back to article Ten Essential... BlackBerry Apps

Research in Motion’s BlackBerry smartphones are a staple communications tool in the business world, but also have a growing consumer base too. With mobile apps enhancing the capabilities of these phones in both sectors, some pickings from the company’s App World seemed in order, to see what extra juice you can squeeze out of …

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  1. Chris_Maresca

    Tethering on a Mac

    You don't need a external app. The Blackberry Desktop also installs the RIM modem drivers and it shows up in your networking preferences. You'll need the right incantations for your network provider (Google for them), but besides that, it works flawlessly.

  2. Lee 13
    WTF?

    Tether - 40 quid for what?

    I have paired my laptop to my BB via Bluetooth and perform dial-up using the modem that is added as a service.

    Cost is zero. Information to fill in the gaps is on the internet (like dial *99# to connect).

    No need for BB Desktop Mungler either :-)

  3. Dangermouse

    Bloomberg...

    ...in my opinion is way, way better than CNN at financial matters - tie that in with Thompson Reuters and you will never go wrong.

  4. Seanie Ryan
    Grenade

    wow

    great article, thanks. i didnt think there was even 10 apps available for the blackberry !

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    lol

    Sure looks like a nice selection of apps they have there. Think I'll stick with my iPhone thanks. See ya

    1. Ben Tasker
      FAIL

      ODFO

      Come back when you need a grown up phone for work!

  6. John Sanders
    Linux

    Yes, the blackberry has had applications...

    ...Longer than the Iphone has been in existence, in fact one of my favourite is Filescout, and among other things allows you to take a look and modify the blackberry file structure. I'm sure you can do that too on the ipad, but probably you have to jailbreak it. On the blackberry all I have to do is to install the app and voila.

    It seems that nowadays if there is not a software shop of some sort people do not know how to load software onto a computer.

    1. Seanie Ryan
      Pirate

      amazing

      modify the file structure on your phone?????? in gods name why to fuck would you want to do that?

      Ah, to be fair, its great that there is an app for the 0.0001% of the planets population that want to do that.

      FFS, i'm a complete low level techie and i have absolutely no desire to mess with my phone. ITS A PHONE !! Doing something just because other 'techies' go 'cooooool dude' is not _actually_ cool

      and @Ben Tasker : Grow Up !

      1. Ben Tasker

        Title is required

        Shan't!

        FWIW I actually meant to use the 'Joke Alert' Icon but for some reason didnt (think someone came and asked a question or something)

  7. TheOtherJola
    Stop

    This article sucks - as do your app choices.

    Seriously? Have you even ever used a blackberry? Like as if it was your only phone?

    Try:

    - UberTwitter

    - BlackBerry Messenger

    - Facebook & LinkedIn apps

    - Stitcher - podcast channel player

    - Tube map & directions/router

    - Color ID - flashes your LED indicator a colour of your choice depending on who calls you

    - Wattpadd - 10,000 free ebooks at your fingertips

    - QuickPull - schedule a reboot on your bb to keep it running fresh!

    - Ka-Glom - a bit like Tetris and Dr Mario...

    - WeatherBug - gives you a weather icon on your home dashboard

    None of your apps even appeared on my radar. Apart from that Pageonce Personal Assistant which CACHES your bank account data by up to 24 hours and is slower to get your stuff than it takes you to log in via a web browser. It logs in and fetches your stuff even if you don't use it. Not good.

    What about games? What about connectivity?

    Really, really poor article. Almost as if ten random developers paid you to wax lyrical about their apps without you actually using them.

    And £40 to tether. Seriously! People like us have been tethering for years on bluetooth without pissing around with a paid-for desktop app. Get real!

    "Many cellcos charge ridiculous tariffs to enable a mobile to function as a modem for a laptop." - er, no. Only the iPhone has got the functionality to tell the telcos that you're using it as a modem. AFAIK none of the other phones want to do that (which is fine with me). Don't get me started on iPhone tethering charges...

    1. Simon C

      I concur with the above comments

      granted the BB appworld is not as verbose as the iphone/android platforms (is the iphone if you take away the fart apps?), but it has some great apps are free.

      Along with those above (I'll be checking some of those out myself), theres also VIIGO, which is an excellent RSS reader

      Googlemaps blows the BB maps out the water. BB Maps is a tad bloated.

      One of the frustrating aspects of BB money apps is that they tend to only cater for US$.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    More Apps

    Poynt -search near your location

    Dilbert - Its free on Blackberry, £2.39 on iphone!

    Forward Reply and Edit - Yes it should have been part of the OS, but its free!

    Tube Buddy - Tube Map is great, but can never get the live departure info to work with that and BES. Tube Buddy works great.

    Google Maps - Works much better than the inbuilt maps application

    RSA SecurID - No more carrying around a jailers keyring full of hardware tokens.

    Kayak - Nice app for searching for travel

    Mailminder - Rules based processing of email (just like your Outlook/Notes rules)

    BeamExplorer - good little file manager

    GPSLogger - Create .kml and upload to Google Maps. Track runs, hikes, etc. Or just find your car in the carpark!

    Opera Mini - About a million times better than the inbuilt browser

    MidpSSH - Handy for SSH'ing into the servers late at night. Works through BES proxy.

    QuickPull - Because having to pull the battery out to reset is just plain crazy.

    Role Call Tasks Lite - A great little task manager

    Role Call Reminders Lite - Turn emails into ToDo's just like you do in Outlook/Notes.

    Now I need to go test some of the ones I don't have in the other posts. :)

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    High Cost of Blackberry Apps

    Has anyone else noticed the exorbitant prices of apps on the blackberry compared to the iPhone? I appreciate that costs of development are higher on the Blackberry, but seriously some of the crappy apps that would be free on an iPhone are being charged nearly a tenner (and above!) on a blackberry.

    1. Mark 65

      Had the same thought

      Then realised that most apps would probably get expensed - hence pricing.

    2. Daniel Harris 1
      Thumb Up

      Submit post: Ten Essential BlackBerry Apps

      I think IM+ is £30 to buy for my Blackberry, but only £3.50 on my friends iPhone.

      Luckily I just downloaded Nimbuzz instead, but £30 for an IM application (Skype, Win Live, Google talk etc) is madness.

  10. Dan 55 Silver badge
    Headmaster

    That translator

    is a bit dodgy, at or least it is judging from the screenshot.

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