Customizing your BlackBerry 8800

My employer, fount of all that is good and holy, recently replaced my four-year-old cell phone with a spiffy new BlackBerry 8800. On my part, it wasn’t love at first sight; I was initially put off by using the tiny trackball to maneuver around the BlackBerry’s clunky user interface. Now that I’ve customized the device to fit the way I want to use it, however, the BB has become my baby, and I carry it everywhere.

One of my first steps was to reorganize the user interface. You can move icons on the BlackBerry’s home page by pressing the menu key and selecting Move Application. I arranged my icons to put the most frequently used ones near the top in logical groupings — first phone functions, then all message applications, Web browsers, games, and so on. I also removed icons I had no plans to use, such as Push to Talk, by pressing the menu key and clicking Hide Application.

I tried to add a custom home screen image, but I was disappointed to find that the image didn’t fill the whole background, but only a wide stripe in the middle of the screen, which didn’t look good. In the process I found it helps to have a light-colored background to make it easier to see the home page icons.

I had to organize my icons several times, because I added a number of useful and recreational applications. I began with instant messaging clients, of which I found several. Ramble, a free AOL Instant Messenger client, is beta software, so I’m not surprised to find it flawed, but its main problem is a killer — it disconnects when the BlackBerry’s screen goes dark after two minutes of inactivity. Google Talk works much better, but you must download it via Internet Explorer, because the installer uses ActiveX controls. The same is true for Yahoo! Messenger, but I discovered after I installed it that it doesn’t work over the AT&T Mobility network.

Instead of that mish-mash of apps, I plan to pick up a copy of JiveTalk, which incorporates clients for AOL Instant Messenger, ICQ, Yahoo! Messenger, MSN Live Messenger, and Jabber. I tried trial versions of both JiveTalk and IM+ All-in-One Mobile Messenger, which is a comparable but more expensive application. The $50 pricetag of IM+ points out a problem with the BlackBerry platform: Compared to Palm or Windows Mobile, proprietary applications are pretty expensive. Because the market is smaller, there are fewer options, and therefore vendors can charge more for their wares.

I also use IRC to keep in touch. jmIrc is a well-implemented IRC client whose interface works pretty well on the BlackBerry’s tiny screen.

I keep my contact database in Act!, but I didn’t need all of the 2,400 records I have stored in it on my BlackBerry. I only call a few dozen people, and adding more numbers to my address book would just make things difficult. I could have set up a new database in Act! to hold only my phone contacts and synchronize them with the BlackBerry’s address book, but I had another constraint.

I use AirSet to keep my calendar online. AirSet provides a Desktop Sync application for Windows, but it communicates only with Palm Desktop or Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express. It made sense to use a single application to manage both contacts and calendar, so I bit the bullet and installed Outlook (though I still won’t use it for email). Because my old phone lacked a removable SIM, I had to re-enter my address book by hand, but once I had it, I could copy contacts and calendar items back and forth with ease, and stay in sync with my schedule on the Web via AirSet.

Linux users may want to try an application called Barry to synchronize their devices with applications on their favorite operating system. I got Barry installed, but I never got it working.

Web fun

Speaking of the Web, I set up a mobile portal for myself at Netvibes.com, which I can access on the small screen using m.netvibes.com. It’s populated by RSS feeds on various sites I like to keep up with, so it contains links to current articles.

I heard great things about the Opera Mini browser, so I gave it a try, but I found its user interface more confusing than the bundled browsers.

When I don’t feel like browsing the Web, I like to read, so Mobipocket Reader was an essential download. It can import HTML, text, RTF, PDB, and Microsoft Word documents.

I created custom ringtones out of MP3 files by using Audacity.

Fun and games

While all of the above helped keep me busy and productive, I also needed something fun that would give my mind a break. I discovered the BlackBerry Freeware site and downloaded the freeware games I found there from Magmic Games, but the hearts, cribbage, and Klondike games were virtually unplayable because of their tiny images and black-and-white display. Magmic has dozens more colorful games available, but they all cost a few bucks. I had better luck with the free games at Mobile Rated. You can find a few other free games by pointing your BlackBerry at mobile.blackberry.com.

Finally, I download a streaming media player. Radio Bee failed to install, but MFRadio worked fine. I had some trouble adding my favorite Internet radio station, but once I found a URL that didn’t rely on Windows Media’s ASX Advanced Stream Redirector, I was in business.

Now that I’ve tailored my BlackBerry to suit my taste, I’m hungry for more. Please share your favorite add-ons and enhancements by commenting below.