Review: puZZed for BlackBerry smartphones

My wife can attest to the fact that the snooze button on my alarm and I have a love/hate relationship. It hates to see me sleep in and I love smacking the crap out of it. I guess you can say my alarm clock and I have mutually abusive relationship, as well. It’s gotten to the point that I had to place my alarm on the other side of the room, so that I’m forced to get up in order to hit snooze – in the hopes that I just decide to give up and wake up. That also doesn’t seem to work every time, as I now shuffle from my bed to the alarm and back to bed like a zombie. Perhaps I need to get to bed earlier, or perhaps I need a more insistent alarm to make sure I am up. I’ve never been one for alarm applications on my BlackBerry smartphone – I’ve had the same old alarm clock for almost a decade. Maybe that’s why it’s so easy to hit snooze or turn off. I know it so well, I can use it in my sleep (honestly!). I need more of a challenge to help me wake up. When I first heard of the puZZed application, I didn’t take it too seriously. Now after using it, it may replace a decade old toxic relationship with my old alarm.

 

 

puZZed was developed by qbotron, who also developed the time tracking app ZoneIn, the idea capturing InstaNote and the photo transforming Stampt. You can check out all of their applications in BlackBerry App World, right here. puZZed is available for BlackBerry smartphones running OS 4.6 or higher, including those running OS 7. The current version is 1.4.5 which has an initial file size of 258KB

Cost: Free (can purchase additional puzzles from within the application)

Rating in BlackBerry App World: 4/5

The idea behind puZZed is to make you wake up before you can turn off the alarm. I know the idea of an alarm itself is to wake you up, but as I mentioned before, that isn’t always the case. Rather than an annoying tone that can be turned off with a flick of a switch, a tap of a button or a fling across the room, you need to solve a puzzle or equation before the alarm turns off. These aren’t simple problems to figure out effortlessly, nor are they asking you to solve for x; you have to make sure you’re awake enough to figure them out (unless you can do mathematical equations in your sleep, then you’re allowed to sleep in smarty-pants). When you first install the application, you get two types of puzzles for free; followed by the option to purchase 3 other puzzles to keep you off the bed and on your toes. Once you purchase additional puzzles, you activate an option to randomize the puzzles to really keep you guessing!

Set up is fairly easy. Step one is to set the time you want the alarm to go off; very similar to the way you set the native alarm. You can then indicate whether or not you want the alarm to sound only on weekdays. You must then choose a sound to wake up to. You aren’t able to tap into the ringtones and alerts that are preloaded on your BlackBerry smartphone, but you can choose from one of the ones you have hopefully installed; this includes music as well. At this point, you can then choose the volume level and vibration type (long, short or none). Finally, a handy test button allows you to try out your selection before you set it to be the background noise you hear while solving a puzzle. Now you’re ready for step two.

Step two involves choosing what type of puzzle you want to wake up to. Sorry, you don’t get to see the actual puzzles; that would be cheating. Once all are installed, you can choose from Math Puzzles (solving equations), Type the Quotes (type the exact phrase that you see), Match the Signs, memory Puzzle or Highest Number. Choose wisely and you’re done! At the very top of the menu is the alarm on/off switch, as well as the option to view the alarm status icon (just like the native alarm does). The icon for puZZed will also change when the alarm is activated. It goes from a blue speech bubble with “zz” displayed to a red speech bubble with a puzzle piece and an exclamation mark.

Once the alarm goes off, you have to get the answers, or task completed correctly before turning off the alarm. You cannot press the end call button to exit or hold it to power off – you have to figure the thing out.

Now there is one way you can turn off the alarm, it’s the ever resourceful battery pull. Of course, in some cases, puZZed comes with what is called the Ultimate Feature which accounts for this. With this feature, puZZed will know when the battery is pulled so once your BlackBerry has restarted the alarm will continue. At this point those who are using BlackBerry smartphones with OS 7 will see that this feature is absent.

Now qbotron claims that this is your “final defence from sleeping in”; but I think that title is reserved for my 4 ½ year old son on weekends. puZZed, while it may be an annoyance, is a necessary annoyance. It’s easy to set up, but not so easy to turn off (unless you are running OS 7). The developer is open to more puzzle suggestion so be sure to let them no what they can do to keep you from hitting snooze. You can pick up puZZed from BlackBerry App World.

More information/download puZZed for BlackBerry smartphones

 

Review: MyMusicCloud for BlackBerry smartphones and the BlackBerry PlayBook

I love to have music wherever I go; you never know when it will come in handy. Does this mean that I load up every single song that I have in my library onto my BlackBerry smartphone? No. Depending on how many songs you have, you could be eating into precious memory that your videos, images and other files already struggle for. Now true, there are slough of radio streaming applications you can tap into, but they too have their limitations. No matter how many settings and preferences you are given, you are still not in full control of what you are listening to. Using BlackBerry Desktop Software and WiFi Music sync puts the power of streaming your own music in your hands…until you disconnect from your wireless network. In order for WiFi Music Sync to work, your computer and your BlackBerry smartphone must be connected to the same network. On top of that, WiFi Music Sync doesn’t even work with your BlackBerry PlayBook. So what happens when you want to stream music wherever you happen to find yourself? Enter: MyMusicCloud.

 

MyMusicCloud is a online music services geared towrds connect users with their music over various platforms simultaneously. The service is powered by TriPlay who annouced MyMusicCloud on September 14th, 2011. MyMusic Cloud for BlackBerry smartphones requires you to be running OS 5.0 or higher. It currently is in version 1.6.3 and has a file size of 1.6MB - obviously not including content. The BlackBerry PlayBook version is a web based application, with a file size of only 297KB.

Cost: Free, also receive a free 2GB account. For additional storage, see prices below.

Rating of BlackBerry smartphone app in BlackBerry App World: Not yet rated

Rating BlackBerry PlayBook app in BlackBerry App World: 2/5

What users can do with MyMusicCloud is sync with their iTunes and other media players, with their BlackBerry smartphones. Actually, you can stream your music with multiple devices, you know, just in case you feel like using something not related to BlackBerry (but, why the heck would you do that?). The site says you can sync two computers and two mobile devices. That makes it incredibly easy to share your music library, as you could give your trusted friends your account information.

You aren’t able to upload music from your BlackBerry smartphone, so you need to set everything up prior to taking your music with you. The process is fairly easy; you can either upload music via their site or their Desktop Sync Agent. Most of the magic happens through the website actually, rather than with the BlackBerry smartphone app. The product description in BlackBerry App World makes it seem as though you can create ringtones from your smartphone, which definitely isn’t the case. You can only access the ones you have made online.

 

Here’s what you can do from your BlackBerry smartphone. The main menu of MyMusicCloud resembles the native Music menu; you can search music by genre, album and artist, as well as view playlists and the entire track listing. You can add/remove music to/from the queue or adjust the volume. When listening to music, you can view associated artist/album art, track title and the name of the artist/album. A progress bar is visible below, as well. Now I did find the controls to be a bit awkward with MyMusicCloud- very laggy as well. When pressing pause/play, or “restart” button, I discovered the app would either not respond to commands or would finally decide to execute them 6 to 10 seconds later. The music playback quality was, however, excellent.

Some of you might frown upon the lack of functionality around the BlackBerry smartphone app. Check this out; your BlackBerry PlayBook can get into the fun as well by accessing your account via the browser. This means that you can gain even more options that MyMusicCloud has to offer. Yes, that includes creating ringtones and accessing the Music Store; where you can purchase albums or tracks from within your dashboard. That’s over 11 million songs to choose from. Keep in mind that the store is only available in Canada, the U.S. or the U.K. You can also share your music preferences via Facebook (share album art and links to allow friends to sample, download or purchase tracks) and look up lyrics for the track you are listening to.

MyMusicCloud offers everyone a 2GB account for free. Want access to even more songs? They also provide premium accounts where you get:

5GB for $10/year

10GB for $20/year

20GB for $40/year

MyMusicCloud offers support for both online and offline support. The application will continue to make already downloaded music available for your listening enjoyment. Oh and the application also supports videos, as well.

If the playback controls could be more responsive, we would have an outstanding hit on our hands. Having access to a full bodied suite of options from the BlackBerry PlayBook is a saving grace, if you actually own one. You can look at it like this; once you set up your account, you have a lightweight, simplistic access point to your music AND newly created ringtones! Remember that, if you want to check out MyMusicCloud, you have a free 2GB account to mess around with. You can grab the BlackBerry smartphone app, and the BlackBerry PlayBook webapp, for free from BlackBerry App World.

More information/download MyMusicCloud for BlackBerry smartphones

More information/download MyMusicCloud for the BlackBerry PlayBook



Check out the MyMusicCloud site

 

Review: MediaKeyBooster for BlackBerry smartphones - 25 copies to be won!

Hey, how many convenience keys do you have on your BlackBerry smartphone? One… that’s too bad. I have four- that’s right; I’m using the Bold 9900 and I have four convenience keys. See, they’re all lined up on the right hand side. Okay, Okay, I know they’re media keys but, to me, they’re also convenience keys. This added functionality is brought to you by MediaKeyBooster, which lets you configure up to four apps, commands or shortcuts to each of your media keys. Volume up, volume down, even play/pause; they can all be made to do more than they were originally designed for. 

For things like opening the Calendar, Brickbreaker, or your Browser, I didn’t have to look at my screen anymore; I could just click a button a few times and away I go. Now is this really added convenience or do I now have to remember which app was on which button and how many clicks I need? Let’s take a look.

 

MediaKeyBooster was made possible by Fonware Ltd; the same developer for the powerful shortcut app ‘ShortcutMe’, which allows you to create shortcuts and macros-assign up to 3 commands on a single convenience key or space key. MediaKeyBooster is available for BlackBerry smartphones running OS 4.5 or higher. The most current version available to the public is 1.4.1.0, which has a file size of 27 KB.

Cost: $0.99

Rating in CrackBerry App Store: 5/5

Rating in BlackBerry App World: 5/5

MediaKeyBooster is a fairly simple app to use and set up, once you figure out where the heck you can access it. There’s no icon to select, nor can it be found in the settings- under Third Party Applications. To set up, you have to press one of the media keys at least twice. What this does is bring up the set up page for that particular key and number of clicks. From here, you can choose to disable the app when a blacklisted app is playing (I’ll get into that a little bit later) and which app to open normally or alternatively. As the developer points out, some apps can’t be opened “the usual way”, so if you set an app to launch via Alternative Launching (by assigning either * or #), MediaKeyLauncher will attempt to launch it using “alternative methods”. If app runs in the background, set the Alternative Launching to _BG.

BlackListed Apps are applications that require the media keys for functionality (music application, streaming radio app, etc). By adding these types of applications to the BlackListed app section of MediaKeyLauncher, the application will not launch anything as the volume being is adjusted. You could customize it further, by saying you will allow a button to be pressed twice while using a media application, but a third time will launch something else. Enable/Disable the ability to open the main configuration page after 5 clicks. Regardless, when using a media app, 10 clicks will always bring up MediaKeyBooster. Keep in mind that if you want to BlackList an application, it has to be running in the background. By adding _FG to the name of a selected app, it will be considered blacklisted only if it’s running in the foreground.

Managing the BlackListed apps is actually done in the main menu. To initially access it, press a media key multiple times to access the setup menu for that key – then press the back button. I know you’re thinking this is a hassle, but hear me out; there’s another option. In the main menu, press your menu button and select “Home Screen Icon?”, the app will ask you if you want to install as home screen icon for quicker access. Don’t worry, it’s only a mere 7kb. You will also see additional options such as; the ability to store/restore settings to/from your media card. The main menu lets you choose which button you want to work with; once selected, it jumps back to the first view you saw (by clicking on a media key that is).

Quick access to applications is something that everyone wants, and MediaKeyBooster does deliver. I’m glad to see the app icon can be downloaded, but some people might not read instructions and get frustrated looking for one. It was easy to set up shortcuts and manage the blacklist. It should be noted that if you also had ShortcutMe on your BlackBerry smartphone, MediaKeyBooster can also be set up to launch ShortcutMe shortcuts or stop macros. If you’d like to pick up MediaKeyBooster, it’s currently available for $0.99 from both the CrackBerry App Store and BlackBerry App World (but you know, you should pick it up from the CrackBerry!).

Contest: We have 25 copies of MediaKeyBooster up for grabs. All you have to do is leave a comment on this post to be entered. Tell us which apps you want to creat a shortcut for? Contest ends this Sunday at midnight PST.

More information/download MediaKeyBooster for BlackBerry smartphones

Review: SystemDash for BlackBerry smartphones

We’ve heard time again how important it is to keep an eye on your memory and battery level. As hard as we try, there are times where we slip and forget to check. I’ve forgotten to close a few apps before flopping onto the couch to watch a movie or two. The next thing you know, my BlackBerry is almost completely drained. Nothing alerted me. I swear, if only my BlackBerry cried for help, I would have paused the movie to take care of the situation.

If you don’t have your BlackBerry in hand, SystemDash will keep you in the know. Battery level alerts are integrated into your BlackBerry profiles, while the app monitors items such as your available memory and battery temperature. Looking to save your battery juice instead of squeezing every last ounce of it out? Take a look.

 

SystemDash was developed by Mobato Ltd and is their first BlackBerry application. It’s compatible with BlackBerry smartphones running OS 4.6 or higher, though there is no OS 7 support at this time. The most current version is 2.3.0 which has a file size of 185.7 KB.

Rating in CrackBerry AppStore – 4/5

Rating in BlackBerry App World - 4.5/5

Cost $1.99

SystemDash is a hub of information about your BlackBerry smartphone; more specifically, its memory and battery life. It’s true that there are a number of applications that report on the same stuff, but I did like the UI of the application. It’s simplistic in nature, colourfully informative and customizable. In the initial view, without any tweaks, the following categories can be seen; Applications, Battery, Memory, Storage and My Device. Let’s take a peak at each

Applications – On the main menu, this category will quickly tell you how many applications are running; divided into visible and background. Clicking on this category will take you to a list view of what’s running, in alphabetical order and with icons. The icons will indicate if the app will auto-run on start-up, is a background process, is a system process or will restart on exit. Clicking on each application will give you information such as its version number, description and file size. There’s no option to close an application using SystemDash.

Battery – The main page displays a battery representing…well, battery life of course! The battery icon will display the general charge level, where a more accurate numerical value is shown next to the category title. You can also see the battery temperature and voltage. Click to go further into the Battery view and you can also see Camera, Radio and Wireless availability. If the battery level is too low, some of these may be unavailable. On the home screen, SystemDash provides a small battery icon with the percentage level next to it.

Memory and Storage – The next two categories cover your flash memory and on-device storage memory. Look at the background colours in each- the lighter shade represents the free memory. Clicking on each category will take you to a screen where you’re given a breakdown of items and how much memory they are taking. In the case of Memory, it’s broken down into: Application, Data, Objects, Ram, Transient and Other. Storage is split into: Documents, Music, Pictures, Ringtones and Videos.

My Device – This category shows you your PIN, number, model, platform and software.

Everything I just listed doesn’t necessarily have to appear in the order that you see; SystemDash allows you to shuffle the categories around. Too bad you weren’t able to hide categories – I didn’t really need to see my device info.

Tools and Alerts - Either from within SystemDash, or your Profile menu, you can set up alerts for when your battery level dips below predefined levels or when your memory has been boosted. If you went through the application to set these up, you can also choose to see a popup or not.

From your BlackBerry menu, you can access SystemDash tools for a quick memory pick me up or clean, view the event log (instead of pressing ALT+LGLG to access it) and clean the log.

SystemDash does a great job of monitoring your memory and battery life. I would have liked to see more options, such as which actions to take when levels hit a certain point. I loved how the application gave multiple views to satisfy those who prefer a quick glance and those to crave detail. Other commands offer an alternative access point for the event log, device info and charging status. If you want to check out SystemDash for yourself, it’s currently available for $1.99 from the CrackBerry App Store.

Download SystemDash for BlackBerry Smartphones

Review: Do you know where your BlackBerry is? Tracesaver does

Your BlackBerry slinks into the front door and carefully closes it. Being way past curfew, it tries to sneak back to its charging cradle before it gets caught. The lights flick on and it stops dead in its tracks. It knows it’s in trouble by the glare you’re giving it. You ask where it has been and who has been using it behind your back. Knowing it can’t lie to you, it (somehow) performs a self security wipe. In the morning it will forget what happened, as though it was in a drunken stupor. You’re not going to let it slide however. You have a pretty good idea of what it got up to last night; for you had Tracesaver installed and running those wild hours before the wipe.

Tracesaver keeps tabs on a BlackBerry when it is out and about. It records what types of activity it’s performed and where it is (or has been). I’ve seen similar applications being used for the forces of evil (or just plain sleaziness), but I truly think this is a great, cost effective method of keeping tabs on your kids, staff, or your own missing/stolen smartphone. Read on for a quick look.

 

The Tracesaver application, aka BBCallWatchV500, is brought to you by Metricell Ltd. Tracesaver is their free “subscriber experience” option. Current version of the application is 1.8.1 and has a minimal file size of 156.6 KB

Once downloaded, access the application and register an email address you want to associate your Tracesaver account with. The rest of the set up happens from your computer. The Tracesaver application on the BlackBerry offers limited features. The main screen will display monitoring and network details. You will see data such as; positioning, GPS status, number of satellites and CGI (Common Gateway Interface). The application also has limited tracking abilities using a map. In map mode, your recorded locations are represented by dots, which provide details about date, time and signal strength. Besides being able to zoom in, out or snap to your position, there’s really not much you can do with this feature. The real magic can be seen at Tracesaver.com. The information that the Tracesaver application captures is sent to the Tracesaver site, either via email or HTTP – you’ll be looking at 700 to 900 kb daily. It doesn’t provide live tracking, but rather recorded history of movement and usage.

  

Tracesaver utilizes Microsoft Silverlight in order to provide an extremely smooth and rich navigation interface. To be honest, I was both impressed and a little creeped out about how much detail Tracesaver was able to capture. As far as reporting goes on the website, I can view any usage other than data. I’m going to focus on the reporting. so we will only look at two screens: My Day and My Calls.

So you don’t entirely believe that your son was actually at the library studying until 3am on Friday night? Time to log into Tracesaver. At this point, the route is plotted on an interactive map. Along the route, dots of multiple colours indicate the signal strength recorded at those points – don’t worry, a legend is provided as well. Other icons are used to represent Call start /End points, dropped calls, data traffic, GPS interpolated position and network location. Not all icons seem to be used as none of my dropped calls were marked. My data traffic was nowhere to be seen on the My Day screen, but can be made accessible in the My Calls screen. A yellow line shows the route taken between the call start and end points. This way, you know if someone says they’re about to go into a produce store, but they’re actually in an Arby’s drive-thru. The map has four views to choose from: Road, Bird’s eye OSM (OpenStreetMap) or Aerial.

Despite being able to use my GPS with other applications to view my direction, Tracesaver didn’t seem to allow me to see the information on the map. The dots told me where I was at a specific interval, but didn’t show my actual path. When I clicked on a dot it also told me what was my Lat/Lon coordinates, signal strength, battery level, altitude and speed and accuracy (in metres). If you click on a call start dot, you will see the same information, plus the phone number dialed/called. Below the map is a series of graphs that can be used to view the same values over a period of time. In other words, you can see your battery level change throughout the day, your speed and how much your signal strength varied.

To the right of the screen, a calendar allows you to choose which day you want to look at. You can also see the details of the number in question (number, carrier, model, manufacturer and IMEI). Below this is the Route Details section, giving you an Interval by Interval list of which town the user was in, the duration, and the signal strength.

 

My Calls is supposed to report on Today, Last Week and Last Month. I have never been able to access details about the current day, and the days from this week are grouped into the report for last week. The left half of this screen captures the quality of the signal strength, call, 3G service, coverage, data connection and data speed and uses a 5 star rating for each. Below this are the calls made in the specific report, with each indicating the date/time, duration, location, coverage, number of the other party, incoming/outgoing status, 2G or 3G network, as well as your battery life. The right side of the screen also makes use of the map and, as I mentioned before, I can also see when and where there was any data communication. It won’t say what it was, but it will tell me the upload/download speed and how much data was involved. The map screen can switch to a summary screen giving me details like my top 10 calls or locations and site proximity.

 

Before I say anything else, if you are looking at this for personal use, make sure the person using the BlackBerry knows that the application is on there. Stalking is a real no-no. Of course, it’s kind of hard to miss, seeing how it shows up under the active applications all of the time. If you’re looking to use it to keep track of your employees in the field, or even your kids, why not go with this free tracker? It also helps you learn where the weak or dead spots are for your carrier. I did find that the application was a bit of a strain on my battery life, but nothing significant. For more information on this service, head over to Tracesaver.com

Tracesaver.com

Download Tracesaver for BlackBerry Smartphones

Review: BatteryPlus for BlackBerry smartphones - promotional pricing available!

 

Battery life; it’s the power users kryptonite. The sense of panic grows as you see the battery meter slowly drain before your very eyes. It can’t always be helped, as many factors come into play. Blame it on a faulty app, leaked OS or too many youtube videos accessed. You can also point your finger (the index, not the middle) at an application not properly closed or too many charges from a rapid charger. As Joseph mentioned a few months earlier, you have plenty of charging options to choose from. There are times when you find yourself far away from any type of charger (or outlet) and without a spare battery to swap with. You don’t necessarily want to turn off the radio to optimize power, as you need to get a few things done asap.

Having a battery monitoring app like BatteryPlus may be just what the battery doctor ordered. The application consistently monitors your battery level, provides estimated battery life and collects a log of your battery level over a period of time. It even starts to shut down processes based on battery level, low signal or even when your BlackBerry is idle. Let’s see how BatteryPlus handles a battery of tests.

 

BatteryPlus was developed by eMobiStudio Inc, who is all about generating efficiency and dependability. The company was founded in 2005 and provides a library of cross-platform applications. They’ve provided BlackBerry users with applications such as MemoryUp Pro (and Personal), NetworkAcc (a Mobile Network Accelerator) and HotkeyManager. The application is compatible with BlackBerry smartphones running OS 4.2 or higher. The most current version of BatteryPlus is 2.0 and has a file size of 686.8 KB

Cost: $9.99, currently on sale for $5.99

Rating in the CrackBerry AppStore: 5/5

Rating in BlackBerry App World: 4.5/5

 

 

So the first piece of information you will see, when accessing the application, is the battery status. It identifies the battery capacity/charge level (given in a percentage), temperature in Celsius or Fahrenheit, the voltage and the charging status. I found it a bit confusing to see a status that told me whether or not the battery was removable or not. Any compatible BlackBerry smartphone has a removable battery and the BlackBerry PlayBook isn’t compatible. Perhaps BatteryPlus can detect if you have glued your battery to the inside of your BlackBerry…

This screen also gives you an estimated guess as to what the remaining talk and standby times may be, based on your specific model of smartphone – represented by minutes and hours, respectively. From the menu, you can also choose to view additional device info. Not pertanent to the battery per se, but you can see PIN, platform version, model and memory of your smartphone, as well as your wireless number and network (vendor, type of network and WiFi status).

 

 

Reporting for duty. Within the Battery Log is a graphical representation of the power usage. It measures the charge percentage against time on a line graph and can be used to see a log over a day, week or a month. There’s also a Log view, which shows what level your battery is currently at- in intervals of 30 to 60 minutes (your choice). It will also indicate a charge or discharge next to the percentage (using a simple “-“ to indicate a discharge).

 

 

Now we come to the most important part – getting as much juice as you can from your battery. In the menu is a Process View option. It works exactly the same as a simple Switch Application where it shows all of the active processes and allows you to jump to one. To make this more effective, the process view should include an option to end the process without having to switch to the application to close it.

Now, the Battery Boost is where you can really tweak with the settings in order to make your BlackBerry more power conscious. You can activate the Auto-Lock after 30 seconds, 1 min, 3 minutes or 5 minutes. Once locked, you can then choose to disable WiFi or turn off your LED. If you want to prepare for Code Red (low battery), you can again turn on/off WiFi or LED, as well as the backlight, play an audible warning and modify vibration feature. BatteryPlus will automatically play a sample of the audible alarm once it is selected. You cannot choose a downloaded tone unfortunately, so you choices are quite limited.

 

More power is used when you are in an area of poor coverage and that means a decreased battery life while you struggle to maintain a signal. Through BatteryPlus, you can disable the radio and WiFi if it falls below a specific threshold. You can then choose how long the application should wait until it turns them off, as well as how long to wait until turning them back on. These are great options, but I had a suggestion for turning off WiFi for low signal. I would have included an option to not turn it back on automatically at all. The reason is because if a person is leaving to go elsewhere, they may not be going somewhere else with WiFi. So rather than constantly activating and deactivating WiFi, just leave it off until the user wants to connect again.

 

BatteryPlus is a nearly effortless way to manage your battery life. Again, a couple of additional options here and there will add to the efficiency. Having the log can help you remember what you were doing at the time of the big power level drop and hopefully make you more aware (and more conservative). The audible alert helped remind me that I forgot to close a power draining application a few times. If you want to check out BatteryPlus, you can pick it up for $5.99 (regular price is $9.99).

Promotion: As an exclusive offer to the CrackBerry Nation, you can use the promo code CrackBerry2011 to get BatteryPlus for only $4.99! Offer expires August 16th at midnight PST. Please note: This code will only work in the mobile app store or mobile app store client from your device. 

More information/download BatteryPlus from the CrackBerry App Store

Review: deToday for BlackBerry smartphones

One of the numerous features that I love about BlackBerry OS 6 is the one touch access to the today screen. Before that, users would normally have to choose between a today layout and a zen / dimension type layout. Before OS 6, I was never a fan of the Today layout, as I found it had too much information thrown at you all at once-all to drive you crazy. OS 6 combined it just right: one click let me see what today held and one click swept it away from sight (just before my eye started twitching). As it stands, you gain a view into your messages, upcoming calendar entries and call log. Like any good BlackBerry user you ask yourself, “well, what else can I look at?!” Usually, a developer answers the call.

In this case, OdEve came up with deToday and named it “The Revolutionary Today Screen App”. It was also named a Regional Selection Winner in the 2010 BlackBerry Super Apps Competition. With that much hype, I couldn’t help but take this application for a test drive. Did deToday make my day? Read on to find out.

 

As I mentioned before, deToday was developed by OdEve, who has a dehabit of denaming their deapps with ‘de” in the defront. These apps include deAltSMS, deBattGym and deReset to name a defew. deToday is available for BlackBerrys running OS 4.7 or higher. The most current version of deToday is 2.54.73, which has a file size of 86 KB.

CrackBerry App Store Rating: 5/5

BlackBerry App World Rating: 4/5

Price: Currently $4.99- 15 day free trial available

What deToday does is place a simplified today screen on your background. No call log, no messages, just appointments. Well that isn’t all that it does. I could see recurring, one-time and all-day events. It also provides customization options that allow you to modify font type, size, family, colour and effect. Users can also adjust the positioning of the text until you get it just right. It’s a lot easier than hanging a picture on a wall (no…the other left).

Background images can also be selected to display when deToday is active. The native today screen limits your view to three calendar events whereas deToday can handles up to 20 – perfect for the BlackBerry social butterfly. Want more event details to be seen? How do start and end times grab you? Or even extend event search to the previous 10 days or the next year? Multiple Calendars can be viewed at once; Facebook, Gmail, BlackBerry Messenger Groups and more.

For weather information, deToday integrates well with the ever popular BerryWeather. Customization options include positioning/layout, show location, observed time and the depth of weather information you wish to see. For touch screen BlackBerrys, deToday lists the landscape mode as “alternative view”. I was able to set up a completely different layout for landscape mode if I wanted to; not a bad feature to have, depending on your preferences.

Privacy might be an issue for you, but deToday can hide your appointments when your BlackBerry is locked. I came to think of the application as a todo list more than an appointment reminder. It all depends on how your use your calendar. The only issue I saw had to do with the background image. While switching between landscape and portrait mode, the image/wallpaper would lose resolution slightly, then correct itself – fairly minor if you ask me.

 

deToday is right up your alley if you need accessibility when it comes to calendar appointments and weather. With the power to personalize the design, it is definitely your day. The only effort you need to put into this app is the initial setup. Once that is done, deToday melds nicely into your BlackBerry. It’s currently on sale for $4.99 in both the CrackBerry App Store and BlackBerry App World.

More information/download deToday from the CrackBerry App Store

QuickView Pro - Find out if that email/SMS is worth looking at without going to your inbox

So I'm waitng for an email from our fearless leader here at CrackBerry and am passing the time watching some YouTube videos. When my email notification finally goes off I immeadiately scramble to open my inbox. Drat! It's just an email from my mother with another "funny" story about my nephew. Those of us who have the BlackBerry Style 9670 already have a built in pop-up feature for the outer screen letting us preview an email or SMS when our device is closed. Now with QuickView Pro, by AHazDesigns, you can see who the incoming message just came from & if it's important enough to read right away.

You even have the option of changing the color and size of the pop-up. QuickView Pro is available for pretty much every BlackBerry (OS 4.5 or higher) and is supported by all carriers & countries. Grab a copy today and quit wasting your precious time on spam messages!

More information / download of QuickView Pro via BlackBerry App World

More information / download of QuickView Pro via CrackBerry App Store

Review: Carbonite for BlackBerry smartphones

 

Carbonite Inc has been around since 2005. The company provides a nearly effortless way to back up and restore data on your computer. In fact, their motto is simply “Back it up. Get it back”. The days of not backing up your personal data are over, and have been for quite some time, so why aren’t you? There are many different options to consider; Carbonite is one to definitely look at. As far as security goes, they use 128-bit Blowfish encryption to keep everything locked down tight. They can handle all user generated files, no matter if you are looking at backing up a few documents, 200 GB of music or more.

As far as BlackBerry goes, they’ve added a few updates to their Carbonite application not too long ago. Through the Carbonite app, you can browse through, download and email practically any file you have backed up from your PC to your account. Is this the type of access you are looking for? Let’s take a peek.

 

Before you get started, you have to set up an account and install Carbonite on your computer. During the setup, you will be asked to give your computer a nickname and identify it as either a server, laptop or desktop. You can then choose what you want to back up – you can specify which files (documents, spreadsheets, presentation, images, music, etc) or folders you want. You can also select Programs files, email, settings and contacts, as well. Depending on what you have selected, your initial back up could potentially take hours. I initially selected 608 files to back up (roughly 0.33 GB) and it took 10-15 minutes or so.

 

Of course what we are more interested in is what the heck does this have to do with BlackBerry? Carbonite has a free application that acts a doorway to your backed up files. In the BlackBerry app you will be asked to select which computer you want to work with, if you have more than one set up. The files are organized just was they were on your computer – in their proper folders and directories (of sorts). In my case, the music I selected to be backed up weren’t technically in my Music folder on my computer. Files are displayed in a list by default, but you can switch the view to thumbnail quite easily. To further this, images can be viewed as thumbnails or you can download to view them in full screen mode. Each file will display its size and the date it was last modified.

 

Pulling up folders and files is a little sluggish. Downloading an image with a file size of 893kb takes nearly 30 seconds. Now with Carbonite, you can hit Send in the menu in order to download then attach them to an outgoing email. I guess you can’t use the excuse that the file you need is at home can you? When accessing audio files, you have the option to save or stream them. It seems to only take a few seconds for the file to play. I found that I wasn’t able to skip forward or back, as it continued to get caught up while buffering.

  

In order to access your account on your BlackBerry, you will need to provide the associated email account and password. In the settings menu, you can enable the application to automatically log you out, after a specific period of inactive time. Carbonite also includes a saved file section, which is said to be for quick access and offline viewing. It essentially downloads the file as normal, but doesn’t necessarily store it in the typical directories, and forces you to access the application to view it. I was a little disappointed that I was not able to upload any files from my BlackBerry. Similar services, such as DropBox and SugarSync, allow users to do so. I am hoping to see these options added to Carbonite soon.

The application is free, but requires an annual subscription for the service. Carbonite gives you unlimited backup space for $59 per computer per year. They do offer a free 15 day trial to see if it works for you. To compare, SugarSync offers various packages from a free 5GB plan to a 500 GB plan for $399.99 per year. DropBox offers start from a free 2GB plan to a 100 GB plan for $19.99/month. Services vary between each company; some may offer real-time upload of changes, others cannot back up every folder.

 

Despite not being able to upload my own files from my BlackBerry, I could appreciate the accessibility to my backed up files that I did have. Essentially, it comes down to how many options you want to have, and how much storage. If you want unlimited space with a few less features, it’s hard to argue with the $59 per year value. The Carbonite app is free from BlackBerry App World.

Official Carbonite site
More information/download Carbonite from BlackBerry App World