settings
  • Press 3 to turn off message date and time. (You can still hear this info during the call as necessary, however, by hitting 1)

Put your time savings to good use - Now that you have so much more free time in your life, call your Members of Congress and ask them to support a public option!

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Barnes and Nobel eReader for BlackBerry Curve

Thursday, October 29th, 2009

I love to read so I’ve looked at a few eReaders and just downloaded the free Barnes & Nobel version. If you aren’t familiar with the term eReader it is way to read books electronically.

Bottom line – personally, I’m still a fan of the old school paper format but given my desire to lower the number of trees I destroy and the fact that I don’t have much time to make it to the library I think that digital books are worth a try. Who knows, maybe I can evolve.

Here’s what I like about the Barnes and Nobel version…
-Access: I can easily read my e-Books from my BlackBerry Curve or any PC or Mac. I just log into my B&N account and they’re available. This feature also benefits me if I switch devices. Since the e-Books are stored on my personal library at BN.com, I can download the ones I want anytime to any supported device.

-Selection: The library touts more than 700,000 titles (Amazon has about 300,000). You can even download 500,000 free public domain books courtesy of Google Books.

-Try before you buy: Read the first chapter for free before buying the book by clicking “Get Free Sample”. They even included five free books with the eReader download – Classics like Pride and Prejudice, Dracula and a dictionary. This gave me a good opportunity to test out the interface and features before investing more.

Here’s what I was worried about…
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-Cost: The reader is free, but the e-books aren’t. e-Books cost less than what you’d pay to buy a physical copy, but it adds up as you start to build a library. Many best sellers go for $9.99. You’ll also need a mobile data plan to download the books. Most Smartphones come with an unlimited data plan but if you have a pay as you go plan this may add up quickly.

-Memory: How much space does each book take? It wasn’t immediately obvious to me where to find this, but B&N must have some issue with this since they include a memory check with the eReader to alert you if there is limited space on your device. If you plan to use the reader a lot I recommend investing in a larger memory card for your BlackBerry.

-Time to Load: The books take a while to load and I noticed that when I’d switch chapters there was a significant time delay. Once the section I’m reading is loaded however, it worked fairly well. I checked a few tech blogs and it looks like this is an issue that some people have experienced and others have not. Worst case scenario you just have to mess with it a little bit and be patient. I’m not a terribly patient person and found the wait to be long but not enough to prevent me from using the application.

-Usability: How enjoyable is it to read a novel on such a small form factor? This clearly is a personal preference, but for me it worked. I like that when I’m out and about I can read conveniently on my BlackBerry Curve and then when I’m home I can keep reading on my laptop. I always have my phone with me but there are many instances where I don’t want to carry a book or larger eReader as well.

-How to use: I’ve only started using this app but one tip I can give is that if you’re using a BlackBerry you’ll want to use the BlackBerry key (with the BlackBerry dots on it) to get access to the applications menu. That will allow you to change font sizes, skip to new sections, add bookmarks to the section you’ve just read, and finally close the application. All features that you’ll need!

The download was simple and just takes a minute. Go to bn.com on your device’s browser and click the link Download free B&N eReader App. Once installed, you’ll need to enter your B&N account info or create a new account.

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Peace on Facebook just launched

Wednesday, October 28th, 2009

There are a lot of cool things we can do on our cell phones, but most people don’t think of it as a way to promote world peace.

But thanks to the Persuasive Technology Lab at Stanford (led by Dr. BJ Fogg) and Facebook, now it can be. You see these two organizations have launched “Peace on Facebook”, which you can access from your PDA by typing this into your mobile browser: peace.Facebook.com

Please be sure to leave out the “www” on the front end of that url in your mobile browser or else you’ll get an error message.

Their goal is to build “technology that helps people better understand each other. By enabling people from diverse backgrounds to easily connect and share their ideas, we can decrease world conflict in the short and long term.” These sound like lofty goals, but this project is doing this in a practical way–by highlighting how Facebook enables connections to be formed between different people. Just in the last twenty four hours there have been over 600 Sunni-Shiite connections formed, over 7,000 Indian-Pakistan connections, and over 30,000 connections made here in the U.S. between Liberals and Conservatives. (If this project works could we dream one day of even connecting those two eternal enemies?: Red Sox-Yankees)

The other interesting thing on Peace on Facebook is that it also shows the results of a poll they take daily that asks this simple question: “Is world peace possible in the next 50 years?” The surprising thing is that from all the countries where citizens respond (U.S., Colombia, Germany, Isreal, Turkey, Egypt and Taiwan), the U.S. is the most pessimistic (only 7% believe it’s possible), which surprised me given how optimistic we generally are as a country.

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Words of the Day: Galumph & Genial

Monday, October 26th, 2009

galumph [guh-LUHM(P)F] – intransitive verb

1. To move in a clumsy manner or with a heavy tread.

While I think today is the first time I’ve ever read the word “galumph”, I can certainly say that I’ve embodied the definition – generally it’s before I’ve had my first cup of coffee in the morning. Thankfully I can now aptly describe my pre-caffeinated state and expand my vocabulary regularly, due largely to the free Dictionary.com app I just downloaded onto my CREDO BlackBerry. Featured in BlackBerry’s App World, this application offers access to Dictionary.com’s reference content – which includes more than half a million words, definitions and synonyms. In case you’re not sure how to say words like “onomatopoeia” after looking them up to make sure you’re spelling them correctly, the Dictionary.com app offers audio to provide pronunciation assistance. The thesaurus tool is also useful – you probably could have guessed that “advanced”, “broad-minded”, “modern” and “forward looking” are all synonyms for the word “progressive” but now you know for sure.

You can download the app from your CREDO Mobile BlackBerry via BlackBerry App World or online from the BlackBerry App World website.

Dictionary.com App for BlackBerry

Dictionary.com App for BlackBerry

My favorite feature of this app is the “Word of the Day” – which I credit for adding “galumph” to my vocabulary. A Spanish version of “Word of the Day” is also available – today’s word is “genial”, which means “brilliant, awesome.” “Se me ha ocurrido una idea genial” is the example sentence provided by Dictionary.com – meaning “I’ve had a brilliant idea.” Looks like my brilliant idea today was downloading this app to my phone. Or having coffee.

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Adding a Flashlight To Your BlackBerry Curve

Wednesday, October 21st, 2009

So you’re walking to a midnight rally supporting marriage equality and it’s so dark you can’t see anyone around you. What do you do if you haven’t brought a flashlight? Well, unless you want to keep bumping into fellow progressives, you pull out your BlackBerry Curve and use the handy flashlight app you bought from BlackBerry’s app world for just $2.99.

Our cell phones do so much for us now, why not be a flashlight, too? I found one that gets great reviews from The Jared Company. To download it all you have to do is go to this link: http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/email/2187 and enter an email address you use with your BlackBerry Curve to have the app download link sent to you.

Please note that the link BlackBerry sends you will have to be opened from your BlackBerry Curve–you won’t be able to open that link from your email inbox on your PC/Mac.

And there you go. Progressives already see the light when it comes to advocating for marriage equality, but this flashlight can help anyone in the dark.

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Shop Amazon.com On Your BlackBerry

Tuesday, October 20th, 2009

The Amazon.com application for BlackBerry is a free application that allows mobile shopping on Amazon.com, Amazon.com account management, and a products comparison feature called ‘Amazon Remembers’ using the BlackBerry’s camera. It provides an optimized mobile shopping experience and closely matches the customer experience of the internet site. The application makes it easy to browse customer reviews, track packages, and access Amazon.com wish lists.

The ‘Amazon Remembers’ feature might be the best feature of the application. BlackBerry users can take a picture of a product to remember, upload and store the image to Amazon, and then Amazon will email you matching products.

amazonapp

The applications is free to download and is compatible with any BlackBerry that has a trackball. The only downside to the application is the hefty install size around 580k.

There are two ways to download the free application:

1.Visit http://www.amazon.com/gp/anywhere/sms/bbapp and send an email to your Blackberry with a link to download.

2.Type “amazon.com/bb” into your BlackBerry browser to download.

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Fine-tuning your BlackBerry’s Performance

Monday, October 19th, 2009

I’ve had my BlackBerry Curve 8330 for a few months now — and while it’s still working just as well as the day I got it, I got to wondering the other day about what kinds of preventative maintenance I should do to keep it that way. After all, it’s always a good idea to defragment your hard drive and do other routine tasks for your computer every so often…and a smartphone like the BlackBerry is really just a small computer.

So I went out and did some research, and here’s what I found. (Note — the suggestions below are for a BlackBerry Curve 8330, running on the BIS service. In general, they may be applicable to other models of BlackBerry, but your mileage may vary. And if your Curve operated on the BES, it’s best to check with your system administrators to find out their specific recommendations for routine maintenance.)

1. Delete all your old emails. I found that I had unknowingly accumulated a few thousand emails — that I really didn’t need to be carrying around in my pocket. To wipe out messages en masse, you can delete everything prior to a a certain date. Simply roll your trackball until it’s highlighting not a specific message, but the date line that separates one day’s emails from the next. Press your BlackBerry key, and them choose “delete prior.” This will delete all messages prior to that date — which seems to be the best way to get rid of those 3000 emails you’ve been neglecting to delete.

2. Delete Apps you’re not using. Click on the options logo (the little wrench sign), then advanced, then applications…your handheld builds a list…and then use the BlackBerry key to delete the ones you never use. (As much as I wish I were trilingual…reality is, I’m never going to have use for BlackBerry’s Simplified Chinese Characters and Font Support. Or for that matter, the Traditional ones, either.)

3. Set your device to power off at night, and power up again in the morning. This will save a good deal of your battery life…and also help you avoid losing sleep from any wrong numbers in the middle of the night. Just go to options, “auto on-off”…and enter the usual times when you go to sleep and wake up in the morning. There’s no need for your phone to be awake when you aren’t…and if you need to set the alarm clock on your phone, it will — quite smartly — override this setting.

There’s lots more tips and tricks to be found out there for optimizing your BlackBerry’s performance…three good lists for those are here, here and here. Know of any other good ones? Please post ‘em in the comments section below — thanks!!

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A Game of Teeter on the HTC Touch Pro

Friday, October 16th, 2009

I have to admit I’m not much of a gamer. But there are some games that most everyone enjoys playing like Tetris and Bubble Breaker. Teeter is one of those games.

The HTC Touch Pro has a motion sensor much like the iPhone. An accelerometer or G-sensor in the phone detects the orientation of the phone. The game of Teeter makes use of this G-sensor. Navigate the marble through a series of mazes by tilting the phone, as if you were playing with a real marble.
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The game starts easy enough, maneuver around a few holes and you arrive at the goal. But the game escalates quickly adding a more complex maze of walls with more holes, then to a maze of holes with no walls to leverage. By the time you reach level 20, the maze has turned three dimensional and placing that marble in the green circle is nearly impossible.

Teeter can be found on the HTC Touch Pro in the following menu: Programs -> All Programs -> Teeter

Try it out and see if you can get to all 32 levels.

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Think before you app

Thursday, October 15th, 2009

There are lots of great reasons for a company to create a mobile phone application. Apps can help businesses better connect with their customers and provide fun and useful programs that also build awareness around a brand or product.

But before deciding to launch, it’s probably wise to ask at least one question: is the app undeniably offensive and demeaning to women?

Pepsi clearly didn’t, and has ended up giving new meaning to the phrase ‘mobile tools’ with the recent launch of its ‘AMP Up Before You Score‘ iPhone app, a promotion for its new AMP energy drink. Targeted at caffeine- and communication-challenged straight dudes, the app gives guys pick-up lines and other tips for wooing 24 convenient categories of women, from artist to women’s studies major.

Really?

Yep. It even lets users keep lists of their conquests and brag about it on Facebook and Twitter.

Easy enough for a neanderthal to use!

Did Pepsi really not anticipate a storm of controversy in releasing a program whose sole function is to help guys score with women, and literally let them keep score while doing it? The soft drink company has offered lame apology Tweet, but has not pulled the app from the iPhone App Store.

Which begs the question — how does Apple make the call about which apps get approved, anyway? Given the recent controversy about the rejection of a single-payer healthcare iPhone app for being ‘politically charged,’ it sounds like they need some reorganizing of their priorities.

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Rachel Maddow ringtones and text messages

Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

One of my favorite progressive commentators out there is Rachel Maddow. I had the good fortune to hear her in a live conversation hosted by Mother Jones earlier this year and Rachel was great–very smart and a lot of fun. And from the sound of it she can mix a mean cocktail. But I digress.

Sure, I work at CREDO Mobile, but if I see something cool out there for progressives that can be used on other carriers & handsets I want to let you know about it. And that’s why I have to let you know about all this awesomeness Rachel has on her site.

By clicking here
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32863471/ns/msnbc_tv-rachel_maddow_show you can get Rachel’s ringtones. My favorite is Rachel yelling “You Lie!” in her best Senator Joe Wilson impersonation.

You can also get Rachel’s show messages sent to your phone by going to this link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28997005/ns/msnbc_tv-rachel_maddow_show

Normal messaging and carrier fees may apply.

If you know of any other cool ringtones from your favorite progressives, please post a comment here so we can all get in on the fun.

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