BlackBerry Curve 8900 Applications & OS list

BlackBerry Curve 8900 running OS 5

Now that I am sick with the stupid flu, what better time to create a list of the best application out there for the BlackBerry Curve 8900. I only intend to list applications that I have actually used.

Let’s start with the new OS – As found on YouTube, here is the link the guy provided: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=HL78RPQR

Some Additional Programs:

1. Weather – Click Here to Download ***Please note that you will get an error message when you launch the program, follow these instructions to get it working.
     a) Press trackball ONCE to get rid of message
     b) Press trackball again to open the application menu
     c) Go to options in the menu
     d) You need the Location ID – If you are in South Africa, here are the three major cities location ID’s
                    1. Johannesburg = SFXX0023          2. Durban = SFXX0011          3. Cape Town = SFXX0010
                    ***To find your location ID, click here
     e) Finally, select the box that says Disable MDS Proxy
     f) That should have your weather working perfectly.

2. Opera Mini 5 (beta) – Download here or visit http://m.opera.com/next

Ok, those for now, new apps added soon.

BlackBerry Curve 8900 (Javelin) on VodafoneSA

BlackBerry Curve 8900 (Javelin)

While I wait on my Touch Pro to get un-bricked (hopefully) I got myself the BlackBerry Curve 8900. I must confess that I have never been a fan of BlackBerry just because the BIS (BlackBerry Internet Solution) seemed like a way of RIM (Research In Motion) making more money of us poor saps.

Anyhow I finally just asked the guys to explain it to me. In my honest opinion I think the guy bullshitted me for about 60% of the conversation, but he did explain how BIS works.

BIS gives you access to unlimited browsing and email basically most types of internet connections, you know Facebook, Twitter and even MXit. For a guy like me that is amazing. If you live in South Africa you can get the unlimited internet for R59 per month if you’re on pre-paid or R69 per month if you’re on contract.

Anyway I signed up and have been using the phone now for a day or so. I have to tell you that owning a BlackBerry has a certain cool factor to it. It’s kinda like the feeling you get owning an iPhone, gives your ego the impression that you are the man!

But as you know I am not just about ego’s. Form should always follow function and so here’s what I have seen so far with the BlackBerry Curve 8900.

Overall the phone is great and has great features with it. Riding of my last mobile, the N96 featured a 5mp camera, the BB (BlackBerry) 8900 features a 3.2mp camera. Yet don’t dismiss it, the quality of the pictures are excellent. I am certain the only time you will have a problem is when there is poor lighting conditions. Also using a phone wide screen is a new experience as well. By Wide Screen I mean the phone is designed with a longer length than breath which is great.

It comes with a 1gig SD Memory Card and after 5 minutes I bought my own 16gig and put that in. I was told that is as high as it goes. Which is great and matches up nicely with the top end Nokia’s and HTC’s. Plenty of space for my music and movies. The desktop manager has a nice little feature of converting your movies for you. If you are like me and have a collection of movies that you like having on your mobile just incase you’re stuck in traffic or whatever, you know you’ll never be bored.

I am pretty comfortable with the QWERTY keyboard and most people would be even if you have never used one before. There is also this really cool feature where your you can specify the way your phone reacts when it is in the carry case. Yip the BlackBerry can detect if it is in your carry case or not and so when it’s sitting in your pocket at the mall in the carry case, you can tell the phone to vibrate so you know it’s ringing but if it’s lying on your desk you can cimply tell it to ring out loud. I thought this was pretty cool.

Ok the not so cool stuff:

1. NO 3G - What were BlackBerry thinking? The guys at the shop tried to convince me about how GPRS on the 8900 works just as fast and I’ll never notice the difference and blah blah blah blah. The truth of the matter is, 3G is 3G and if you spend alot of time browsing they you need to make a cll on whether the 8900 is for you. You have to decide on when you browse what is more important, speed or amount of bandwidth? If you need speed surfing the net, this is not it. Don’t be mistaken though, for the time I have had the phone, the GPRS works well and and downloads at an ok speed.

2. Getting your email to work - BlackBerry were the first company to bring email to mobile phones and generally when you get a BlackBerry you are getting so that you are always connected. I have been struggling and struggling now and have had no luck. Vodafone eForum has been trying to assist me but email communition between different countries has it’s own time issues. If your company does not have a BES (BlackBerry Enterprize Server) I am afraid you are going to end up having trouble like me. Let’s hope by Monday I resolve the email issues.

3. Interface Styling – the main interface is awesome you seem some really clean graphics and nice icons and so forth but once you get in there it becomes very poor. The options menu is just a black and while list of words, which is horrible to look at, functionally it works but asthesically it is terrible. Likewise for the messages (SMS / MMS) the layout is very poor with no ability to change anything. The main interace also has a line of icons by default similar to the Nokia N series however on the BlackBerry I have not been able to change the icons.

That’s all the bad I could see so far. Guys again I have to say that the 3 bad things above will differ from person to person. Many people have no idea what 3G is and so it will make no difference to them and so forth which is why I have to give the BlackBerry Curve 8900 my thumbs up. It’s great and with such cool features it’s easy to see why I am blown away.

All BlackBerry have to do now is throw in 3G, Video Calling, Modify the Rom with better lower lever interface and pick up the camera and damn, the competitors are going to cry.

Final Note – For those of you who say get the Storm for 3G, have you even seen how that touch screen works? Go see before you comment.

Cheers

HTC Touch Pro

I used the HTC Diamond a while back, before I even started blogging and was presently surprized at how well the 4GB phone worked. It was smooth well designed and did everything I needed.

The big brother of the Diamond is the HTC Touch Pro which bears the same back and front design plus the slide out keyboard and softer curves. I got the phone in the morning and by the evening it was bricked. So much for that, it seemed like a really nice version and having had the Nokia N96 would is about 40 grams lighter I didn’t mind the extra weight.

What I was looking forward to was the upgrade to WinMo 6.5 and unfortunately there is not much you can do with a bricked phone. I am hoping to take it to Leaf tomorrow to have it sorted and and should be able to continue this post once it back with me and working 100%.

The Guiding Principles

I last spoke about culture and how important it is for a business and the element that drives culture is our human nature.

It’s human nature however that we as people are born stuborn, live out our lives stuborn and finally die – (stubornly I suppose). Why do I say it like this, well because it’s due to our stuborn nature that we have no wisdom.

No don’t jump at me and tell me that you are a person full of wisdom until you understand what I mean by wisdom.

Wisdom is not knowledge -
You have read a book about how to screw a light blulb in but if you have never actually done it, then you are not wise about it. Having knowledge is great yet failure to use knowledge makes you no better that the person who see the hot oil on the stove and knows if he does not switch the stove off the oil is going to catch alight. If you don’t use knowledge how can you be a wise person.

Wisdom is Applied Knowledge –
I heard a good friend of mine say to me that the definition of wisdom is “Applied Knowledge and understanding” How true are those words. We cut outselves short either due to pride or the in-ability to say no or yes based on the knowledge we have about situations and circumstances.

Wisdom in Industry -
In any industry, you should always trust your experts, that is why you hired them right – for their expertise! You should also be weary of the “I know it all” attitude. That’s the attitude that says, I have been the head chef for 20 years and you little cleaner boy have been here but a few months and already you think you know more than me. In my kitchen this is what works so do it without questioning me, and then a week later you get bugs, then rats and then you get shut down.

The point of the story is, while the chef is in-charge his expertise is not cleaning up, the cleaner has been trained in that regard, it’s why you hired him / her right? So let them do what they do best and listen. It’s such a simple thing, just shut up and open your ears, listen, then assess if what’s been said is correct and if it is correct, then apply. Once you have the knowledge make use of it.

In the design business, there is more to it than just the money you are receiving. You need to consider all elements, if you are preparing a television ad, you have to make sure you ad is going to be appealing to your audience, if you video guy comes in and say hey to get the best results run the as at breakfast time, listen to him / her. Trust historical figures as they form the grounding to working out a good media compaign. Be true to self, audience, staff and client in that each one has a role to play.

The next time you have a question about food, ask the chef, if it’s about technology – ask me. (or someone who knows what they are talking about)

Opinions Matter –
I whole-heartedly agree, but again get opinions as addon’s or ways of improving what you are doing, do not take the opinon of an un-skilled (in that area) person over that of your skilled person. This would be a big mistake.

Also understand that the Internet is not a car dealership or a dentist office, the internet is unique and as you would ask your doctor for advice on your taxes, don’t ask the wrong people for advice – seek out the knowledgable ones. They exist.

Bye
EJC

Learn how to use failure to suceed

Failure as I mentioned before is useful if harnessed properly, and yet so often it is frowned upon without even learning anything from it.

I want to focus on this subject of failure simply because if you can understand this point correctly you would have grown in your maturity and knowledge of the Digital Industry like you can only imagine.

Why? – Why do I say that? Because the person who does not fail at some point is the one who made no effort.

Lets be real about it though, no one likes to fail it is a terrible feeling and each of us whether we acknowledge it or not has failed at some time or the other. Failure extends further than your work environment, I use myself as an example of this, I often research new developments in Technology and in particular Web Technology and every so often I will come across something that absolutely amazes me.

With my amazement comes the sense of “How”, how does it work and can I re-create it and I assure you that I fail at least 5 – 10 times in my effort to understand and re-create. Yet it doesn’t stop there, I keep going and keep going until I am completely frustrated with myself and realise I need a break before I try again. After the break I get right back at it and keep going, and 90% of the time I get it.

But there is also worldly failure, and I know how that feels as well, I have been trying to get my Drivers License for the past 5 years and having failed my test 3 times, you would think I would have just bought the License already. I refuse to do the wrong thing to obtain it. Character and virtues creates the legend of the person you are.

The monumental glaring point about failure is that you learn patience and perseverance, you know the saying “You don’t always get what you want” strangely enough that is not the complete version of the saying, it actually goes “You don’t always get what you want, but if you TRY sometimes, you get what you need” – wise words.

Here’s how I see it and hopefully you can use this in your life,

1. Accept it – Acknowledging that you can fail is the start, if you cannot do this you cannot use failure to become a success.
2. Learn from it – The only time failure is useless is when you do not learn from it. So when you do fail, stop and think about the situation, ask yourself what is it that I can learn from this? (I have learnt 3 things that I do incorrectly when I drive)
3. Stand Tall – We get so worked up about failing because we think our friends and colleges are going to think the worst of us, yet in my experience it is not the one who fails that people look down on – NO – it is the one who fails and cannot handle the failure. No one looks down on the person who is seeking and trying to reach greatness.
4. Think Quick – So often we see a failure and just leave it there, without doing anything about it. Broadcasting has taught me that if your project is failing, all you have to do is look at what is not working and adjust it. This simple idea works so well if you can just apply it.
5. Don’t Give Up – Life’s greatest lesson is this – Persevere, Persevere, Persevere, don’t just quit because it is not going your way, keep at it and learn.
6. Apply It – Don’t be afraid of failing, this kind of fear will rob you of any hope of success.
7. Bigger Picture – Part of the Primedia Broadcasting Formula for success is to not be bigger picture blind. Simply put, in the case of failure be sure you understand the bigger picture, learn how fail smartly. (If you have a project due tomorrow, don’t be fancy – do it by the book. If you are working well in advance, then why not play around and give yourself room to fail, and the more you fail the more you learn.)
8. Boldness – When you finally get it to work after all that failing and perseverance, be bold and confident about what you have just succeeded at, and use that to boost your morale for the next round of failing.

Well, that’s the pearls of wisdom for today, oh and wisdom is “APPLIED KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING” The only way this will work is if you apply it. 

Regards
EJC

Culture is key

Over the past few years I have worked in many industries, each company having its own unique way of motivating its staff and keeping them interested in the company.

I must confess though that from all these companies, the one that does it best is Primedia Broadcasting. Our culture as a business is built on many things, our life experiences, our values, our beliefs, even down to race. In most cases these would be conflicting principles, I mean think about how race builds culture…

… heres a practical example, in the Online department we have as most government forms would state “white, black, asian (indian)” it’s a pity because all we are missing is a coloured person. That’s right our department has it’s own unique breed of culture. We don’t try to hide that we are different outwardly in fact it is those differences in skin colour and acent and lanuage that bond us so closely together.

Each of us plays on our characters and background cultures. I (as an example) am orignally from Durban and that spirit and culture has stayed with me – love spicy food, wearing shorts in Joburg (which as you know freezes all the time), being loud, having fun and always making a joke.

My friend Conny, is from the Limpopo province, thus she is a Pede girl. We both have a very similar character in that we like to make fun at each other. I have mastered my fun-making with a really simple trick – just tease Conny that she is Zulu instead of Pede…

In most other companies I would be fired I think just because it’s highlighting ones race, yet here  I stand, as one of the staff of probally the most successful broadcaster in Africa.

WHY - What makes a company this strong?

It is culture and characters of the team you have working in your business. Don’t get me wrong not every deparment in Primedia  is cultured this way, each department has its own way of building the bond. The point is, that there needs to be culture and it needs to be encouraged. There will neve come a time when someone tells me “Stop teasing Conny” simply because even though we play like children, we get the job done – and we do it with a smile.

If your business lacks culture start now, there is no better time than today. If you need greater reason then you need only look around you at the effects the Recession is having on the world, people now more than any other time, need to build companionship with each other and in so doing will be able to perform at there best because the spirit and culture is good.

Develop this culture in simple way,

 - Praise the right people when they need praising. I cannot stress how important this is. If someone does a task well and you can see the effort, it is your responsibility to praise him or her. It is just as important that you praise the right person, with so many levels of management these days, it is often just the managers that get the praise, always fogetting about the bottom of he bucket, those employees who get down and dirty to deliver.

- Tokens – Everyone loves gifts, and most people don’t care about what they get so long as they get something. You don’t need a special occassion for this, in fact it is most effective when there is no occassion, because then your staff know that you have them in mind.

- Free Spirits – Allows people to be themselves whereever possible. There are days when I walk into the office in my shorts, everyone is ok with it. Yes it’s because I don’t have to see clients and so forth but just make it comfortable for your employees, this extends further than just clothes.

- Laugh Often – We live in difficult times with so many evils around, to lighten people up, get them to smile and laugh.

- See Failure Correctly – Failure is part of the learning process and in cases where failure happened don’t just bark down someones throat, rather evaluate the situation and if there is room to allow your employee to learn from the failure then let him / her do exactly that.

These are just a few to get you started.

The Nokia N96 – testing continued

I have had the phone now for nearly 3 weeks and am happy to report back that it is great. There were a few problem I faced, like making a choice of suites to use for the mobile. Nokia give you OVI Suite which is designed I believe for the N range, however there is the actually N96 software which is a more corporate looking version of PC Suite and if you are like me and have had a Nokia before you would then already have a version of PC loaded.

Each version is unique in  a way, the old PC Suite is probally the easiest to use and because people are familar with it, most people would opt to stay with it.

I don’t really see the need for the N series PC Suite, because it’s just a look and feel change. This now leaves me with OVI, OVI is just a better integrated Suite, although some of the defining features are not available like using the desktop suite to sign into your Nokia account. For argument sake, that is the main difference for me between the suites. OVI has nicer user interface, yet it has crashed on me several time, just bear in mind it may just be that it crashes because I don’t exactly have the best range PC in the world.

More about the phone, I am so pleasantly surprized at how simple Nokia have made the Mail for Exchange service. On my Windows Mobile Phone, trying to get the email account setup was a nightmare, I.T. didn’t have valid security certificates and Windows Mobile would not allow you to just bypass it, like you would on a pc.

Nokia took are of it and provided you have a few details about your email account you can be setup in a matter of minutes.

The music player works well and crashed just once on me. I have to admit though, I really dislike the multimedia centre interface. It’s crap and slow. Nokia could have done so much better with it.

The screen is excellent during most occassions but like many phone once you get in the bright sunlight, you cannot read a word off the screen.

I honestly like this mobile, while there are glitches, like the download bar does not always function well, everything else on the N96 is great. The look and feel of the phone, the available application and so forth are all really cool.

If you are a hardcore Nokia fan then you will know that there are plenty forums around with “other” cool things you could do with your mobile.

The Guiding Principles – How Online becomes Digital

Having grown up in a family of I.T. professionals and having seen them work, learn and evolve over many years gives one a deep understanding of how quickly technology can and does change.

It’s been said that now in 2008 /2009 humans beings have conversed nearly 38% more than any other time known to man. Why? Well, because social networking has become a fashion and if you’re not on Facebook, MySpace, MXit or Twitter then you are living in the dark ages.

Online has evolved and if online is your business then you are aware that this monster called the internet is no longer just about websites or mobile sites. The world is becoming Digital and where you had an Online campaign last year which was a website created to promote your brand, this year it would be called a digital campaign and would include a website, emailer, sms, ussd, rss, toolbars, widgets and the list could go on forever.

In changing times, businesses and its people need to change and adapt as well. You cannot be a part of a dying technology, because you will die too.

What adds to the incredible growth of digital is that it is a unique effective way of reaching your audience, especially if you have a trust-worthy brand. It is also worth mentioning that the global recession has also had it’s effect on the audience, which means they are more aware how they spend their money.

Which leads to me to the point of this entry; here are a few thoughts on why you should go digital:

1. Tried – Tested – Failed – Sucess

The digital medium is about the only medium that allows you to “try” something without heavy consequences should it fail, and if it does fail, it can be tweaked and reworked until you get the formula right. Digital allows you to create safe enviroments to test and even test a campaign live and if it is not working, simily rework it.

1. The Ad-on benefit

If your core business is not internet based, the digital realm provides you with great ad-on’s especially if you’re on tight budget. The amount of people using social networking as a full marketing package is growing by the second. Retailer’s, Banks and Broadcasters are all getting in on the action. If you’re a guy then you are probably part of the Markham Facebook group, if you listener to 94.7 Highveld Stereo then you might also be following them on Twitter and if you bank with FNB then you know that you can perform nearly all your banking from your cellphone, with tons of value added features, like avoiding the queue for a lotto ticket, you can buy from your cellphone.

1. Participation

Media and Advertising in the past has always been one-sided, it was always a TV AD at you or a Radio AD giving you only one way to turn. Now in this day and age, people want to interact, they want to be a part of it. Do whatever you want to just make sure that it allows for the maximum amount of participation and at whatever cost avoid interaction that allows for only a few people.

1. Think like your audience to please your client

This is an important point, and needs to be stressed! If you want to please your client, (either someone paying you to create a digital campaign or just yourself creating your own brands awareness) think like your audience. Do not limit yourself to just a website – think smarter, predict what your audience would do and interact with them in that way. It may not be a website. I repeat it may not be a website. Here is an example: If you want foreigners arriving in S.A. to be interested in what you have to offer, first go to the airport, its logical – that’s where they check in!

1. Break the rules and thinking

You will not survive in this environment if you cannot push your limits. Companies tell you to work within boundaries and yes boundaries are needed, but be weary that you do not use boundaries as a scapegoat from learning and exploring. If you feel like you are in a comfort zone, then I assure you – you suck at what you do. Digital is not a sit down and relax place, it changes and moves every second of every day. When you are having Christmas lunch on 25 December at home, technology is still progressing. Take your mind off web pages and start seeing the web as an ever growing application. Facebook is an application not just a webpage. Break the rules and your thinking, but do it responsibly.

1. Listen to your Audience / Analytics

Your audience does not have to speak to say something, most if not all companies use some kind of analytical system to learn about their audience. Knowledge is most powerful when it is applied. It is pointless knowing your audience does not like rock music and then you design a radio ad and use rock music in the background. Companies get so caught up in pleasing the client, that they forget that is it the audience who determines the success of your business and if your client would return for further advertising solutions from you!

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) Research indicates that 60 of all website traffic is generated from a search engine and having been involved in the analytical information of more than 10 large and medium brands, I can tell you that the 60% figure is almost always right. So give a little thought to how Google and Yahoo and all the search engines rank you.

1. Aesthetics

This should by now be grounded into your mind already. A user will determine if they like your website within 30 seconds of being on your website. This is way to little time for them to read your longs lines of text. Get creative and start thinking outside the box, while bandwidth may be a concern now, it will disappear in time, and when it does, will you be ready or will you till be sacrificing Quality for Quantity? It is better to have one amazing banner on Facebook (as an example) that 40 crap banners across the internet.

1. Functionality

What makes one website better than the other? Functionality! All radio station websites have the same core design. They all tell you what song is playing, they all list their presenters, and they all have some competition or promotion. What sets one apart from the other is what they have to offer in functionality. The Internet is about creating an experience, one that causes your audience to return because of the amazing experience they have had.

Don’t be afraid to invest in good functionality, look at trends and predict what will become popular and use it. Current trends in Digital include ways of consolidating all your social networking to control it from one central point. On a mobile you can use Fring as a central place to chat to MSN, Skype, Gmail chat, Yahoo Chat and many others.

1. Trust the experts

You want to bake a cake, ask the baker not the plumber. You want a shit hot digital campaign, ask the digital team not the finance department. You get the point – too often we go about doing exactly this, trust the expertise of a person who is not in the digital realm and then when the campaign fails, everyone is up in arms. Stop being stupid and understand that you do not know everything as I do not know everything.

Ask me a digital question and I will give you a digital answer – that’s what I do.

The above principles are exactly that – principles, the likihood of them changing is very high, just because this environment changes so often.

If you are a company then use this as a guide, build on it and ensure that is forms part of the culture of your online team. I would even go so far as to stay, stop calling them the Online Team or department and start calling them the Digital Team.

The Nokia N96

Nokia N96

Well I knew it was not going to be long before I reached my end with the Omnia, there where a few things buggy me about the mobile. The touch screen is crap, I mean there is no nice way to put it. The iPhone is way ahead of everone when it comes to the touch screen and sadly most mobiles fail just because everyone has a perception about how a touch screen should work – what is that perception? Like the iPhone. I must stress, that the iPhone is still crap because all it managed to get right was the touch screen!

Anyway enough about that, I unpacked my new Nokia N96 today and so far it seems ok. having used the N95 before I am familar with the menu system and many of the features.

I must admit though the phone itself feels very plastic almost like it will break with just one drop. the N81 style black material as well is stupid and the finger prints stick like glue.

I have yet to test run the symbian OS and have noticed that the S60 website has been shut down or moved to Symbian Foundation – I say shut down because I visited the Symbian Foundation website and what a load of hog wash, there is no easy navigation, the website looks crummy like they got a school kid to design it.

Any way thats about all the complaints I have so far, lets give this N96 a real test run and by the end of the week I should have tested the phone to the max.

The Samsung i900v Omnia running WM 6.5

Omnia using WM 6.5

After a bit of searching I managed to make head and tail from all the blogs and forums out there about flashing the rom of my Omnia from WM 6.1 to WM 6.5.

It was surprizing simple, infact I had no problems except for the initial tap screen where the text is white and there is an image on the background that is black and white and makes reading the text difficult. So just remember when you flash your device and it says “Job Done” unplug your phone and when it restarts tap your screen and that should be it.

You have to get used to few changes, namely your trackpad disappears, it’s still functions as a navi scroller but you need to use your finger every now and then to select an item.

Here are the links to get you going: (* Note – you use the roms at your own risk)

The Rom files for WM 6.5 are here: http://www.modaco.com/content/i900-general-omnia-rom-discussion/286120/shokka9-wm6-5-roms/

Simply click on part 1, 2 and 3 under: i900DXID1 SHKv18 23017. M2D & Titanium

Once you have downloaded the files to your pc:

1. Exact part 1
2. Switch off your phone
3. Plug in your phone to your PC
4. Switch on your phone
5. Run the application you just exacted.

That’s it, the application should run and everything should load.

WM 6.5 is much prettier than 6.1 and it seems easier to use the screen. The darker colours are nicer on the eyes and the flow of menu’s and items is cleaner and easier to use.

The WM 6.5 really enhances the Omnia and Samsung should really think about realeasing an official version of WM 6.5 for the Omnia.

PS – There are tons of other cools stuff avaialble at www.modaco.com and http://www.xda-developers.com/

Cheers guys.