So the iphone people have their megathread, so I thought this might be a good place to find some info/ideas/apps for the blackberry. mostly this is self-serving cause I hope to get turned on to some new tips and tricks or downloads. This is NOT a thread about what phone you should buy. It is for people who already own a Blackberry to trade tips, tricks, favorite applications, etc.

My current setup:

Phone: Verizon Blackberry Tour

Theme: In the Know Hidden 9600



This theme lets you add a few extra icons on the homepage. Also gives you the "Today" functionality of previewing contents of icons (When you scroll over calendar or messages it will display current info in the background).

Paid Apps:

Tether-Allows your PC to use your blackberry data plan to access the internet. I've heard if you use it too much you might risk problems with your carrier (since Verizon wants their $30/month or whatever for this feature) but its a great thing to have in a pinch when you need full laptop functionality on the go without wifi. Costs $49.99, but I got it on sale for $19.99 a while back.

Vlingo Plus- Lets you control a bunch of different apps with voice. Just hold side button and say "send message to X" and you can dictate an e-mail or text or voice dial. Or say "google X" and it will do a google search. Bunch of other apps as well. Works pretty flawlessly and rarely have to edit the message after dictation. Costs $14.99, but again is often on sale.

MultiAlarm Pro- Just a great, simple app for creating multiple and recurring alarms each with their own settings, name, ringtone, snooze length, etc. Costs $2.99

Wheres My Phone- Ever lose your phone? This lets you email it with a code word in the subject field and get GPS location, have it call you back, display a message on the screen, ring even if its on silent, etc.

BattInfo-Displays battery % and other information during charging. Not sure I'd recommend this one as its not really important info, but whatever.

Tetris- It's Tetris, not much else to say.

Cribbage- Not the most polished app, but definitely fun and fast.

Free Apps:

Gmail

Opera Lite- My browser of choice the blackberry. Just renders most pages faster and cleaner.

BeWeather- Tried a few different free weather apps, this has one of the slickest interfaces and provides the simple info you want (including temperature in the icon). I guess it only reloads once an hour with the free version, but that's close enough for me.

Google Talk

AIM

Facebook

ScoreMobile- My preferred app for checking sports scores. Lets you select favorite teams so they always display at the top. Has pregame lines, and up to the minute box scores for all major sports.

Pandora- Streaming Internet Radio based on custom stations.

Slacker Radio- Similar to Pandora, but stations based on genre.

Bank of America

ING Direct

BeBuzz Free- Lets you customize the LED color based on type of alert.

Amazon

Google Sync

QuickPull- Let's you reset your phone and simulates an actual battery pull without all the work. Nice to reset your phone every so often to clear things out.


Some Great Resources:

-Have you ever gotten the "Reload Software 552" error that puts your phone in a perpetual reboot cycle? Here is how to fix it.

-Some great keyboard shortcuts


I'm sure there are people with a lot better tips and apps than me, so let's hear it.

Pandora turns on randomly a bunch so i had to delete it, but good thread idea looking forward to seeing some cool stuff.

i have a bold not old azz one new one w/e the pad jsut the ball i have

facebook never use it use my data w/ default browser, score mobz, BBM obv, google latitudes, thats about it gg, can i get that theme for my bold btw OP?

The thing that bugs me about pandora is sometimes when i have my headphones in, it still plays through the speaker of the phone until i take the headphones out and plug them back in. Anyone know why this happens? Also sometimes I'll have music or panodra blasting, pause it or something and forget about it, then all of a sudden ill accidently restart it. I guess I just have to be careful and make sure to shut the music down with that one.

My apps consist of:
Viigo - rss reader
Opera mini
Bolt browser
Socialscope - twitter and Facebook in one feed
Quickpull
Flickr
Flycast - streaming live radio

Along with most of the freeones in OP. I also have a tour, but through Sprint.

Bolt browser ftw

http://boltbrowser.com/home.html

I think the screen grab in the OP is actually of the theme running on a bold.

I tried a bunch of different themes, and this one is the best because its not "too custom" and just looks like it might be the standard theme (but with the benefit of the added features)

Cool thread.

I installed AIM on mine the other week and noticed that it completely slowed down the phone sooo much. Took it off and everything was perfect again.

How do I go about getting Opera-lite? Through the apps words or browser?

Ka-Glom! is a free game and good.
AP app is pretty sweet
Bloomberg
CBS Sports

all free

Noah,
I am ******ed how do I get that theme?

Also is there a specific reason you have score mobile? I find it really weird that Americans would have it given that the score is Canadian tv station.

I have ScoreMobile and I'm from the UK. Awesome for EPL games imo. Shame it doesnt cover more, really.

http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/4686

or

App World > Themes > Technology > Sort by Rating

"In the Know- Hidden"

ScoreMobile was one of the Most Downloaded and just got it and got used to it. Fast and well organized and has NBA, NFL, etc. so I've kept it.

opera mini is awesome. just google it in browser and dl from there

yeah, sorry if I confused you by saying Opera Lite, its Opera Mini

Hehe, got it now. It's soooo good!

You know how to get rid of those speed-dial website thingies?

Go into Bookmarks, the click through Speed Dial, and from there you can use menu button to delete them, add your own, etc.

Mildly annoying that you need to approve connection of it each time. I tried looking into a fix one and it involved messing with the firewall, which I read could lead to other problems. Anyone have an easier solution for granting Opera Mini permanent permission?

I could have used where's my phone last year during the WSOP when I left it in the back of a cab.

Have a 9000 right now but am thinking of upgrading to the 9700. Anyone have it?

Yeah I have it I love it but its my first blackberry. Some people new to the trackpad thing complain they like the ball better but I am fine with the pad. Came with a 2 gig memory card in it and some other good stuff.

Can't do this

When I'm on the open page of the broswer (speed dial 'home' page so to speak), I click on bookmarks and the only option I have is to click on an actual bookmark... there is no menu or whatever

Question regarding Opera:

I really like it, but I frequently use the "T" and "B" buttons to scroll to the top or bottom of the page. Is there any way to make it so I don't have to scroll through every link on the page?

Have a Blackberry Storm 2 which I'm reasonably satisfied with although not exactly thrilled. But I might be whiny about any handheld device I suppose.

BeWeather doesn't seem to give very much.

I have a different weather app too (can't remember the name right now) which I thought was pretty decent but now it does this thing where it just won't load/connect unless I take the battery out and reboot it. I travel a lot and the radar on that app is pretty good though which is helpful for trying to avoid the snow, etc.

Speaking of which: I can't figure out how to reboot the thing without having to open the back and physically take the battery out for a second. It's annoying. Just turning the power off and then back on doesn't actually provide a 'reboot'.

I'm okay with scoremobile. I go between that and the ESPN mobile site.

Slacker is okay. I'll plug it into my car audio-input on long trips and it's a nice change of pace. But if it's plugged into the car-charger too then it won't play at all through the audio cable. Really annoying since it's a big resource-hog and battery-eater.

One app that I got that is imperfect but I enjoy anyway is Nobex Radio. 3,000+ stations from all around the U.S. So if I'm driving and can't really find some game that I want to listen to I have a chance of getting it on a different station on my blackberry.

You have to know what you're doing around the radio ahead of time though and understand which stations might have what games. I need to do a better job of looking up what stations carry what teams in different markets. I can probably pick up a bunch of west coast late night games in the NHL, NBA, MLB if I take the time to figure out some of the stations and affiliates ahead of time and have them programmed in.

Also can just put in whatever decent music radio station I might like if I'm in the middle of nowhere and I'm bored of slacker. 89x out of Detroit as well as 93.9 The River out of Detroit, CD 101 out of Columbus, and Real Radio 104.1 in Orlando on weekends are some of my recent preferences.

Get "Quickpull" from the app store.

thank you. i'll look at that one.

Yeah Quickpull is the exact app you need for that. It really is a pain in the ass to have to physically pull the battery out. Also takes a while to restart.