Category Archives: BlackBerry

Flickr for your Blackberry

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flickr is like the ultimate photo and video sharing website for the social world. What would be better than taking a photo from your blackberry and posting it instantly to your flickr page? This is very possible and there are multiple ways to do this. For me I like to use the blackberry flickr application to upload photos and use the email process to push video. Yes that’s right, the blackberry videos can be sent and displayed on your flickr page.

The BB flickr application is pretty straight forward and very simple. You can download it from here. Once you are logged in to flickr through your phone you have the ability to send photos directly from the BB camera application or from the flickr application. The flickr app then lets you add a title, description, tags, add it to a photo set, set the privacy, resize the image, and if your carrier enables the GPS,  geotag your photo. Once you have added your necessary information click on the upload button and your photo is transmitted in the background to flickr. This is great because it doesn’t halt your phone when transmitting the photo. Below are some samples that I took and posted to flickr from my BB Curve.

You can also upload video through the email address provided in your flickr settings page. You can post your photos this way to but I recommend the BB applicaiton.   Once you have captured your video on your phone just email it to that flickr email address (located in your flickr settings) and it will be automatically uploaded to your page. Here is an example video that I shot and posted via email.

Some tips and tricks to keep in mind. Use the flickr app to upload photos and the email to upload video. In your settings you can set tags so when you send a video through email it tags it with what you want. Then you don’t have to worry about your photos being tagged with video tags. Also I think it’s a good idea to set up a photo set to capture all your mobile uploads. Doing it this way will be easier to sort though the photos when you are looking for something. Lastly, it’s best to add the flickr email address to you address book so that you don’t have to keep typing it in all the time.

Using your blackberry and Flickr can be very powerful so go out and capture the world!

This is part of a series “Ten days of Blackberry, Making your Phone Better“

Facebook for your Blackberry

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Facebook is like the crack of social media apps for some people and what would you do if you couldn’t access your facebook profile and update your status when you are away from your computer.  No need to work addicts.  Facebook indeed has a pretty good blackberry application.  Some phones even come preinstalled with it.  I know my Verizon phone did.  With the facebook app you have access to update your status and view status updates of your friends, share a photo that you took, get a list of your friends, invite new friends, poking, the ability to write on a friends wall, and sending messages.  The application is by far the prettiest one out there.  It’s almost better than going to the actual facebook site becuase you don’t see all that other junk such as the super wall and other 3rd party apps.  One down side is that when you want to look at someones profile is that it opens the mobile browser it load it. The browser layout is a bit messy and sometimes is pretty slow.

Overall this is a good application for facebook users.  I find myself updating my status and posting more photos because of this.  If you are interested, you can download the application from the blackberry site but check your phone, It may already be installed.

This is part of a series “Ten days of Blackberry, Making your Phone Better“

Twitter for your Blackberry

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The web 2.0 world is all about social media so why not take that type of media and move it to your phone?  One of the most widely used social media tools is a web application called Twitter.   It was made for SMS messaging (140 Characters) to let people know what you are doing.  In short you follow friends and other people follow you.  It’s pretty cool just go check out twitter.com if you don’t know what I am talking about.

Twitterberry is by far one of the best blackberry twitter application out.  With Twitterberry you can update your status, see public and friend’s timeline, get replies to your messages, and send and view direct messages.  The interface is very easy to use and is simple and clean.  The best feature in Twitterberry is that it doesn’t use SMS so there is no need for a text messaging plan.  All messages are sent and received using your data plan so it is recommended that you purchase an unlimited data plan from your carrier.

On the other hand there are some drawbacks to Twitterberry.  When viewing your friend’s timeline it can take a bit of time for their tweets to display, hardly a major drawback but it is one to think about.  This may also vary based on your carriers signal strength.  One feature that I would love is for the timeline to update every couple of minutes and then when ever a reply or direct message is received you can set a notification so that you don’t have to keep refreshing.  This wouldn’t be hard feature request since the application already runs in the background.  Also, I noticed that you are unable to follow new users from your phone.  You will either have to go to the m.twitter.com or will have to follow them when you get home.  Pretty much you can only get tweets from people that you have already subscribed to.

Overall this is the best twitter application out there for the blackberry.  If you use twitter then you need to go download this app.

This is part of a series “Ten days of Blackberry, Making your Phone Better“

The Blackberry Community

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One thing that I noticed when I was deciding on a phone is that the community for Blackberry is huge.  Pretty much any question that you need answered is probably out on the internet.  If it’s not all you have to do is post it and it will be answered quickly.  Some of the best community forums that I found are:

Don’t be frightened by the folks in these forums.  Most are there to help but can be very technical and have a lot of knowledge on the mobile business. On the other hand, there are noobs in there too so keep a watch on that.  Another good place to look for information is on the Blackberry site itself.  I found it to be a good resource when I was looking at phone features.  Again though, when you are looking at features make sure your carrier doesn’t disable that feature that you want.  As an example Verizon Wireless charges an additional monthly fee to activate the GPS chip.

Hopefully these community sites will help in your decision process. Happy Forum Searching!

This is part of a series “Ten days of Blackberry, Making your Phone Better“

Ten Days of Blackberry: The Switch

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I recently made the jump into the phone 2.0 world last week and it’s been fun. My previous phone, a Motorola Razr from Verizon Wireless was all I needed over the last two years and it had no data or SMS plan.   Being a so called computer geek I knew that sometime I needed to make the switch into the real phone world.  So I began looking at many different phones and their features.  The hardest part of my decision was choosing a service provider.  I had been with Verizon for years and never had a problem with the service.  Ever since the new iPhone 3G was released, I was pretty much set that it would be the phone that I would get.  However, after doing some research about the phone, AT&T coverage vs Verizon coverage, customer service of both carriers and network (data) speeds I decided to stick with Verizon and go with a Blackberry Curve.  I think the biggest decision maker was how much more coverage Verizon had and the hassle of switching over a family plan to a different carrier.  There would have been activation fees and more money spent buying new phones.  So over at Verizon I picked out my new Blackberry.  I decided to go with the Curve rather than the Pearl because of the full QWERTY keyboard.  The pearl has a shared button keyboard and didn’t really like that.  It’s more of a personal preference since they both pretty much do the same thing.  Since making the switch I haven’t been happier with my decision.  I think the coolest part of the blackberry is the openness of application development and the ability to download whatever application you want.  Most people would say that the Apple App Store is much better and I totally agree, but I have learned that pretty much everything that the iPhone can do I can do with the Blackberry.  The best benefit is that it’s so much cheaper than the iPhone.  I paid $49.00 for the phone + $29.00 for the 4 gig MicroSD card. That’s less than $100! The Blackberry screen may be smaller, less storage, and it may not be touch screen but the blackberry has better battery life and I can replace it without having to send it in for service.  Oh yeah don’t forget the development of applications. It’s all JAVA based so download the API from Blackberry and start development!

With about a week on the phone I don’t have any regrets.  There is a large contingency of loyal blackberry users and I think I am going to join the group.  The interface may not be as pretty as the iPhone but blackberry has come along way and just like web2.0, phone2.0 is going to start gaining speed.  So, over the next couple of days I will be writing reviews of my new phone and the applications that I have been using.  A small series that I will call the “Ten days of Blackberry, Making your Phone Better.”  I hope to answer questions for people that are considering a blackberry or iPhone.  I may not be able to answer everything but trust me when I say the answer is out there you just have to find it.  The blackberry community is huge, and very helpful.

Ten days of Blackberry, Making your Phone Better

Day One: “The Blackberry Community”
Day Two: “Twitter for your Blackberry”
Day Three: “Facebook for your Blackberry”
Day Four: “Flickr for your Blackberry”