The BerryReview BlackBerry IQ Quiz is my wife’s brainchild. The whole team got behind the idea and we can now present you with some of the hardest BlackBerry trivia questions we could come up with, 30 in all. I mean it when I say this quiz is HARD so don’t be disappointed if you don’t do as well as you thought you would. Even I only got a 20/30 on my first shot and I wrote some of the quiz. This quiz will really test your BlackBerry knowledge and is not for the faint of heart.

Your score on the Quiz will enter you for a chance to win one of the following prizes from the quiz sponsors!!!

• 1 x BlackBerry OtterBox (www.OtterBox.com)
  • The strongest protection for the most demanding BlackBerry tasks. (reviews: 8100 & 8300, 8800)
• 3 x SplashMoney (www.SplashData.com)
  • The latest finance manager application for BlackBerry (description, review coming soon)
• 3 x Bplay Games (www.Bplay.com)
  • The hottest BlackBerry games available (lots of reviews)
• 3 x Themes From VistoThemes (www.VistoThemes.com)
  • Some of the best themes for BlackBerry including my favorite H2O theme.

You can take the quiz at this link:
www.berryreview.com/berryreview-blackberry-trivia-quiz/

You can view the high scores and your ranking at this link:
www.berryreview.com/berryreview-blackberry-trivia-quiz-rankings/

Thanks to all the team for their hard work. Good luck!

Also thanks to kansloz Blogger for help with the quiz plugin to get this working. I had to hack it to all hell but it does work!

Keep in mind you must be registered and logged into BerryReview so that we can store your score. Otherwise we cant tell you if you won! If you don’t already have an account please register at this link. Multiple attempts are allowed but will be taken into consideration when choosing the winners. Only one submission will be counted per user in the overall contest. The contest ends on July 25th.

Terms & Legal: There are multiple considerations taken when choosing the winner. Just because you have the highest score(s) does not mean you won. We reserve the right to cancel any and all prizes or the whole contest at our sole discretion. If fraud or technical issues impair our ability to choose the winner we will choose winners at random from all the entrants. You must be 18 or older to be entered into the contest. Other restrictions may apply. By entering the contest you agree to these terms and conditions.

The theme has a nice a double sided Zen theme with a really nice picture of the USA flag as a background. It also has transparent icons that turn full focus once you scroll to it. The theme is fairly simple but very organized, no custom icons which is not a big deal since the standard icons do just fine. Sorry guys had to make a correction the theme is for 4.5 OS some of the home screen icons don’t appear on mine because I had deleted those applications from my BB. Let us know if it does work on OS 4.2.

The icons have an animation as you scroll through them they jump from the side to let you know which icon you are focusing at the moment. Mothy’s themes only come OTA so either head over to www.blueroomsolution.com or hit this OTA link on your blackberry browser and give your blackberry a more patriotic look. Enjoy and have a fun safe holiday weekend for those of you that reside in the US and every one else too.

Thanks again Mothy! Let us know if you find any other 4^th of July themes…

UPDATE #2: Looks like a false alarm. I just thought this was too good to be true and it was. Forgive me for getting your hopes up… Still waiting for confirmation.

UPDATE #3: Confirmed this is a false alarm. Once again sorry for the confusion.

One of our readers, Robbie, just let me know that OS 4.5.0.52 is available from Dialog Sri Lanka (east asian version). It is OFFICIALLY available for the 8100, 8110, 8120, 8310, 8320, & 8800!!! Not sure what the application version of 4.5.0.37 means. I hope it is not a false alarm.

You can pick up the download from this link below but dont forget to delete the Vendor.xml file before installing…

https://www.blackberry.com/Downloads/entry.do?code=10C272D06794D3E5785D5E7C5356E9FF

Thanks Robbie and have a Happy 4^th of July!!!

Let us know if you like OS 4.5.0.52!!!

Select one and then indicate the dates you wish to reserve the vehicle to see all the different car styles and rates. Then, by typing in your name, email address, etc. you can actually make a reservation via your Blackberry without a credit card. I didn’t actually make a reservation but I assume upon making one you receive an email with instructions from the car rental company as to how you should proceed further.

For more information you can visit CarRental.com from your Blackberry or PC.

First of all if you go to www.evite.com from your BlackBerry it does not redirect you to the mobile site. Also when you click on an invitation email on your BlackBerry it also takes you to the desktop version of the site. As you can see in the screenshot to the right the Evite desktop website does not look so great in the BlackBerry browser.

Check out the mobile version at m.evite.com

So if you a stuck with Evite like me then try out the mobile site. I just wish Evite would round out the edges on the mobile support.

Thanks for the tip Nikolaus!

Keep in mind this is REALLY not supported by Google since they only support it for the 8110, 8120, & 8130. This is the new voice search version that was released as an experimental version by Google.

One of our readers, Hank, discovered that you can install it on a 8300 or 8800 series device just by going to the download link directly.

If you can’t risk some issues with your Berry I WOULD NOT INSTALL THIS! Don’t say I did not warn you!!!

But I can confirm that it does work like a charm on my AT&T 8310 (OS 4.5.0.46) & Sprint 8330 (OS 4.5.0.33) & AT&T 8800 (OS 4.2)!

Just head on over to this link from your BlackBerry Browser:

http://www.google.com/gmm/apps/v2.2.1/en/BlackBerry-42/GoogleMaps.jad?make=BlackBerry&model=43&ver=v2.2.1&source=mobileproducts&hl=en&noss=1

Thanks Hank!

Yesterday you may have seen Ronen’s post on MaxMem. If you are playing around alot with applications and different Handheld Codes to unlock themes, things can get a little messy at times. So I had no hesitation in trying out this application from the guys over at BerryCoder.

MaxMem certainly does live up to what it says about freeing Memory on your Berry. The amount of Memory made available may vary depending on how you manage your own BlackBerry but it will no doubt go through the few apps you don’t think about when you purchased or upgraded your Berry.

BerryCoder has a simple and to the point interface made up of Buttons for each of the applications to be removed. The sad part is that the documentation is very sparse.

NOTE: You can really screw up your BlackBerry and the BlackBerry OS by deleting certain applications. Personally the only ones I can recommend are VAD (Voice dialing) and PTT (AT&T’s push to talk)

Prior to the actual uninstall of the application you are prompted twice before proceeding, one to confirm you have made a backup and the second a disclaimer with regards to Data Loss just to safeguard the Developers….Make those Backup’s.

I tried MaxMem on several BlackBerry model’s with the same result of freeing up anything from 2mb - 5mb, which maybe enough for that next application or a extra thousand or so Email’s…

There one or two things that would be great to round MaxMem off and that would be a Reset Button for the required Hard Reset and possibly to extend this to uninstalling the third-party apps via a List reference. How they would actually do this only a Developer would know. Esentially like Add/Remove Programs many are familiar with. Right now the Application is specific to RIM applications (actual COD files) and Themes and does not let you remove 3rd party applications. I checked to make sure and it did not remove my 3rd party theme.

This however is early days for the “BlackBerrian’s” from BerryCoder, as they coined themselves as being, so I certainly hope to see more from them in the future. The install is quick and is not a large application and as posted earlier by Ronen you can download it OTA from www.berrycoder.com

Pros:

• Free
• Easy to remove programs that RIM wont allow you to
• Simple to use

Cons:

• Not enough documentation
• You can really screw up your BlackBerry

Alarms Pro is another piece of software that should have been part of the operating system on all BlackBerrys. BBSmarts Alarms Pro is a great replacement for your original alarm. Not only does this software enable you to have multiple alarms, it also allows you to customize a multitude of settings for each alarm. No longer are we tied to the; weekdays, on and off, options. For those who work a different schedule every week, or may work a non-traditional schedule this program is an absolute necessity. Best of all each alarm can be disabled if you don’t need it at the time.

When its time for your alarm to go off, a clean looking screen appears along with your selected alarm sound. Everything is in large easy to read font sizes, perfect for those of us who don’t have perfect eyesight. From the “Alarm List” screen you can quickly see which alarms are enabled: Enabled=Green and Disabled=Red

Alarms Pro allows you to set two different kinds of alarms; “Regular Alarm” and “Quick Alarm”

Regular Alarm-

The regular alarm is similar to the kind of alarm you can set with the “Alarm” program that comes standard with all BlackBerrys, except on steroids. You can set an unlimited number of regular alarms, all customized to fit your personality and schedule. You start by naming your alarm, setting the desired alarm time, whether or not it is a recurring alarm and if it is, the days which you would like the alarm to go off. I often work four ten hour days so this has been a blessing; no more worrying about turning the alarm off Thursday night before I go to bed. If you are happy with the rest of the default settings, hit the back button and relax. Your alarm will go off without a hitch.

If you like to customize everything to its fullest extent, there are more options you can set. You can change the alarm sound, choose the number of occurrences of this alarm you wish to have, ranging from “1″ to “forever” and adjust the desired volume from 0-100. There is a nice little button that plays for you exactly what your alarm will sound like. Finally there are a couple of general alarm settings; whether or not you want your Berry to vibrate with the alarm, silence the alarm when it is unholstered, and set the snooze length.

Quick Alarm-

The Quick Alarm is more like a timer than an alarm. When adding a Quick Alarm, you are only prompted to enter the amount of time until you would like your alarm to go off; all the other settings revert to the default. This has really come in handy when cooking; I can set a quick alarm for my desired time, and never have to worry about not hearing the stove beeping if I’m across the house. Other uses I have found include: reminding me to move my sprinklers, call people back, I’ve even used it as a power-nap alarm! If you need to customize the alarm you can edit your quick alarm from the “Alarm List” screen.

Want More?-Of course you do! The last bit of customization Alarms Pro allows you to do is to edit the default alarm settings. If you always want your quick alarm to play your favorite song or set every regular alarm to have a 5 minute snooze time, this is the place to do it. Simply hit the “options” button of your BlackBerry while in the Alarms Pro application, scroll down to the options button, and choose whether you want to edit the “regular” or “quick” alarm defaults.

Pros

• Unlimited Alarms
• Tons of Options
• Very Affordable
• All Around Wonderful Application

Cons

• Only comes with 3 Alarms
• No Escalating Volume
• Doesnt come with BlackBerry! (although this is absolutly no fault of BBSmart)

Foreca gives you ALL the information you could possibly want on their mobile website and it looks good!!! You get the basics such as the current temp. Then you get the days temperature broken down by quarters of the day.

They even offer animated images/maps for radar, satellite, temperature, precipitation, cloudiness, & wind. It comes in quite a few languages that you can change through the settings.

Very cool! This is one website I would not mind having a homescreen shortcut to…

Check it out at www.foreca.mobi and let me know what you think!

So when I read about Anyvite on TechCrunch I was interested. It has a mobile version at m.anyvite.com. You can respond and/or RSVP to a invite just by replying to the email! You can also get SMS or Email updates of changes in case plans change while your in transit.

Check it out at www.anyvite.com. Evite could learn a thing or two from these guys!

(thanks to TechCrunch for the image)

Both themes are available for the 81xx, 83xx and 88xx Blackberry series. Graphics are sharp and vivid and design is attractive to say the least.

Themes are available in both Zip and OTA downloads via free registration at eVeek.com - just follow the links!

Hebrew in hand lets you practice a haftarah, say daily prayers, seek inspiration from Biblical passages, study the Hebrew language, connect with tradition, and more.

OTA installation is available at this link or you can get the desktop installation files at this link. Let them know what you think at www.hebrewinhand.com

The Americas outage will occur on July 5^th between 2AM and 6AM EDT.

The Asia–Pacific outage is scheduled for 15:00 – 19:00 GMT. Not sure exactly what will be out of commission during that time.

Bplay rarely does discounts so I thought this is worth mention. The 30% off is valid off their entire line in their store including games, themes, & ringtones. You just need to enter in the code JULY30 to get the discount.

Check it out at www.bplay.com

Open mouth, insert foot. A day after my rant on BlackBerry Wallet I am already seeing signs of the changing times. Bplay has just announced support for the BlackBerry Wallet application on their website. The application will fill out the forms with your credit card which is pretty cool. Especially since most of the Bplay products are quick impulse buys like ringtones and themes.

In case you don’t already have it you can download BlackBerry Wallet free at this link. RIM should really preinstall Wallet on all new BlackBerry devices.

You can now shop Bplay at www.bplay.com with the BlackBerry Wallet. Now if only RIM could get the application to save & autofill your website username and password in the browser like Firefox…

Its nice to see Wallet actually in use. Now RIM just needs to convince more companies to adopt the standard. As I said before Wallet is a promising application but without RIM’s support it is almost useless.

You can read the tutorial and all about it at this link. You can install it by heading to m.google.com/maps from your BlackBerry browser.

Using voice search is as simple as 1, 2, 3:

1. Press “0″ to center the map view around your location
2. Press the left-side key and hold it while you say the name or type of business you’re looking for (for example, “pizza”)
3. When you’re done speaking, release the left-side key, and our voice recognition technology will figure out your request and find the business you’ve been looking for, no typing needed.

The Wallet application promised to simplify the online shopping experience from your BlackBerry. I have yet to hear of one company or website that supports this application! I tried speaking to a few and most are not even interested in it. I know some of you are going to say it is a bit too early to rant since it takes quite awhile for websites to adopt a standard. On the other hand RIM should be offering to promote a list of all websites that support the standard.

The problem is that it seems like RIM is not even bothering to promote the Wallet application standard. They have not even implemented it on their own www.shopblackberry.com website which by the way does not even have a mobile version. Also if they were really serious about the applications adoption they would have included it with all of the new devices that were just released with OS 4.5! All we have is a simple description on their website with a few paragraphs of text. YAY!

So what happened RIM? Was the Wallet just an afterthought? Is this just another Microsoft Wallet/Passport?

Let me know if you heard anything!

Its also an easy way to send tasks to anyone. Since the BlackBerry understands vCards I wonder if it understands vCal’s. I will have to check it out.

You can download the Beta by going to this link from your desktop and entering in your name and email:
www.s4bb.com/the-beta-program/#taskmailer

Let us know what you think!

Essentially it just shows you a clean joke, riddle, & dirty joke of the day rotated daily. Pretty cheesy but good for a quick chuckle.

PLEASE let me know if you have found anything better. Reading Dilbert in Viigo is getting old…

BerryCoder once again comes to the rescue with QSMS. If you install this application you can use the ‘Q’ shortcut to compose an SMS!

The best part is that it is free!!!

You can pick it up OTA by going to www.berrycoder.com from your BlackBerry.

It does remove Voice Dialing, Push to talk, and quite a few other pesky applications. For now I cannot confirm these claims of freeing 5 megabytes of memory but Gareth is working on testing out MaxMem.

NOTE: Please backup your BlackBerry before trying this application!!! 

You can download it OTA from www.berrycoder.com

Installation and description are after the jump!

1. Head to www.berrycoder.com or click at this

   Link www.berrycoder.com/maxmem.jad

2. Install the application MaxMem to your BlackBerry

3. Click on the MaxMem Elephant icon after you backup your BlackBerry database

4. Choose from below tools

5. Answer yes only if you have back up your data

6. Answer yes only if you understand that BerryCoder will not be hold accountable for any error done by the use of MaxMem.

7. Answer yes only if you are sure that you want to delete the cod (it will ask for authorization for every cod)

Removed Applications:

- Remove VAD (Voice Activation Dialing)

    This feature enable BlackBerry to dial using voice.

- Remove PTT (Push To Talk)

    This feature is usually found in AT&T released BlackBerry and can only be used in AT&T network

- Remove MDS - Don’t remove this if you are a BES user

- Remove Media

    All the media (sample video, wallpaper, etc) that comes from OS default

- Remove Themes

    All themes other than Zen theme will be removed but you get to authorize each theme cod file

- Remove RIM Internal Tools

    Used by RIM to monitor beta OS (Quincy, Battery Log, etc)

Note

To avoid data loss in case of error, such as accidentally deleted currently used theme, do back up  BlackBerry database using Desktop Manager.

Any error on the BlackBerry can be restored using Desktop Manager

Disclaimer

BerryCoder shall not be held responsible for any data loss.

Even if you have a 200 text message plan you are still paying 2.5 cents per text message.

I could not agree with Nicholas more. Then one of the comments by Marc reminded me of this article from back in the day. Some bored Scientist from Leicester had free time to calculate that it cost 4 times more to send a text message to a friend than it costs NASA to send the same data to the moon!

And yet I still have a $5 text message plan. (Muttering to myself!)

This would save you money on calls and give you reception in locations where you might not have. While I was at Sprints corporate offices I asked them if I could use the Airave while traveling. I was sad to learn that it has a built in GPS chip that only lets it work where Sprint has coverage!!! SUCKS. You also need to keep the device near a window so it can get a GPS fix.

You will need to pay for an extra service to use the Airave. According to Wayne this should be $15 for an individual or $30 for a family. You do get unlimited calling over the internet with the plan so its not a terrible deal.

Pretty interesting stuff. I think they need to lower the price and lose the GPS restriction. Check it out on Sprints site at this link.

Sprint via SprintUsers via GearDiary via BoyGenius via Speedy Gonzalez via Juan Valdez …..

It has been interesting to see that over the years the BlackBerry has moved from the business & work domain to more personal uses. It has been awhile since I was on a college campus and I feel I just have to ask…

Are you a BlackBerry toting student?
Is the BlackBerry truly useful for students?

Let us know what you think!

From their post:

Here at Google, we’re passionate about mobile technology, and we know you are, too. This is the place to share your enthusiasm! Use this group to discuss the world of mobile in general - like cool new applications you’ve discovered or what you wish your phone could do.

This is also the perfect place to tell us what you think of our very own Google mobile products. Tell us what you like, what you don’t like, or if there are features or products you’d like to see.

Personally I think this is a great opportunity for you to spill your 2 cents to Google about what you want to see in their mobile applications. Personally I want access to my latitude and longitude from Google Maps.

Give Google a piece of your mind at this link