The one feature that only BlackBerry offers which I will truly miss is BlackBerry Messenger. It really is the best at what it does. There is no replacement. BBM alone though is not enough to keep me with BlackBerry. I believe that if RIM does not step their game up, BlackBerry will be left behind. I understand that they are a secure, corporate devices but consumers want a rich media experience. That is a fact RIM cannot ignore.

I’ll post additional thoughts after I have more time to become acquainted with my new device.

Go to Options then Screen/Keyboard.

1. I changed my Backlight Brightness from the default of 100 to 50. This will set the maximum brightness to 50%. It is noticeably dimmer at first, but after using it for a few minutes you will not notice the difference anymore.

2. Make sure Automatically Dim Backlight is set to On. This will automatically adjust the Backlight according to the light level of the room you are in. The backlight however will never be brighter than what you set the Backlight Brightness to.

3. Change the Backlight Timeout to 10 seconds. Sometimes this can be a little bit annoying, but more often than not I do not need the backlight to say on for the default 30 seconds.

These three settings working together can greatly improve the battery life of your BlackBerry. My BlackBerry Tour went from barley making it a day on a single charge, to running well into the night.

Update: This OS is now available for download here.

• Receive instant notifications on your BlackBerry smartphones home screen.
• Send/receive message or wall posts, pokes and friend requests.
• Update your status, view and comment on your friends’ status.
• Share photos from your BlackBerry smartphone with tags/comments and post to Facebook with just one click.
• Connect your Facebook friends with your BlackBerry Address Book – including profile picture integration which brings a whole new meaning to caller ID.
• Stay on top of your life with birthday reminders and event integration into your BlackBerry Calendar.

One of my favorite new features is Facebook contant integration with your BlackBerry contacts. When the application matches a BlackBerry contact to a Facebook contact, it will keep their picture current on your BlackBerry!

You can get Facebook 1.5 OTA directly from RIM at http://www.blackberry.com/facebook

Source: http://snipurl.com/gg3no (Gizmodo)

I find the game more frustrating than anything. My largest compliant is that if a data transfer occurs while playing, it seems to bog the game down. Now that in it of itself is bad enough. To further compound the problem, when this happens the ball jumps randomly around the screen! I’ve even seen the ball go directly through bricks without breaking them. WTF? Also, there appears to be a magic space where the corners of two bricks meet. I can’t tell you how many times the ball has “slipped” through this little hole. Fuck you ball!

Lastly, the paddle. Oh, how I hate you paddle. I depend on the WHOLE paddle to play the game. Apparently the programmers did not intend for this. You see, sometimes the ball goes right thorough those curved corners. To make matters worse, sometimes the ball goes through the whole damn paddle. The paddle can go to hell! Now should the paddle be still when the ball hits it, the ball may just decide to speed up after bouncing off the paddle for no apparent reason. Who the fuck programmed this piece of shit?

Couple all of this with the fact that sometimes when I try to feather the paddle, it goes the complete opposite direction of the trackball! Now, I do attribute this more to sketchiness in the trackball than I do to the programming of BrickBreaker. Nonetheless, it is infuriating!

BrickBreaker is useful for one thing: instilling within me the strong desire to throw my beloved BlackBerry at the wall. You won’t win BrickBreaker! I’ll thwort you yet!

• TwitterBerry 0.8
  • New look on the post screen
• TwitterBerry 0.7
  • Smarter network detection support
  • BES connection support, due to popular request!
  • Picture support through www.TwitPic.com.
  • Refresh timelines from current timeline screen
  • Configurable auto-updating of timelines
  • Longer list of tweets: 200 instead of 20
  • Reply to tweets and direct messages
  • Send Direct Messages and view your Direct Message inbox
  • New network indicator dialogs
  • Configuration options moved into the BlackBerry Options screen
  • New shortcuts on all list screens: ‘r’ to reply, and ‘d’ to send a direct message
  • Favorite and Delete tweets from any timeline
  • Allow overflow of 140 characters when typing your tweet
  • Optimize the menu screens so the most commonly used choices are easy to access
  • URLs in tweets can be selected and opened in your BlackBerry Browser
  • User customizable default application entry screen
  • Many other small bug fixes and usability enhancements

Link to TwitterBerry

*Image courtesy of CrackBerry.com

Full BGR story.

Change Window Start Date and Time: 7 June 2008 02:00:00 (EDT)
Change Window End Date and Time: 7 June 2008 06:00:00 (EDT)
Estimated Duration of Service Impact: 1 hour(s) and 0 minute(s)
% of Subscribers Affected: 100.00 (estimated)
Purpose: Server Upgrade

Change Window Start Date and Time: 8 June 2008 02:00:00 (EDT)
Change Window End Date and Time: 8 June 2008 06:00:00 (EDT)
Estimated Duration of Service Impact: 1 hour(s) and 0 minute(s)
% of Subscribers Affected: 100.00 (estimated)
Purpose: Server Upgrade