It has been a long time since I write a post about Blackberry. Just for a quick update, I bought a Storm 2 few days back and I promise I will put up a review pretty soon. As for now, I would like to address certain inquiries, misconception and miscellaneous facts regarding Blackberry. Pretty recently, few friends had come to me and ask about why Blackberry would be a wise choice compared to other smartphones, what else a Blackberry can do apart from BBM and email etc. InsyAllah I will cover the basic Blackberry user in this post.
1) Physiology of a Blackberry
A Blackberry is a smartphone which emphasizes communication to the core. Having said that, a Blackberry user will appreciate the push technology it has. Push technology means an instant notifications for almost any applications that is associated with the RIM API (just ignore the jargon I use here). For instance, emails, BBM, YM, Facebook or even Twitter will have always on notification on the phone. I don’t deny that other smartphones will also offer the same functionality on their platform, BUT the application that supports push services are limited. For example an iPhone user will have to subscribe to Mobile.me to have a push emails. Android user on the other hand only support Gmail and Gtalk for push notifications. All in all, I can say that a Blackberry is more robust when it comes to communication.
Specification wise,a Blackberry doesn’t really equipped with the latest state of the art technology like other smartphones. Henceforth, a multimedia capabilities on a Blackberry is somewhat limited. Blackberry Storm 2 however, does support for OpenGL games but the choices for games are still limited. If you plan to buy a Blackberry, don’t be surprised that your friends from Android and iPhone will be showing off their lustrous AMOLED (or Retina Display for iPhone) screen to you because your Blackberry screen will only look like a smartphone circa 2008. However, there is a good news for us Blackberry user in the future. RIM has decided to launch a new platform of Blackberry OS using QNX (the one that is incorporated on the PlayBook) and it also support dual-core processors. This technical advancement in a Blackberry might not be an important thing for you to know if you plan to buy a Blackberry. However for the sake of comparing your smartphones among your relative and friends (like you always do), this news would be helping you out to still stay in the game.
2) 1st Thing to Do After Buying a Blackberry
The obvious answer to that question above is to pop in your sim card into your phone. But wait, the process doesn’t end there. You must either call your telco operator or SMS the service center to make sure your number is activated with BIS service. In laymen term, BIS is a the connection you need to have on your Blackberry for it to start working properly. Without a BIS, your Blackberry is just a dumbphone with a music player and a organizer which can make calls and receives text messages. How long does it take a BIS to be set up on a phone depends on which telco you use (and of course, in which country you are).
that shows a summary of the essential apps you should have
3) Essential Softwares.
There are 2 main softwares you have to know. The 1st one is called as Blackberry Desktop Manager. Blackberry Desktop Manager is a like an iTunes for Blackberry. Apart from syncing multimedia, it also functions as a software updater for your phones (I will discuss about this in other posts) and from there itself, you can do backups for messages or phonebook (and other miscellaneous settings on the phone which you wont give a damn to know). So basically, every Blackberry will come with a installer CD in the package box for you to install in your own computer (or if you don’t have one, always ask permission to install it on your roommate’s computer) or you can download the software from RIM’s website.
The second software you have to know is the one you’ll be installing on your phone (from here onwards I will use the term Apps). So having the apps on your phone is like giving a life to the mundane OS your Blackberry already has. Most importantly, 3rd Party apps are the one that people always download either from the App World or any OTA (on-the-air, again I will describe this in later post) links. Generally speaking, 3rd party apps are the one that is not built/developed by RIM, but rather has their own substantial developer.
I have written a review regarding essential 3rd party apps for a Blackberry in my older post (go look it up if you are interested to know) but of course, to make your life easier, I will list down a few apps that people always install for a start. So here they are:
1) IM (instant messaging) : YM, Gtalk
2) Facebook
3) Twitter / Ubertwitter
4) App World – certain people doesn’t find it necessary to install but I always recommend to have it on your phone because there are apps that don’t have an OTA link.
5) salatMK – the best solat reminder app for a Blackberry, equipped with Athan notification for each prayer.
Apart from those two, another important software that you need to have is BBSAK (Blackberr Swiss Army Knife). For a normal user, this app might not sound so important albeit the name is so cool and bombastic. But for an advance user like (ehem) me, I use this app often to wipe my device (not wiping as in cleaning, but completely remove the OS) and install missing CODs (.cod is the compressed JAVA file that is executable on Blackberry smartphones)
4) Essential Knowledge.
To own a Blackberry wont be sufficient if you just know how to type or read. You must always be prepared for some technical “expertise” to get your way around should you encounter a software related problems on your phones.
The 1st knowledge that you must know is, HOW TO UPDATE/DOWNGRADE YOUR BLACKBERRY SOFTWARE. Don’t worry, I will always be generous to write a guide on how to do it in later post. Or, even after you read the guide and still couldn’t comprehend a thing, don’t be scared and shy to meet your big bro (me) here to help you sort things out.
Secondly, you should know some TIPS and TRICKS on your Blackberry OS. To sum things up, below are the few things that you can do while using a Blackberry:
1) Double tapping the space bar when typing a message will cause you to type a punctuation mark. Similarly, a single tap on the email address will cause you to type “@”. Blackberry is pretty genius in this part, that’s why it is the most reliable device when it comes to communication 
2) Holding the Blackberry Button will execute a Multi-task menu (this is where you can see how many apps are you running at that time. It is similar to a Task Manager in Windows)
3) Clicking a Back Button on the phone wont exit the current app you are running, instead it will be moved to the background. To get to the app again, simply do action #2.
4) Holding the Power Button on top of the phone will make your phone goes into sleep mode. Do this often to save battery because a Blackberry consumes a lot of power for data transfers.
5) Always charge your Blackberry every night before going to bed, because a Blackberry being an always online device needs a powerful battery for it to run. Unless you use a custom battery which provides extra horse power, a regular Blackberry battery needs to be charged overnight so that you wont end up with a big slab of dead phone by the end of the day.
6) The rest of the tricks you will learn later on as you get yourself accustom to the way of a Berry (menyampah aku dengan ayat ini..)
5) THE OATH
And finally, once you have everything ready, right from the essential softwares to the ultimate tricks, you have to devote your honor and dignity to only Blackberry and swear to remain true only to a Blackberry. No other smartphone is better or superior than a Blackberry in terms of communication. Therefore to announce your sworn sanctity to the brotherhood of Blackberry, one shall recite THE OATH. Repeat after me :
Once you go Black(berry), You Will Never Go Back! iPhone is for kids, Android is for Geeks.
That’s all for now. Take care and have fun. I will write again more about the technical part of a Blackberry in the future! xoxo~
Nice & Easy, waiting for the update…