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Shhh. It's bedtime, time to charge your BlackBerry. Over the next few hours, both you and your smartphone will get some much needed recharge time. You'll lay your head upon a pillow, falling into a deep sleep. Your BlackBerry will sit nearby, silently suckling the electric teat of its charger or nesteled comfortably in its charging pod. All is quiet and peaceful in your world.

2:38 a.m. BRRRRRIIINNNNGG! An email arrives. You wearily open one eye to see that LED blinking. Blinking. BLINKING. You try to ignore it but to no avail. You've been trained (in a fashion) to respond immediately to that indicator light. Opening the "important" message, you find it's another email begging you to come back to Xbox Live. Ugh. You try to fall back asleep, but this night's constant bombardment of "special" offers "just for you" has just begun. In desperation, you hurl your BlackBerry out of the window and finally, mercifully fall back to sleep.

Without Bedside mode on your BlackBerry, this could be your night. Thankfully, we do have Bedside mode. As soon as you start charging your BlackBerry, the clock opens and soon dims into what I call a "quiet clock." The LED turns off and (sometimes) notifications are turned off. The BlackBerry becomes the perfect nightstand companion, silently doing nothing more than display the clock.

But what if you don't want that? What if you just want to charge the smartphone? What if you want some messages to sound alerts while others don't? Maybe you like the blinking LED. Can Bedside mode be set up just the way you like? You betcha.

BlackBerry options
 

One of the defining characteristics of your BlackBerry is the sheer number of options available to you. There are options to customize your messages, options to customize your home screen, options to customize the way you type. Basically, you have it within your power to make your BlackBerry your BlackBerry.

Bedside mode on your BlackBerry is a good example of this. Let's take a look at some of the ways you can customize the experience. Start the clock application. There are four different ways to do this, but the easiest is to find the icon on your home screen. Once it has started, press the menu key to open the Options.

Charge during the day, Sleep at night

Restrict Bedside mode hours
Your BlackBerry's battery loves to be charged. No harm will come to your smartphone if you charge it during the day and at night. Entering Bedside mode during the day could be a problem. Calls, emails, and BBM's could go unnoticed. To do this, restrict Bedside mode to starting only during certain hours of the day. If Bedside mode is only permitted to run from 11:00 p.m. to 7 a.m., it won't enter that mode when you charge it at 1:30 p.m. The clock will still display, but the phone won't be in Bedside mode.

Disable the LED

Disable the LED during Bedside mode
This option is set to yes by default, but you can change this if you desire. This option turns off the LED during Bedside mode. Not only does this prevent the standard red LED from flashing, but it prevents other apps from using the LED as well. That way, the strobe lights from BeBuzz won't wake you during your rest.

Set a Profile

Set the sound profile for Bedside mode
When my BlackBerry charges, only two things get through: Phone calls and certain emails. Of my ten email accounts, only one makes any sort of noise. BBM's, Tweets, SMS (Text) messages? Not a peep is heard from them while in Bedside Mode. I created a custom sound profile to only let those types of messages through. Then, I set that as the profile to use during Bedside mode. Although I created a custom sound profile, you can also choose from the standard profiles as well. 

When your phone enters BSM, it will switch to the desired profile. When it exits, your BlackBerry returns to the profile it was using before Bedside mode.

To Heck with Bedside Mode

Don't want bedside mode? Okay.
As with most options on a BlackBerry, you can simply turn off Bedside mode. Inside those clock options, you can select what your BlackBerry will do while charging. Will it enter Bedside mode? Just show the clock? or Do nothing at all. The choice is yours.

All in all, this all boils down to the ability to control your BlackBerry the way you want. With the possible exception of BES-connected phones, I doubt any two BlackBerry smartphones are configured in exactly the same way.  So now the question remains, how do you make your BlackBerry into your CrackBerry?

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