After using a Palm organizer for a few years, and then a Treo smartphone (the big bulky kind with the fat stubby antenna) for 4 years, I finally down-sized to a Blackberry Pearl last year, and I ABSOLUTELY LOVED it! I spent the next few months in awe at how small it was (same size as Cheryl’s regular cell phone), yet it could do 99% of what my Treo could.
Eventually the shine wore off, and I’ve found myself looking around at other phones. Some have full qwerty keyboards, others have better cameras, and a few others have sexy touch-screens & lots of apps. And these don’t even count the new “android” phones about to hit the market – phones built by Google and expected to rival iPhones in form and function! But since my phone excels for business (phone, email, text), I was reluctant to jump ship. Instead I spent some time playing with it and “tricking it out.”
Here’s what I’ve done:
Memory Card ($25). Doing anything fun, or extending your business use, is going to require memory. I had a 2gb micro sd card, but I just upgraded that. An 8gb micro sd card (with an sd adapter so you can plug it directly into a computer) is only $25, maybe less if you shop around.
Movies & Videos w/ any dvd converter pro (free demo or paid version). Last year I downloaded an application which allowed me to copy dvd movies onto the kids’ mp3 player. Doing this for myself, I can now watch Wedding Crashers, 300, or an episode of Entourage on my BB.
Custom Ringtones w/ Audacity (free). Audacity lets you grab any part of a song (just the chorus, or the guitar riff, for example) and turn it into a ring tone. You can then assign different sound-bytes to different callers.
Blackberry iPod w/ Blackberry Media Sync (free). Send your iTunes’ playlists to your BB with a couple of mouseclicks. I now use my Pearl as my iPod, with the added functionality of a built-in speaker if I don’t have my headphones with me!
Blackberry Radio w/ Pandora (free). Sign up for a pandora account, then download the pandora app to your BB. You now have a smart-radio; you get a chance to give each song that plays a thumbs up or thumbs down, and Pandora will customize a radio station to suit your tastes.
Tethering. Use your BB as your laptop modem to access the internet when you’re out and about. Verizon charges $30/month for this feature. Or you can call Verizon and have them activate the service only on the days you need it. They’ll prorate the charge ($1 per day), but they’ll only let you do this once or twice per billing cycle.
Google Sync (free). I moved to Gmail a couple of months ago, mostly as a way to deal with spam. Once there, I didn’t like having to use Outlook for some things and Gmail for others, so I moved my contacts, calendar, and tasks to Google. Now my email, contacts, calendar, and tasks sync automatically without me having to do anything! I haven’t opened Outlook or my Blackberry Desktop Manager in over a month – this is faster, easier, and just as accurate!
Voice-activated Google, and Google Maps with “you are here” w/ Google Mobile Apps (free). One-click access to your own personalized Google Apps Suite, along with the ability to voice-command a google search (or google maps search). In addition, when I open Google Maps it displays a little blue dot showing me where I am, a nice feature when I’m driving around an unfamiliar part of town.
Big Sound w/ little capsule speakers ($50). These speakers are tiny and amazingly loud. They can be used individually, or together for a bigger stereo sound. And best of all, they contain a rechargeable battery & plug into your usb port to charge. It takes about 30 minutes to charge them for about 4 hours of sound.
Alarm Clock w/ BBSmart Alarms Pro (<$10). A heavy-duty timer and alarm clock with an unlimited number of alarms and the ability to use songs (and custom-built ring tones) as alarms.
Blackberry App World. one-click access from your BB to hundreds of other apps (some free, some not), allowing you to customize your BB to your liking. This is where I found the Pandora app. (and the FaceBook app, too!)
New Battery ($30). Part of my desire for a new phone was because my battery had gotten old and my talk-time on a full charge was less than an hour. One new battery later and my BB is like new; I can get through most of the day on my initial charge again.
Super Cool Sticker. Well, super cool to a 5-year old. I took J to Ridemakerz for his 5th BDay, and when he decked his dragster out with flames stickers, he put one on my phone. I’m pretty sure it makes by BB a little faster..
What else? OK Blackberry fans – what are you doing with your BB that I haven’t mentioned? I’d love to hear your tips!
Your happy to have new love for an old phone Realtor,
Chris Butterworth
Chris Butterworth spends more time analyzing statistics and reading economic reports than is healthy. He's also a husband, father, writer, and amateur photographer. In his spare time he trained for and competed in his first triathlon.
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@ Chris – that MyTouch is one of the sweetest-looking phones I’ve seen. If it works half as good as it looks it’ll be a home-run! You’ll have to report back & let us know..
@ Jami – Wow! A custom fitted earpiece?! Never heard of it.. I’m going to check that out. Thanks for sharing!
I too love my Pearl but there is one thing that you haven’t done that I would consider. If you are on the phone as much as I am during the day you may want to consider getting a custom ear attachment for your Bluetooth. It did take 20 minutes of my time for the ear impressions but it was so worth it. I’m sure there are a few companies around but I used Earsound. I love your idea on how to use my Pearl as an iPod. Keep up the good ideas!!!
good post. you should be a tech writer!
while i love my pearl, i hate that it’s so locked down by the corporate security gods. i am going to be purchasing a T-Mobile MyTouch (aka HTC Magic) or HTC Hero at my earliest convenience. Android, here I come!
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