RIMarkable » BlackBerry Tips and Tricks

Say A Command… Does Voice Command Activate At The Wrong Moment?

Rod — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:41:58 +0000

I am going to go out on a limb and assume that many BlackBerry users have no clue you can reprogram the side buttons on their BlackBerry devices. RIM has provided this little known feature for some time now. The reason I say this is because, far too frequently, I hear the classic statement, Say a command. I have been in meetings, elevators, planes, bathrooms, and even the movies and heard this break the silence of the room.

Maybe Buttons Are Bad?

I’ve personally hit the voice dialing or camera button on my BlackBerry Storm so often that I’ve just disabled them both. I am sure some iPhone fan will explain that this is exactly why Steve Jobs hates buttons. I don’t believe that the side buttons on a BlackBerry are a design flaw because they are very actually very useful. It is just that most BlackBerry users forget to lock their device before they put it into their pocket.

Change The Defaults

I, myself, don’t need dedicated buttons for the BlackBerry camera or voice dialing as they both have prime spots on my home screen on opposite sides of the screen, so, if your like me and you want to disable or reprogram the buttons dedicated to camera or voice dialing on your device, do the following:

Got Options –> Screen/Keboard and scroll down until you see Right Side Convenience Key Options and Left Side Convenience Key Options. You can set them to nothing, as, I have, or to something less annoying than the voice command prompt or your BlackBerry camera for those times that you accidentally hit the button.

Say A Command… Does Voice Command Activate At The Wrong Moment? is a post from: RIMarkable

How To Convert DVDs For Your BlackBerry

Chris — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 02:55:05 +0000

After writing detailed instructions for Windows Phone users to convert DVD’s and watch them on their phones I have decided to help out the BlackBerry community.

The key to getting into converting movies is simplicity. It has to be easy. I have been doing it for a long time and have suffered through a lot, and, now I can say, without a shadow of a doubt, the process is made easier by using DVDFab. DVDFab “DVD to DVD” has a lot of options for you to convert DVD’s. It runs fast and is updated regularly.

I use the DVD to DVD version of the software as it provides the most options. This version allows me to take the DVD content and put it in a Video_TS format on my hard drive. This may sound technical but essentially it allows me to queue up for a bulk conversion. Once I decided I wanted to put movies on my mobile device I purchased the DVD to Mobile component of DVDFab. If you only want to put content on your mobile device, you can bypass the DVD to DVD version and just get DVDFab “DVD to Mobile” version. DVDFab has different pricing options for both components. 1 year of the mobile version is $50.00 while a lifetime key will cost you 75.60. I have the lifetime and it is worth every penny.

If you looking for the most flexibility buy DVDFab “DVD to DVD”
If you want to convert movies for you mobile but going DVD to DVD is not needed save a couple bucks and buy DVDFab “DVD to Mobile”
I have gone through several products and this one is my favorite.

Straight from the DVD

After you install DVDFab you simply need to drop a disc into the DVD tray. Once you close the tray DVDFab will begin to recognize your disc.

1. Once this disc is recognized it is time to set your options. Here you will notice that DVDFab is capable of converting your movie for the iPod, iPhone and the rest of the I’s, Zune, Zune HD, Xbox, Playstation, and much more. For this we will choose the Cell Phone option on the left. ( it may be under the more option )

2. In the middle of the screen, the main movie should already be selected for you, if not select it. (It is usually the longest playtime. For multi episode disks you will have to select each one or run the process multiple times.)

3. Next on the right hand side choose the proper audio. (even if you choose 5.1, if the profile you select does not support it then the final result will be a two channel movie not 6. Be patient, Profiles are next!)

4. Under the audio section, choose if you want subtitles (of course not but I had to add it)

5. Browse to the location where you want the final output file saved.

Profiles

Profiles are basically different video conversion settings that have been predetermined based on the device you select. Some of the devices will have multiple “Profiles”, but usually the default one is good enough. And in this case use the BlackBerry.Storm Profile. (This should work on most Blackberries. We tested the Storm and the Tour and they both looked great.

Now, there is one thing you may want to change in the profile and that is the name of the output file and the title of the movie. This step is optional, but just click the edit button next the the Profile drop down and type in the information at the top. When you are done click “ok”

Now click the big “Start” button at the bottom right hand corner to start the conversion.

Once you click “Start” DVDFab will begin the conversion. Depending on the speed of your computer, it can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours, so go have some coffee or something.

1. After the conversion is complete go to the directory you selected for the output file

2. There will be a Zune folder that was created, and in that folder will be another folder with the name of the disc.

3. Grab the movie and copy it to your phone.

DONE!

From the Hard Drive

Earlier I mentioned that you can queue up the movies you are going to convert. To queue up movies instead of entering a disc, you just browse to the folder that contains the VIDEO_TS folder from the DVD located on your hard drive.

To do this just click the folder icon next to the source field.

Browse to the folder and select it.

After the movie is analyzed follow the instructions from Straight from the DVD. DO NOT CLICK START YET!!

Repeat these steps until all the movies are loaded.. ( Hit the “Queue” button in the bottom right corner to see all the movies that are loaded. You can also adjust the video settings on each movie in the queue. )

Now click start.

Done.

How To Convert DVDs For Your BlackBerry is a post from: RIMarkable

BlackBerry Tip: Easy Way To Send Contact Information Using vCards

Robb Dunewood — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 16:18:52 +0000

One of the things that I miss from way back in the day when I was as die-hard about Windows Mobile devices as I am now about BlackBerry devices is the ease that you could “beam” your contact information to another WinMo or Palm user. Devices where equipped with infra-red sensors and all you had to do to quickly give or get contact information from someone was pair your device with theirs and beam it to them.

I know that there are security risks (gaping holes in security) with infra red and this is a big reason why most wireless devices no longer have it, however, the downside of no infra red is that exchanging contact info can be a bit of a chore… That is unless you’ve got a few BlackBerry tricks up your sleeve.

A question that I regularly get from new BlackBerry users, especially new consumer BlackBerry users, is “Is there an easy way to share contact information with someone?” The short answer is “Yes, just send them a vCard”, but, that is usually followed by a look of confusion and possibly, ” What is a vCard?”.

A vCard is basically an electronic business card. It is comprised of any information that you enter into a contact on your BlackBerry. If you want to easily send your contact information to someone else, simply create a contact for yourself adding all the information that you would like to share, i.e., address, email, PIN, telephone number, etc., and save it. To send a vCard to someone:

Go to your contacts on your BlackBerry
Highlight your name in the contacts list
Hit the BlackBerry menu button
Select “Send As Attachment”
Type in the email address or name (if already in your contacts) of the person you want to send your vCard to and send.

The one caveat to sending a vCard is that you must already have the PIN (if they’re a BlackBerry user) or email address of the person that you are trying to send your contact information to. In an upcoming BlackBerry Tip we’ll show you how to quickly exchange PINs with another BlackBerry user.

BlackBerry Tip: Easy Way To Send Contact Information Using vCards is a post from: RIMarkable

BlackBerry Tip: Easy Way To Screen Capture Directly From Your Device

Robb Dunewood — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 19:02:59 +0000

I was just talking with a friend who asked,

” Is there a way to take a screen shot of what is on my BlackBerry’s screen, so that I can email it to someone?”

The answer, of course, is yes. There are many ways to create screen captures of what is on your BlackBerry devices screen. Personally, one of my favorite ways to accomplish this is with a slick, free BlackBerry application named Capture It from Tech Mogul that does exactly what its name implies.

Capture It is relatively small BlackBerry application coming in at only 13.1 KB and is probably something that everyone with a device running OS 4.3 or higher should download and install.

Capture It integrates directly into your BlackBerry menu. All you have to do is select Capture It from the menu when on a screen that you would like to capture. Your device will vibrate for 1 second alerting you that the a screen capture has been successfully created. Capture It saves images in .jpg format to your device’s memory card if inserted or directly to device memory if not and can be accessed via “Pictures” .

As we said earlier, Capture It is a free BlackBerry application and you can download it OTA to your device via the link below.

Download Capture IT

BlackBerry Tip: Easy Way To Screen Capture Directly From Your Device is a post from: RIMarkable

How to Customize Blackberry Ringtones & Ringbacks

Robb Dunewood — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 03:17:35 +0000

Here is a guest Tips-n-Tricks post by Caitlin Douglass on How to Customize BlackBerry Ringtones and Ringbacks…

If you receive a lot phone calls, you know how important it is to organize contacts and identify callers. One way to do that is by using custom ringtones to separate family and social contacts from business and customers. The BlackBerry can be overwhelming when you first get one, so here’s a step-by-step guide to downloading and customizing your BlackBerry ringtones and ringbacks.

The first thing to consider about ringtones is file format. The most common ringtone format that will work on all BlackBerry phones is MP3. The sound quality of real MP3 ringtones is superior to alternate formats and the file size is generally smaller than most. MIDI polyphonic ringtones are another choice of format supported by all BlackBerry products.

How to Download Ringtones by Direct Email

First off, you’ll want to visit a Web site that has BlackBerry ringtones for download. Crackberry.com and TUIconverter.com are good free sources to start with. If you can’t find your ringtone for free, try a paid ringtone site like ThumbPlay or FlyCell, which group ringtones by genres like country, pop and techno and get as specific as East Coast/West Coast ringtones! If you’re worried about your provider, use a site like SendMe Mobile to search for specific carriers like Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint ringtones. Any site that offers ringtones in MP3 or MIDI formats should work though.
Once you’ve found the ringtone you want, select the file and email it to an address you’ve assigned to your BlackBerry.
Using your BlackBerry, open the email and click the hyperlink (URL) to open a browser page.
Once the browser page is loaded, a popup will appear. Right click to save the ringtone. For phones with a memory card, it is better to save the ringtone to the media card than to memory. Be sure to check the box that indicates “save as ringtone.”
Do not close the browser page until the download is complete and the confirmation page pops up.

Tips:

If you can’t find the perfect ringtone for free or on a paid ringtone site, you can make BlackBerry ringtones with a free ringtone creator like Myxer.com or Mobile17.com. You can also trade ringtones with your friends by using the email method above or you can send them to one another via Bluetooth.

How to Download Ringtones to Your Computer

You can also choose to download any MP3 file to your computer for use as a ringtone. From there, you can transfer the ringtone to your BlackBerry through a USB cable using your BlackBerry Desktop Manager.

From a PC with Windows to a BlackBerry memory card:

Follow instructions to install the memory card.
Go to Options > Media Card
Make sure the Media Card Support setting is “On.”
Make sure the setting for “Auto Enable Mass Storage Mode When Connected” is “Yes.”

Once that is done, whenever the Blackberry is connected to your computer, a box will pop up giving you the option to “Open a Folder to View Files” and will display all the files on the memory card. After opening the ringtones folder, you will be able to drag and drop ringtones from the desktop directly to the phone.

You may also use the Roxio Media Manager software included with your BlackBerry. Here’s how:

Connect your phone to your PC.
Open Desktop Manager, then Media Manager.
In the Media Manager, select “Folders” to view the file list.
Locate the ringtone file you want to transfer and select it.
In the lower left of the screen, listed under My Devices, open the “ringtones” folder.
Click ”Copy Down”.
The Copy Files box opens. Click the “Convert for Optimal Playback” button, then press OK and it’s done.

Assigning Custom Ringtones To Phone Numbers

After new ringtones have been installed, you can assign different ringtones to numbers in your address book. That way when the phone rings, you know exactly who it is, or to what group they belong, without having to check. If you have a lot of contacts, it may be easier to organize them into groups such as “family” and “clients” and give the entire group the same tone than to try and assign each one a unique ringtone.

To assign a ringtone to a number, first, open your address book and locate the phone number that you want to assign a custom ring. Press menu, and then edit. Select “Add Custom Ringtone” and choose the ringtone you want from the list. After custom ringtones are assigned to the numbers in the address book, you will be able to identify callers without looking at the screen, a definite advantage when you’re trying to drive, in a meeting, or trying to avoid someone. Ringtones can also be assigned to other phone sounds, like email alerts and alarms.

Ringback Tones

Ringback tones are a different personalization service, replacing the standard ringing sound for your callers to hear while they wait for you to answer. You may set up to 25 different ringbacks, and can even use the Time Of Day function to play different ringtones at different times. Ringbacks go by different names depending on your carrier. They’re known as ringback tones for Verizon and Altell, Answer Tones for AT&T, Call Tones for Sprint, and CallerTunes for T-Mobile and Vodafone. You’ll have to visit each carrier’s individual ringback tone store to get the tones and make sure you’ve signed up for this service with your carrier first.

Customizing your BlackBerry with ringtones and ringbacks can be a fun and creative way to express your personality, while improving your productivity at the same time.

Byline: Caitlin Douglass is a freelance telecom writer that specializes in mobile music applications and cell phones.

How to Customize Blackberry Ringtones & Ringbacks is a post from: RIMarkable

BlackBerry Storm Usability Tip: Disable Compatibility Mode

Robb Dunewood — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 03:47:16 +0000

So, you’ve gotten yourself a brand new BlackBerry Storm. You’ve updated to the latest leaked OS and have figured out how to type on the touch screen that you actually have to click an not just touch. You like your BlackBerry Storm and plan on sticking with it. The one thing bugging you about your BlackBerry Storm, however, is why the virtual keyboard on some BlackBerry applications is permanent.

Often times when you are running an older BlackBerry application on your BlackBerry Storm you may notice a blue border around the main application window and the SureType virtual keyboard won’t go away no matter what you do. This is because your application is running with compatability mode enabled. The blue boarder and the keyboard significantly decrease the size of the application window and it makes navigating and selecting fields or buttons very difficult.

Fortunately, you can disable compatibility mode by going to options >> advanced options >> highlight the application that you want to disable compatibility mode on >> hit the menu button (the one with logo) >> select disable compatibility mode. Once you disable compatibility mode, restart your application. the blue border and the persistent virtual SureType keyboard should be gone. You may be able to use the application in landscape mode as well.

Why RIM choose not to have compatibilty mode disabled as the default is beyond me. I have yet to see an application react adversely when compatibility mode is turned off. Developers can, using the latest development tools, chose to have this feature turned off automatically when their applications install, but, that does nothing for all the apps that have already been developed.

BlackBerry Storm Usability Tip: Disable Compatibility Mode is a post from: RIMarkable

BlackBerry Question Of The Day

Robb Dunewood — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 13:59:30 +0000

It seems lately like we have been getting more and more BlackBerry questions in the ole RIMarkable inbox so we thought that we would start posting some of them to the front page to let the BlackBerry faithful have a stab at them.

Today’s question: Is there any way to set Opera Mini as your default browser on your BlackBerry?

If you have an idea please post it in the comments.

BlackBerry Question Of The Day is a post from: RIMarkable

What Type Of BlackBerry Enterprise Server Management Tools Do You Use?

Robb Dunewood — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 19:12:17 +0000

Here is a question that goes out to all of the BlackBerry Administrators managing the back end BlackBerry Enterprise Servers.

What type of BES management tools do you use to make sure that your corporate BlackBerry users email addictions can be feed without interruption?

Email in just about every organization is considered a mission critical application and for those companies that have standardized on the BlackBerry to feed their users appetite for the ability to receive email at any and all times, BES deployments are just as mission critical.

If you are a BlackBerry Administrator responsible for managing your companies BlackBerry Enterprise Server implementation, let us know via the comments what management tools, tips, and tricks you use to keep your BES servers up and running.

BlackBerry Adminstrator, BES, BlackBerry Enterprise Server

What Type Of BlackBerry Enterprise Server Management Tools Do You Use? is a post from: RIMarkable

Is Your BlackBerry Vunerable to a Denial Of Service Attack?

Robb Dunewood — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 21:16:58 +0000

The French Security Incident Response Team issued a security advisory late yesterday described as a “low risk vulnerability” that primarily affects BlackBerry Pearl devices running OS 4.2 and earlier.

A vulnerability has been identified in various BlackBerry devices, which could be exploited by remote attackers to cause a denial of service. This issue is due to an error in the BlackBerry browser that fails to properly handle overly long URLs, which could be exploited by attackers to cause a vulnerable device to become slow or to stop responding by tricking a user into following a specially crafted link.

You can fix this vulnerability simply by upgrading to BlackBerry Device Software version 4.2 Service Pack 1 (4.2.1) which can be found here.

Is Your BlackBerry Vunerable to a Denial Of Service Attack? is a post from: RIMarkable