How to set up accounts on your BlackBerry 10 device

One of the first things you'll be doing when you fire up your new BlackBerry 10 device is setting up your accounts. BlackBerry 10 has integrated email, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Evernote accounts, all of which are easy to set up from the settings page. Evernote, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are really straight forward, but email accounts can be tweaked a few ways depending on your setup and service. Keep reading and we'll look at how to get accounts up and running on your BlackBerry 10 device.

SETTING UP ACCOUNTS ON BLACKBERRY 10

To get started, head to the account setup by going to Settings > Accounts. You can also get here directly from the Hub providing you haven't already added accounts to your device. In the account setup screen you'll see any accounts already on the device. To add an account, tap the Add Account icon on the bottom menu. 

Here you will have a list of accounts you can set up. Again, any services that are already set up will not show. So if you already added your Facebook account you won't see the option to add it. The only option that allows multiple accounts is email, calendar and contacts. Twitter, Facebook and Evernote only offer one account.

FACEBOOK, TWITTER, LINKEDIN AND EVERNOTE

Setting up your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Evernote acounts is pretty simple. Tap the service you wish to add, then enter your login information.

Toggle any settings that you wish to enable and select done. The account will then be added to your device. There is no requirement to set them all up, you can just pick the services you want and then move on. Again, take note that you can only add one account for each of these services.

BASIC EMAIL SETUP

For basic email setup, choose Email, Calendar and Contacts. On the next screen, enter your email address. Next, enter the account password. On the next screen, you can choose to name the account and also toggle sync for email, calendar and contacts. Click Done.

Your selected services will populate and you will now see them in the BlackBerry Hub. It's important to note, the settings you see in here will depend upon your email provider. If you're not seeing the stuff that you're looking for or you require more advanced options, you'll want to move on to the advanced email set up process.

ADVANCED EMAIL SETUP

You can also use the advanced setup option to add accounts. Using this method for Gmail or Google Apps for example allows you to set up and email address using Exchange Activesync as opposed to IMAP. You also have direct options for Yahoo!, Hotmail, IMAP and POP accounts should you have issues using the basic setup.

• To set up an account using the advanced method, go to Settings > Accounts > Advanced

Tap the account type you want to set up. You can choose popular email services, a work account, Exchange ActiveSync and CalDAV / CardDAV for adding calendar and contacts not attached to an email address on the device.

Using advanced setup for Exchange Activesync on your Gmail for example, you will get better sync options than setting up using the basic method. Instead of IMAP and a 15 minute or more sync interval, this setup seems to sync faster, especially when using a Google Apps account. You can also set the sync interval from 15 minutes up to 24 hours (or manual). You can also choose how far back to display messages (up to 30 days). 

You can also use Exchange ActiveSync in the advanced method to add additional calendars or contacts without adding a new email address. 

CalDAV and CardDAV we'll dive into into later, but these let you set up separate calendar and contacts on your device as well. So if you have multiple calendars lile I do, CalDAV comes in handy as you don't have to add another email account to your device and can just grab the calendar instead.  

READY TO ROLL

With these steps you should be able to get up and running with your accounts on your BlackBerry 10 device. BlackBerry has made setting up account pretty straight forward while still giving the options to advanced users for a more custom setup. We'll have plenty more on this and more advanced settings to come, so be sure to check back. As always, you can get more help in the CrackBerry forums as well.