Welcome to part two of the CrackBerry Guide to Banking on your BlackBerry. I hope you enjoyed the first installment, in which we took a look at Bank apps and launchers. In part two, we will be rounding up applications and presenting you with the best of the third party banking and finance tracking applications. Some applications can provide access to your account, just as the mobile site for your financial institution. Others, which have little or no access, can still assist you in tracking how your money travels into and out of your bank account.

If you prefer standing in line, waiting for a bank teller, then read no further. If you yearn to keep your bank account accessibility as mobile as your wallet, then take a look at these applications. Whether you feel confident about mobile access to your account or not, your BlackBerry has you covered.

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It’s obvious that managing your finances is more important than ever. I file every receipt, bank statement and bill all the while tracking everything on my BlackBerry.  In the hustle and bustle of everyday life, you have to keep on top of your money. I’m certain that most, if not all, of us have looked into our wallet or purse and half expected moths to fly out. Okay, maybe not that bad, but I’m sure we have all wondered where our money is going or where it could be properly redirected. There are tools in place to help us do that, but wouldn’t it be great if there was an in-depth solution on our BlackBerrys?

Almost a year ago, I had the opportunity to review Ascendo Money Version 2.57. It made a lasting impression on me, as it helped me maintain a firm grip on my finances. Since then, it has been updated to version 3.2.5, with each update bringing more functionality and more cash confidence. Now, we’ve got a sneak peak of version 3.3 for you. To bring yourselves up to speed, check out both the CB store for version 3.2.5’s overview, and my review of version 2.57 and join me after the jump.

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Are we people or are we numbers? In this world what’s more important? Both actually, but it has become increasingly important to protect the former by securing the latter. The need to make passwords more complex has become crucial as well. As the movie Hackers taught me, the 4 most commonly used passwords are Love, Secret, Sex and God. Mix in some symbols and numbers in any of those and you may have a somewhat decent password. Now, try and remember those on top of your debit pin, locker combo, home and work security pin, multiple email addresses and passwords, voicemail passwords, claim numbers, CrackBerry and other website usernames and logins – whew.  There’s a lot more than you realized right?  Using the same password for all is a bad idea. What are you going to do?

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Have you already forgotten your New Year’s Resolutions? Like many people, you are probably thinking about how you can better control your weight this year. This is not an easy task… You goal might be to lose some weight, maybe gain a few pounds or simply keep everything under control. Unfortunately in a couple of months most of the promises will be gone for many of us. The truth is that following a diet is one of hardest tasks. A few weeks ago, I decided to lose some weight. I went with a diet that I know works: calorie control. For me that means trying to absorb no more than 1,200 calories per day and exercising on a regular basis. Suddenly changing your habits is hard. The first few days were tough on me: in a bad mood, hungry, and frustrated. This is when I began using Ascendo Fitness. This is when it got easier. Read on and see how this software can help you.

To assist a user with his diet, the program needs to collect some information about the user and the diet. This information is broken down into major areas to simplify the task. Upon launching the program, the Main Screen presents these major areas as steps for the user. What could be simpler, let’s jump right in.

First, you need to enter some basic information such as Height, Weight, Age and Resting Heart rate. And obviously inform the software whether you are a male or a female.

Then it is time to set your goals. The information consists of your target weight and calorie intake per day, calories burned per day, etc… Again, the form is uncluttered and easy to follow. If you need help the software comes with some calculators. Based on your profile, the software will tell you what your ideal weight is. The 5 built in calculators can be very useful to help you set realistic goals for yourself. If you try to lose too much weight or gain too much, you’ll see the resulting unrealistic calorie impact here. Once your goals are set, you again return to the Main Screen.

Once you are done with all the setup you are ready to start the input of your daily entries. This is where most of the interaction with the program is done, from daily logging to reviewing your progress. The controls really fall into two camps, logging your daily information, and reviewing your logs. The software acts as a control center, and provides you with a daily summary of your nutrient intake. The user can have the screen summarize Calories, Proteins, Fats, Carbohydrates, Fiber, Sugars, Sodium, etc…

Adding your food entries is very easy. You’ll be presented with a screen that allows you to browse a very extensive food database. If you find what you’re looking for, just pick it and add it to your meal entry. If you don’t find what you’re looking for, you can easily add a new food item

With Ascendo Fitness, you not only control your eating habits but also your exercises. Exercises work the same way, enter the time your Tennis game starts and the duration and the software will compute the number of calories you’ve eliminated.

Obviously, you can proudly follow your progress. Many charts are available to make sure you are on track.

Another nice component of the software is the Desktop software for Windows. You will be able to directly manage your nutrition entries from your PC and synchronize with your BlackBerry.

So, what was your New Year’s Resolution again? Armed with Ascendo Fitness, this year might just be the year you keep it.

## This Article Was Originally Published by AllBlackBerry.com 

Ascendo Photos is a nifty little application that lets you load photos from your PC to your BlackBerry using the same data cable that you probably already use for synchronization. The software has two parts: the photo viewer on the BlackBerry, and the Photos Desktop, which loads the pictures onto the device.

I downloaded the trial version, unzipped it, and installed it in a snap using the BlackBerry Desktop Manager. Then I launched the Ascendo Photos Desktop on my PC, browsed over to MyPictures, and uploaded some pictures to my BlackBerry. Very easy, very quick. And now pictures of my family were staring at me from my 7100. Very cool.

The Ascendo Photos Desktop was a breeze to use. It has some intuitive controls to pan and zoom your picture, allowing you to frame it just right for display on the device. It automatically detects the device type and uses an appropriate emulator for your screen size, so you can see what the picture will look like after you transfer it. This level of control is really usefull for getting the most from your BlackBerry screen size.

After you have uploaded your pictures, you use the Ascendo Photos on the BlackBerry to create galleries and or

ganize your photos. You can run through a slideshow of your images, selecting different types of transition effects and time intervals between pictures. The photo viewer also functions as a screen saver, automatically displaying a rotating display of photos after a specified time.

I was very pleased with this application. It was easy to install and intuitive to use. There is a User’s Manual that downloaded with the application, but I never needed to use it. The desktop portion of the application that lets me preview how the image will look on my device before loading is tremendously useful. I also like the fact that I can load the image directly over my sync cable. One minor nit is that the minimum time between slides in a slideshow is 4 seconds. I’d prefer an even shorter interval. Don’t really like to dawdle when I show off pictures.

I particularly like this application for when I travel. I alway take a few family pictures along with me when I’m away on business, but because most of my pictures are digital, I’m stuck with the few prints I had made for Christmas cards last year. Now I can just upload the most recent photos to a gallery and they are at my fingertips whenever I want to bore my seatmate on the airplane with pictures of my kids.

Ascendo Photos is a well put-together application that is an essential addition to any BlackBerry. It retails for $29.95 here.

## This Article Was Originally Published by AllBlackBerry.com