BlackBerry Sites » Tips and Tricks

Are You using Your BlackBerry Holster the Right Way?

Post By Randy — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:59:00 +0000

I can remember back in last August, way back when the Bold 9900/99300 was first released and there was a lot of debating going on about the included holster and how it should be used. Some people said to insert your phone with the screen out and others claimed that screen in offers the most protection possible. Well months later and after several reports of damaged Bold Touch keyboards we have an official answer. The correct way to use a Bold 9900/9930 holster is by inserting the phone with the screen in.

Today FedEx dropped off a Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Bold 9930 at my door. Everything seemed the same as my other two Bold 9930s until I looked at the holster and seen a nice instructional sticker on the packaging. Thus laying to rest the long-standing debate.

BlackBerry 6 Home Screen Tips and Tricks.

Post By Joe Styer/ Admin — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 13:00:18 +0000

Since Verizon has released BlackBerry 6 for the Bold 9650 and the Curve 3G, RIM media relations sent us a few tips that can help those new to BlackBerry 6. If you are a Torch user….. who knows you may find this useful as well.

BlackBerry 6 Home Screen Tips Save You Time

BlackBerry 6 makes it even faster to find what you're looking for! These tips for navigating the BlackBerry home screen help you do more with the BlackBerry 6 operating system and save you time!

· To automatically launch Universal Search, start typing or select the magnifying glass in the top right corner of the home screen

· To add an icon to the Favorites view, select the icon and press and hold the trackpad, then click on Mark as Favorite from the pop-up menu

· For quick access to Manage Connections, Alarm and Options screens, select the top of the Home Screen

· To easily view your most recent messages (such as email, text, BlackBerry® Messenger), phone calls, upcoming appointments, Facebook® and Twitter® notifications simply select the Notification Bar directly below the clock on the Home Screen

· To easily access your contacts, you can add them to the Home Screen:

o In the Contacts application, highlight the contact you want to add

o Press the Menu key

o Select Add to Home Screen, then Add

BlackBerry 6, the new BlackBerry operating system, is available on the BlackBerry Torch, BlackBerry Style, BlackBerry Bold 9780 and now the BlackBerry Bold 9650 and BlackBerry Curve 3G from Verizon Wireless. For a free download of BlackBerry 6 for your BlackBerry Bold 9650 and BlackBerry Curve 3G for Verizon Wireless, visit www.blackberry.com/update

Using Add to Home Screen Function BlackBerry 6.

Post By Joe Styer/ Admin — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 16:23:22 +0000

Yes I admit I am a big fan of mobile sites, and browsing the web with the Torch running BlackBerry 6 I must admit it’s very nice. However some of the sites I visit do not have a launcher Icon available for download. With BlackBerry 6 you can add an icon while on any website giving you a nice launcher shortcut.

Simply go to a site you want a shortcut to and hit the menu key and select add to Home Screen. As you see below you can edit the naming and the location for the shortcut. Select add and you have the equivalent of a launcher.

Getting the Windows Live Account revalidation on your BlackBerry?

Post By Joe Styer/ Admin — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 11:30:20 +0000

Customers who integrated their Windows Live® Hotmail® accounts using MSP (Microsoft® proprietary protocol) and who use a Windows Live® (Windows Live® Hotmail®, MSN® or Bell Sympatico®, for example) email address with the BlackBerry® Internet Service must re-validate their account every 360 days. Many customers may be required to revalidate their account during the first and second week of August 2010. Three days prior to re-validation, Research In Motion® (RIM) will send a PIN message to customers’ BlackBerry® smartphone to let them know that re-validation is required. Please note that re-validation is not required where users have integrated their Windows Live Hotmail accounts using POP.

For more information about revalidating your account please see:

Why am I being asked to confirm my Windows Live email address? [link to http://blogs.blackberry.com/2010/07/confirm-windows-live-email-address/#more-1463]
How to re-validate your Windows Live Hotmail, MSN, and Bell Sympatico email integrations [link to http://www.blackberry.com/btsc/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=KB13137]

Source BlackBerry Support Community Forums

How to Create Group Emails on your BlackBerry!

Post By Joe Styer/ Admin — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 16:55:42 +0000

For work or pleasure I use group emails a lot. Group emails are very simple to set up and saves time. If you take pictures with your BlackBerry and want to send the picture to more than one person, then groups is the way to go. Even for work projects, which email lists tend to change quite a bit, editing, renaming, adding or removing contacts and or the group itself is simple.

STEP 1 Open your contacts then hit the menu button and select New Group.

STEP 2 Select New Group then Name your group.

STEP 3 Hit your Menu key and select Add Member

STEP 4 Add your Contacts/Members for your new group.

STEP 5 When done adding contacts/members hit menu and select Save Group.

The Group you created will be in your contacts, so if you want to add or remove contacts or edit the name of the group just open your contacts go to the group, hit the menu key and select view group.

How to Change Your Font Appearance and Size on Your BlackBerry!

Post By Joe Styer/ Admin — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 02:00:45 +0000

This will more than likely not be new information for most BlackBerry users, but I did receive on question today about this so here is the info for those that find it useful.

First thing to do is select options.
Then under options select Screen/Keyboard.
From this location you can select:

Font Family
Font Size
Font Style

Simply move your scroll over the item you want to change and select it. This will open a drop down menu with options for you to choose from.
While making Changes please notice the sentence “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.“ This sentence will show you the results as you go through the options. When complete use the back key and select save. Done!!

How To Set Your Default Location for Photos and Videos!

Post By Joe Styer/ Admin — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:30:08 +0000

To set or change where photos are stored by default, follow these steps:
1. From the home screen, press the Menu key.
2. Select the Camera application.
3. Once the camera application has loaded, press the Menu key
4. Select Options.
5. At the bottom of the options menu, you can change whether pictures are stored on the media card or in device memory. You can also change which folder pictures are saved in.

To set or change the default location for stored videos, follow these steps:
1. From the home screen, press the Menu key.
2. Select Media.
3. Select Videos.
4. From the Videos menu, select the Video Camera application, located at the top of the list application, located at the top of the list.
5. Press the Menu key.
6. Select Options.
7. Press the Menu key.
8. Select Options.
9. At the bottom of the options menu, you can change which folder videos are stored in by default.

Extra Notes:
1 You can also access the video camera while in Camera mode. While in Camera Mode simply click the menu key and select Video Camera.
2 Remember videos cannot be stored on the device memory only on a Media Card.

Why Use Your BlackBerry Calendar? It Is Worth It!!

Post By Joe Styer/ Admin — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:12:05 +0000

One thing that I use a lot everyday is my Calendar. Setting up appointments religiously is what helps me be on time and remembering something I am supposed to do all day everyday. Even on a Saturday morning when I scheduled it a week in advance.

If you are one that uses a paper calendar at home and/or work and are great at keeping things written down as I used to do, will find out that your BlackBerry is the one thing that is always with you. Numerous times my Daughter ends up having a last minute school activity on Saturday, then out to eat after-wards, maybe we decide to go grocery shopping before heading home. Meanwhile my paper calendar at home has no way of letting me know I have a 3 o’clock appointment written down. My BlackBerry that is always with me would have let me know just that.

The biggest tip I can offer is; “Use Your BlackBerry Calendar”.

One thing I would suggest is to enable quick entry by going to Calendar, Menu Key, Options, General Options then under Actions set enable quick entry to Yes. (Device Default is set to No)

When Quick Entry is enabled, you can add appointments by following these steps:
1. In Day View, type the name you wish to give the appointment.
2. In parentheses, type the location of the appointment.
3. Roll the trackball to select the end time for the appointment and then click the trackball to save.
4. Yes that simple!

**Note** When enabling Quick Entry the hot-key shortcuts for Calendar will be disabled. (Small sacrifice for the ability to enter appointments on the fly.) The Hot-Keys simply let you switch Views of Day, Week, Month ect.. ect.. and you can still do this from your menu key.

If you have other helpful things to offer please leave a comment and share with everyone.

Quick and Easy Time Saver Shortcuts!

Post By Joe Styer/ Admin — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:10:14 +0000

I posted about these little but handy shortcuts back in July and thought I would re-post the article for those that may find it helpful. Alot of BlackBerry Users probaly use these shortcuts on a regular basis, but for those who didn’t know about these; Enjoy!

When entering your Phone Number into an Email, Calendar Event Notes, Memo Pad, Tasks or pretty much anything you enter information into on your BlackBerry, you can always use these shortcuts. All you have to do is type in mynumber then hit the space key and your phone number will now be displayed.

When you need to know your PIN number or need to send it to someone its pretty much the same process. Type in mypin then hit the space key and your PIN number will now be displayed.

When you need to know your Model number and OS version or need to send it to someone, type in myver then hit the space key and your info will be displayed.

If you want to see what shorcuts are available when browsing on your BlackBerry you can see a previous article HERE!

BlackBerry Shortcuts when using the Web!

Post By Joe Styer/ Admin — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 11:15:49 +0000

I use a lot of these shortcuts on a daily basis and figured this may be some new information for some BlackBerry® users.

While in your Browser viewing a web site using the following keys will give you the following results for most current models.

P (Will show you the page address you are on and give you the option to copy or send the address.)

I (Zoom In on the page)
O (Zoom out on the page)
U (Full Screen view)
Y (Shows your History)
R (Refreshes the Screen)
A (Add the current site to your bookmarks)
S (Browser Option/Settings)
D (Close/Exit out of Browser)
F and V (Search)
G (Opens Browser as Go To shortcut)
H (Takes you to your set Home Page)
K (opens your Bookmarks)
Del<- (Back Page)
Z (Maximize & Minimize if available)
C (Connection Information)
T (Top of Page)
B (Bottom of Page)

If you know of any other shortcuts feel free to leave a comment and shar them.