I tried to find something today, a tidbit of knowledge here at CrackBerry.com for Storm and Pearl users about getting to the Help Me! Screen. I couldn't find it. I remembered the gist of the information, I remembered writing the darn thing, and I still couldn't find it. When I finally tracked down the article, I realized the Help Me! Screen needed its own BlackBerry 101, and here it is.

For most BlackBerry users, it's a simple three key press top access this useful little screen. Press the alt, left shift, and H key at the same time. Don't worry about pressing them simultaneously, just make sure all are depressed at the same time. In other words, while holding both the alt key and the left shift key, press H. Pearl users can hold the alt key and type R A C E. Storm users will hold down the return (back) key while they click the top left corner, then the top right, top left, top right and release. Slightly complicated, but it works. Any further questions, head on into the CrackBerry forums.

So what information does the screen give you?

• Vendor ID: the identifying number Research in Motion uses for your specific carrier
• Platform ID: Internal designation for the Java Development Environment
• App Version: When you hear about such and such leaked or official OS, this is the number we're talking about. 
• PIN: Your Personal Identification Number; the unique number assigned to your Blackberry.
• IMEI: International Mobile Equipment Identity, your carrier's way of uniquely identifying your device on the network. When changing devices, it's a good idea to alert your carrier of your new IMEI.
• MAC: Media Access Control address; uniquely identifies your smartphone on the network. Every single device connected to the internet will have it's own MAC address.
• Uptime: the amount of time (in seconds) since your BlackBerry was last restarted
• Signal Strength: Your carrier's wireless signal strength represented in dBm. Through a quirk of physics and math, the numbers are all negative. A higher number is still better, thus -65 is a much higher signal strength than -127.
• Battery Level: The amount of charge left in your battery
• File Free: The amount of space available on your BlackBerry's internal memory. This figure does not include removable microSD cards.
• File Total: The total amount of space in your BlackBerry's internal memory. Also does not include removable microSD cards.

More to find...

BlackBerry 101: Application Permissions
BlackBerry First Steps: Operating systems - official, leaked, and unofficial
BlackBerry 302: A complete wipe and clean install of your BlackBerry OS 

I..really don't know what to say about this. It appears as though the above Nokia 5700 has been frankenstiened to run a port of the BlackBerry OS, BlackBerry 8220 OS more specifically. Maxpda is the source of this unruly behaviour and as much as I am appalled, I find myself unable to stop looking at it. Well, best I can say is if it's a fake, they sure did the video of it in action quite well.

• Check Out More Pics And Video Over At Maxpda >>

[ Engadget / Unwired View ]

Its been quite slow on the OS front these days but here is a little something for all you BlackkBerry Curve 8530 owners out there to check out. OS 5.0.0.463 was leaked not too long by the folks over at BBLeaks. If you have nothing better to do today, might as well fire up app loader and check it out.

*OS Disclaimer - Please Read: Keep in mind this is NOT an official release and as such is not supported by RIM or your Carrier. If you choose to install, do so at your own risk and only if you're comfortable in the process of upgrading and downgrading your device software. It is quite normal during operating system development for certain features to be crippled or disabled while others are tested, and these beta builds often reflect that. They are not always better. Depending on your BlackBerry comfort level, it may be best for you to wait for community feedback on a build before deciding to download and install for yourself or simply wait for the next official release. If you require support, you will find it in our CrackBerry forums via our extremely knowledgeable community base - do not contact your carrier or RIM for Beta OS technical support (their first course of action will be to advise you to downgrade to a supported OS). Follow the links below for more information and instructions. *

• Download The Leaked OS 5.0.0.463 For The BlackBerry Curve 8530>>

Surprisingly as of late we've actually seen more official OS releases than leaks, but today we have an OS leak for both the Bold 9000 and Curve 8900. BerryMe has posted OS 5.0.0.464 for the Bold 9000 as well as 5.0.0.461 for the Curve 8900. If you're having a slow Friday, give these a go and let us know what you find out. No word of the good or bad, so drop a comment if you install on or the other. As these aren't official OS', use caution when upgrading your device. Hit the links below to download.

• Downlod OS 5.0.0.464 for the Bold 9000 >>
• Download OS 5.0.0.461 for the Curve 8900 >>
• Discuss More in the forums >>

A couple weeks back we did a bit of a shuffle in our BlackBerry forums to try and better organize all the crazy crackiness that goes on (not an easy task). The biggest changes came to our BlackBerry Operating System and Desktop Management Software Discussion forums, where we added some new dedicated forums, including ones for BlackBerry Native Apps and BlackBerry Desktop Manager and we added Hybrids to our OS Beta forum (Storm OS talk still in the Storm forum).

One of the most exciting new features we implemented at the same time is new thread that rounds-up all of the latest official, unofficial (leaked / beta) and known OS builds out there for your BlackBerry smartphone. Put together by yester18 and maintained by our mod team (thanks guys!), you'll want to bookmark our BlackBerry OS Super Page. It's all right there. Spread the word!

Visit the BlackBerry OS Super Page