Over on the BlackBerry section of the HowardForums site, there's an interesting thread going on right now in which several HoFo members discuss their experiences with loose BlackBerry covers.
"Just picked up the BlackBerry 8700r, writes sd5187 in his thread-starter. "My battery cover is loose. I can put my finger on it and move it up and down. Also, it rattles a bit with the speaker at high volume.
Several Forum Members agree, and at least a couple propose workarounds.
I just stumbled across a review for something called the Car Mount Antenna Booster and Repeater.
Placed on the outside of your vehicle, this is a signal
reception enhancer for your wireless handheld. Works on any such product, including your BlackBerry.
This $19.99 product works with ANY wireless
cell phone. Because the external Antenna Booster and Repeater comes with a wireless sensor box and boosts your reception to the repeater, no direct cable connection to your BlackBerry (or other wireless phone) is necessary.
With ActivePrint x5 Service for BlackBerry, you can print as many as five megabytes from your BlackBerry for $5. Club Handango members pay $4.50.
Unlike other BlackBerry-to-print solutions, this is not Bluetooth-based, but a BlackBerry-to-printer email plan.
Once you sign up, you simply send an email with attachments, or even an SMS, to your own personal apx5.com email addy, where it will be delivered to your PC for printing.
Click the Read link below this post and you'll reach a Handango.com page with more info.
CMT Publications has just released an updated book that covers BlackBerry 8700c and 8700r in addition to most other BlackBerryys except the 7100 series. It also has numerous BlackBerry OS 4.1 tips.
It's called BlackBerry Made Simple: The Definitive Guide-Second Edition.
Written by Ned Johnson and Martin Trautschold, the 217-page book is currently available in electronic form, but a hard copy is planned as well.
Costs $24.99 via direct download from the BlackBerry Made Simple site. The site also offers a Free Preview.
Last night- after coming back from birthday beers and a movie (the mediocre "Broken Flowers" if ya need to know) I saw a discussion named "Phone rings not loud enough" on the Yahoo! BlackBerry Users Group.
Here's the gist of it. Several users were complaining that their BlackBerry doesn't ring loud enough, and would there be a way for them to pump up the volume.
Here's what to do.
Go into Profiles.
Select Phone.
Select Edit.
Select Volume.
Select High.
Be careful about that "High" setting. Someone who works for a very large media company located near a very large airport near Washington, D.C. called me on my loud-ring-set BlackBerry at 6:30 a.m. PST this morning. Woke us up.
Not the kind you strap to your shoulder- the handy (actually hand-less) tool that once was used predominantly by hikers and campers, but is now carried about by almost every schoolkid.
I am talking about Backpack, the Web service that allows you to get organized by storing your to-do lists, notes, photos, and files online.
"The feature that makes Backpack so great for the BlackBerry is the ability to add content to your pages by sending emails," writes Dave Mabe, author of "BlackBerry Hacks."
Courtesy of Dave and his publisher, O'Reilly, Backpack has posted a "hack" from Dave's book on their company blog.
The "hack" is called "Using Backpack as Your Mobile Workspace." A 6-page PDF of this hack, with instructions and pix, is linked from here.
Ever call a cellular phone company for BlackBerry-related tech support, really need to talk to a human, but wind up in a type of voice-mail jail that will even reject your attempts to press "0" to reach a live person?
Yes, me, too. In the world of customer "service," nothing is more infuriating then hitting "0" in exasperation and then be told by an automated voice, "I'm sorry, I did not recognize your selection."
Well, there's hope. Today's Seattle Times has a meticulously researched, totally essential,
Aaron's thorough review is highlighted by individual paragraphs devoted to the contents of each of the books 14 chapters. He does a great job explaining what the author covers and gives his well-considered opinion on how they did. Most importantly, Aaron offers his views on who might benefit from reading the chapter.
If you are a businessperson, odds are strong that you either have credit, or need to build up your credit worthiness.
A new BlackBerry-compatible e-book from Innovative Technology Consulting sets out to help you do this.
I have not read this book- but since it is out there I thought I would point you to it.
The regular price is $12.00, but Club Handango members pay $10.80. Click the Read link below this post to reach this e-book's info and download page on Handango.com.
A BBHub reader has just tipped me off to a page with a tutorial entitled: Finding the PIN on a RIM BlackBerry 8700c using Handheld Software version 4.x. Interesting, because the BlackBerry 8700c won't be officially announced for another few days- possibly not until the official debut event starring Lance Armstrong in NYC next Tuesday nite.
NOTE: Art Technology took these pages down this morning when they realized that they were all public. We're
leaving the links here because they were, in fact, publicly posted, and it is likely that someday they will be working again.
What's that?
As I blogged earlier today, Yahoo! Finance notes that publicly traded, Cambridge, Mass.-based Art Technology Group "provides design, consulting, custom application development, and
support services. Clients include Best Buy, Citibank, J. Crew, Hyatt,
Target, and Wells Fargo (Bank).
Best Buy? Hmm, you can buy BlackBerry there. And I would think just about any banker worth h/her salt at Citibank or Wells Fargo carries a BlackBerry.
So maybe that has something to do with Art Technology Group jumping the gun and posting all these BlackBerry 8700c diagrams and tutorials on their Web site. Tutorials like the truncated screen capture of a live page on their site describing the icons on the device- which Research In Motion has not yet announced.
There are several more pages of grabs, specs and illustrations of the BlackBerry 8700c on the Art Technology Group website. Wanna know where to find them?
"While updating my (T-Mobile) BB7100t with the newest software (4.0.2.49) my laptop
went idle and as soon as I got back into windows I noticed my BB had an icon on
the screen which looked like a window with a line through it," he writes. "After that the
update failed and now my BlackBerry won't work.
As volcomwrx's goes on with his post, he sounds a bit like he is starting to freak.
"It will power on," he writes, "but it just shows that
icon and even if I take out the battery the icon is still there when I power up
and I can't seem to run the update again cause it needs to connect to the bb
first and it can't do that. can anyone help?
"Has this happened to anyone yet?," he asks. "Does anyone know how to reset it?"
Take a deep breath and count to 10, volcomwrx. Help is on the way.
"I have tried reloading software howeve now all that happens is the red light flashes at me and the screen is blank. The software does not see my BlackBerry 7520 anymore," he writes.
He adds that his phone was working fine until he pulled it out of the case and then got a catastrophic assertion error.
Next, he tried pulling the battery out and performing multiple resets.
No help.
Then Cluse tried reloading the pgoram from the desktop manager....
No help. The desktop manager could not find the unit.
Then Cluse tried using javaloader.exe and wiping it.
No help. The program could not locate the USB port.
Then he woke up and gaveit one more shot.
"Now the unit doesnt even error out it just flashes the red light with nothing on the display."
Over on the BlackBerry section of the HowardForums site, there's an interesting thread going on right now in which several HoFo members discuss their experiences with loose BlackBerry covers.
I just stumbled across a review for something called the Car Mount Antenna Booster and Repeater.
With ActivePrint x5 Service for BlackBerry, you can print as many as five megabytes from your BlackBerry for $5. Club Handango members pay $4.50.
Last night- after coming back from birthday beers and a movie (the mediocre "Broken Flowers" if ya need to know) I saw a discussion named "Phone rings not loud enough" on the Yahoo! BlackBerry Users Group.
Over on BlackBerry Blog, proprietor Aaron Johnson reviews the book "Professional BlackBerry" by Craig Johnston and Richard Evers.
"While updating my (T-Mobile) BB7100t with the newest software (4.0.2.49) my laptop
went idle and as soon as I got back into windows I noticed my BB had an icon on
the screen which looked like a window with a line through it," he writes. "After that the
update failed and now my BlackBerry won't work. 
"Catastrophic assertion failure."
