The BlackBerry PlayBook doesn't exactly have a keyboard. Sure there's a virtual one, but it doesn't do a whole lot of tricks as of yet. Where your standard BlackBerry with a QWERTY keyboard has somewhere in the neighborhood of forty-five keys on it, the PlayBook has four. Nevertheless, the PlayBook has some cool tricks you can do with those keys. The power button, though...
There's no reason to go out and get an application to help you keep track of the time around the world; your BlackBerry PlayBook can do that for you. Using the PlayBook's clock application, you can add as many clocks as you'd like to it. It takes a little preparation ahead of time, but what you end up with is a customized bank of clocks that quickly gives you the information you...
Water and electricity do not mix. All those electrical components and doodads inside your BlackBerry are carefully insulated… with air. Air is a wonderful insulator; it doesn’t conduct electricity. Otherwise, we’d all get horribly shocked every time we went to unplug a lamp. Water conducts electricity; poorly, but it does. When your smartphone gets dunked in water, all those carefully...
At first, Comb Over Charlie appears to be less than it actually is. The graphics, though beautifully rendered, are simple; looking like they were drawn by Napoleon Dynamite or Demitri Martin. Comb Over Charlie has two controls: float and fire. Sound effects are minimal and perhaps a bit cheesey. The "ouch" sound made by the giant at the end of each level is a good example....
I love it! That's it; BlackBerry News is awesome. End of story; enjoy the rest of your day. I suppose I should go into a little more detail. Just yesterday, Research In Motion released BlackBerry News for the PlayBook. If you don't know, BlackBerry News is a Really Simply Syndication (RSS) feed reader. Most RSS readers, like BlackBerry News Feeds for the BlackBerry smartphone...
Wait, wait; hang on. We put a lot of effort into our CrackBerry Tips, and we've specifically crafted them to appeal to users of all levels. Even though the subject may be simple, we try to delve just a little bit deeper to find some nugget of wisdom that many people can find useful and helpful. Today, we look at that red phone key. I'll get the really basic stuff out of the way...
It's the Torch's fault. Well, I suppose it's originally the Storm's fault, but I'm getting ahead of myself. I've had some difficulty in actually using the PlayBook's keyboard. I can see all the keys without problem; it's pressing them in the right order that's the trouble. When I type with a full computer keyboard, I don't really think about the individual letters I'm using to craft...
Take a look at that vixen of the ‘40's up there; that's Hedy Lamarr in Sampson and Delilah. Appearing in some 35 films from 1930 to 1958, Ms. Lamarr is arguably the most beautiful woman to ever grace the silver screen. So why are we writing about a film star from the last century? Take a look at that CDMA BlackBerry sitting nearby or perhaps your wireless router. Now, take...
CrackBerry Tip of the Day If you're like me, you visit quite a few websites on your BlackBerry. Some are for informational purposes; many more are purely for fun. Sometimes you need just a few minutes to yourself; and sites like CrackBerry, FML, and TextsfromLastNight can provide a welcome (and interesting) distraction. Most certainly, you've probably bookmarked those sites you...
CrackBerry Tip of the Day! BlackBerry OS6 makes it easy to add any contact to the home screen. This means you can turn any of your contacts into a shortcut that goes on the home screen (with their picture on it and everything). The shortcut will allow you to message your contact in a variety of ways, all from the home screen. But, let's take that one step further. Instead of...
CrackBerry Tip of the Day #4 Continuing our series of helpful tips about favorites, have you wondered how to turn an application into a favorite? It's not hard to do. In fact you make favorites, reorder icons, and even move icons to different panes in the same way. The first thing to do is to touch and hold an icon. You can do this from any pane (i.e., All, Favorites, Media,...
Are you sitting down? Well...yes, you probably are; but that's beside the point! I've finally found it. I've finally found a Flashlight app! "Um...Joseph?" you might be saying to yourself, "there are lots of Flashlight apps on App World and at the CrackBerry App Store." And you'd be right. This flashlight app is different, this one actually works. To be fair to those other...
CrackBerry Tip of the Day #1 Puedo hablar (más o menos) dos idiomas, español e ingles. En éste mundo, es una buena habilidad de tener. Usualamente escribo a maqunina en ingles; pero a veces, necesito usar español en mi BlackBerry... Oops. I really do speak two languages, conversationally at least. I may miss a verb conjugation here and there, but I'm not bad at it. I'll...
A few weeks ago, our own CrackBerry Kevin made a suggestion for the BlackBerry PlayBook's gestures. Just as a single finger swipe bezel-to-bezel will wake the tablet, Kevin suggested a two-finger gesture to put the device to sleep. In that spirit, I thought I'd make my own suggestion to the PlayBook. You know a diagonal swipe from either of the two bottom corners will open the...
LastPass should be easier to use on the BlackBerry PlayBook. LastPass, if you haven't read before, is an online password management service. More than that, LastPass has taught me to make better passwords. Each of my websites has a different, randomly-generated password. About the only thing I do know is my LastPass master password (incidently, one that would take 54 quadrillion...
Pop quiz, hotshot. There's a bomb on a bus. Once the bus goes 50 miles an hour, the bomb is armed. If it drops below 50, it blows up. What do you do? What do you do? Oh, and your BlackBerry's battery is about to die. The correct answer of course is that you jump off the bus at the earliest opportunity (be sure to tuck and roll) and charge your BlackBerry. While the events of the...
Geek Pro rules are simple. Accomplish the most complicated of tasks in as few steps as possible; bonus points if you can do so without getting up from the couch. TeamViewer and LogMeIn are two remote management programs that allow you to access your computer.... well, remotely. Similar to Go to My PC, both of these services allow you to control your connected computer through any...
To put it in the developer's own words, "[QR Clock] really has no purpose unless you've got a sense of humor." The application simply displays the current date on the right and an ever-changing QR code that displays the time in seconds. It really only serves to be a difficult to use clock - whipping out your BlackBerry, opening App World, and scanning a bar code is a bit far to go...
Think about the (next / last) time your (child / pet / friend) does something that's so (cute / amazing / hilarious) that it deserves to be (sent to grandma / uploaded to YouTube / submitted to FailBlog). Too bad you don't have a camera. Wait, this BlackBerry takes pictures, right? Does it do video, too? Where's the... is in Media.... Uh... Blast. You've missed it. Stick a pin in...
We've discussed BlackBerry Protect quite a few times here on the blogs. It's a free service available from Research In Motion for its BIS customers. Generally if you purchase your phone from a carrier, you're on a BIS. BlackBerry Protect allows you find your phone when it's missing and destroy your data should all become lost. But what actually happens when your smartphone...