I just had to give up my Sprint powered PPC8800 for a Blackberry Curve 8310 so I could be on the communal rate plan and also have real-time Exchange access for e-mail at work. After doing so it forced me to do a lot of research on applications and ways to better my Curve.
I figured some other people are going to go looking for this info as well, so I’ve compiled what I learned here. Its not my most organized post, but there is a lot of information and I didn’t want to spend forever getting the post out. Hopefully if anyone knows of other cool, free stuff for the BB you’ll drop a comment below and let me know.
Free Themes for BlackBerry
If you want to change the look and feel of your BB you need to swap themes. But I found it was very hard to discover the free ones because so many people were trying to sell you themes! The absolutely most comprehensive and easy to search list of Free themes can be found on the BerryReview.com site. Each theme review is listed and is clearly labeled as FREE.
Personally, I’m only looking for themes which will provide the most information and best make use of screen real estate. I did find the following theme’s interesting:
- New Freebies from Mobile.Blackberry.com
- Jason Calhoun’s Titanium Today theme and Calix ATT Today theme.
- Want your BlackBerry to look like an iPhone? Here you go.
Travel Tools
If you do a lot of traveling, you might want to take a look at WorldMate. WorldMate Live pieces together your travel itinerary details – including flight, hotel, car rental and meeting information – creating a complete schedule available for immediate inspection on your mobile phone screen.
Here is a cute little video that demonstrates what it does because it’s too much to describe.
Starry Night is an application that lets you enter your location and see what constellations are in the sky around you from that geographic position.
There is a free GPS Navigation service from Nav4All, but it got a really bad review from BerryReview.com. I tried it out and although it’s not perfect, it’s better than nothing! And it is free…
bbLocal: Free Maping and Local Directory for the Blackberry!
What started as a regular Google Maps viewer for the Blackberry has now turned into a full fledge City Guide, with the ability to locate businesses and tourists spots.
Features include:
- Full featured mapping program
- Business directory
- Get information on business and tourist spots
- Find the hottest tourists spots
- Satellite view
Earthcomber also offers a BlackBerry application that:
It’s the free way to find all the things you care about nearby – instead of tapping, tapping, tapping in a search box. You can use Earthcomber as-is, anonymously, to find the most popular things in the most common situations. But, you can also personalize Earthcomber to look for the special things and people you like, wherever you go in the US.
Superpages Mobile
Features include:
- Get Movie Info Fast – Search by movie, theater or genre. See show times, read reviews and connect directly to driving directions from wherever you are.
- Locate a Business – With millions of businesses available from the Superpages.com database, you’re sure to find what you need, when you need it.
- Map Your Way – With interactive maps and turn by turn directions, you can get where you’re going quickly, easily and without the frustration of having to find that piece of paper on which you wrote directions.
- Find a Person – The People Finder function allows you to find a friend, old neighbor or coworker across town, or across the country.
- Track the Weather – Don’t let the weather ruin your plans – your five day forecast is available whether you will be in town or far away.
Finance
MarketFilters quotes and analysis application puts stock quotes, charts and technical analysis right on your BlackBerry device. Just visit MarketFilters.com on your BlackBerry Web browser and look for the link to install the application. After you’ve installed the app you can load in your list of stocks to keep an eye on and it will give you up to date quotes every time you open the application. (I know Todd is going to love this one!)
MarketFilter Features include:
- Stock and index quotes.
- Charts of price and Market Filters scores.
- MarketFilters scan results.
- Light-weight and transfers significantly less data than a website.
- Uses webservices provided by Market Filters for the scan and quote data.
- Built for BlackBerry devices.
Google Apps
First things first. Point your Web browser to Google.com and scroll to the bottom of the page where you’ll be presented with the ability to download and install a bunch of apps. These will give you access to Google Maps complete with GPS integration, RSS Reader, GMail, Picasa, Search, and more. It’s the first download anyone should make.
GPSed
Record tracks of your trips anywhere on the Earth from your mobile device. Tracks are traced on Google Maps and stored in an online archive. All you need to start tracking is a mobile device with the internal or external GPS receiver. Here is a review.
Instant Messaging
WebMessenger Mobile lets you access AIM, Google, MSN, and Yahoo from your BlackBerry. Here is the announcement that the software just became free on 2/11/2008.
TwitterBerry is a great application for sending and reading your tweets on the BlackBerry as well.
Multimedia
CellSpin allows you to upload photos, videos, audio and text from your BlackBerry to a range of sites including YouTube, Flickr, Blogger, Facebook and more.
bbPlaces is another application designed for BlackBerry® devices with which you can geoposition places associated with photos you take.
Miscellaneous
vTap adds a quick search that allows you to choose between WikiPedia, Wiktionary, News, Pronunciation, and a website if applicable.
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Bookmarked – thanks John :)
I’m on the cusp of my contract renewal with T-Mobile and while I really like the Wing, it doesn’t seem to add up when you factor in the lag and lack of processing power it has vs the Curve. I’ll be needing these apps when it’s time for me to renew and get a new phone, glad to see I don’t have to go far to get the apps for it :)
Oh and while we’re talking about the Curve, one problem I had with a non-Sprint carrier was that you lose the GPS ability.
I was talking to a T-Mobile rep and he was saying that all you need to do is purchase the receiver separately and put it in your backpack or trunk or whatnot and you get the same thing. It’s a little chunk of change up front, but it also means that you can stay with who you’re with and still enjoy all the features the Blackberry has to offer!
BerryReview is a site I used a while back when work insisted we all get Blackberry’s….to receive business mails at home!
It looks daunting with just a long list of items but some fantastic stuff on there.
This little helpers are just amazing. The features they pack int them is unreal.
I actually have problems with all the options and settings of my latest cell-phone. and after I managed that I found out that it is not made for my big fingers at all.
In my next life I will have skinny fingers, but may not even need those as everything will be controlled by thinking of it, a kind of mind-controlled
cheers
Rhoody
Nice collection you gathered John.
I would make one recommendation. Check out Beyond411. Its free and great for searches
http://www.berryreview.com/2007/07/10/review-beyond411-with-gps-support-aka-berry411/
You can see my top ten from a bit back at this link:
http://www.berryreview.com/2007/08/20/top-10-applications-installed-on-my-blackberry/
BR,
Thanks for that pointer. I had actually seen that one on your site, but when I tried to check it out their site was down so I forgot to go back and check it out. I just managed to get through and I’ll install the app and give it a whirl.
Take care,
John
John,
Let me know what you think. I love Beyond411. That along with Viigo and Mobipocket are the staple applications on my BlackBerry.
Beyond411 has saved me a ton of money and time on 411 questions. The speed is amazing and the latest version added GPS support.
Is there a way to enter the address book info on the computer rather than having to do it on the actual phone??
If you have the BB set to sync with Exchange, you can just enter the contacts into Outlook and they’ll sync up.
I am planning for blackberry after few service providers launched it here, but i was not aware of all these stuff, thanks for sharing them.
Awesome stuff. Thanks, I was having a hard time finding a messanger to download believe it or not.
I do have a suggestion though.
How about a browser with the “real internet” as some apple commercials call it…
Opera Mini is great for the Blackberry Curve.
Its free and you can download it from your blackberry browser.
http://www.opera.com/mini/download/blackberry/blackberry_8300_curve/
And it has a very useful start page.
I am looking for a notepad app I can add to my Blackberry Curve. My provider is Verizon. Any ideas?
Hey um, I just got my blackberry 8310 curve and I’ve been searching for apps that will work on them. I’ve tried to download yahoo messenger, google talk and msn, it gives me the same message everytime ” sorry your device does not meet the requirements. It’s geting kinda frustrating. What can I do? This is bbm pin 251F13A5 can someone contact me quick cus am loosing my mind.
Hey Steve, its odd that your BB cannot download those apps, i have G talk.. I know skype uses the iskoot app, but i think try some help sites and see if you come right.
Hey John, when someone gets back to u on that notepad app.. please let us know, i am dying for a notepad preferably on the desktop!
I loooove my blackberry, it is more useful than my husband!