A new thread on the Yahoo! BlackBerry Users Group called "Pearl question about music" contains a basic discussion about the best way to get music on your BlackBerry Pearl.

"How do I put a song on my Pearl," asks Larry Daly. "I have tried media manager but its not working."

RkKeller replies that he has done so, and then asks Larry what he sees when he tries to.

"I start Desktop Manager then click Windows Media Player and it opens in its own window," Larry replies, "but how do I get music from left side of media manager to right?"

"You select the songs then click the arrow in the middle of the screen," RkKeller adds. "One puts it in and the other arrow takes it off."

Fellow Yhoo! BlackBerry Users Group Member Austin adds his own advice.

"Just drop and drag the files or copy them into your music folder on your microSD card," Austin says. "Copying them is the fastest and beat way I think. You have to have a microSD card or it won't work. You're limited to the size of media files you can put on your BB's memory

Last month the BlackBerry Technical Knowledge Center posted a very useful docoment entitled "Change The Default filter in your BlackBerry Internet Service Account."

I think this is a very useful primer for those BlackBerry users who wish to control which messages are forwarded to your BlackBerry device- and which are not.

Tell you what. If you have BlackBerry Internet Service 2.0 thru 2.2, you got a let up on them BIS 1.8 laggards.

First I will tell you about this procedure for BIS 2.0-2.2.

BBHub reader Troy differs with the assumption that the upcoming rise Cingular will implement January 21 for text messaging fees will let Cingular Wireless customers leave their contracts without penalty should they wish to do so.

"Actually, you can't escape your contract because of this change," Troy writes. "It's's in the wording - text messaging is a pay-per-use service. The text message price increase is not affecting the monthly text packages that people have subscribed to."

Troy adds his belief that this texting price increase is identical in nature that the hike Cingular made to its Directory Assistance 411 service- a rise that Troy notes that did not allow subscribers to break their contract>"

Linked below, a new BlackBerry Knowledge Base Document offers instructions for working within the BlackBerry Java Development Environment to create an Event within the BlackBerry Calendar application.

This is possible because BlackBerry JDE 4.0 offers the personal digital assistance profile (PDAP) package to provide allow access to the Calendar, Tasks, and Address Book applications on the BlackBerry device.

Included within the net.rim.blackberry.api.pdap package is the BlackBerryEvent interface, This interface defines extended fields in the event, along with the standard fields obtained through the javax.microediition.pim.Event interface.

Want sample code? Turn the page (just thought of that old Bob Seger song as I typed that).

Well anyway:

Heading recalls savings plans, CDs, and for me, oh, better not go there.

(Blogger leaves PC for cold shower)

(Blogger returning to PC after cold shower)

The Consumerist web site describes a way for Cingular Wireless customers to break their contracts without a termination fee.

The pretext would be text- an increase in the text message rat for all postpaid and Pick-Your_plan customers not currently signed up with an SMS packet. . Effective January 21, you will have 30 days to break your contract.

The text message rate change is effective Jan 21, 2007. You have 30 days from then to break the contract. The change affects all postpaid and Pick-Your-Plan customers not currently subscribed to an SMS package.

Consumerist notes that HowardForums and FatWallet have extensive threads devoted to the subject.

When you use the BlackBerry Gmail service to send messages from your BlackBerry device to another, they are stored in the Gmail Inbox as a conversation. They appear as new messages in the GMail Inbox.

But as the BlackBerry Technical Knowledge Center explains in a just-posted (and frankly a bit confusing) document entitled "Filter Messages sent from an integrated Gmail account," (link below) there's a way for you to create a filter that will prevent you from sending messages to or from a Gmail account on a BlackBerry device.

The document (which you can get to by clicking the Read prompt below this post) lists an eight-step procedure:

This one actually makes perfect sense, IMHO.

Posting on BlackBerryForums, Pearl user Tagbert complains that although he entered a password for his new Pearl running on his company's Exchange Server, the password was no longer recognized a day later.

JerryD seems to think the issue seems to be the difficulty in inputting passwords on the Pearl that some companie require- an arcane sequence of letters and numbers that is difficult to input and that some servers can forget.

Although Tagbert's follow-up post denies it, JerryD indicates that what would happen in instances like this would be to "THINK you entered the password with the letter I or the number associated with that key, but it's actually U!," he writes. "The funny thing is a user can go on for WEEKS - even MONTHS entering the password thinking it contains an I and not know it until they can't get the password right when connecting to Desktop Manager."

JerryD has four pieces of advice for BlackBerry users (Pearl or no) who want to stay away from this experience.

The BlackBerry Technical Knowledge Center has posted a support document (linked below this post) that describes a workaround necessary when a BlackBerry Pearl running OS 4.2 is not able to let the user click on hyperlinks in the browser.

It's not really a bug, more an incorrect setting.

"If the Show Images and Show Image Placeholders settings in your Browser options are set to No and you navigate to a web page that uses images as hyperlinks," the support document advises, "you might not be able to select hyperlinks."

The workaround is easier you could ever imagine.

Press Q to display the images.

It's generally not our practice to yell stop the presses when we start to see BlackBerry-related bug reports on the forums.

But when those reports turn into a groundswell, well, then we feel a sense of duty.

Starting around the dinner hour last night, reports started to hit BlackBerryForums that users were not getting their Gmail on their BlackBerry.

Just checked this morning and the reports are continuing.

Most of these posts are of the "me, too, what's up variety.

But there appears to be a solution.

BBHub reader Bill Capella saw our post from earlier today, noting a BlackBerryForums thread with reports of non-functioning Push-to-Talk capability on the Cingular Blackberry Pearl.

Bill has a solution.

"I was able to fix the exact problem with all our devices," Bill writes.

"The problem has to do with the PTT button being mapped by default to voice command function," he informs us. Bill recommends changing the button to Push to talk in the Options - screen/keyboard.

"You will no longer have the problem where PTT gets stuck," he assures us.

Rare it is, you know, that any software rev is built without at least a few Known Issues- generally minor bugs that deemed inconsequential enough not to delay release.

Such is the case with BlackBerry OS 4.1 release 529 for the BlackBerry 87xx series.

In a post I put up on Saturday, you may have read about what has been fixed in this rev. Remember the old line, "accentuate the positive?"

But if you want to know what Known issues are in the "529," you can either read the BlackBerry Technical Knowledge Center document linked to the Read prompt at the bottom of this post- or just simply follow along with us here:

On the BlackBerry section of Experts-Exchange, user akaSurreal (cool user name BTW) writes that when his BlackBerry Desktop Redirector semds messages to his company's Exchange Server, they keep on getting marked as junk mail.

As a result, the messages wind up in the junk folder and are never delivered. As a result, akaSurreal says, he's had to mark more than a dozen such messages as "not junk."

Well, that's a pain in the you know where. But one with an easy solution.

Comes from garicutri, who by votes of individual BlackBerry users on Experts-Exchange is rated this year's top BlackBerry expert.

Set your spam filter to low.

Interesting and frequently accessed article on the BlackBerry section of Experts-Exchange I would like to highlight here.

This article has to do with how to block BlackBerry Enterprise Server users from accessing the Internet with the BlackBerry browser.

"Is there a way (Policy) to block BlackBerry users (from) using the BlackBerry browser from the handheld?' asks nourben.

Well, nourben, there sure is. As a matter of fact, the answer Experts-Exchange BlackBerry expert garycutri supplied is the one you accepted.

Surfing Pinstack this afternoon I cam across a post from Lewis about scheduled maintenance.

On Saturday December 2nd from 2:00 to 5:00 maintenance has been scheduled for all North and South American GPRS/EDGE carriers. This maintenance is from RIM, not from the carriers.

According to the report this could cause emails not to send or receive and PIN messages not to work either for one hour. Phone calls and text messages should still work.

Let's all keep an eye out Saturday and see what happens.

From time to time, I notice threads on the BlackBerry forums about remote unlocking for various BlackBerry models. We even receive some questions about these services as well.

After reading Boy Genius' favorable remarks about GSM Phone Source yesterday, I was once again reminded to tell you about this remote unlocking service and how it works.

Let's take the T-Mobile BlackBerry Pearl 8100 for example.

You pay $42.95 for the unlocking service, and when you submit your order you include the IMEI number for the BlackBerry you are unlocking in the notes section when you are making your PayPal payment. On this device you can locate your IMEI number when you enter *#06# from your phones keypad. It is a 15-digit number.

If you place your order by 3 p.m. Pacific Time, you'll typically receive your unlock code the same business day.